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townman wrote:here feck it, offaly to win by 2 points Bergin to score last minute winner wouldn't it be some evening down on Noreside if we pulled off the shock of all shocks.......................

Right On!
Lets bury them

i remember the day when this was the type of game offaly hurlers loved and we saw them at thier best.
with all the shit wrote about them been fat arse big bellies if there is anything in them it will come out on saturday night. look at Limerick and laois man for man we have as good as hurlers as them all we need is the drive the pride back in the green white and gold jersey .

townman if i rember correctly b whelahan did follow dj in and he played at full back and dj scored a goal off him and
lads laois and limerick were not playing kilkenny at home.
limerick are munster champions and laois got to this year league quarter final .
look at kilkenny subs if we think rory can play anywhere tommy walsh is much better and he cant make the team.
looking at form we will be will be lucky to come within ten point

Hopefully the lads won't humiliate Ireland and the GAA in front of the SKY cameras on Sunday. I've been told Cody and co. have been told to try and not do the dog on it and leave the game somewhat competitive.

I have the ham sandwiches in the fridge , the flask beside the kettle and me jersey drying on the line , , few pints in the marble city and then on to Nowlan park . I'm only a supporter but already I have butterflies in my belly , roll on championship hurling .

uibhfhaili wrote: I've been told Cody and co. have been told to try and not do the dog on it and leave the game somewhat competitive.

Haha!!! I can only imagine Cody's reaction to such a request!

Hoping we give him a lot more to worry about than keeping the score in check.

God I love if the lads put in a huge performance on Sat evening. What is it with championship hurling and Offaly, for the last few weeks I was hoping we wouldn't get beat by more 20+ points and I wasn't even going to bother going, now i'm a lot more optimistic and have the car full going down tomorrow evening.
I do have a few worries though, with playing an extra man in defence our own puck outs are vital and I presume we be trying to hit a number of short puck outs and draw the man to create an over lap but is Dempsey's puck outs good enough for this( don't get me wrong he is by the best stop stopper in Offaly but always had a concern with his puck outs). Also with the half back line picked, spare man and midfield selected, when in procession, are the physical enough to break the tackle and if not this will lead to mis directed passes into a 2 man full forward line where Paul Murphy will presumably be the spare man and will end up picking up a lot of the ball. If this happens will Offaly be able to put up a big score from out the field, not sure of the long range point talking of Ryan, Connolly, Gerarthy, Mahon and Currams.
I do think however that in the middle third of the field we have enough guys there to pick up breaking ball and hopefully what they lack in size the will make up for in determination and anticipate the breaking ball rather than react to it when its too late.
Here's hoping we will be celebrating in Langton's on Saturday night and ringing the misses to say were staying over!!!!!

sam88885a wrote:townman if i rember correctly b whelahan did follow dj in and he played at full back and dj scored a goal off him and
lads laois and limerick were not playing kilkenny at home.
limerick are munster champions and laois got to this year league quarter final .
look at kilkenny subs if we think rory can play anywhere tommy walsh is much better and he cant make the team.
looking at form we will be will be lucky to come within ten point

the same Limerick that didn't beat us in the league and are still in the save division as us next year, the same laois who also lost to Antrim and beat London by 2 points, my point was yet they both went out and had great displays last sunday, why can't we, yes they are not hurling kilkenny, but limerick beat Tipp in thurles which is a good days work, laois who could have beaten Galway the last two years the same Galway team that were beaten in a replay all ireland in 2012 and on their day are a top 4 team.

the reason Tommy is on the bench is the same reason Cody got rid of Phil Larkin, Brian McEvoy,Charlie Carter, Peter Barry, he had the players to replace them and kilkenny will always have great hurlers always did. that not to say that offaly go out and lay down on saturday night and take a 20 point plus beating, yes Whelehan will take the blame, but as they say its the lads who cross the whiteline on matchday are the only ones who will have the say, theres many a day or all ireland or leinster final that Whelehan cross the whiteline and let his hurling do the talking lets hope the offaly hurlers follow suite on saturday.

Championship week is such a strange thing. This time last week, I was expecting a mauling, but as the game gets closer, I'm starting to convince myself that we have a chance. Which feeling was right will become apparent, but I'm really looking forward to it. Nowlan Park is a lovely ground to attend a game at, and there's usually a decent atmosphere around the ground, and the city.

Firstly, just an observations. I'm disappointed to see players in the papers talking about our lack of training facilities, poor underage etc. This is a week in which their focus should be 100% on the task at hand. Given that these topics have been high on the agenda in recent weeks, I'm sure journalists are asking plenty of leading questions to get guys to give them something they can use for a cheap headline, but experienced players should know to deflect that type of stuff.

As for the game itself, I'm intrigued as to what our tactics may be.
* If we play Kevin Connolly out the field and hit ball to the loose man in front of the full back line, we'll get hammered out the gate, no two ways about it. If KK let the corner back follow out it might bear some fruit, but I can't see them doing something as naive as that.
* If we play a sweeper who is briefed to carry the ball, it could work well to create scores from distance. It's dependent of having accurate shooters around midfield though, and that would mean bringing Bergin and Dooley out the field. For this to work, I'd play Sean Ryan as the sweeper, position Dooley, Bergin, Currams, Mahon and Carroll from 8 to 12 (in that order), and play Geraghty and Connolly inside to put the most pace in the area where most ground willl need to be covered, in the case of ball dropping short, or defenders just having to lash the ball upfield if under pressure. Also, I think they'd be the two players most likely to get on the end of the kind of goal chances we'd create, similar to many of the goals Clare scored last year. If we think we'll collect ball in our own half and carry it to an inside line featuring Dooley and Bergin, we're kidding ourselves, as KK's power will halt us along the way.

Joe Bergin, Shane Dooley. Brian Carroll and Dan Currams really need to stand up if we are to have any chance. We pretty much know what we will, and won't, get from the rest of our side, but these 4 for me can make the biggest difference if they hurl well. Between them, they could put in the region of 2-10 on the board from play if they put their minds to it, and that would go a long way towards giving us a big chance.

Anyway, what ever the result, I'll walk out of Nowlan Park very happy if I feel this Offaly have given everything. A win would be nice, but I'll settle for full effort, and say a little prayer that the result comes with it!

The Biff wrote:BELIEVE

ALWAYS!!!

The positivety being expressed the last few days has been infectious!! Here's hoping it rubs off on the players. To all players and management the very best of luck tomorrow. Make us proud again. Believe!!!

Some KK vs Offaly pre-match player interviews are expected on sky at 12.30pm, for those interested.

Halftime

Thank God for James Dempsey.

We won 50% of the loose ball for 5 or 6 minutes, but then it all dried up.

Perhaps due to pressure we are hitting balls directly to their backs an awful lot.

KK are strong in the air and cleaning up the breaks.

Hopefully we can do something w the wind in the second half.

We'll say no more