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Another good Interview on www.edenderrygaa.com with Johnny Pilkington of Birr and Offaly

Excellent stuff. I'm a little bit surprised that he sees too much of a bright side in any of the results for the minor hurlers in the past couple of years, but fair enough. It's commendable the way he talks about the All Star award too - I'm sure there are a few lads who would think of it similarly, but they probably wouldn't have the neck to say it straight out!

We have a different attitude to hurling here in Offaly than they do in Tipperary and Kilkenny. We seemed to just take or leave it but in Tipp it's more like a religion.

Unfortunately thats the main reason both of them have dozens of All Irelands and Offaly have a handful.

An all-star is an all-star no matter how you get it!!
Very funny man was Pilkington.

Johnny was one in a million it was a pleasure to have watch him play for offaly and birr down the years.
one of the best games i seen him play and he had many was against o'loughlian gaels of kilkenny in carlow
i think in was 2000 or 01 can't be sure but the two comerfords andy and martin went on him that day johnny gave the
two of them a lesson, as for offaly he had many kk 93 and 94 again clare draw match or cork match in 2000.
the one thing i loved about johnny was if he said or wrote anthing about the game he would go out and let his hurling prove him right.
we might never see his likes again, as they say you don't know what your missing till there gone.

Never had anytime for him when he was a player and certainly no time for him now.
A joke and i have to laugh at this comment.

"it's totally unfair to be given out about these players. It doesn't help in bringing them on whatsoever".

I dont know of anyone that was blaming the players. So i dont know what he talking about. He was the person
meant to be training the team and verbally abusing players. He did more damage in two years than anybody else.
Why he even gets media attention is beyond me.

Offalys Future wrote:Never had anytime for him when he was a player and certainly no time for him now.
A joke and i hae to laugh at this comment.

"it's totally unfair to be given out about these players. It doesn't help in bringing them on whatsoever".

I dont know of anyone that was blaming the players. So i dont know what he talking about. He was the person
meant to be training the team and verbally abusing players. He did more damage in two years than anybody else.
Why he even gets media attention is beyond me.

jasus you really have a chip on your shoulder about birr players or who trained team whats wrong with you did a birrman take
your women or something, last week it was pa jo this week its johnny p he played from 1989 to 01 and you had no time for him
he was in every offaly team that won anything that time you didn't see much of offaly back then so.
paul murphy has took over at birr now it will be him next week so that you have no time for either
it must be great to be like you offalys future all the things you won and team's you trained to win things
i think your a laoisman in disguise

If you were a regular on this forum you would have read my views on coaching, training etc in offaly.
Nothing to do with Birr club. I am just sick to the teeth of the way hurling is administered, coached
trained, managed in Offaly. And yes i am sick of attitude of some people in Birr especially Padjoe, Brian,
Johhny Pilkington and Daithi Regan.

Just while you are talking about Birr its interesting to see that over the last 3 weeks there has been a
campaign to get your man pad joe and your chairman out of their positions.
Interesting also that Pad joe or Brian didnt attend the agm.
They have ran that club like a dictatorship the last number of years and its great now that they are gone.
I know the players are happy now as they were the ones campaigning for Paul Murphy appointment.

Obviously Johnny P was a great player in his day, and only Johnny himself will know if he was as good as he could have been, or if he had more in the tank that he wasn't willing to dig out. I've always suspected that the happy go lucky caricature was overplayed for his own benefit myself. Certainly I've no doubt that his pub gets plenty of business on account of it.

However I will agree with OF on this point - the remark

Right we lost to Westmeath but on the day these things can happen but it's totally unfair to be given (sic) out about these players. It doesn't help in bringing them on whatsoever.

rubbed me up the wrong way as well. I can't remember back far enough to know if I'm the journalist that he's referring to or not, but either way I will say this - there is an unwritten rule in local journalism that you do not criticise any player under 18, no matter how bad of a day they might have. Occasionally it might be implied by a comment like "their effort wasn't rewarded with the run of the ball" or "were substituted after failing to make their usual impact" or some such, but that's as bad as it would get - and while I mightn't agree with the other scribes in the county over a lot of matters, I could say with absolute confidence that they follow the same rule. There may have been a general comment saying that Westmeath were by far the better hurlers that day and deserved their win, but that would be nothing only the truth if that were the case, and it certainly wouldn't be criticism. To anyone who knew anything about hurling and any of these players, it would be criticism of the manager who delivered so little.

Johnny Pilkington the player and Johnny Pilkington the manager are two separate entities. The struggles of the latter should not take away from the reputation of the former, but equally the achievements of the former does not exempt the latter from criticism either, criticism which has been thus far, warranted.

Offalys Future wrote:If you were a regular on this forum you would have read my views on coaching, training etc in offaly.
Nothing to do with Birr club. I am just sick to the teeth of the way hurling is administered, coached
trained, managed in Offaly. And yes i am sick of attitude of some people in Birr especially Padjoe, Brian,
Johhny Pilkington and Daithi Regan.

Just while you are talking about Birr its interesting to see that over the last 3 weeks there has been a
campaign to get your man pad joe and your chairman out of their positions.
Interesting also that Pad joe or Brian didnt attend the agm.
They have ran that club like a dictatorship the last number of years and its great now that they are gone.
I know the players are happy now as they were the ones campaigning for Paul Murphy appointment.

isn't it funny that we have won nothing and are years behind kk since brian daithi and johnny gave it up
they are fed up watching bad wexford teams and kk beating them bye 20 points every year we are behind kk dublin and wexford in leinster
now, we were top when they were playing and don't forget the only leinsters or allirelands that have came to offaly in the last ten years or more pa jo has won them funny that isn't it paul murphy will do a good job he was with birr for the last two allirelands we won sure didn't
pa jo learn him all he knows

STOP LIVING IN THE PAST

Anyone else listen to the interview with Brian Whelahan that Radio3 broadcast yesterday (Sunday)?

Radio3 must have got the Laois and Westmeath crowd out of the house for the Christmas because they’re carrying out a series of interviews with the 5 Offaly hurlers chosen on the Leinster council’s team of the last 25 years.

I must say it was a detailed interview looking back at his career. It started at about 3.15pm and lasted ‘till about 4.45pm with obvious interruptions for news, sports updates and ad breaks. Net, it must have lasted the bones of an hour.

Now usually these interviews are just a rehash of everything we all know about the last twenty years but some interesting points made about his career at that time.

He revealed (well, I never knew) that the plan in the 2000 All-Ireland was that Simon and Claffey were to switch corners before the start with Simon marking Charlie Carter and Claffey marking Shefflin. He said that was how they had planned for over a week in advance, and for some reason unknown to himself the lads lined up in their own corners and never switched!

He also recalled Dr. Brendan Lee carrying out minor acupuncture on his thumbs using syringe needles at the Spa hotel at lunchtime on the day of the 1998 final (the day he had the ‘flu)! The good doctor had tried medication which didn’t work and acupuncture was a last resort but he didn’t have the correct acupuncture needles and improvised using syringe needles.

Losing to Clare in 1995 was regretted. He seemed, by implication, to cite the management for not focussing the players’ minds better in the lead-up to the final.

He was also disappointed with the disorganised build-up to the under 21 hurling championship in 1990 which saw an early exit. Who was in charge of that team, can anyone recall?

As for the interview series, Joe & Johnny Dooley were interviewed last week. We learned nothing there we didn’t already know, although Joe noted that the current Offaly team could compete with all hurling counties with the exception of Kilkenny and Tipperary. Funny that, I remember a team in red jerseys giving Offaly a good thrashing in Tullamore on fine evening earlier this year.

Interviews with Martin Hanamy and Joachim Kelly will follow over the coming weeks.

Plain of the Herbs wrote: As for the interview series, Joe & Johnny Dooley were interviewed last week. We learned nothing there we didn’t already know, although Joe noted that the current Offaly team could compete with all hurling counties with the exception of Kilkenny and Tipperary. Funny that, I remember a team in red jerseys giving Offaly a good thrashing in Tullamore on fine evening earlier this year.

I think "compete" implies 40 minutes in Offaly these days.

Interesting one about the corner backs changing. Though I'm not sure a switch would have made a huge difference. Given how Carter, Carey and Shefflin would score goals with ease, regardless of which way an Offaly backline lined out.

Ah, sure, 'tis a moot point at this stage anyway. However, would Simon have gathered that dropping ball that spun from Claffey's grasp? We'll never know. Would Claffey have charged out to 'help out' Brian and leaving Shefflin in twenty yards of space? Maybe, maybe not. A switch of wing backs (with Brian on Denis Byrne and Kevin on John Hoyne) may well have helped the cause. I guess we'll never know tho!

Bord na Mona man wrote:Interesting one about the corner backs changing. Though I'm not sure a switch would have made a huge difference. Given how Carter, Carey and Shefflin would score goals with ease, regardless of which way an Offaly backline lined out.

Plain of the Herbs wrote:Ah, sure, 'tis a moot point at this stage anyway. However, would Simon have gathered that dropping ball that spun from Claffey's grasp? We'll never know. Would Claffey have charged out to 'help out' Brian and leaving Shefflin in twenty yards of space? Maybe, maybe not. A switch of wing backs (with Brian on Denis Byrne and Kevin on John Hoyne) may well have helped the cause. I guess we'll never know tho!

Bord na Mona man wrote:Interesting one about the corner backs changing. Though I'm not sure a switch would have made a huge difference. Given how Carter, Carey and Shefflin would score goals with ease, regardless of which way an Offaly backline lined out.

Aye, if Colm Cassidy hadn't been in a car crash earlier in the summer, or if David Franks hadn't gotten injured and lost his place before the semi final...
From half back up, there wasn't a hell of a difference between the sides.

Unfortunately we've long advanced beyond defeats to Kilkenny being attributable to roastings of corner backs.