FAO: Johnny Flaherty

[the rat]

I was at the Brosna Gaels -v- Setanta (Donergal) game, the Setanta team were very physically strong for an under 14 team, one of there mentors told me 3/4 of them were playing minor hurling as well.

[baz]

If anyone gets the opportunity have a look at the official feile book .One big thing that stood out when looking at past winners was the amount of teams that went on to win alot of club honnors (local as well as nationally ) and backboned county teams that got to all irelands .Teams that had 5 or more players that followed on eg birr , glenmore and lohans (clare) team .This is where future success comes from ,that age group .I know a young lad on offaly u16 team and was given a dietry plan .Now to me its more in the county boards line to improve these lads coaching in terms of catching and kicking ball in football and being able to catch and strick a ball in hurling .Going down the road of dietry plans for young lads at that age is like what a proffessional club like man utd would do .They are amatures who should be able to enjoy the games and i will not be surprise in time to come that players will look for payment(talking about years down the road ).The top brass have got too greedy in terms everything is about generating money and not about the game ,the club or supporter .The level of skill in players in offaly in both codes is dire and the play with no confidence .Brother vincent when he was in birr could coach up to 40 kids at one time and get the most out of every one that went .He just had a method about him and kept it simple but improved everyones skill in what he done and there was no stepping out of line either .Every thing seems so disorganised now compared to then .BAD UNDER AGE TEAMS = BAD SENIOR TEAMS .Flaherty ,dooley & roe as example are get well paid (sorry expenses) for what they are doing ,not for the good of their healths (cant train or pick a team properly ).I havent heard or seen a thing what flaherty has done in his job in 5 years .

[faithful till I die]

however while as always I have no doubt that Offaly's Future has the best interests of hurling in the county at heart, it does not make any sense to base a reaction on what are a hand picked selection of the results rather than the whole picture.

Thanks Lone Shark for a more balanced and accurate account of the Feile results. Im beggining to question the intentions of Offaly`s Future ! We can all identify that underage coaching in the county should be much improved but I feel he is overly negative and critical. Its a pity as he generally seems to display good knowledge and insight but appears to just want to run Offaly down all the time.

Dont forget that this is the man who said on the 3rd of June:

"Offaly wont beat Wexford in the u-21 in two weeks, the reasons they wont win is because they are badly managed, badly prepared and have been badly coached right up through the ranks and for all that alot of them are over-rated and have the wrong mentality".

[athlumneyboy]

Have read some of Offaly Futures Comments he is way off the mark Lone Shark and some of Rotal Blues Comments re Feile are correct.

I played and coached Rynaghs teams in Feile and size has a lot to do with it also the weaker teams in Offaly were playing each Counties best some of the teams like Drumcullen,Lusmagh would probably have 11 year olds playing or even a girl or two to make up numbers this can have a big bearing when you are playing against a strong 14 year old.

Lone Shark was right if you look at the results against the stronger counties they were ok i know Rynaghs were very strong last year but this year are weaker but will probably still get to County Final.

At this age group its down to Clubs and Schools to promote coaching and playing plenty of challenge games against stronger counties like Galway and Tipp.

I am involved with Meath now and we bring in coaches from all over Ireland to coach the youngsters and also i think the facilities are better more Hurling walls etc .

I Find now that lads of 14 are more interested in Rugby and Soccer as its less hassle and get more enjoyment out off which i find hard to believe, when i was growing up in Banagher all i wanted to do was play hurling i was lucky i won a lot uunderage and there wasnt other sports to play.

What i am trying to say it takes time and if the u21 can win it will attract alot of youngster to the game

[manfromdelmonte]

if 11 year olds are playing U14 then any club has to look around and ask where are the 13 and 14 year olds?

every child must be identified and got out when they are 6 or 7 then keep them playing.

[Offalys Future]

however while as always I have no doubt that Offaly's Future has the best interests of hurling in the county at heart, it does not make any sense to base a reaction on what are a hand picked selection of the results rather than the whole picture.

Firstly i dont know how highlighting 16 bad results is not a true reflection.
What Loneshark has done is what the majority of people on this forum and people over Offaly GAA at present do and that is continually make excuses instead of addressing the matter.
He sent me a pm 5 weeks back when i made the comments regarding the Brain Whelehan school of hurling but he never got back to me after i replied. I went to the academy training and i have seen what goes on, i also have went to underage games over the last two months so i feel i can give a fair judgement on where we are at. See LoneShark identity is known and maybe he's friendly with alot of these lads and is afraid to tell it the way it is.

Dont forget that this is the man who said on the 3rd of June:

"Offaly wont beat Wexford in the u-21 in two weeks, the reasons they wont win is because they are badly managed, badly prepared and have been badly coached right up through the ranks and for all that alot of them are over-rated and have the wrong mentality".

[/quote]

In regards to the above the game wasnt played in two weeks if i'm correct.
I went to the game last Wednesday and from what i saw and i'm sure lads will give out about this aswell but i still stand by what i said, i just didnt realise Wexford were so bad. Actually incredible how bad they were.
As for Offaly spare man for 35 minutes, no gameplan, no tactics, players constantly losing posession and hitting skyscrapers of shots etc etc.
Yes fair play they are in the final but what about the performance? What about the way they played? the way the are managed? they skills that weren't present??

[bula bula]

OF, you are probably correct in some of your remarks about the under21`s but are being way too harsh on this team and management. They are in the Leinster final again after 2 comfortable enough wins. Now I know we all like to dream and that you wil say that you are just being honest but this is an improvement in itself and we cannot just go from nothing to challenging again. As regards the Feile, none of us like the state we are in at present but there is nothing to be gained from overly destructive comments being made unless they are showing the full picture and are not from a selective view.

[Lone Shark]

however while as always I have no doubt that Offaly's Future has the best interests of hurling in the county at heart, it does not make any sense to base a reaction on what are a hand picked selection of the results rather than the whole picture.

Firstly i dont know how highlighting 16 bad results is not a true reflection.
What Loneshark has done is what the majority of people on this forum and people over Offaly GAA at present do and that is continually make excuses instead of addressing the matter.
He sent me a pm 5 weeks back when i made the comments regarding the Brain Whelehan school of hurling but he never got back to me after i replied. I went to the academy training and i have seen what goes on, i also have went to underage games over the last two months so i feel i can give a fair judgement on where we are at. See LoneShark identity is known and maybe he's friendly with alot of these lads and is afraid to tell it the way it is.

Right so. Firstly, since you choose to go down the board route rather than the PM route in terms of the previous discussion, then fair enough, let's do that.

As most people by now know, I write for the Offaly Independent and yes, there are plenty of people who know who I am. However that would not stop me from writing about the academies in a negative light if in fact there were specific details I could focus on. However what I cannot nor will not do is write pieces either in the paper or on this website, lambasting anything and everything and saying that the whole thing is rotten to the core without specific details about what could be done better - WITHIN REASON (i.e. not demanding that 20 specific people commit huge chunks of their lives to coaching courses or that sponsors suddenly come up with an extra quarter of a million euro for academies). I sent you a private message with the intention of finding out specifics - people involved, what drills were wrong, why the players were not happy, and your response was that "they are ruining Offaly hurling" and gave me absolutely nothing that I could follow up. Hence my lack of a response. I'm not in this to make waves and to make enemies just for the sake of controversy, but equally if there is a specific blocking point that is causing problems in Offaly hurling or football and there is an obvious solution, then I will happily highlight it. However you didn't give me this, or even the slightest inclination where to go to look for it.

Regarding posting all the match results from féile, I think it's only reasonable to post them all up. If I was to come on here and post up Birr's win over Roscrea, Kinnitty and CRC Gaels' group results and a few others and say "look how good things are in Offaly" I'd be giving a false picture. If you are so confident that the results are horrendous, why do you need to edit them for other people? You say you were "highlighting" sixteen bad results - highlighting means drawing particualr attention to those ones having given them all. If the results are as stark as you perceive them to be, then others will share your views and agree with you. If you only post up the results that suit your point of view and leave out the ones that don't, then you are managing the message rather than giving it to people, and as we saw with the Lisbon treaty, if people don't trust the message they are being given, they will reject it.

OF I don't want to tun this into a personal slagging match because I meant it when I said that I believe you have the best interests of Offaly hurling at heart. However I also mean it when I say that by going out of your way to criticise everything and never to praise a single individual or initiative, then you will merely become this website's equivalent of that crank that every club has, the guy who goes around giving out about everyone but not doing a tap themselves.

[faithful till I die]

I went to the academy training and i have seen what goes on, i also have went to underage games over the last two months so i feel i can give a fair judgement on where we are at.

Offaly`s Future it is clearly evident from the above quote that you have a genuine interest in Offaly hurling. My point is why not use this knowledge to promote the game in our county and improve the situation. It is very easy to criticise but much harder to be constructive and take positive action to address practices that you clearly believe are wrong.

I see from above posts that Lone Shark offered you an opportunity to identify to him specific things that you felt needed changing in our underage structure. Why dont you take him up on his offer ?

Whilst its good that you are offering a critical analysis on the current situation in the county I feel that somewhere along the way you have forgotten that the goal behind any analysis should be make things better. Instead you seem to be caught up in a cycle of complaining and moaning.

For what its worth I think you are being harsh on the under 21 team. They hurled well for the first half and effectively had the game won so they probably eased off. Granted they will have to improve by 80% to stand any chance of beating KK but im sure they know that already. Come on OF get behind your county, you never know they might surprise you yet.

[athlumneyboy]

Just to let Offalys Future know that St Rynaghs Minor team got to the final of the James Stephens tournament beating Blackrock of Cork and James Stephens of KK due and were beat by Ballyboden in the final due to tiredness, This shows Offaly team can compete with good teams in strong Counties

[the rat]

I was mistakinly given two Feile programs celebrating the Laois/Offaly feile, I can foward on the spare one if anyone wants it, just send me a PM.