U20 hurling 2026

[Doon Exile]

Pulled it out of the fire yesterday. Was sure we were gone mid way through second half. That said they probably had slightly the better hurlers.
Some strong individual performances and hopefully they might push on now.

Away to Meath Thursday night and then home to Dublin in the last game. Exactly the way you’d want it falling

Was very proud to see a Doon man lining out yesterday in Seán Og Foley and thought he had an excellent game.

[Anon444]

Really good win. Laois may have had the better hurlers, but I was really impressed with the fitness of the lads and the ability to grind it out. I would know very little of this team, but Foley and Carey I thought were exceptional. Mulrooney then came into it out of nowhere and steered the team home, it was great to see how we finished the game and how we responded to the soft goal with one of our own.

Although there aren’t as many household names on this group as previous years, there are definitely hurlers there which look like they can step up and become panelists to the seniors.

[private joker]

To grind out a win like that shows a bit of character. Wouldn't be the best group so to get a win will boost their confidence no end. Shows the importance of brosna gaels and the likes as offaly needs players from all over the county if success is to be had.

[Wing Back]

Well done to all involved. Plenty of things to work on....but getting a win like that is great for morale to kick the year off. Great building block. Hopefully they can progress with this.

[pigeon house biffo]

Well done to all involved. Plenty of things to work on....but getting a win like that is great for morale to kick the year off. Great building block. Hopefully they can progress with this.

4 point win over meath

Are Offaly particularly weak or is this a good meath team?

[Fear Uibh]

Meath beat both Antrim(7 points) & Carlow (14 points) so might not be to bad.

[Offaly Hero]

Well done to all involved. Plenty of things to work on....but getting a win like that is great for morale to kick the year off. Great building block. Hopefully they can progress with this.

4 point win over meath

Are Offaly particularly weak or is this a good meath team?

I think a bit of both. No great expectations around this team this year but they’ve prepared well, have developed well and are performing to the best of their ability. That’s all, and more, you can ask for.

[Doon Exile]

Well done to all involved. Plenty of things to work on....but getting a win like that is great for morale to kick the year off. Great building block. Hopefully they can progress with this.

4 point win over meath

Are Offaly particularly weak or is this a good meath team?

I was at both their games. They did very well to get the win over Laois and I’d say regardless of what the team might say, there would be an element of taking Meath for granted this evening.

They were against a stiff enough breeze in the first half and it was 1-7 each at half time. They started the second half very strong but then AJ got a black card for last man back foul and they scored the resultant penalty. Meath had a purple patch and got another goal (their 3rd).

Meath played a sweeper in the second half and he cut out a lot of ball. Luckily for us, they missed a good few chances in the second half but hey had some lively forwards and our full back line struggled at times.

That said some strong individual displays from each of the half back line, Liam O’Riordan and Patrick Lyons.

Dublin next in Tullamore.

[Plain of the Herbs]

It wasn’t pretty earlier, but it was that kind of evening. And credit to the lads, they didn’t panic and never really looked like losing it.

Not dissimilar to the performance against Meath in 2024’s Minor championship – on a similar kind of day that just militated against good hurling.

They showed a glimpse of what they are capable of in the five or six minutes after the restart – presumably on the back of a half-time rollicking. There’s more in them, and they’ll soon need to start showing it. And for more than five or six minutes. Something tells me their best performance of the year might well be against Dublin next day out.

And hopefully Conor Egan's injury isn't as bad as appeared. He took an awful dunt from a frontal charge. Conor was central to the post half-time revival.

[Wing Back]

Well done to all involved. 2 games and 2 wins for our lads. Bigger challenges ahead no doubt, but slowly building momentum.

On the opposition, Meath GAA has been putting a lot of work into hurling over the last few years. The population resources they get in from the spillover from Dublin is quite substantial and clubs like Ratoath and others are making inroads and being very competitive instead of relying on more traditional dominance of Kilmessan, Kiltale and kildalkey etc. No surprise to see them being much more competitive at underage considering these factors. It will no doubt transfer to senior soon too.

For this team.....Hard fought wins are good for building character and endurance I feel. So hopefully this will be useful in the next game against Dublin.

Even if this team don't reach the dizzy heights of the u20 teams we had in recent years.....If we can get 3 or 4 coming off it to senior to get a constant flow and rejuvenation ticking along....I would be very happy. So far they are doing just fine.

[faithfulfanatic]

Something I’ve noted this year about Meath and Kildare teams has been the less of a reliance on their big and established hurling clubs.

Seemingly a bit of a row in Meath senior circles left the county team without any players from Ratoath, Kiltale or Kildalkey. (There is now 1 from each of Kiltale and Ratoath on the team). These teams have dominated Meath club hurling and yet they have still held their own in the league. This would have been impossible 10-15 years ago and shows the power of numbers.
Meath could overtake Carlow and Westmeath in the very near future, with numbers alone a driving factor. Carlow and Meath may have similar playing numbers and adult hurling clubs at the moment, but that is Carlow’s ceiling number, and Meath’s floor.
Same story with the Meath u20 side last night with a large spread of clubs and very few from the established teams.

Kildare minor hurlers had 4 Naas starters at the weekend and the u20s had 3, with a massive spread of clubs on both panels.

Both counties will look to establish themselves at the top table in the coming years and don’t be surprised when it comes.


I wouldn’t be too disheartened with last night’s scoreline, will keep lads on their toes and hungry to improve.

Dublin beat Meath by 14 at the weekend. Our lads will likely be 5-6 point outsiders against Dublin.

[Wing Back]

I think it was likely that Meath improved from their game against Dublin. They would have no doubt learned a lot and were able to shore up some things ahead of playing Offaly. Making it more difficult for our lads.

Laois and Offaly are closely matched as we saw in our 1st game, and it will be interesting to see how they get on against Dublin on Saturday in Parnell Park.

We had a super team last year, as we all know it was the same as the minor team that lost to Tipp in Nowlan Park. But a number of this team actually broke into that line-up last year or were pushing hard. We all know we never fired, and that team was very capable as they had shown in the years previous.......more than likely due to fatigue, injuries and so many in with our seniors. I followed our u19s results last year too, which is much of this team and they done quite well, considering they were missing their best who were already in with last years 20s. Hopefully we can go well against Dublin....and we learn a few things from their game against Laois.

[Lone Shark]

The day Offaly hurling teams at any level start to feel entitled to beat anyone, be it Meath, Kildare, Westmeath or whoever, is a day we've taken a massive backwards step. We know more than anyone how hard it is to make breakthroughs, but also how driven teams and counties can be to take that one big scalp, and ever since Antrim in 1989, Offaly has always been perceived as the big scalp that is within reach for teams like that. So I don't believe there was any element of taking Meath for granted, and if there was, then management needs to stand indicted for it.

I wasn't there last night but I did look back on it on clubber, and I was in Portlaoise last Saturday. In both games, there was a considerable element of not knowing how to use the breeze properly. To a degree that's fine - these are U-20 hurlers so 18 and 19 year old players mainly, and the whole point of grades like this is to learn and develop situational play, among other things. A little bit better guidance in this regard, and you'd have to assume they're all learning as they go along, will stand to them.

I wouldn't write this team off either, in the sense of having very low expectations purely because they don't stack up quite as well alongside the team of 2024/2025. As minors, they were very competitive in a good game against Kilkenny in Kilcormac, so they're not miles off or anything like it in terms of raw ability. Like pretty much every team in Leinster in this championship, beating a stacked Galway team would be a huge ask but outside of that, there are no particularly exceptional sides and there are hurlers in this Offaly panel that I have a lot of time for. Seán Óg Foley is coming on in leaps and bounds, Liam O'Riordan stood up well in the first half of the Laois game when nothing around him was going well, Seán Carey has buckets of talent, Andrew Hogan is a proper leader and there's the makings of a really good hurler in Patrick Lyons, even if he's a bit raw. There's plenty more along with that as well, I'm not drawing a line through any of the lads I didn't name by any means.

They've shown that character-wise, they have a bit of dog in them, and I suspect there's a bit more hurling too than we've seen so far. There's a lot at stake for the Dublin game because there's a Leinster final place on the table for whoever wins that one. In a nutshell, I think we should have higher expectations here than just saying they're doing well to scrape wins against Laois and Meath.

[Wing Back]

Big match tonight for U20s. Hopefully they go well.

Would be great to keep a few numbers filtering through our minors and u20s to senior over next few years.

Laois gave Dublin a good game, with Dublin only properly putting the tie to bed in the last 10mins.

[G91]

That was tough ,

I know expectations weren't that we were going to put on a show v Dublin

Nothing went right , passing , control , rising the ball

Very tough for a young team to be beat by that amount at times they looked like they would kick on but dublins puck out killed us and then the pace to follow.