www.uibhfhaili.com

Plain of the Herbs wrote:Probably.

In recent years Belmont have had Alan, Mark & Colin Egan hurl Senior for Offaly, as well as David Kenny, obviously. Before that there was Kevin Flynn and Seán Grennan. I doubt anyone else from Belmont got a run prior to Grennan and Flynn, much less captain the side. in any event the county champions would have had the captain prior to the 1980s.

GreatDayForTheParish wrote:P.S: I'm sure the answer to this is a 'Yes'; but is David the first Belmont man to captain Offaly?

Thanks POTH. Regardless, it's a great honour for a small club.

congrats to david on this honour. no better man to take on the role. i rem him as a gangly 13 year old in first year (not much changed!) in banagher and you could see he had such an interest and skill level - despite the fact i used to slag him for digging spuds when he used to go with one hand to pick the ball! a true gentleman and a natural leader.

Congratulations David Kenny.

Looking forward the coming year!

So Ollie Baker does in four weeks what it took his predecessor four years to to - win the Walsh Shield.

Joseph Bergin got nine points from play. Other that that it was turgid stuff. In fairness to all, no-one should be playing hurling at this time of the year.

offaly retain there walsh cup shield thanks to a one man show up front from Joe Bergin 0-16 , but for much of this game he was
on his own up front Dermot Mooney score a few early points but went missing after beside Brendan Murphys 2 points that was it
from the forward line who had a bad day at the office it was back to the westmeath performance not last sunday's display again wexford.

not much to say about todays game it was poor enough in spells, the two changes from the team that was picked Barry Harding in for Rigney
Brian Mulrooney in for Horan, fullback line was our best line with Watkins,Kenny, Wynne, on top for the whole game.

James Rigney made a big differents when he came on at half time, Sean Ryan and Rory Hanniffy came on in extra-time as offaly pulled away
from D.I.T. .

It was a sorry turn out today for a final i know its the shield but still a final when offaly ran out you could hear about 5 claps which wouldn't
rise up any team before a game. i'd say there was about 200 there and thats been kind.

but when the ref blew for full time after extra-time and Dave Kenny went up for the shield cup there was about 40 there to cheer them
fcuking sad you wonder why players bother, i know the Birr Tullamore debate on where the hurling should be played but todays crowd
was the worst i have seen at a home game for a while.

hope they come out and give them a shout again leix in the first round of the league well done to offaly and ollie Baker today lets hope this is
one of many wins this year.

Bluesky,

Where did James Rigney hurl when he came on?

kinnittyman wrote:Bluesky,

Where did James Rigney hurl when he came on?

Centre field and was outstanding brought offaly back into a game they were behind in for most. who's bluesky

Rigney kenny and bergin only ones who hurled well. Where was dooley. What i saw d i t hurled as a team. Too many lads caught behind their men. Nowhere near fitness. A lot of work to do.

Deadandgone wrote:Rigney kenny and bergin only ones who hurled well. Where was dooley. What i saw d i t hurled as a team. Too many lads caught behind their men. Nowhere near fitness. A lot of work to do.

wasn't alot of players stood out alright but Brian Watkins had a good game with about 3 players he seen off, Barry Harding held his own also
midfield and forwards well besides Joe Bergin were out of it for most of the game.

Colin Egan caught great ball but didn't do anything with it or just ran into trouble, Mark Morkham worked hard in the second half and won plenty of ball
Derek Molloy was all over the shop and was taking off in the second half with Ger Heailion coming on and doing alot better than Molloy,

in fairness to Derek Molloy he was up against a fine hurler in kilkenny's Pat Hartley who has hurler for kilkenny and would get on most inter county teams
all in all in has been a nice run of games for Ollie Baker to look at his panel and thats not even counting the Coolderry players who have to come in.

theres plenty of competition for place's i wonder who will get the goal's this year with Lusmaghs Eoin Kelly pulling off two great saves yesterday and his
puck outs are great to.

so add in the likes of Dylan Hayden,Paul Cleary,David Frank's and a few more who have yet to come back offaly could have an interesting year in store.

townman wrote:
I know the Birr Tullamore debate on where the hurling should be played but todays crowd
was the worst i have seen at a home game for a while.

Good jaysis, don't bring that debate back up to justify the small crowd at a walsh shield match. There'd be a small crowd at it, no matter where it was!

townman wrote:
but when the ref blew for full time after extra-time and Dave Kenny went up for the shield cup there was about 40 there to cheer them
fcuking sad you wonder why players bother

With all due respect to the Walsh Shield, I'm sure the height of the players ambitions at the start of the year is not to win the walsh shield at the start of february. It is still nice to win a trophy nonetheless.

The decision the hold that game in Tullamore was nonsensical.
Three years ago, Offaly hosted Dublin in the exact same fixture (we lost) in Banagher. Even though conditions were poor (bitterly cold, very foggy) the 'crowd to size of venue ratio' was much better, there was actually a reasonable enough atmosphere in the closing stages. Hell, we even hosted DIT in the semi-finals of the same competition in Rath two years ago and there was probably a couple of hundred there.

It's a matter of course around the country that these early season winter games are often hosted at smaller venues. Mayo even hosted Dublin in Ballaghdereen (I think) in the NFL only a couple of years ago. Now given that DIT were never going to bring a crowd, why that game was hosted in Tullamore in mystifying. Surely anyone could see that an empty house and non-existant gate receipts was all but guaranteed - tis difficult enough to get crowds to travel there for important league games.
There actually is an, relatively fickle granted, appetite for games at this time of year among a small group of hardcore supporters. It's basic business principles: You have to make the ease of access (i.e venue) as attractive as possible to your core market for what is essentially an unattractive product (i.e. bad competition/time of year). Do that and you'll get a reasonable crowd for the time of year.
Instead they put it in Tullamore.

The only thing I can think regarding bringing the game to Tullamore was that Offaly will be playing all the games there and Baker wants to look at them in the pitch they will be playing on? Other than that I agree, it would have been nice if it were brought to a venue like Banagher, or even the captains club Belmont In Moystown (or would that ground meet the criteria for Intecounty?) and there would be a nice crowd there. Anyway onwards to Laois, all the best to the lads.

uibhfhailiabu wrote:

townman wrote:
I know the Birr Tullamore debate on where the hurling should be played but todays crowd
was the worst i have seen at a home game for a while.

Good jaysis, don't bring that debate back up to justify the small crowd at a walsh shield match. There'd be a small crowd at it, no matter where it was!

townman wrote:
but when the ref blew for full time after extra-time and Dave Kenny went up for the shield cup there was about 40 there to cheer them
fcuking sad you wonder why players bother

With all due respect to the Walsh Shield, I'm sure the height of the players ambitions at the start of the year is not to win the walsh shield at the start of february. It is still nice to win a trophy nonetheless.

the walsh shield fair enough isn't thought as a big deal but winning is a habit and its nice to see offaly hurling winning .
as for the crowd it should have been played in Banagher as GDFTP said i remember Dublin beating us in the shield final 3 years ago
and a good crowd was there as its near the hurling heartland.

now playing a shield final in tullamore the same day as offaly footballers were playing longford in the league and most sat in to watch the rugby
as well was silly, anyway not getting into that again, looking forward to a better crowd in the Gaelic Grounds next saturday evening .

Lads awhen r we goin to stop this tullamore ground v birr ground. Tullamore is the county ground now and birr is still a club ground. Every club can have a rite to have county games played then but insurance and health and safety r all part of it now.

We're not. There's going to be a candlelight vigil outside the pitch in Birr on the evening Offaly are hurling Wexford in OCP in May (or is it June?).

Deadandgone wrote:Lads awhen r we goin to stop this tullamore ground v birr ground. Tullamore is the county ground now and birr is still a club ground. Every club can have a rite to have county games played then but insurance and health and safety r all part of it now.