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Offaly hurling manager Eamonn Kelly has this afternoon confirmed Colin Egan as his captain for 2016.
The versatile Belmont clubman has been a regular for the Faithful since making his debut against Cork in the National Hurling League in 2011.
He’ll skipper the side for their Division One B opener away to Clare this Sunday afternoon (2pm, live on Midlands 103).
Kinnitty’s James Dempsey and Seir Kieran’s James Mulrooney have been appointed as vice-captains.

Congratulations Colin and best of luck. Belmont has provided Offaly with two of the last 3 captains, fair dues.

Just watching the excellent Seo Spoirt on TG4.

Ger Loughnane had some positive things to say, for a change I suppose, about Offaly hurling.

Described us as being "organised for the first time in a long time", that Eamonn Kelly is "doing a great job there". We are "far more professional this year and "everything is in order with them". He went on to ask "do they have the players ?" He said that "Eamonn Kelly will get the best out of the players available to him" . While accepting that we are drawing from a small pool he added that "at least the organised structure is there now that had been absent for many years".

Offaly (HL v Clare) – James Dempsey;
Niall Wynne, Chris McDonald, Paddy Rigney;
Joe Bergin, Conor Doughan, Pat Camon;
Padraig Guinan, Shane Kinsella;
James Mulrooney, Colin Egan, Sean Gardiner;
Paddy Murphy, Shane Dooley, Jason Sampson.


The team lacks any power and strength.
Players name all over the place, if that team starts we be murdered.

that team would not the best club teams in offaly if it starts like that .
very worried about tomorrow there has been good vibes coming from the camp but now E Kelly real test begins
hope im wrong but we look inexperence light with very few scoring options outside s dooley .
Maybe j bergin and s gardner will swap which might give us more balance

that team looks weaker than what Sid put out last year and belive me we were piss poor last year. wheres Brian Leonard, Stephen Quirke, Sean Cleary, Shortt, lads with a bit of size and hurling in them, hope i am wrong it could get messed in Ennis on sunday.

Look at least he is trying something new , we are going down with everyone expecting us to be hammered so what have we got to lose . Il admit the team looks strange in places , but Joe Bergin has been tried in the forward line for years and for me he disappears in games , his work rate is poor , at half back or midfield he will need to play for 70 mins , he might struggle marking but if he gets on ball he can score and pump ball into forward line . All we can hope for is a good effort we minimal damage to our score difference , Laois game is our most important anything after that against the bigger teams is a bonus

Surely thats a bogus team. Full back line very inexperienced and likely to be ripped assunder. Joe Bergin at wing back is he having a laugh? Surely he swaps with Sean Gardiner - great to see him starting...... would see bergin in full forward and Murphy out to half forward line. On his game he is one of the best forwards in the country and offers a lot more from play than Shane Dooley for me..... Havent see much of Guinan but heard he has done well in Fitzgibbon so best of luck to him and all lads Sunday.......

Jimbob on his day he is one of the best forwards in the country is one of the worst posts I have ever seen. Leave it so.

Just an observation - not one player from 3 ( kk, coolderry & birr ) of last years semi finalists. Strange that they named Bergin at 5, not a fear of him playing there. All the best to all involved and here's hoping for an upset.

allstar2010 wrote:Just an observation - not one player from 3 ( kk, coolderry & birr ) of last years semi finalists. Strange that they named Bergin at 5, not a fear of him playing there. All the best to all involved and here's hoping for an upset.

There appears to be only ONE Player from all the clubs that have won the Offaly Senior Hurling Championship over the past 10 years. Great to see so many clubs involved, but surely we also need players from the clubs that have won Leinster Senior Club titles in recent years.

Full credit goes to the lads who go in with the team for there hard work, but yet again I wonder are we picking from the best lads in the county and I don't think we are.
Are the county board doing enough to make sure these lads come in with the team at the start of the year I doubt it very much. You can see with pat flangagan has done he has changed around things in the space of a year and is picking from the best lads in the county,it should be the same on the hurling side of things.

fair play to all those guys involved ,they seem to have trained very hard but the problem sid had was he was unable to bring the top club players with him ,some didnt come in, other ran around in the muck in november december and janurary and were gone before the league started .E Kelly seem to have made the same mistake .
No player from kk birr or coolderry starting the league in crazy .
if anyone sat down and pick the best club team of the last few years very few of E kelly team would make it and some would not make the subs .
lads like d shortt is a real leader of the rynagh team and d mooney and s coughlan are as important to clareen as j bergin .
i understand managment cant make guys come on board but offaly is different than most other hurling counties WE HAVE A SMALL PICK so we need to bring all our best club player with us . we need to make it possible for them to fit hurling into their lives .
imagine if we have d shortt s coughlan d mooney b leonard d king k grogan d kilmartain c mahon d currams d king s egan d morkan j gorman c slevin e nolan c kiely d kelliher s egan d hayden on board how different our panel would be .

They real question is why are so many of these top club players not able to come on board .
I fear we will get hammered today and Kelly will come out and talk about been patent and building a team instead going back to most of those guys and seeming what he can do to get them to come on board .
todays question is how much do clare want to bet us by ????

Kerry on course for big win vs laois. Offaly down to 14 losing by 9

Clare 2-21 to 15

Ended with 13 men , Dooley misses a penalty at a vital stage, by all accounts a good effort from what I heard on the radio . Huge win for Kerry , If we can get over Laois and Kerry it's another quarter final spot .