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County board decides the next. County minor hurling championship match I
s fixed for o Connor park .
A lot of people will not be happy about ths

Well said Brian Gavin last night!

Now that the County Board has shown positivity towards the return of hurling to its home in Birr it is very important that the opportunity is not missed.

A few very important weeks coming up for Offaly hurling both on and off the field.

Uibh Fhailí abú.

What did he say?

By the way CB should bring at least one big league game to Birr. Twould have a similar impact to the reintroduction of the Wispa!
I'd pay in , walk back out and pay in again just for the nostalgia! (Mind you a few of the locals wouldnt pay in at all , again just for the nostalgia!!)

Ahlethimoutwithit wrote:By the way CB should bring at least one big league game to Birr. Twould have a similar impact to the reintroduction of the Wispa!
I'd pay in , walk back out and pay in again just for the nostalgia! (Mind you a few of the locals wouldnt pay in at all , again just for the nostalgia!!)

theres a good few locals or supporters who know what turnstyle's to go to in tullamore
as there are a few from the football area on them, you can hear them boost about it as they come
through them on match day, such an such is on turnstyle 2 or 3 its going on years. any way hurling might come back to Birr now that the Rolling Stones or u2 are coming to play there it seems

Buck Face wrote:Well said Brian Gavin last night!

Now that the County Board has shown positivity towards the return of hurling to its home in Birr it is very important that the opportunity is not missed.

A few very important weeks coming up for Offaly hurling both on and off the field.

Uibh Fhailí abú.

Of all the posters that I've disagreed with on this topic, you've stood out by a mile as the most rational, clear-headed, and well thought out of the lot. Every time you spoke on the topic it genuinely made me look at the situation in a fresh light. However it was the absence of the kind of nonsense written in bold above that made your arguments so strong. Please don't fall into that category of talking about stuff like "home", "tradition" and all that stuff, you're far better than that.

As to the topic at hand, I'd second the question - what did Brian Gavin actually say?

The irony is brilliant.
This is Brian Gavin, from the North of the county, 25 miles away from the 'home of Offaly hurling'.
Usually when someone from this distance away speaks on the matter, they are told to lie down and reminded why their opinion counts for nothing.

FFS. Ask the men with the medals, don't mind any of the mongrels from the football parts of Offaly.

Buck Face wrote:Well said Brian Gavin last night!

Now that the County Board has shown positivity towards the return of hurling to its home in Birr it is very important that the opportunity is not missed.

A few very important weeks coming up for Offaly hurling both on and off the field.

Uibh Fhailí abú.

Buck Face if you want to call it Tradition Or home you go right ahead and do it. As it your opinion don't let anyone else tell you not call what you believe it is.

As for Hurling returning to Birr. after watch the county hurler and the mess of not having a manager at u21 level. returning hurling to Birr is not important at all at the moment.

The real problem is the county board who won't interview people who want the job, keep Appoint inexperience manager and don't Appoint a manager at all.

Hurling in the county is a mess. The blame lies at the County Board level.
Whatever was said last night is just rubbish to keep the spotlight off the real problems we have at the moment.

i hope hurling doesn't return to Birr as some hurling people in Offaly will see it as a victory. The county board are just trying to appeases the hurling people in the county while not dealing with the real problem that they have created.

Toxicity234

Do tell--------- who wants the under 21 job that the CB has refused to interview.


Buck Face

What did B Gavin say ???????????????????????

ryot wrote:Toxicity234

Do tell--------- who wants the under 21 job that the CB has refused to interview.


Buck Face

What did B Gavin say ???????????????????????

I was talk about not interviewing someone for the senor job. Not surprised no interested on the u21 job. If you took the job you now have less than 100 days to get the team ready. 7-8 months work in 3 months is not fair on a manager.

A classic case of Nero fiddles while Rome burns. There are 101 things wrong with Offaly hurling but where they play their games isn't one of them. Those things are lack of youth structures, outdated coaching methods, not competing/winning at underage level, lack of continuity through development squads, poor criteria for selecting managers, long delays in putting u21 management structure in place. The list goes on.

The thinking that playing in Birr will wash away all those problems is backward, wistful and regressive. The discussion is only serving to further alienate areas of the county where hurling is beginning to grow. If ye truly wanted hurling to flourish ye would be encouraging hurling in all areas of the small county you have to pick from.

While this is the central argument in Offaly hurling, it will continue to fall to depths it hasn't seen for a long time.

KeshaWantsTimber wrote:A classic case of Nero fiddles while Rome burns. There are 101 things wrong with Offaly hurling but where they play their games isn't one of them. Those things are lack of youth structures, outdated coaching methods, not competing/winning at underage level, lack of continuity through development squads, poor criteria for selecting managers, long delays in putting u21 management structure in place. The list goes on.

The thinking that playing in Birr will wash away all those problems is backward, wistful and regressive. The discussion is only serving to further alienate areas of the county where hurling is beginning to grow. If ye truly wanted hurling to flourish ye would be encouraging hurling in all areas of the small county you have to pick from.

While this is the central argument in Offaly hurling, it will continue to fall to depths it hasn't seen for a long time.

Agreed. It's a red herring and unfortunately a distraction to proper thinking around where things are going wrong,

If the County Board had assisted Birr GAA Club develop St Brendans Park and had helped install Flood Lighting at the pitch, Offaly would have a home venue for the Leinster Under 21 Football semi-final with Meath. It is very sad that despite spending E10Million on O'Connor Park, we are not able to host our "home-venue" allocated championship games. Our players, supporters etc deserve better.

Semi Finals are neutral venues

One thing that I keep noticing as well is the constant reference to " a couple of league games" as if we have five or six home games on a regular basis. We're talking a quite small subset of games here. If we take it that the county final and home championship games are off the table, and that splitting the quarter finals is fair enough, then in the calendar year 2014, the fixtures we'd be talking about are:

Walsh Cup vs Antrim
Walsh Cup vs Galway
League vs Laois
League vs Limerick
League vs Antrim
Leinster MHC match vs Kilkenny or Laois (IF we beat Carlow - otherwise none)
Offaly SHC Semi final double header
Offaly IHC Final

On another year, there might be no Walsh Cup at all, and two league games. Just out of curiosity, of those who advocate moving more hurling to SBP, what way would ye split those up? Then leave out the top three games, and the MHC - we could have as few as four home dates we're talking about here. Would the possibility of as few as two games really resolve this issue?