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I was at the game bottlethrower, cant have any complaints really, Coolderry had a lot of chances in the first half and didnt take them, roared on by the home crowd Raharney put everything into their second half performance, got a few dubious home decisions by the ref but took some lovely scores along the way. I think they have Oulart the Ballagh up in Mullingar in the semi final, if they take them for granted they will be in for a right battle.

I think Leinster will be a close affair this year, you have O'Loughlin Gaels who have been in all ireland semi finals in the past, Oulart the Ballagh were only a few points away from Ballyhale last year, Ballyboden or Vincents will be OK and I reckon Coolderry wont be a million miles off the pace either.

Not 100% sure about Munster, Id wager thurles will get out of tipp and make a right go of it, but de la salle must have a lot of talent coming through from the good school teams they have had in recent years.

From an Offaly point of view im happy with the two performances, the sheer effort and fight shown by the offaly players was exceptional. They have restored a lot of pride in Offaly hurling and have won a lot of admirers both inside and outside of the county.

I think one of the most significant things was no second half fade out for the second game in a row, also there was a sizeable offaly crowd at the game possibly the biggest in a decade which should encourage the players and build a bit of expectation in the county.

We need to kick on from here, no more false dawns!

From a Galway point of view it must be very worrying, up 8 points and cruising, they were pegged back yet again, one thing is for sure, this team loves to take their foot off the pedal, when the chips are down they look to Joe Canning time and time again, and last night they got lucky, they wont get as much joy against Kilkenny, Also the Galway full back line and goalkeeper are extremely dodgy, if offaly had pushed more for goals they would have gotten them last night.

I think the odds of 6/1 on Offaly are amazing odds for a replay and will be snapped up by more than a few punters. In the league Galway defeated Offaly by 4 points with the puck of a ball between them for most of the game. I can understand why people persieve offaly to be a bad hurling team as they often do get beat by 10 - 12 points by the big 5 as i call them, but if you scratch the surface you find that offaly were always well in the hunt with 10 - 15 minutes to go in nearly all these matches with the exception of Kilkenny.They have shown on the odd occasion (when they hurl for the full 70 minutes) that they can be a match for quite a few teams in the country and the most painful thing watching them has been to see the potential not being utilised. I expect Offaly to give Galway a right rattle again today, I wouldnt predict an Offaly win but I doubt there will be more than 3 - 4 points in it either way.

I used one about 3 years ago, I remember lads at the club were laughing at me...fast forward 3 years later and with the recession, im seeing a new one every week. Our goalie has got one recently and his puck outs have increased about 20 - 30 yards, although i didnt notice a massive difference myself.

Reillers were you at the cork offaly match?? Its not worrying before the galway match, because it simply isnt suprising, this offaly team really need a kick in the a@se. No fight, no will, no bottle.

I wasnt at the match yesterday, caught the highlights on rte though...the last free...how are ye calling it soft...it was a clear free that had to be given. Go and watch it again if you dont believe me.

Antrim look to have been the better side for most of the game, its fairly obvious all offaly thought they had to do was show up. I can see them giving Galway a real go of it in a few weeks time as that certainly wasnt offaly at their best.

On a side note, great to see offaly have finally gotten rid of mullins, his heart has never been in it, and he should have been thrown off the panel for the bad example he has been showing for the last 5-6 years, thankfully dempsey done so well when he came on that I think we may have seen the end of mullins, 5 years too late.

Hard to believe that next seasons division 1 will hold 5 leinster teams with 3 from munster....I really think Galway & Antrim being allowed into Leinster has really tipped the balance of this debate. Galway & Kilkenny are always going to be contenders...Offaly, Wexford & Dublin seem to be back competing if not at the top table...then the stools of the top table!!

In Munster there are contrasting fortunes, Tipp certainly are contenders that are here to stay, however, Limerick & Clare will be stuck in division 2 next year and look to be quite a bit off the pace, whilst Cork & Waterford have some aging stalwaths that will be big boots to fill when they do hang up the boots in the next year or two. Cork possibly could have been helped to this end during the strike which forced them to field their third strengh squad.

I think without doubt, in the coming 4-5 years, its the leinster championship that will prove the most competitive, the Introduction of Galway and the increasing competitiveness of Dublin has noted with concern in Offaly and Wexford, long the two counties fighting over the number two slot, they can no longer take their chances on the draw and expect a leinster final appearence every two to three years.

Would it be an idea to restart the ulster championship early in the year, i.e end of april between league and championship, as there will most likely be only 4 teams competing, it would only consist of two games, but at least would allow the 4 counties to maintain their own identity whilst giving the "All Ulster" managers 4 games to look at their squads without having to travel to 100 club games!!

I know that there is a huge schedule but i think a gap of 2-4 weeks can be found in the championship season for this.

I think "Team Ulster" would probably have to enter the Leinster Championship, I think they could definately be competitive against the likes of Laois, Carlow, Offaly, Dublin & Wexford providing the whole project was taken seriously and given enough backing at national and local level. It would be great to see another team competitive, and perhaps this may work in connaught with the rest of that province or is there any appetite for hurling in Mayo, Sligo & Roscommon??

Its hard to know if this idea would work or not, but I think its an idea that should at least be tried for perhaps one or two league seasons before being dismissed or implemented, You have Antrim & Down in Division 2 & Derry & Armagh in Division 3A, you would imagine that the combination of these 4 teams should come close to competing a division 2 final?

But Would this do a lot to promote the game in these 4 counties?

If Dublin is anything to go by there would be an explosion in terms of underage numbers choosing hurling rather than football. "Success breads success" never a truer word was said

Would the 4 counties actually want this setup? there would also be difficulties with training etc with some large distances between some of those counties?

If the 4 counties really want to grow hurling in the Ulster province they should opt for this, continuing as they are now is probably not an option anymore if they really want to put ulster hurling on the map

Ok Il start with Zulu, well my idea would be to have league semi finals every year of the top 4 in each division, the bottom two in each division play off for relegation, this would be guranteed 6 games (1 less than the current system. I would disagree with you saying there would be the "odd" upset. Any of the teams could go down under this system, take for example the cork strike, they would have been relegated, Take Tipp or Galway in the 90s they would have been relegated with Clare / Wexford / Offaly taking their place, These upsets as you call them are not upsets, Dublin beat Tipp, lost by 2 pts to Galway, Offaly lost by 4 to Galway, and both teams have been competitive in all games in division 1 this year.

I don't really understand that, so out of the six teams in division , four of them will make the semi finals and the bottom two will play off for relegation. That sounds like the league was pretty much a waste of time so with a lot of games not mattering much. There is far too much ringing off the hands about hurling, with lads coming up with all types of convoluted formats to 'promote' the game. You don't promote a sport by simply putting teams into the elite competitions, you promote and develop it on the ground and in the schools. And then when you have a team that is actually good enough to compete at the top level supporters will come out and the game gets a further boost.

The leagues are fine the way they are, the top 8 teams in the country are in division 1 and the next best are in division 2, that is the way it should be and if a 'traditional' county like Wexford or Clare get worse from playing in division 2 then tough tits, it should act as the motivation to sort themselves out.

Well ok just leave the top two into the final then, god im not saying its 100% but its a  better structure than the current one. All teams in both division 1 and division 2 would be competitive in each match, Rather than the situation at the moment there are mismatches in both divisions. People against the change in structure feel its somehow "sour grapes" by Clare and Wexford for wanting the structure to change. But im an offaly supporter, I complained about this last year, and im complaining about it this year, and were not in danger of relegation. I will still be lamenting this system if it is continued into next year even if Offaly were to win the league next year I still think the system is wrong.

I dont want to fall out with anyone but I know I will!! I think there are far more competitive teams in the championship now than in the 80s or 90s. Perhaps not at the very top, but this decade has seen a lot of counties grouped into a "middle ground" where on their day they might challenge the elite.

I would class the elite as KK, Tipp, Cork, Waterford & Galway at this present time. Then you have Dublin, Clare, Limerick, Wexford and Offaly who will give most of the elite a game although will most likely lose in the end. I think there are possibly more teams now that can compete for provincial honours this decade than any other, and if we can bring on the likes of Carlow, Laois and Antrim things could get really interesting. That is where the GAA need to focus on most, get the underage structures in place to get these counties up to speed with the rest, With a bit of work Carlow could be there in the next 4-5 years, Laois and Antrim have strong hurling traditions and I just think a bit more underage developement will really bring them on. The real test will be to keep all  9-10 counties competitive whilst bringing on the rest. With the emergence of Football in Wexford and Laois over the last decade there is a possibility hurling could be pushed aside by the respective county boards to concentrate on the large ball!

Its hard to read too much into the league although it is suprising for Kilkenny to be 5th in the table. I think they are unbeaten in the championship for the last 4 years and when you spend that long at the top it tends to take its toll. Im not sure that the great "second" kilkenny team that people speak about is as good as people would have thought. I still think they are favourites for the all ireland this year, but they will be ran closer in leinster and in the quarter and semi finals

Is it me or is the standard decling in most counties? Wexford, Offaly, Clare, Limerick, Dublin - not much between them all! Liam won't be going anywhere near these counties. The standard in Divison 1 and 2 has been pretty poor this league campaign! (due mainly to KK and Tipp not putting 100% in) You could replace Offaly, Limerick or Dublin with either Clare or Wexford and get the same results. Hurling needs more than just re-jigging of the divisions, grass-roots development needs to change in these Counties and this will take years.

Although I am not sure the standard of hurling has dropped I agree 100% with your other statement, there is very little between the "middle counties" this is why i think the current format is so unfair. Its unfair to Wexford & Clare this year, it was unfair to Wexford & Offaly last year and it will be unfair to either Dublin, Limerick, Clare or Wexford next year!!! If Offaly and Dublin were regularly beating Clare and Wexford id agree with the system but at the moment I would fear for Offalys chances with both sides!!! Yet we get to play in division 1 because we were lucky enough to win one game 12 months ago against an injury hit wexford side. Far from being fair in my opinion.

I dont know if people said standards were low when offaly made the breakthrough in the 80s / 90s...i dont remember anyone saying it when Clare made the breakthrough in the 90s.

Pray tell me who is making the breakthrough at the moment?? As far as I can see the All Ireland will go to either KK, Tipp or Cork with Waterford and Galway being semi final contenders. Now all of those five all have been appearing regularly at semi final and final stage over the last ten years or so.

Most people look back on the 80s and 90s and think of those two decades as some of the best in hurling because of the emergence of Offaly, Clare, Wexford & Waterford, With Limerick, Tipp, KK & Cork competing strongly.

Ok Il start with Zulu, well my idea would be to have league semi finals every year of the top 4 in each division, the bottom two in each division play off for relegation, this would be guranteed 6 games (1 less than the current system. I would disagree with you saying there would be the "odd" upset. Any of the teams could go down under this system, take for example the cork strike, they would have been relegated, Take Tipp or Galway in the 90s they would have been relegated with Clare / Wexford / Offaly taking their place, These upsets as you call them are not upsets, Dublin beat Tipp, lost by 2 pts to Galway, Offaly lost by 4 to Galway, and both teams have been competitive in all games in division 1 this year.

INDIANA,

You said the same thing to me last year, I am an Offaly supporter, I have seen Carlow Vs Offaly twice in the last few years, they are an OK side, improving certainly, Dont tell me to go to matches, its extremely rare I miss any Offaly match be it league or championship, and since that has been Division 2 hurling on a number of occasions I have seen Any number of teams play the faithful. So Please dont try to put me down by saying go watch teams rather than generalise.

Dublin have improved beyond belief in Division 1. But lets face it Indiana, the improvement was at underage level, simple as that. Dublin have been competing well at underage level for about the last 10 - 15 years and have finally started bringin it through at senior level, dont think for a second that If Dublin had been brought up to Division 1 ten years ago they would have competed because they simply wouldnt have!!

Dublin dont deserve to be relegated this year, but the problem is Clare & Wexford are as able to compete in Division 1 as Offaly, Limerick or Dublin, this is a sign of an incorrect structure rather than anything else!!

So I insulted Carlow by saying well done to them?? Jesus christ cop on. And saying Offaly is part of the "Elite" is some sneer, sure Dublin have 2 more all irelands than offaly...maybe i could level the same accusation at yourself??

deiseach,

Youre correct its only my opinion,  In my defense on waterford going to division 3 in the 80's I was a toddler! Yes Wexfords problems are of their own making but it still doesnt disguise the fact that the league structure is in my opinion completely incorrect.