Offaly Senior Hurlers 2025

[Thomas mc]

3 Leinster games in 14 days, ffs. How much more 'momentum' do you think Offaly need? Maybe you want to organise a challenge match for midweek.

There is no reason for Offaly to waste energy going 'full tilt' in a dead rubber game 7 days before our 2025 All Ireland.

How in the name of God is it a dead rubber game??

If you understand league tables and head-to-head tie breakers, you'll know why.

Had we beaten Wexford today, we could have lost to Antrim and still stayed up!

[Bord na Mona man]

How in the name of God is it a dead rubber game??

If you understand league tables and head-to-head tie breakers, you'll know why.

Had we beaten Wexford today, we could have lost to Antrim and still stayed up!

But we didn't, so erm....

[Bord na Mona man]

Hopefully there are no parallels to the 2023 Leinster Championship. In round 4 Westmeath went down to Wexford and put on a performance of the ages to overturn a big Wexford lead and win.

It was brilliant...but it was pointless. 7 days later they lost to Antrim and were relegated.

[Thomas mc]

If you understand league tables and head-to-head tie breakers, you'll know why.

Had we beaten Wexford today, we could have lost to Antrim and still stayed up!

But we didn't, so erm....

Ok so explain me to me how a big defeat with half a team this evening to follow up 2 big defeats would have benefited for next weekend? You wanted the team to go into the Antrim game in the back of 2 heavy defeats without a game in 2 weeks (when they used to playin every week) and also having been told by the people of Offaly and their manager that they weren't good enough to compete with wexford.. explain to me on what planet that would have been of any benefit?

[faithfulfanatic]

How dare Offaly go and try and win a championship game.

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

The same people giving out about Offaly going full bore are those who complained when we put out a very weakened team against Carlow 2 years ago IN A GAME THAT DIDNT MATTER TO US AT ALL.

Fair play to the lads this evening, mighty effort.

I’d rather be going in after a battling loss than a 28 point defeat which Antrim got.

[Faithfully]

Important thing now is to get a big crowd supporting the lads next Sunday in OCP vs Antrim. They deserve it. Put forward a strong performance and we will beat them.

[faithfulfanatic]

Important thing now is to get a big crowd supporting the lads next Sunday in OCP vs Antrim. They deserve it. Put forward a strong performance and we will beat them.

Dead right

[Offaly Hero]

I completely agree that it was the correct call to show some self belief and self conference and try and win today’s match. Well done on the performance.

The goal at the outset of this year, the marker of progress, was to improve and be better than Antrim and the Joe McDonagh counties and, beyond that, become competitive with the Waterford/Wexford/Dublin contingent. Nobody was expecting us to beat Kilkenny or Galway yet.

The entire narrative of this year will be written after next week’s Antrim match. But so far the goals of this year have been met and the team can take huge confidence from that.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of next week’s match. Coming back to the theme of self confidence, I wouldn’t ascribe to the notion that ‘Davy the cute hoor’ is somehow playing chess and we’re just playing checkers when it comes to preparing for next weeks match. That he has effectively thrown the whole year and instead will have his team hopping off the ground to ambush hapless, dopey, dozey Offaly.

The reality is Antrim are poor. Doesn’t mean they won’t beat us, they might. But machivillian scheming geniuses they are not. Their confidence will have taken a hammering in recent weeks.

It’s going to be close. It’s going to be some game.

[Lone Shark]

How dare Offaly go and try and win a championship game.

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

The same people giving out about Offaly going full bore are those who complained when we put out a very weakened team against Carlow 2 years ago IN A GAME THAT DIDNT MATTER TO US AT ALL.

Fair play to the lads this evening, mighty effort.

I’d rather be going in after a battling loss than a 28 point defeat which Antrim got.

Johnny Kelly is the manager, and his approach today was his call. If Antrim look fresher than us next week after resting loads of players today, and they win as a result, his decision will have been the wrong one. If our lads are ready for the game and can take positives out of today and feel stronger mentally as a result, then his decision will have been the right one. We'll know which in eight days' time.

However I didn't hear a single Offaly person complain about what we did against Carlow that time. Not one. I heard any amount of LAOIS people complain about it, but they don't count. We lost to Carlow because (1) Carlow played well, (2) Paddy Boland got a square ball goal that should have been disallowed, (3) Dara Maher got a harsh red card, and (4) David Nally got a hard injury at the wrong time. You'll do well to find anyone who said that using the full panel in Dr. Cullen Park was the reason.

[Géill Slí]

All will be revealed next weekend on who was right and who was wrong to go easy or go full strength this weekend. I’m inclined to agree that Antrim might just be not very good this year, I watched their game earlier and Galway absolutely annihilated them, can’t be good for confidence even if you are playing possum for next weekend. Offaly going strong a couple of hours later and why shouldn’t we? We’re back in the Leinster championship, it’s been a long road to get back here, and what kind of values are you teaching all of those excellent younger players coming through if you don’t have the confidence to go out and try to win the game? It’s the best preparation for next weekend, and it instils an honesty in our approach to the game.
Agree with previous posters, let’s get a huge crowd in Tullamore next Sunday, we’ve created an amazing atmosphere for the minors and u20s over the past few years, let’s do the same now for the seniors and I have every faith they will rise to the occasion.

[Thomas mc]

How dare Offaly go and try and win a championship game.

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

The same people giving out about Offaly going full bore are those who complained when we put out a very weakened team against Carlow 2 years ago IN A GAME THAT DIDNT MATTER TO US AT ALL.

Fair play to the lads this evening, mighty effort.

I’d rather be going in after a battling loss than a 28 point defeat which Antrim got.

Johnny Kelly is the manager, and his approach today was his call. If Antrim look fresher than us next week after resting loads of players today, and they win as a result, his decision will have been the wrong one. If our lads are ready for the game and can take positives out of today and feel stronger mentally as a result, then his decision will have been the right one. We'll know which in eight days' time.

However I didn't hear a single Offaly person complain about what we did against Carlow that time. Not one. I heard any amount of LAOIS people complain about it, but they don't count. We lost to Carlow because (1) Carlow played well, (2) Paddy Boland got a square ball goal that should have been disallowed, (3) Dara Maher got a harsh red card, and (4) David Nally got a hard injury at the wrong time. You'll do well to find anyone who said that using the full panel in Dr. Cullen Park was the reason.

I'm an Offaly person and I was fuming when we put out a second string against Carlow that time and we handed then the initiative and the confidence. You can pick all the little reasons and little moments you want in that final as to why we lost but the fact is we lost because of how we approached the week before. We've learnt our lesson it looks like. If you didn't play a lot of our stronger players yesterday they would go into the Antrim game without a game for 2 weeks after 2 confidence knockin heavy defeats.. would have been a disaster, Instead they go into it with a huge confidence boosting performance and just an 8 day break. They can freshen up all they want all week it's 8 days not 8 hours and it's a sequence that they have become used to playing every week over the last number of years.. a weakened team and a heavy defeat yesterday evening would also have knocked the confidence of the subs that would have started the game and the remainder of the team.. this is leinster championship we are chasing dublin and wexford and moving on from Antrim. There is absolutely no valid argument to have started a weakened team last night.. we went out we put in a big performance and we go and do the same next Sunday and brush a very very poor Antrim side out of the way as we should.. if the lads are "flat" or "tired" after 8 days then there us a deeper problem. Antrim are awful and the idea that Davey is some lord and saviour and has written off the whole year and is gonna have a team ready to turn up and switch it on and beat an Offaly team who have gone to parnell and wexford park and been unlucky not to come away with results is nonsense. Sweet jesus have a bit of faith in the team and management. We'll win at a Canter by 8 or 9 points next weekend.

[Lone Shark]

I'm an Offaly person and I was fuming when we put out a second string against Carlow that time and we handed then the initiative and the confidence. You can pick all the little reasons and little moments you want in that final as to why we lost but the fact is we lost because of how we approached the week before.

Obviously I'm not going to deny how you felt about that, nothing worse than people trying to tell someone else how they should or do feel. But I'm not lying when I say that you are the first person I've ever seen anything from online, or talked to in person, who felt that way about it.

Here's the thread from the time, pages 21 to 24 are in or around the Carlow games. There are a few people unsure, but not one person posts saying we should have gone with a full strength team.
https://www.uibhfhaili.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=7527

As for the second bit, in bold above, that's not how facts work. Just because event b follows event a does not mean that a caused b. I mean, I could say "the fact is that Dublin beat Galway yesterday because the world now has an American Pope" but that makes about the same amount of sense as your assertion. I don't think it's at all unreasonable to assert that things that happened in the Joe McDonagh Cup final (Boland's goal, Nally's injury, Maher's sending off) and the quality of the players on the winning team in that final are a hell of a lot more relevant than what happened in a meaningless game featuring a completely different Offaly team the week before.

Players have been asked about it since then, management and coaches, no-one has said anything even hinting at your view. That's not to say that you're not entitled to it, presumably you're a club member too so of course you are, but that's not the same as saying that because it's your opinion, therefore it's a fact.

[pjay]

I was also worried when we fielded a weakened team against Carlow after we had built up a head of steam in the competion. But it is easy to say that after the fact - if we had won I probably wouldn't have thought about it again. I also remember thinking at the time that the management are closer to the players than I am and hoped they knew what was best for those players at that time. We will never know what would have happened if we fielded a full Team the week before- maybe we would have lost to Carlow (or Laois) by more.
Equally, and following on from Lone Shark's point on causation and correlation, if we win lose or draw against Antrim, it won't be possible to say the result is because a full strength team wss fielded the week before.
My own opinion is that competing against Wexford will bring psychological benefits. But I am also worried about burnout, so trust the management will take that into account for training this week.

[private joker]

I thought at the time it was viewed that laois were better than carlow and it would have been a more favourable final vs carlow. Offaly s approach to this years leinster final is the right approach.

[Lone Shark]

I thought at the time it was viewed that laois were better than carlow and it would have been a more favourable final vs carlow. Offaly s approach to this years leinster final is the right approach.

I don't think anyone would have said in 2023, 2024 or 2025 that Laois are better than Carlow. Laois love to overlook the fact that they didn't beat Carlow either that year, and if they had, they'd have taken care of their own business.

Offaly took that decision for Offaly reasons, nothing to do with Laois or Carlow.

As for this year, it's entirely correct to say that we'll never know for sure - but the last 15 minutes will tell a lot. If Offaly finish strong and we get what we need off the bench, then it was the right call. If the end of the game sees our lads look tired while a fresher Antrim team run through them, that'll tell a story too.