Offaly Club Hurling 2026

[Lone Shark]

Doon Exile's guess in the final line there sounds plausible.

I've often wondered why these lists, for league and championship, aren't made public. Offaly is more progressive than most in that you can go onto the website and get competition regulations and local bye-laws, and the briefing that comes out to clubs and media before county board meetings is excellent, it's far better than anything I've ever seen in any other county.

That said I don't see the downside of why, going into the league, it wouldn't be posted up on the county website who are the first 15 players for each club, and who are the second 15 (if applicable). Then likewise for championship, post it up which players are graded Senior/Inter/Junior/Junior B etc., and make it that anyone can look it up. Then even if a secretary makes a mistake, someone in the club would have been able to spot that such and such a player is still graded senior for championship, and this kind of situation could be avoided.

Again I stress, this isn't something that is commonly done elsewhere and Offaly are dropping the ball - the only place I've seen it, remarkably, is Roscommon LGFA. And the fact that it is so uncommon tells me that there might be a downside to doing it - but I can't for the life of me think what it would be.

[BlackrockOffaly]

I know clubs with two teams provide one list of 15 players who played senior the year before. Everyone else is regraded once their not listed on the seniors list. I can’t certainly say what the rules are for bigger clubs

[Doon Exile]

I know clubs with two teams provide one list of 15 players who played senior the year before. Everyone else is regraded once their not listed on the seniors list. I can’t certainly say what the rules are for bigger clubs

There is no ‘list’ for championship. The list of 15 players is for league only.

Regarding regrading players, say for example a club used 25 players at some stage of their highest grading team in 2025, they can only regrade 5 players to their lower team in thr following year ie 2026. (Have somewhere in my head it could be 7 but still think it’s 5).

And for the league, any player outside of the listed 15 can play both senior and junior in the one year ie. They can still player junior league games after playing senior league games. As opposed to championship where a one minute cameo role at the end of a senior championship game rules that player out of junior for the rest of the season.

In past years when Doon were going well at senior and had big numbers, our listed 15 players would be take into consideration of what players lived local and might be available for a junior league game on a Tuesday night as opposed to a lad in college in Dublin or limerick and would not be. Obviously we would listing the likes of Vinny Claffey and Donie ryan in the 15 but there was always plenty of lads that were regular championship starters playing junior simply because of the fact you could count on them to be available for junior league games.

[Hasselhoff]

Kk vs Ballinamere.

Who will win and why?

[BlackrockOffaly]

I know clubs with two teams provide one list of 15 players who played senior the year before. Everyone else is regraded once their not listed on the seniors list. I can’t certainly say what the rules are for bigger clubs

There is no ‘list’ for championship. The list of 15 players is for league only.

Regarding regrading players, say for example a club used 25 players at some stage of their highest grading team in 2025, they can only regrade 5 players to their lower team in thr following year ie 2026. (Have somewhere in my head it could be 7 but still think it’s 5).

And for the league, any player outside of the listed 15 can play both senior and junior in the one year ie. They can still player junior league games after playing senior league games. As opposed to championship where a one minute cameo role at the end of a senior championship game rules that player out of junior for the rest of the season.

In past years when Doon were going well at senior and had big numbers, our listed 15 players would be take into consideration of what players lived local and might be available for a junior league game on a Tuesday night as opposed to a lad in college in Dublin or limerick and would not be. Obviously we would listing the likes of Vinny Claffey and Donie ryan in the 15 but there was always plenty of lads that were regular championship starters playing junior simply because of the fact you could count on them to be available for junior league games.

You must be thinking of the old regrading rules. Plain of the Herbs says it above, once youre not on the list of 15 seniors youre free to play junior

[Plain of the Herbs]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the regrading rules for championship were changed to a 'list' a few years before the Covid, 2018 or 2019. I don't recall in 2020 a list of 19 waa required for Senior championship and 18 for league (it might have been the other way around) which was awful harsh on small clubs. For instance, Lusmagh used 18 players in seven championship games last year - and one of them played around three minutes!

I don’t know why it was changed, the regrade 5 (or 7) had worked well for decades before that. I think some big club used 30 players at Senior one year and kicked up - something a small rural club could only dream of.

And now there's a mess. Time for Daingean parish to rediscover hurling.

I know clubs with two teams provide one list of 15 players who played senior the year before. Everyone else is regraded once their not listed on the seniors list. I can’t certainly say what the rules are for bigger clubs

There is no ‘list’ for championship. The list of 15 players is for league only.

Regarding regrading players, say for example a club used 25 players at some stage of their highest grading team in 2025, they can only regrade 5 players to their lower team in thr following year ie 2026. (Have somewhere in my head it could be 7 but still think it’s 5).

And for the league, any player outside of the listed 15 can play both senior and junior in the one year ie. They can still player junior league games after playing senior league games. As opposed to championship where a one minute cameo role at the end of a senior championship game rules that player out of junior for the rest of the season.

In past years when Doon were going well at senior and had big numbers, our listed 15 players would be take into consideration of what players lived local and might be available for a junior league game on a Tuesday night as opposed to a lad in college in Dublin or limerick and would not be. Obviously we would listing the likes of Vinny Claffey and Donie ryan in the 15 but there was always plenty of lads that were regular championship starters playing junior simply because of the fact you could count on them to be available for junior league games.

You must be thinking of the old regrading rules. Plain of the Herbs says it above, once youre not on the list of 15 seniors youre free to play junior

[oneshot]

Kk vs Ballinamere.

Who will win and why?

kk they haven't hit top gear yet.

[faithfulfanatic]

Farrell to ref county final.

Beggars belief

[Lone Shark]

Farrell to ref county final.

Beggars belief

Why??? Young capable ref, very fit, good communicator, on the national intercounty panel (youngest referee ever to reach that level), and absolutely zero connections to either club. Why on earth would that be a bad appointment?

I know the Belmont lads I was talking to were very happy to have him appointment do the semi-final vs Ballinamere, they've great time for him.

[faithfulfanatic]

Farrell to ref county final.

Beggars belief

Why??? Young capable ref, very fit, good communicator, on the national intercounty panel (youngest referee ever to reach that level), and absolutely zero connections to either club. Why on earth would that be a bad appointment?

I know the Belmont lads I was talking to were very happy to have him appointment do the semi-final vs Ballinamere, they've great time for him.

He reffed a semi final so I thought it would be Kinahan/Gavin/Dooley.
I know that he reffed Roscommon Co. final last year so I thought he would be doing that again, but I see now that it was played yesterday and he hasn't seemed to have done any games in his home county this year.

I am also shocked to hear you say that the Belmont lads were happy to get him, he was incredibly harsh on them in their opening round game v Kilcormac last year, on more than one occastion KK had frees brought up because of abuse from the hill in Moystown.
Maybe I am being too harsh on the chap but I have found him very picky and unwilling to engage with players.

In any case, best of luck to him.

I hear that the match will be televised.

[Lone Shark]

Match is on TG4 all right.

Full disclosure, I know the man from his time in Roscommon but before I did, I still thought he was very capable, and not afraid to take control of things when needed.

I wasn't there at that Belmont/KK game so I can't speak to it, and I'm only referring to the few Belmont lads I was talking to, so there could be others that feel differently, but there was absolutely no ill will there at all, they were confident he'd call it fairly.

As for the communication thing, I've seen a lot of games and he always explains what a decision is for, you can hear and see him doing that quite clearly. Now if by "engage", you mean 'does he have a two-way chat about it', probably not, but good referees generally don't do that, it's not their job to explain the rules of the game to players and getting involved in negotiations after contentious decisions is a risky policy as a rule.

And maybe that's not what you meant either, I'm only guessing and apologies if I guessed incorrectly!