Offaly vs Laois

[Bord na Mona man]

Its a poor day when Offaly v Laois is a curtain raiser to Westmeath v Dublin i know this is for Tv but still a disgrace

It's for TV all right.
Kildare and Wicklow was on first and televised yesterday as it was always going to be more competitive than Carlow vs Meath.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Seeing as the match programme for the corresponding fixture two years ago listed James Hooban wearing no. 29 for Laois, Offaly and Dublin I'll choose to ignore the line-ups in next Sunday's publication, if you don't mind.

Welcome to UF.com, by the way!

Well lads ye can believe what ye want to believe, the match programme on May 25th will reveal all. Ye can add James Young to the injury list now, went over on his knee playing in a club game he shouldn't have been playing in at the weekend.

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly's Murphy fit to face Laois

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Team News: Brendan Murphy has declared himself fit for Offaly's Leinster senior hurling quarter-final against Laois in O'Moore Park, Portlaoise this Sunday.

Murphy returns to the inter county scene after recovering from a knee injury that saw him miss the entire national league campaign.

Despite and MRI scan showing a slight tear to the posterior cruciate ligament he came through two training matches last Friday and Sunday unscathed.

Murphy is keen to make himself available for manager Joe Dooley, who he played alongside eight years ago.

"The players really like him and want to play for him because he's been there and done that," said Murphy, referring to the manager.

"I played alongside Joe in 2000. I was on the wing and he was in the corner forward position."

The last time the two sides met in Portlaoise was in the Division 1B league game in March when Offaly lost 1-17 to 2-13.

http://www.ireland.com/sports/gaa/2008/ ... 37754.html

[Lone Shark]

Its a poor day when Offaly v Laois is a curtain raiser to Westmeath v Dublin i know this is for Tv but still a disgrace

I actually think this suits us. Most of the Dublin vs Westmeath supporters, if they were on first, would stay around for the second match. If Laois made any kind of start, as underdogs they would quickly have a lot of neutral support augmenting the home crowd and we could very easily find ourselves in a tense tight game with a raucous crowd driving on Leix.

As it is now a large chunk of the support for those teams won't show up until near the end, when the hope is that we'll have taken the competitive edge out of the game. Even if not, they won't be so "vested" in the game not having seen most of it.

It's a small thing, but I'd be happy to take it all the same.