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To continue from previous thread any suggestions. Them way the county is going at present it would a major achievement from any of our players to be a recipient of one of the above.
I'd suggest James Keane from those on the county panel at the moment and maybe Nialll McNamee.

For the sake of debate, here's the bookie's view of it.

Dead heat rules apply if more than one award in the same year. (Talk about wishful thinking .... )

3/1 Niall McNamee
5/1 Karol Slattery
6/1 James Keane
8/1 Conor Evans
9/1 Ciarán McManus
16/1 Scott Brady, Shane Sullivan, Ken Casey
25/1 Neville Coughlan, Sean Casey
33/1 Padraig Kelly, Cathal Daly, Alan McNamee, James Coughlan
40/1 Any named other

And for the hurlers.....

3/1 Rory Hanniffy
5/1 Brian Carroll
9/1 Brendan Murphy
10/1 Ger Oakley, Dylan Hayden, Joe Bergin
12/1 David Franks, Michael Cordial, Stephen Brown
16/1 Brian Mullins, Paul Cleary, Eamonn Lee
28/1 Barry Teehan, Gary Hanniffy, Joe Brady.
33/1 Any named other.

Footballers wont get one for a good few years yet. If I was a betting man, and I am, I'd bet on William Mulhall.

Odds please Shark?

He'd definitely be a 50/1 shot I'd say. I'm surprised at that choice, my brother's round about that age group, (bit younger) and he and a few others reckon Mulhall is quite markable.

There's definitely business in all this - I'm going to have to get my shop set up soon ....!

He can be markable, but he is clinical. One chance and he will hit the net. For walsh island this year he has scored at least one goal in virtually every game (also scores points!). Not just league matches, also championship matches and tight matches. He can be quiet and yet one chance and he will not miss the net.

it might not take too much for offaly to get an allstar in football.
a decent run in leinster with a handy draw, given that all these games are televised and you'ld have martin carney or someone creaming themselves at some young fella that's playing well and it's an automatic allstar.

While a player like that is well handy at club level, he'll need to add more general play to make the step up. Even at senior club or county under 21 he'll start meeting defenders who are able to stay on their game for the whole hour and will deny him that one chance - and if he's not able to get out and forage for scrappy ball and lay it off to onrushing half forwards, and all the other little things that a corner forward can do on a bad day then he'll struggle to get into a team that hopefully will have Niall in one of the corners for the next 10 years and can put any one out of Paschal/Jimmy Paw/Deehan/Casey/ any other newcomer in the other.

Walsh Island and Tubber are the two clubs I'd like to see make senior soon though. Both have a lot of young players of a high standard who'd benefit from playing in the higher grade.



Regarding Turk's point - I'd be inclined to agree. I still think though that as a rule when they throw a bone to successful Leinster teams, it's usually in the low profile positions - coincidentally or not, both Laois and Westmeath got All Stars at GK and corner back the years they each wone Leinster. The corner forward spots tend to get left for the McDonnells/Coopers/Meehans of this world.

Clinical! Ye Gods!

I haven't heard the word clinical used in relation to any Offaly forward in the last few years.

Mulhall certainly followed the pattern on Sunday in the minor football final against Laois - "quiet" but still popped up with a goal and a couple of points. The run he made for the goal was great - showing well and running across his marker so that when he received it he was already on a diagonal to goal.

I don't care if Mulhall doesn't make All-Star. Just having another Offaly forward option at Under-21 or Senior level who can hold his nerve when the pressure is on would be great.

Lone Shark,

what kind of odds would you give on someone's unborn or unconceived child winning an All star?
You'd have to offer 100/1 or above?

In an Offaly context, yes.

If it was the progeny of a staunch hurling family with a long history of intercounty representation in a club like James Stephens or Thurles Sars then no - probably about 33/1. The child would have sliothars in the cot with him.

I assume this isn't your way of breaking news from a recent holiday or anything ...

Lone Shark wrote:I assume this isn't your way of breaking news from a recent holiday or anything ...

Not at all.

I remember that around 1990, some punter laid a bet @1000/1 that Jamie Redknapp, who was playing for Bournemouth at the time, would one day captain England.
It was close to happening, as Redknapp won several caps, but injury prevented him from graduating to the captain's role.

Someone had a similar bet on Mark Williams to win the snooker world championship.

I'm sure you could offer those kind of bets on extremely young GAA players.
Even if you did have to occasionally pay up, the inflation would have reduced the pay-out.
Also, it's nice credit to have up front for a bookmaker.

You get these type of bets all the time. GAA people are always annoyed at the price you give for their kids though, because I don't think they really grasp the maths of the situation.

Over a ten year period, there are 5/6 captains of England out of a population of 60 million, 10 world snooker champions from anywhere in the world (in theory at least!!) and 100 All stars in each code - out of a small playing population.

One father got really annoyed at the price for his son to play senior championship hurling for Kilkenny at one stage.

My logic was this - every year, on average 3 senior debutants - so if we take it that there will be 15 new championship debutants while this kid is between 19 and 23, that's probably not too far off.

In five years Kilkenny will probably see about 8000 kids born - 4000 lads. Of those 4000 lads, half of them will grow up playing hurling, and half won't. Even in pure heartland there are lads who have just no interest in sports, or take golf seriously, or whatever it is. Of those 2000, maybe 500-600 will make it past minor. Our kid being brought into a family that's clearly mad about hurling will in all likelyhood be one of those, and will have a decent headstart on many kids. Of that five hundred, roughly 3% will play intercounty senior. This kid will have a better chance being from an obsessed Dad, so if we make him 6% - that's a 16/1 shot. Allow for bookie margin, and I think I quoted him 12/1.

Dad honestly thought he was going to get 500/1 or something. I tried to explain the above but he was having none of it.

And seeing as a good share of Kilkenny players that make the county win an Allstar at some stage, I'd say about 33/1 is as big as you'd go in that county.

100/1 would be fine in Offaly though.

Conor Evans might make it one day- he is not a fantastic player but thats not as important as being an effective one. And he works at it very hard too. He has the potential because he is willing to learn and change and that is a very important factor.
Even the great Tiger is always working on his swing and willing to change it- Now see that Shark- there is a good example of comparing apples with apples !.
Conor Evans to Tiger......................... lol

James Keane is natural but lacks a bity of discipline but then he is still young.