Offaly v Limerick, NHL, 15/4/07

[Plain of the Herbs]

Prior to their All Ireland quarter final against Cork last year, Gary Kirby, in an interview, remarked that while they (the new Limerick management) had learned a lot from their qualifier against Dublin, they had learned little from their qualifier match against Offaly. Well!

On reflection, I feel that July qualifier between Sunday’s relegation candidates was one of the games of the year. Some very good hurling was served up and good scores taken by both sides. However, being ‘only’ a qualifier, it doesn’t register as a classic on a national scale. What should Offaly have learned from that balmy July evening? Loads, hopefully. Like, when playing a non-possession type game, not to relax and cede the initiative to the opposition. Offaly blew that match in the ten minutes before half time when Limerick wiped out their deficit. Despite still being level at the break, Offaly retired to the dressing rooms a beaten docket.

To focus solely on the Begley-Cleary clash is an oversimplification of Offaly’s difficulties. Limerick clearly targeted Ger Oakley under their puck-out that evening, using Niall Moran to good effect. They may try the same again. They also targeted Brian Whelahan’s lack of pace in midfield. Offaly did well as long as Gary Hanniffy dominated Paudie O’Dwyer in the air. Just before the match turned with Limerick’s second goal, Limerick moved Mark Foley (who chose that evening to have his best match in a long time) onto Gary, and Offaly’s main, perhaps only supply line was lost. I feel Offaly could have countered by moving Joe Bergin out to the half line to target Paudie O’Dwyer. However, that’s water under the bridge now and Offaly can but learn from things like this.

It’s significant this year that Offaly have four forwards who can hurl in the air. On the other hand, it has emerged that Gary Hanniffy is away and will miss this match. It goes without saying that he will be a big loss on Sunday. The Offaly management have gone public with a considerable injury list. Of those named, Joe Bergin’s availability is obviously crucial. How Limerick will lineout is unclear. They have a big panel with a number of hurlers of a similar standard. Will they retain much of the team who started last time out against Antrim, or will those dropped following the Dublin defeat earn a recall? It’s would be misleading to think Limerick are in disarray this time around.

Limerick, like Offaly this year, seem to be tailoring their preparations with the championship in mind. Indeed, a tie like this could be deemed to be worthy of a league quarter final or semi final. It’s notable that Offaly are the only county who have gone through the complete programme over the last two years NHL division 1 unbeaten at home! Even Kilkenny can’t claim this feat!

No one underestimates the importance of hurling in division 1 of the league. Either side may be tempted to risk players carrying injuries in desperate attempt at survival. This match has all the appearance of a tense, nervous struggle. Can Offaly perform in such conditions? This is their biggest test yet. Rather like Stan’s Ireland soccer side, they play well in March! They then struggle when the pace quickens up in the summer. A draw, and extra time, is not improbable. It would be nice to have Gary Kirby learn something from an encounter with Offaly this time.

[Lone Shark]

No one underestimates the importance of hurling in division 1 of the league. Either side may be tempted to risk players carrying injuries in desperate attempt at survival.

Never a truer sentence uttered. In fact it could probably be argued that barring the unbelievable occurs this summer and we end up in an All Ireland semi final or final, this is far more vital than any single championship game we will play this year in terms of the county's long term prospects.


That turnaround last summer was possibly one of the most disappointing evenings in a long and dry spell of being an Offaly hurling follower. We were seven points up in front of our own supporters on a Limerick side that was low on morale after being hammered by Clare the previous week. As Bórd na Móna man remarked to me on leaving the ground, one of the saddest aspects was that deep down you knew that if the roles were reversed and we were the side seven points down, many of our players would just have rolled over and conceded defeat, the idea of a comeback just not on their mind at all.

The hope would be that this year things are different - whatever else can be said about the cull of the panel, the truth is that a lot of the negativity has gone with it. I honestly believe that this Limerick team is still low on belief and that if we can get stuck into them, keep the pressure on the whole way through, a run of scores could give us serious momentum and push us over the line.

In terms of the game itself, I agree that the Cleary/Begley thing will be significant, but for Offaly to get on top in this game, I think the key will be our midfield pairing of Teehan and Murphy. As POTH pointed out, it was our complete collapse in this area that allowed Limerick to pull so far in front of us last summer, but Paudie O'Dwyer and Mike O'Brien have to be marked tightly and pushed into defensive duty where they can, duties they are not hugely comfortable with. For almost 15 years Limerick have been able to attack from midfield safe in the knowledge that even in their lowest times they always had some great hurlers at half back, but they've struggled in these positions this year and have huge concerns about Geary at centre back. Peter Lawlor is still blue chip, as is Damien Reale in the full back line, but aside from these two their backs aren't fantastic. Hickey and Walsh have been called in this year and they haven't pulled up any trees.

However that's only any good if you have the forwards to take advantage of it. It's ridiculous how dependent we are on Bergin by now, but seriously now would be a great time for Bevans, Carroll and Rory to step up and weigh in with some support. I honestly believe that if we have two forwards playing well, Limerick will be fine, but once we add a third, we put them under real pressure. Likewise, a bit of support from Murphy pushing forward would go a long way.

The Limerick forwards have been getting heaps of abuse this year, mainly because their attitude in playing like the first line of defence has apparently not been up to scratch. With this in mind, I would suggest not taking any risks initially, but for McIntyre and co to have the team prepared that if they receive the signal, to have the backs prepared to play a more possession game, with defenders doing it almost football style, supporting the man in possession. If Limerick aren't putting in the work, we need to make this pay by making sure the man clearing has time and space, and thus we can avoid lorrying high ball in on top of Geary, Lucer, Lawlor and Reale who will just eat it up if we start at that craic. On the other hand, even if they do attempt to chase, running the legs off them might be no bad thing. Other than Shaughnessy, they have no real pace threat, a hard game in the afternoon sun chasing Offaly backs might take it's toll on the likes of Barry Foley, Begley and Niall Moran.

I'm slightly optimistic about this - not so optimistic that we should be favourites, but optimistic enough that we can make this competitive. Hopefully.

[Muck Savage]

Massive game for a young team. I'd almost rate this bigger than the c'hsip as they'll struggle to improve outside Div 1 next year and this team needs to be playing top teams to improve. It's a pity that there are so many injuries in the squad. Any word of the team? This squad has made huge progress this year and were very close in all of their games. I'd rate them above LK and Dublin right now and were unlucky against Wexford. I also think when the hard ground comes in that this team will pick it up a gear, they're young and light so better weather should suit. They have grinded out the winter unlike the teams of the 90's that could rely of their unreal talent.

[Bord na Mona man]

It was a really disappointing day against Limerick last year.
Ultimately it was a 17 point turnaround in 40-50 minutes.
Given the circumstances and the standard of opposition, it was worse in many respects than the 31 point hiding taken from Kilkenny the previous year. What really hurt was the manner in which Offaly tamely rolled over in the end. I didn't surprise me that Brian Whelahan cited the way Offaly collapsed as the reason he retired from inter county hurling.

It was car crash stuff watching Offaly suddenly deciding to play short puck outs. Utter madness! You need to practicing this sort of game for weeks and months. When your corner backs presumably haven't worked on their ability to control the sliotar and even if they did manage to, were unlikely to get the ball any further...
A cheap score given away from silly foostering and unforced errors is more soul-destroying than the opposition actually sticking over a wonder point from a ridiculous distance or angle.
The two Clare goals a week later came from a 5 or 10 minute spell of the same carry on.

Anyway, no point in revisiting the horrors of last year. Limerick have a lot of fellas who can fairly bullock Offaly out of it. Whenever I've watched them, they are happy, or even seek to carry the ball into the tackle and then "offload" as they would do in Thomand Park. If Offaly can somehow manage to close them down quickly, I suspect a lot of the Limerick fellas don't have the skills to actually get clean strikes on their clearances under pressure. Like a lot of the carry and handpass sides, their game is fairly formulated. Offaly really need to try and disrupt this and make the Limerick players improvise.

I'd worry about the lack of experience on the Offaly side. This game will have the bite of championship about it. With several players only having a handful of league games under their belt, it will be a big step up. However I have a good feeling about this game. I think Offaly will be right in contention near the end and I think will win! Offaly understand well the despair of Division 2 hurling and this should be a huge motivational factor.
The honesty of endeavour of this crop of players will hopefully compensate for the lack of experience.

[Bord na Mona man]

I think Offaly will be right in contention near the end and I think will win!

[Treasurer]

Mightn't be gone down yet.... Saturday's Irish Times...


Play-off takes uncertain twist
Seán Moran In Kilkenny

Gaelic Games: Tomorrow's National Hurling League Division One relegation play-off between Limerick and Offaly has been thrown into uncertainty with the decision of Central Council, on the opening day of the 2007 GAA annual congress in the Hotel Kilkenny in Kilkenny city, to revisit the structure of next year's first division.

It had been intended that the losers of this match would be relegated to Division Two for 2008 but Offaly asked the meeting that Central Council consider expanding the proposed first division from nine to 10 teams.

Last autumn it had been agreed on foot of a special congress that next year's Division One would comprise nine teams, the top four from the 2007 Divisions One A and One B plus a ninth to be determined by play-off matches between the fifth-placed counties in each table and the winners of Division Two.

Last night's meeting decided that no final decision would be made on the composition of next year's Division One until the next meeting of Central Council......

[the bare biffo]

A bit of straw grasping here. But would the extra team not be the Div 2 winners rather than Offaly anyway.

[Treasurer]

A bit of straw grasping here. But would the extra team not be the Div 2 winners rather than Offaly anyway.

Don't Limerick have to play them now?

[Loughers]

I heard yesterday that there is widespread support to change the system at the next Central Council meeting so that we play the winners of Div 2, with the winners becoming the 10th team in Div 1. Whether we deserve to be there is another story.

[Lone Shark]

Here's the article I did for the Indo - I'm too distraught today to get into the ins and outs of all the games. I seriously need to start supporting a darts player or something - at least then you'd only have to deal with one harrowing defeat at a time.



With bright sunshine, dry ground, a lot at stake for the players and enthusiastic supporters on both sides, Nenagh had the feel of a championship meeting last Sunday, even if it was only a league clash. In the last two and half years, Offaly have been a very competitive league team only to be blown away in the white heat of championship, so it was unfortunate for those supporters that made the trip south that this “summer” feel was indeed an omen for the gruesome disembowelling that was to follow.

Following on some encouraging performances in Division 1A of the hurling league, where even the two defeats came with plenty of grounds for optimism, Offaly supporters were hopeful that the days of being mauled on summer days, as happened last summer to Limerick and Clare and the previous year to Kilkenny and Waterford, were gone. At the very least, it was hoped that if such another heavy defeat was to happen, it would be at the hands of an All Ireland contender who happened to hit a hot day, rather than a team who hasn’t made an All Ireland semi final in 11 years who were starting without arguably their three best defenders in Damien Reale, Mark Foley and Peter Lawlor.

Limerick won the toss and elected to play with the breeze, a decision possibly motivated by the desire to get in front early and take advantage of any lack of confidence in an Offaly panel unused to securing crucial wins. If this was the plan, it didn’t work out as Offaly started brightly with scores from Bergin and Bevans and even when Limerick began to take control, they struggled to shake off Offaly who were blocking and hooking very well. Scores on both sides were still coming thick and fast, Limerick using the breeze well with Niall Moran, Brian Geary and Brian Begley all hitting good scores from range into the town end goals. Offaly were staying in touch, but if a game of this one-sided nature could be said to have had key swing moments, one such moment came on twenty five minutes, when at two points in arrears Joe Bergin had a goal attempt smothered by the keeper, only for play to break down the field and Limerick to register a very well finished goal of their own, Ollie Moran hitting the net from twenty metres after taking a handpass from Hugh Flavin.

To Offaly’s credit, they rallied after this goal, and with Rory Hanniffy leading the attack, Limerick’s five point lead after the goal was reduced to a single point in a six minute spell, the captain having scored two himself and laid off another to Brian Carroll after a great move started by Kevin Brady.

One point down at half time would definitely have been advantage to Offaly, but Brian Geary put over two placed balls from range either side of a Sean O’Connor score, after a scuffed sideline cut allowed Andrew O’Shaughnessy to burst through the Offaly defence and create space. However even at 1-11 to 0-10 the game was very much in the balance as the half time oranges awaited their demise.

What was balanced soon became lopsided as the second half started with both sides having gone in completely opposite directions during the interval. Limerick were aggressive and direct and with Offaly unable to kickstart themselves, five minutes saw the lead more than double to nine, Barry Foley getting the second goal.

The backs began to get back into the game, but the half forward line of Hanniffy, Molloy and Bevans, all of whom had been effective to varying degrees in the first half, suddenly found possession very hard to come by and were unable to secure any of Shane O’Connor’s puck outs. Offaly needed to ride out the next ten minutes and get themselves back into the game slowly by chipping away at the lead, but instead bad turned to worse and on into catastrophic as every attempt at getting back into the game was met with another Limerick goal. On 46 minutes a high ball into the Offaly goalmouth was doubled on by Sean O’Connor and though scores from Bergin and Carroll reduced the deficit to single figures again, this goal was replicated almost exactly on 50 minutes to put the game seemingly out of reach. Once again Offaly dug deep and 1-2 from Joe Bergin over the next five minutes kept slim hopes alive, only for the fifth and sixth Limerick goals to follow in quick succession, thus reducing the last ten minutes to a pure puck around. Goal five also came from a high ball, this time the flight of the ball deceiving both full back and full forward, only for Barry Foley to sneak in behind and finish in a one on one situation, while Andrew O’Shaughnessy’s penalty rounded out the half dozen. John McIntyre all but emptied the quite sparse bench (Offaly brought only 23 players to this game) but the final stages of this encounter were hardly any preparation for the huge challenges that lie ahead for this team.

At the time of writing the issue of relegation remains somewhat sub judice with central council yet to rule on whether or not to convert next year’s nine team top flight into a ten team division, but as things stand Offaly are now relegated to division two and any chances of appeal were greatly damaged by the nature of this collapse.

Those looking for silver linings could easily highlight how Joe Bergin had one penalty and two close in frees which returned a rather meagre two points, or how on another day the two overhead pulls from Sean O’Connor could have crept wide being as they are a speculative attempt, but even so it’s hard to ignore how when Limerick stepped up the intensity and began to exploit their greater power and physique Offaly were ill-equipped to match them. Quite what McIntyre and his selectors can do about this with the players available to them remains unclear, but what is for certain is that the light at the end of this rather long tunnel for the Offaly hurlers remains both elusive and distant yet.



LIMERICK - B Murray; K O'Rourke, S Lucey, S Hickey; M O'Riordan, B Geary (0-4, 0-2 frees, 0-2 65’s), P O'Dwyer; N Moran (0-1), M O'Brien; B Begley (0-1), O Moran (1-2), H Flavin; A O'Shaughnessy (1-4, 1-0 pen, 0-2 frees), S O'Connor (2-3), B Foley (2-0). Subs: M Foley for O'Dwyer, D Ryan (0-1) for O'Brien, J O'Brien (0-2) for Begley, P Tobin (0-1) for Foley, K Tobin (0-1) for N Moran.

OFFALY - S O'Connor; C Hernon, P Cleary, D Franks; G Oakley, C Horan, K Brady; B Teehan, B Murphy; E Bevans (0-2), R Hanniffy (0-3), D Molloy (0-1); B Carroll (0-2), J Bergin (1-8, 0-4 frees 0-1 pen), D Murray.
Subs: B O'Meara for Brady, D Hoctor for Cleary, A Egan for Bevans, S Dooley (0-2) for Molloy, C Parlon for Hernon.

Referee: Johnny Ryan (Tipperary)

[Lone Shark]

Here's the article I did for the Indo - I'm too distraught today to get into the ins and outs of all the games. I seriously need to start supporting a darts player or something - at least then you'd only have to deal with one harrowing defeat at a time.



With bright sunshine, dry ground, a lot at stake for the players and enthusiastic supporters on both sides, Nenagh had the feel of a championship meeting last Sunday, even if it was only a league clash. In the last two and half years, Offaly have been a very competitive league team only to be blown away in the white heat of championship, so it was unfortunate for those supporters that made the trip south that this “summer” feel was indeed an omen for the gruesome disembowelling that was to follow.

Following on some encouraging performances in Division 1A of the hurling league, where even the two defeats came with plenty of grounds for optimism, Offaly supporters were hopeful that the days of being mauled on summer days, as happened last summer to Limerick and Clare and the previous year to Kilkenny and Waterford, were gone. At the very least, it was hoped that if such another heavy defeat was to happen, it would be at the hands of an All Ireland contender who happened to hit a hot day, rather than a team who hasn’t made an All Ireland semi final in 11 years who were starting without arguably their three best defenders in Damien Reale, Mark Foley and Peter Lawlor.

Limerick won the toss and elected to play with the breeze, a decision possibly motivated by the desire to get in front early and take advantage of any lack of confidence in an Offaly panel unused to securing crucial wins. If this was the plan, it didn’t work out as Offaly started brightly with scores from Bergin and Bevans and even when Limerick began to take control, they struggled to shake off Offaly who were blocking and hooking very well. Scores on both sides were still coming thick and fast, Limerick using the breeze well with Niall Moran, Brian Geary and Brian Begley all hitting good scores from range into the town end goals. Offaly were staying in touch, but if a game of this one-sided nature could be said to have had key swing moments, one such moment came on twenty five minutes, when at two points in arrears Joe Bergin had a goal attempt smothered by the keeper, only for play to break down the field and Limerick to register a very well finished goal of their own, Ollie Moran hitting the net from twenty metres after taking a handpass from Hugh Flavin.

To Offaly’s credit, they rallied after this goal, and with Rory Hanniffy leading the attack, Limerick’s five point lead after the goal was reduced to a single point in a six minute spell, the captain having scored two himself and laid off another to Brian Carroll after a great move started by Kevin Brady.

One point down at half time would definitely have been advantage to Offaly, but Brian Geary put over two placed balls from range either side of a Sean O’Connor score, after a scuffed sideline cut allowed Andrew O’Shaughnessy to burst through the Offaly defence and create space. However even at 1-11 to 0-10 the game was very much in the balance as the half time oranges awaited their demise.

What was balanced soon became lopsided as the second half started with both sides having gone in completely opposite directions during the interval. Limerick were aggressive and direct and with Offaly unable to kickstart themselves, five minutes saw the lead more than double to nine, Barry Foley getting the second goal.

The backs began to get back into the game, but the half forward line of Hanniffy, Molloy and Bevans, all of whom had been effective to varying degrees in the first half, suddenly found possession very hard to come by and were unable to secure any of Shane O’Connor’s puck outs. Offaly needed to ride out the next ten minutes and get themselves back into the game slowly by chipping away at the lead, but instead bad turned to worse and on into catastrophic as every attempt at getting back into the game was met with another Limerick goal. On 46 minutes a high ball into the Offaly goalmouth was doubled on by Sean O’Connor and though scores from Bergin and Carroll reduced the deficit to single figures again, this goal was replicated almost exactly on 50 minutes to put the game seemingly out of reach. Once again Offaly dug deep and 1-2 from Joe Bergin over the next five minutes kept slim hopes alive, only for the fifth and sixth Limerick goals to follow in quick succession, thus reducing the last ten minutes to a pure puck around. Goal five also came from a high ball, this time the flight of the ball deceiving both full back and full forward, only for Barry Foley to sneak in behind and finish in a one on one situation, while Andrew O’Shaughnessy’s penalty rounded out the half dozen. John McIntyre all but emptied the quite sparse bench (Offaly brought only 23 players to this game) but the final stages of this encounter were hardly any preparation for the huge challenges that lie ahead for this team.

At the time of writing the issue of relegation remains somewhat sub judice with central council yet to rule on whether or not to convert next year’s nine team top flight into a ten team division, but as things stand Offaly are now relegated to division two and any chances of appeal were greatly damaged by the nature of this collapse.

Those looking for silver linings could easily highlight how Joe Bergin had one penalty and two close in frees which returned a rather meagre two points, or how on another day the two overhead pulls from Sean O’Connor could have crept wide being as they are a speculative attempt, but even so it’s hard to ignore how when Limerick stepped up the intensity and began to exploit their greater power and physique Offaly were ill-equipped to match them. Quite what McIntyre and his selectors can do about this with the players available to them remains unclear, but what is for certain is that the light at the end of this rather long tunnel for the Offaly hurlers remains both elusive and distant yet.



LIMERICK - B Murray; K O'Rourke, S Lucey, S Hickey; M O'Riordan, B Geary (0-4, 0-2 frees, 0-2 65’s), P O'Dwyer; N Moran (0-1), M O'Brien; B Begley (0-1), O Moran (1-2), H Flavin; A O'Shaughnessy (1-4, 1-0 pen, 0-2 frees), S O'Connor (2-3), B Foley (2-0). Subs: M Foley for O'Dwyer, D Ryan (0-1) for O'Brien, J O'Brien (0-2) for Begley, P Tobin (0-1) for Foley, K Tobin (0-1) for N Moran.

OFFALY - S O'Connor; C Hernon, P Cleary, D Franks; G Oakley, C Horan, K Brady; B Teehan, B Murphy; E Bevans (0-2), R Hanniffy (0-3), D Molloy (0-1); B Carroll (0-2), J Bergin (1-8, 0-4 frees 0-1 pen), D Murray.
Subs: B O'Meara for Brady, D Hoctor for Cleary, A Egan for Bevans, S Dooley (0-2) for Molloy, C Parlon for Hernon.

Referee: Johnny Ryan (Tipperary)

[Plain of the Herbs]

A college friend of mine was the owner of a t-shirt which read “feel like sh!t? – déjà vu”.

I had a quick look at some records last night. It appears that we have to go back almost forty years to the last time an Offaly hurling team were hit for six goals in a league match. The freefall continues.

I still don’t know what to make of yesterday’s latest car crash that is Offaly hurling. Certainly, the first half gave no sign of what was to follow in the second. While Limerick were opening up the Offaly backs and taking good scores, or forcing fouls, the Offaly attack, with Rory Hanniffy leading the charge, were working hard and took some fine scores themselves. The manner in which Offaly replied to Limerick’s goal was impressive, and despite Limerick opening a four-point gap before the break, the signs looked good, with the fresh wind worth 5 to 10 yards of territory to come.

Just like the Clare game, however, Offaly needed the boost of the next two scores. Unlike against Clare, it was Limerick who added the next two, and when Foley left Franks for dead and finished well, the four point deficit had widened to nine, and things looked bleak.

The concession of two goals from overhead pulls from long range frees will lead to questions asked within the Offaly back line. John McIntyre, in post match interviews, stated that they thought they had the hard work done at half time. Perhaps that’s a clue where the problem lay.

From a general point of view, two failings persist. 1) Not able to perform in the second half of important matches and 2) inability to hurl in summer conditions at summer pace. With this in mind, some of the Offaly play was slow and ponderous. The midfielders should deliver the ball much quicker to the inside forwards. There’s no need to take all four steps and adjust your shoulders to right angles before striking. This isn’t golf! Elsewhere, Brian Carroll is struggling to make any impact and Damien Murray hasn’t improved any since his return to the panel.

The one thing I can’t get my head around is that, for all their dominance of territory and possession, the score for the second half was 5-9 to 1-8. There’s no doubt, a score of 14 to 11 doesn’t adequately represent Limerick’s dominance. Do they have problems they don’t know about, such as crowding in their forwards? Anyway, that’s their problem. Equally 1-18 was a good score for Offaly who, as I said, scored 1-8 in the second half despite being on the back foot throughout. Relegation starkly demonstrates the thin line between success and failure. A win in Wexford Park would have ensured a quarter final slot. A win over Clare would have ensured survival!

Anyway, they can get on with their championship preparations now. Perhaps Laois will again feel the brunt of a post-relegation Offaly backlash in O’Connor Park. Déjà vu?

[Bogman]

The Offaly play in the 1st half was good to watch. Even in the 2nd half the Faithful were still registering fine scores.

The management have done a lot over the winter to improve the team. The young players have improved from game to game - it's encouraging to see players like Conor Hernon, Michael Verney, Eddie Bevans and David Kenny come through. The management have moved players around and found the right slots for Barry Teehan, Brendan Murphy and Cathal Horan although none of those three had their best games on Sunday.

Remember this Limerick team got a similar beating from Clare last summer - in modern hurling if you fall slightly off the pace you get buried!