Offaly Hurling 2026

[Géill Slí]

Charlie Mitchell starting

[faithfulfanatic]

We’ll take the draw, although it could have been so much more.
Heartening display.
Dan Bourke and Screeney the standouts.
Rigney could have carried that last one a bit further
Charlie Mitchell, what a warrior. But he wasn’t able to track back the Dublin runners and should have been moved closer to the Dublin goal after half time.

Bring on Galway

[bracknaghboy]

More than happy to have called this completely wrong!!!
Super performance this evening, putting everything from the last 4 months behind them.
A win would have been the icing on the cake but a point puts Offaly in the driving seat in the relegation battle. Another win before the Kildare game and Offaly should be safe.

[Plain of the Herbs]

League is league; championship is championship.

[Anon444]

Very proud of our lads tonight. In recent years, how many times have we lost a game like that? Dublin have aspirations of winning a Leinster championship.

Just a couple of lads I think deserve credit who maybe don’t get it a whole pile. I thought Ross Ravenhill was exceptional. He took the fight to Dublin, won lots of breaks, done the simple things with the ball. He has his critics at times, including myself, but tonight showed why he is valued in our squad. Pat Taaffe was brilliant, along with Ben Conneely, after their first goal in particular. Our half forward line were brilliant too and were the basis of a lot of what we done well. I loved how Adam set uo the first goal and took his own goal.

If there were a few work ons, it was probably around our shooting, when to shoot, when to pass, when to recycle. I would have liked to see Oisin Kelly in a bit sooner, but he will most definitely have a say in our championship yet.

Last word has to go to our captain. Never-mind the physical disadvantage of being out for so long, imagine the mental battle. Named captain at a young age, becomes ill, not knowing if he’ll be able to come back this year or longer. Charlie is an inspiration to anyone in Offaly who holds a hurl in their hand and he led by example once he got into the game.

Looking forward to the trip to Galway next week. Hopefully the injuries aren’t too bad, if theres any doubts on players fitness, I wouldn’t chance them. Be competitive and drive on.

[biffinbanner]

id be aspiring to 3rd place? why not? wexford are beatable and even kk are not the force they were? wpu;d 6 points get 3rd?

[faithfulfanatic]

id be aspiring to 3rd place? why not? wexford are beatable and even kk are not the force they were? wpu;d 6 points get 3rd?

Wins over Kildare and Wexford would get us to 5.
For arguments sake, let’s say Galway and KK beat everyone else.
In that scenario, Dublin can match us on 5 and it can go to score difference. Or else a Wexford result against Dublin would mean neither can catch us.
Thats only a scenario, and Kilkenny aren’t the world beaters they once were.

Richie Hogan talked before the first match yesterday about the plan for TJ and said that he would only play him against Galway, Wexford and Dublin and give him a rest ‘against the likes of Offaly and Kildare’.
Ye might need to play him now Richie.

[Hasselhoff]

The full back line were savage particularly in the second half.

[G91]

Think we gave Dublin to much space and time at stages where we could have pushed up a bit more on short puck out

Thought the ref was all for Dublin in the first half a free down one end wasn't a free the other

That will give a great boost of confidence after a tough league , under no illusion Galway will be a different animal next Sunday

We've been down this road before of the back of a great game v Dublin and the following Game was the complete opposite

Seen buff Egan's highlights of wex v Kildare didn't look to be a great game by any standerds

Come away from salthill with no injuries and a competitive game win draw loose

[Buttons]

It’s a long time for all supporters to be leaving O Connor Park for a senior hurling game to be as happy as when we left yesterday. The effort all over the field was unreal, even at half time I thought cut out the frees and we had every chance of winning, 1 goal in the league and 4 yesterday. The movement of the forwards yesterday adding in the slowness of the dubs defenders and they didn’t know what to do or how to deal with us.

As mentioned league is league and championship is championship. Apart from Galway I wouldn’t fear any team in the Leinster championship including Kilkenny, every year getting stronger and more game time will help this team and I really think there is a Leinster final or third place finish in this team.

Games are won on margins, James Owen’s didn’t let this game flow at all, imagine if this was a Munster match. He made some weird calls for both teams I thought. Two last points, firstly either hoare or ravenhill has to take frees a bit out the field and secondly for our captain to play a 70 minutes and play like he did definitely deserves a mention.

One final note, our minors and u20s had amazing support, to be the 16th man we need the same support for the now seniors, two massive games after Galway in tullamore will define our season before the trip to Kildare who hopefully are relegated. Come on the faithful

[frankthetank]

Anyone got an official attendance figure for yesterday?

[bracknaghboy]

Anyone got an official attendance figure for yesterday?

Apparently just shy of 6,000.
For context the same fixture in Parnell Park in 2025 attracted 5,300.

[Kevin]

Kudos to the Leinster Council on their ticket pricing strategy.

€15 for a terrace ticket is fantastic value.

As a point of reference a Munster championship terrace tickets is €30.

What is so special that Munster charge twice the price than Leinster for the terrace, hype?

It’s a special sort of smoke that they like to blow up their own arses

The above sums things up nicely specific to this case and certainly

[Bord na Mona man]

I was delighted with the effort and performance last night. The main thing is, we didn't lose. To come up empty handed would have been soul destroying.
People tend to over value near misses. Rack up a few of them and the spirit of the team plummets.

Other than that, Offaly played top quality hurling.
At half time, Offaly were behind by two points. It was disappointing to be behind - Offaly had won a ton of turnovers, some nice puckout moves off the training ground had worked. This was encouraging, but these are things that normally need to catapult the underdog into a 6 point lead.
Because workrate and ingenuity tend to dip as a game progresses.

Dublin's best weapon was their long range shooting. Add up the total distance of the points scored and theirs was well ahead of Offaly's. In golfing terms, they nailed a batch of 12 foot putts, Offaly had less success from that distance. Other than that, Dublin's building out from the back was flaky at times. Their inside forwards made little headway. They also made the mistake of starting Hedgo instead of introducing him as a gameplan changer.

The timing of the goals was nice for Offaly too. Energy boosts at just the right time. There was a couple of more goals to be had too.

And it was brilliant to see Charlie Mitchell back too. Like the lawnmower in the shed for winter, a couple of initial splutters, but then he was roaring along.
Not a word leaked out from the camp too. Otherwise some Offaly punters would have been itching to pass on this intel to the Dubs.

[frankthetank]

Anyone got an official attendance figure for yesterday?

Apparently just shy of 6,000.
For context the same fixture in Parnell Park in 2025 attracted 5,300.

That is a woeful effort to be fair.

I wouldn’t expect a large Offaly crowd to make the trek to Salthill either considering it’s such of a nightmare of a venue to get to and the fact that we will be really up against it.

HOWEVER, if we remain competitive vs Galway and Wexford turn Kilkenny over I would expect a large Offaly crowd in OCP for Offaly v Kilkenny. The smell of blood in the water would entice us all in!!