I can't understand what's going on with the Offaly hurlers at the moment.
This year, I'd hoped for a some form of backlash following the 31 point defeat to Kilkenny.
All the vibes seemed right. Training very early in the year, a very scientific approach to physical conditioning, all the players seemed very determined that June 2005 was a low water mark that Offaly would never approach again.
Sadly last Saturday was in many respects as bad as anything we've seen previously. We're we playing at home against a very poor Limerick side with not much hurling in them. They were cleaved by Clare a couple of weeks ago and had all matter of problems. Yet we somehow conspired to blow a 7 point lead and end up getting slaughtered. A few refereeing calls went against us to bring Limerick back into it, but we were hurling a team whose nerves were shot and we couldn't bury them.
Why do we collapse so badly like no other county team in Ireland?
Is it that the confidence is so low that players completely lose their nerve once we fall behind?
Do some players not have sufficient fight when they pull on the Offaly jersey? That may be harsh, but I think it is a question that needs addressing.
Wexford were clearly outclassed by Kilkenny but they still kept trying right to the end. When it was clear they weren't going to win, they didn't stop playing. Their backs kept working hard and clearing ball, even though their forwards weren't good enough to do anything with it. Had Offaly got to the final, I don't think we would have done the same.
My report below. I am inclined to agree though - this is as bad as last year.
The song tells us to remember Paris in the Springtime, but most Offaly fans on Saturday evening would have been happy just to be able to remember Birr. It was Birr in the Springtime when this new look Offaly team burst onto the scene, feeding our optimism with a nailbiting draw against Cork, a dogged, stubborn win over Wexford and a comprehensive dismantling of an indisciplined Waterford team. Our home league venue saw the green white and gold stay unbeaten in three games against top tier opposition, and even in defeat to Tipperary and Clare away from home there was certainly no shame in the manner of the loss.
These pleasant memories were hard to recall on Saturday night, so horrific was the fall from grace that Limerick administered in what was to all intents and purposes a knockout game for an All Ireland quarter final place.
Sadly, on what should have been an evening of celebration for Offaly GAA, we were instead treated to a stark reminder that although we now have a fine stand, one worthy of the proud GAA history and traditions of the county, we have a hurling team that is as far off the pace as they have ever been. While last year’s 31 point defeat to Kilkenny was considered a nadir at the time, it would be very easy to make a case for this game being equally appalling from a Faithful perspective. Last year we were taking on a Kilkenny team that had appeared in three consecutive All Ireland finals, winning two of them, including a full forward line that had demolished other vaunted full back lines before and was heavily laden with All Ireland winners.
On Saturday night in Tullamore we met with a dishevelled and disorganised Limerick team, a team that had completely caved in their last match and were as a result horribly low on confidence, a team that had not won a championship match of note in five years and we were taking them on in front of our home crowd. As if these factors do not make things look grim enough, we turned a seven point lead into at one stage a twelve point deficit, a deficit we only shaved back due to a lack of concentration from Limerick in defending what was, granted, a very well taken long range free.
It could have been so different. Those patrons who in years to come will be able to boast of being the among the first to pay into the new construct on the town side of O’Connor Park were barely 3 minutes into their evening’s entertainment when a long range Paul Cleary free was dropped into the box and Joe Bergin reached high, grabbed, and amidst a crowd of players finished well past Brian Murray in the Limerick goal. In the following minutes points from Carroll, Murphy and the two midfielders followed, and at 1-4 to 0-1 in front, all was well with the world. It was at that point that Bergin once again found himself with a goalscoring opportunity only to strike the post, missing out by a whisker on what could very easily have been a decisive score.
For the next 20 minutes, Limerick were just about hanging on to Offaly’s coat tails. They were dependant largely on dead balls from Shaughnessy and Foley to keep them in touch, though the early signs were beginning to appear that in Brian Begley and Niall Moran, Limerick had two sleeping giants up front that were beginning to awake from their torpor of recent years and rediscover the attacking threat that made them so feared in games past. Still, when the stylish scores were being registered, it was Offaly that were putting them on the board. At various stages throughout the half, Joe Bergin, Gary Hanniffy and Brian Whelahan all knocked over excellent points that were not short on panache, while Paul Cleary continued his nice habit of knocking over a free from another parish when he landed one from roughly his own 45. Indeed there were those in the crowd who felt that the Limerick frees were coming easily, and but for these frees Limerick would have been beaten out of sight.
However to fall back on that excuse would be to do a dis-service to ourselves and to the future of Offaly hurling. The truth was that this game was there for the taking, and if Offaly displayed the killer instinct that most other strong teams possess, it was quite clear that Limerick were on the brink of folding at any time. Instead, they hung around, and after a burst of three O’Shaughnessy scores, Limerick got the break they wanted – Begley again doing the damage, breaking a high ball down to Donie Ryan who finished well to send the sides into the break level. Limerick scarcely deserved to be level, having been lucky not to have been left behind early on, but as the whistle blew you could tell the spring was back in their step again. Sadly the exact opposite was true of Offaly.
The second half started and already Limerick were hurling like a team with fire in their bellies. Scores were traded at the start of the half, Limerick’s substitute Mike O’Brien causing havoc on the ’45 and creating opportunities all round, though Gary Hanniffy in the same position for Offaly was having a great game, at times single handedly carrying the Offaly attack when we were getting very little joy through other channels. Then all of a sudden the whole house of cards came crumbling down, and as with our scores in the first half, our collapse in the second was equally flamboyant. A long ball in from Niall Moran bounced past Begley and Cleary, and Barry Foley, now operating at corner forward, sneaked in to flick the sliothar past Mullins and give his team a clear lead for the firs t time, 2-17 to 1-17. What followed in the next 20 minutes was complete and utter meltdown, as Limerick added eleven points to our one in a clinical but emphatic statement of superiority. All of a sudden our backs were struggling to hold their men, though the most unsung of them all, O’Meara and Oakley managed to hold their ground. They, along with Danny Hoctor at midfield, and Gary Hanniffy and Joe Bergin up front are the only players who can hold their heads high after what was a dramatic fall from grace for these players. When Bergin’s late free was scored to at least match Limerick on one aspect of the scoreboard, it still represented nothing more than a footnote on what was a sad evening for Offaly hurling. We may have a new stand, but we are as far as ever from standing tall on the hurling field like we once did.
Limerick: Brian Murray; Damien Reale, TJ Ryan, Seamus Hickey; Willie Walshe, Brian Geary, Mark Foley (0-3, frees); Barry Foley (1-7, 0-3 frees, 0-1 ’65), Stephen Lucey; Niall Moran (0-4), Donal O’Grady, Conor Fitzgerald (0-1); Donie Ryan (1-0), Brian Begley (0-5), Andrew O’Shaughnessy (0-7, 0-4 frees).
Subs: Paudie O’Dwyer for Geary, Mike O’Brien (0-2) for Lucey, Pat Tobin for Fitzgerald, Eoin Foley for Walshe.
Offaly: Brian Mullins; Barry Teehan, Paul Cleary (0-1, free), Brendan O’Meara; Kevin Brady (0-1, ’65), Rory Hanniffy, Ger Oakley; Daniel Hoctor (0-3), Declan Tanner (0-1); Dylan Hayden, Gary Hanniffy (0-2), Brian Whelahan (0-1); Brian Carroll (0-7, 0-6 frees), Brendan Murphy (0-2), Joe Bergin (2-1, 1-0 free).
Subs: Niall Claffey for Teehan, Damien Murray for Tanner, Michael Cordial for Cleary, Joe Brady for Hayden.
Referee: Michael Haverty (Galway)
Last edited by Lone Shark on Mon Jul 03, 2006 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Maybe I'm a masochist but I actually took some positives from saturday night:
1. 2-19 is a great score good enough to win most games
2. Some of the point taking was top class
3. We at last tried the quick puck out with some success.
4. Some of the link play in the first 50 minutes was as good as I have seen from an Offaly team since the 2000 semifinal against Cork.
5. Three very bad decisions by the referee at a critical time in the first half resulted in 3 Limerick scores, at least 2 of which should have been frees for the Faithful.
On the negative side,
1. I thought that it was a very soft goal to concede just before half time
2. We were overrun in midfield in the second half. Brian Whelehan has been a great servant for Offaly but to play him in that heat for 70 minutes in midfield was madness - why not switch him into full forward ?
3. Barry teehan was exposed early on and should have been moved quicker.
No doubt about it now. On the evidence presented before us on Saturday evening, there remains no future for this county as a top-level hurling power. Now, I’ve no complaints as there’s no one area where the team can be improved, there’s no particular sector under performing which can be worked on and there’s no quick-fix solution. It’s the hurlers themselves who I feel sorry for. There’s no doubt they have dedicated the last 8 months of their lives to redeeming themselves after the debacle that was June 2005, with no reward at the end of it.
Hurling has undergone a number of revolutions in the last ten years. First was the Clare revolution initiated by Loughnane who introduced the high-intensity running game, giving a less- skilful team an advantage they wouldn’t otherwise have. Then there was the Cody revolution, which matched the power game with the traditional Kilkenny ‘move it on’ style. Remember when Cody was appointed Loughnane (who knew Cody from his college days) said “we’re all in trouble now”. Cork have been developing the possession game for some years now, and it looks like Kilkenny are toying with a more possession oriented game. The effect of these revolutions is that it makes it more and more impossible for smaller counties to match the intensity levels of the top teams. Limerick, Waterford and Clare, for example, have the strength throughout the field to compete and disrupt. Wexford have strong defenders but lack the physical presence up front.
So, what of the future for Offaly senior hurlers? We’ll always have superior stickwork to teams ranked below us, will struggle for possession against the physically stronger Munster teams, record the occasional win over Wexford and be annihilated by Kilkenny and Cork. The continued seeding of Kilkenny and Wexford in the Leinster championship will deny us the occasional final appearance. Indeed a glorious chance was missed in 2004 to win the old O’Keeffe trophy for the last time. Perhaps the Kilkenny whitewash last year wasn’t such an aberration after all?
As for the Limerick match, once Limerick found their feet and reverted to a six backs – six forwards formation, the gulf in class was immense. They had strength in abundance, and were always able to make any switch necessary to counteract Offaly’s strengths. Owing to our small pick, Offaly will always have the county’s most promising 19 year olds on board only to be opposed by a seasoned 26 year old. It’s not as if we have another county team sitting at home who won’t hurl, in the way Limerick were able to recall Paudie O’Dwyer and Eoin Foley, both of whom had previously expressed a preference for drinking porter over hurling county. This Offaly team are not capable of matching the top counties when they inject an intensity into their game. This year they’ve faced the teams who I would rank 7 and 8 based on the last 3 to 4 years and fallen well short. Bear in mind that qualifier hurling falls nicely short of the intensity of provincial championship hurling. Any moves Offaly made was akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.
Sorry to have to paint such a glum picture of the future, but theres no further point in deluding ourselves into thinking we’ve still got a bright future, that they’re all grand hurlers and the 19 year olds will be great when they’re older. In 5 years time when Bergin and Cleary are 24, the next batch of 19 year olds will be introduced to replace those will then be 30ish. At least Offaly won their 4 All-Irelands, 9 Leinsters and the League before all the various revolutions. No outsider will ever do this again. As the saying goes “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. Looking at the young kids leaving O’Connor Park with their fathers on Saturday night, it struck me how they’ll never see Offaly compete successfully with the big powers. Rather like kids in Cavan who grow up on tales of Mick Higgins and John Joe Reilly.
I've been mulling over this for a while - and while I've been pessimistic for some time, I don't think it's as bad as all that. However - I do think that we need to approach things slightly differently. The following are the facts that need to be taken on board - to my mind:
(1) For all the debacle against Limerick, some players emerged with credit - above I picked on Oakley, Hoctor, O'Meara, Gary Hanniffy and Bergin. With the exception of Bergin who may turn into something special, these are not the players that would be considered the "class" acts of this Offaly team - in the case of Oakley and Hoctor, they would be seen as very limited.
(2) The bar has been raised - of that there is no doubt. A county team that would have won an All Ireland 20 years ago would be miles off the pace now. However this is true of all sport - techniques, fitness and preparation will all evolve - such is life.
(3) This has been said before, but it runs so deep that it bears repeating - we have become a parody of ourselves. We keep looking back trying to emulate the previous generation of Offaly stars, despite the fact that those players are not the type that will progress in the modern game. Even in defeat we scored an inordinate amount of "Harlem Globetrotter" style points points and very few scrappy ones. However, and much more worryingly, we have become laid back about hurling in every aspect of the game. I hate to say it, but even the club game has become lethargic in Offaly.
So going forward, I believe what we need to do is:
- Enough's enough - we need to sort out the club championship, and we need to do it now. Too many teams are entering championships they have no hope of winning - this means that the Offaly hurler is not in an intense environment from one end of the year to the next, because the motivation is not there. Look at teams this year like Lusmagh, Ballyskenach and Belmont. None of them will get relegated. None of them will make a county final. They will fall somewhere in between - I know we say this is the case everywhere, but we have a huge middle tranche with nothing to play for. To restore the intensity to Offaly hurling, we need no more than 8 senior teams, and divisional sides, so that all players who could potentially be playing senior are, and that they are getting into the habit of hurling for their lives rather than hurling for the sake of it. In addition, too many of our hurlers are used to fifteen point defeats - that happens when you play for half a parish against Birr or Coolderry. A fifteen point defeat should happen to a good player twice in his careeer, not twice a season.
- Modern hurlers are driven types - I understand wholeheartedly if a player thinks the commitment asked is too much, but in Offaly we have this philosophy that we can't afford to lose guys, so a guy giving 50% is dragged along, lessening the tone for everyone else. I'm not talking about the one off nights out - I'm talking about the guys who aren't as fit as they could be, who are basically letting their gifts drift away. In order to do this, I think we do need the Messiah type who will lead his team. John McIntyre is a very intelligent man whose cerebral approach I thought would work - but in times of crisis, he hasn't been able to bring that "do it for the county" spirit out in the team. As POTH said - Limerick did best when they reverted to 6 forwards, six backs and just hurling. That won't beat Cork or Kilkenny, but it'll do the needful, particularly when guys are fired up. Having plan A B and C all laid out is good, but maybe plan BATETHEFUGGINSHYTEOUTTATHEM might be no harm to have in the locker either.
- We need Rynagh's back. That club takes in a huge chunk of the hurling area of the county, they need to return to eminence and provide the solid core of hard hurlers that we need. In every Offaly all Ireland winning team it was backboned by fiery Rynagh's lads who were horsing into everyone and letting the craftier fellas go to work.
- Ditto Drumcullen - our decline has coincided with the decline of two of the traditionally "hardest" clubs in Offaly.
- We need to work on the tackle in this county. Again, because back in the days of yore we were always good for flicks and tricks, defending was done the same way - be on a guys shoulder, get in a hook or something and there you go. Of course we now live in an era where huge amounts of scores are coming from frees. Limerick got 10/29 points from placed balls at the weekend now look at everyone else in the qualifiers this weekend. Offaly - 9/19, Waterford 10/25, Clare 8/21, Laois 9/15, Westmeath 7/9, Dublin 5/16, Galway 7/20. We concede a lot of "little" frees due to our way of tackling - because it's not dangerous, it gets forgiven in Offaly club games - but when a Tipp guy does it he looks to take the hand as well, so intercounty referees are very quick to penalise innocuous looking tackles if you flick the hurl anywhere near the hand of another player. It ends up being a very cheap free - I think we need to work on the more modern tackling - make it physical, make it count, and if you get whistled then so be it, but at least the guy will have taken a hit for his trouble. I can't remember the last time an Offaly hurler cleaned out another lad with a semi legal shoulder for no reason other than the fact that the chance was there.
- Further to the above point - we need a free taker. Every other county has a dependable free taker, with the exception of Waterford who persist with giving them to Paul Flynn for some reason. This is not meant as a slight on Brian Carroll, but his technique is not good, and he hurls with his heart on his sleeve - which is not good for a free taker. He should either be taken away to work on it, or else we need to do something about it.
- Finally - I do think in the county we have a way of picking the team which entails picking the players you know you want, then finding young lads to fill the gaps. Obviously the underage teams are the way forward - of course they are. But relative to other counties, how often do we call a 26 or 27 year old who has matured into a good club hurler to see if he can step up? Guys who I'm thinking of here are guys like Fergal Kealey or Andrew McRedmond who got their chance a few years ago, didn't light up the scene then but may be better players now. It's all very well bringing on young players, but if bringing them on means bringing them into a tradition of Offaly being scutched, then maybe it's time we kept them aside for a year or two instead?
I suspect that since I've just scribbled this on the fly, it'll have more holes in it than a political manifesto, but it's a start for debate anyway.
I haven't had time to follow up on this, but I think we do need to keep the topic going. I haven't been residing in the county for a few years, so what I say might need a bit of salt, but I'd love to hear some feedback from those who are closer to the coalface.
1. Can the game be spread outside of the traditional areas? We're still picking from a population base of 20,000. What more could be done to improve the standards of clubs in the rest of the county? Certain hurling clubs are starting to flag in the north of the county. Growing up in my area in the north of the county, there wasn't enough opportunity to play hurling. The coaching was poor, when it did exist. At one stage in my national school, hurling was banned, supposedly for insurance reasons.
Look at what Mullinahone in Tipp has produced! Leahy and the Kellys. It was viewed as a hurling waste ground years ago, since football was the prominent sport.
2. Are our standards high enough? We beat Kilkenny in 2000 at minor (stopping their 10 in row) and U21. This was treated as a red alert emergency by the Cats. Heads were knocked together, they dragged in lots of past greats to coach teams and really shook themselves up. They have left us in the rear view mirror since then.
What would it take for Offaly to react in the same way? Ok, we have belatedly set up development squads, but far too late. The standards have been slipping every year. Now a defeat to Carlow barely raises an eyebrow.
I've talked to people who were involved in Feile and Forristel tournaments in recent years who couldn't believe how bad some of the young hurlers coming out of Offaly were.
The lack of talent coming through in the county was flagged in the late 90s. I remember Pajo, Padraig Horan and the likes being in the national media highlighting it. Breaking Ball even did a piece on how bad Offaly juvenile players were back in 1999. Pajo pointed out how down in Tipp and other strong counties, they had coaches going in to the schools, while in Offaly no one was bothering.
5 years later we decided to get our act together an address this.
It starts to bug me, when we hide behind the "great little county" notion. Yes we are, but why should our small size start to become an excuse for poor standards? Have we not proved that we can beat anyone, regardless of population difference. Why try to hide behind the myth that we busted?
3. Reform of the club championship. I think we're all agreed that it needs to done. We might disagree on the details, but it will have to be addressed.
It is a little disconcerting how we have accepted the Carlow defeat so easily, like we wish them well and it's great to see a new county emerging like we did ourselves 30 years ago or so.
I agree with most of BnMm's points. We have to make better use of all our county's resources. Rynagh's are now supplying a few Footballers for the County team but the North-East has never made any meaningful impact on the Hurling squad. I cant believe that there are no decent hurlers East of Tullamore. A Club Championship revamp and toss in some Divisional teams so that the playing standards can be raised.
I think if we seriously want to continue as a dual team, we have to continue to focus on that. We all lambast Kilkenny from a height about not fielding a football team - well there are a lot of clubs in Offaly who only field in one code or the other. A real effort should be put into making sure that all clubs with the requisite populations should field at least one team in the other code.
For example:
This year Rhode parish will field 6 football teams by my account, and if I'm not mistaken the hurling team has dropped out. That's just not good enough, frankly. The other side of the coin applies as well - Kinnitty field three hurling teams - it shouldn't be beyond them to field one football one as well.
There's plenty of these cases across the county. If you get lads into playing, you're a hell of a lot more like to find someone that's good on it. Someday a fifteen year old will come, yada yada. On this note, kudos to Gracefield who actually field two hurling teams in the heart of non-hurling Offaly - fair play.
Kinnitty field three hurling teams - it shouldn't be beyond them to field one football one as well.
The cost of entering a team can be a deterrent. The dropping of the Junior C football championship, which was knockout, in favour of bringing these teams into the Junior B championship, was a good move. At least now we're guaranteed three games for our €600.
GAA clubs are there to facilitate the playing of Gaelic games - any player who joins any GAA club should (in theory at least) have access to football and hurling. If the cost of fielding teams is stopping lads playing, then we really need to look at how the money is being spent in the county. That should be the first thing - before stands or anything else.
It certainly would have been a consideration in our club in the past, particularly so when you were looking at €600 for possibly one match. That's not to say it was the only reason, but it certainly didn't help. It's an area that needs to be looked at - in smaller clubs paying €600 per team can essentially mean you're covering the same players twice or even three times.
Of course this year we have returned to being a fully fledged dual club, but perhaps it's just a coincidence that this has coincided with Offaly's Leinster final appearance
