Offaly vs. Galway 20/06/2010

[gilly2308]

Hmmm.. ok, though I think all (c'ship) games that you win, especially if they're tight, matter because you (should) learn from them and progress; e.g. last year's games v Clare, Cork and W'ford - Galway were favourites in all three but were under new management at the time and were fragile in belief. The Cork victory in particular was big because it was very tight, winner-take-all and because of the manner of Galway's defeat 12 months previously. You're correct about Loughnane, he killed Galway hurling stone-dead for 2 years.

I would not necessarily agree that Ger Loughane killed Galway hurling stone dead for two years, three of the four years that Conor Hayes was in charge were an unmitigated disaster, Hayes got lucky in two games in 05, and apart from that nothing apart from a few bad beatings. The biggest problem with Loughnane was that he was all hype and bluster, plus we all expected huge things from him. From the outside most people including Ger Loughnane see a thriving club scene, Galway regularly winning All Irelands at Minor and U-21, so they naturally think that Galway should be winning All Irelands at Senior level. Loughnane came in with that belief, and proudly declared that he would win an All Ireland within two years, only to discover that things were not as they seemed, and that it takes more than a few good underage players to win a senior All Ireland. I personally don't have the answer, I too have been taken in by all of the underage and club success, but maybe we in Galway need to realise that we are nowhere near as good as we think, or the national media think, and we need to be more realistic in our aims. Somebody pointed out to me after the Offaly match, that Galway reminded him of the England football team, always been talked up by their own supporters and the media, only to inevitably fall flat on their backsides. I personally hope that I am badly wrong, but when you look at a team that contains five of the six defenders from '05, is massively reliant on Joe Canning, and has more than a few very average players, it's very hard to see them even troubling Kilkenny. There is no doubt that there is one big game in this team every year, but going forward this team does not have the players or the consistency to be All Ireland Champions.

[Bord na Mona man]

It fell apart for Loughnane in Galway when he tried to move a stray bull off the road with hurleys.
He lost the dressing room after that.

[seafoid]

So who is going to win tomorrow? Will Galway follow england and perform as they did against Algeria?
Will Offaly follow the Swiss and lose Chile style following a first performance that was almost as good as beating Spain?   

[bottlethrower7]

Hmmm.. ok, though I think all (c'ship) games that you win, especially if they're tight, matter because you (should) learn from them and progress; e.g. last year's games v Clare, Cork and W'ford - Galway were favourites in all three but were under new management at the time and were fragile in belief. The Cork victory in particular was big because it was very tight, winner-take-all and because of the manner of Galway's defeat 12 months previously. You're correct about Loughnane, he killed Galway hurling stone-dead for 2 years.

I would not necessarily agree that Ger Loughane killed Galway hurling stone dead for two years, three of the four years that Conor Hayes was in charge were an unmitigated disaster, Hayes got lucky in two games in 05, and apart from that nothing apart from a few bad beatings. The biggest problem with Loughnane was that he was all hype and bluster, plus we all expected huge things from him. From the outside most people including Ger Loughnane see a thriving club scene, Galway regularly winning All Irelands at Minor and U-21, so they naturally think that Galway should be winning All Irelands at Senior level. Loughnane came in with that belief, and proudly declared that he would win an All Ireland within two years, only to discover that things were not as they seemed, and that it takes more than a few good underage players to win a senior All Ireland. I personally don't have the answer, I too have been taken in by all of the underage and club success, but maybe we in Galway need to realise that we are nowhere near as good as we think, or the national media think, and we need to be more realistic in our aims. Somebody pointed out to me after the Offaly match, that Galway reminded him of the England football team, always been talked up by their own supporters and the media, only to inevitably fall flat on their backsides. I personally hope that I am badly wrong, but when you look at a team that contains five of the six defenders from '05, is massively reliant on Joe Canning, and has more than a few very average players, it's very hard to see them even troubling Kilkenny. There is no doubt that there is one big game in this team every year, but going forward this team does not have the players or the consistency to be All Ireland Champions.

agree 100% with all of that (not being from Galway of course). And whatever about Loughnane's thinking he'd win Galway an all-Ireland within 2 years, he should have kept it to himself. Stating that publicly was going to nothing other than put even more pressure on the players.

Galway were able to use the excuse of being caught out cold due to not having a competitive provincial championship to contest. Now they do that excuse no longer holds sway. Now we're starting to get a much clearer picture of how good Galway actually are in comparison to the rest.

After the Cork game 2 years ago, part of me naively believed that Galway might have played better if Joe Canning wasn't on the pitch. It seemed that day as if they were willing to let Joe take to fight to Cork on his own and had he not been playing, others might have upped their game. I revised that opinion last year to one where I was convinced Galway would have been absolutely hockeyed but for Joe.

Theres no harm being ambitious, but one has to stay realistic at the same time. Galway have lost any sense of reality over the last few years. Maybe they're knocking on the door, but really if Galway were to win an all-Ireland you could be sure that it would take nothing less than a super-human effort from Joe Canning to achieve it.

[mouview]

Hmmm.. ok, though I think all (c'ship) games that you win, especially if they're tight, matter because you (should) learn from them and progress; e.g. last year's games v Clare, Cork and W'ford - Galway were favourites in all three but were under new management at the time and were fragile in belief. The Cork victory in particular was big because it was very tight, winner-take-all and because of the manner of Galway's defeat 12 months previously. You're correct about Loughnane, he killed Galway hurling stone-dead for 2 years.

I would not necessarily agree that Ger Loughane killed Galway hurling stone dead for two years, three of the four years that Conor Hayes was in charge were an unmitigated disaster, Hayes got lucky in two games in 05, and apart from that nothing apart from a few bad beatings. The biggest problem with Loughnane was that he was all hype and bluster, plus we all expected huge things from him. From the outside most people including Ger Loughnane see a thriving club scene, Galway regularly winning All Irelands at Minor and U-21, so they naturally think that Galway should be winning All Irelands at Senior level. Loughnane came in with that belief, and proudly declared that he would win an All Ireland within two years, only to discover that things were not as they seemed, and that it takes more than a few good underage players to win a senior All Ireland. I personally don't have the answer, I too have been taken in by all of the underage and club success, but maybe we in Galway need to realise that we are nowhere near as good as we think, or the national media think, and we need to be more realistic in our aims. Somebody pointed out to me after the Offaly match, that Galway reminded him of the England football team, always been talked up by their own supporters and the media, only to inevitably fall flat on their backsides. I personally hope that I am badly wrong, but when you look at a team that contains five of the six defenders from '05, is massively reliant on Joe Canning, and has more than a few very average players, it's very hard to see them even troubling Kilkenny. There is no doubt that there is one big game in this team every year, but going forward this team does not have the players or the consistency to be All Ireland Champions.

Having 5 out of the 6 backs from '05 isn't necessarily bad, given that none of them bar Ollie are all that old - I thought everyone was advocating continuity in the senior team  FFS!!! And we have as good a midfield as back then, maybe better. It's the forwards that haven't improved - too many ordinary men there.

We should indeed be more realistic in Galway - realistically we should be winning Senior AIs. We're winning at every other level (bar schools) and the club scene is strong. It's belief and a bit of temper that may be missing; bad and all as last Sunday's display was, the game will really stand to them in terms of testing their mettle. Realistically Cork shouldn't be seen as contenders as they've done very little at any level in the past 5 years, yet they don't attract the criticism Galway get. Remember, no county has tested The Most Wonderful Group Of Sportsmen In Antiquity more than Galway. Tomorrow will reveal more.

[seafoid]

/quote]
We should indeed be more realistic in Galway - realistically we should be winning Senior AIs.

Definitely. No  All Ireland since 1988 is just shocking. Off the pace for 21 years. Never by that much but what a litany of failure. and I remember as a young fella thinking 1982-1984 were lean years.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Hmmm.. ok, though I think all (c'ship) games that you win, especially if they're tight, matter because you (should) learn from them and progress; e.g. last year's games v Clare, Cork and W'ford - Galway were favourites in all three but were under new management at the time and were fragile in belief. The Cork victory in particular was big because it was very tight, winner-take-all and because of the manner of Galway's defeat 12 months previously. You're correct about Loughnane, he killed Galway hurling stone-dead for 2 years.

Somebody pointed out to me after the Offaly match, that Galway reminded him of the England football team, always been talked up by their own supporters and the media, only to inevitably fall flat on their backsides.

I actually think this is nonsense. Well not the media part but Galway hurling fans are usually incredibly negative about the team and are ready to jump on their back at a moment's notice. The media talk up Galway (and one or two other teams) as they are desperate for someone other than Kilkenny to win the All-Ireland thereby avoiding another procession for the cats.

[gilly2308]

I actually think this is nonsense. Well not the media part but Galway hurling fans are usually incredibly negative about the team and are ready to jump on their back at a moment's notice. The media talk up Galway (and one or two other teams) as they are desperate for someone other than Kilkenny to win the All-Ireland thereby avoiding another procession for the cats.

GalwayBayBoy Galway fans are usually incredibly negative after yet another disastrous defeat for the hurlers, however every year we start out with high hopes, only for them to be inevitably dashed. I would be like that at the start of every year, hoping against hope that this is the year that Galway will finally win Liam Mc Carthy, and then jumping all over them when they play poorly like they did against Wexford and Offaly, or Tipp in the league. I'm hoping against hope that Galway learnt a lot of valuable lessons against Offaly last week, we shall see tomorrow in Portlaoise, and can then revaluate Galway's chances again on Monday. However my biggest fear for this Galway team is their alarming inconsistency, Mc Intyre has brought this up several times, yet Galway have probably only played well for 70 mins once this year, and that was in the League Final?

[awfulynice]

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.

[seafoid]

Hard luck to the Biffos. Sounds like a great match again.

Offaly should do some damage in the qualifiers. Another 3 goals leaked by Galway is worrying but sure onwards to the cats anawez. 

[Louth Exile]

Another great showing from the Biffs, could they do some damage through the back door?
I thought they deserved extra time at least, but despite being relatively quiet, Cannings point from the sideline at the end was an awesome score

[AZOffaly]

The important thing for us now is to beat Limerick or Clare. 2 good games against Galway is great, and I'm not surprise we gave them their bellyful of it. I'm delighted we found a way to come back and lead after being 8 points down. Maybe the old fight is returning, the footballers did the same against Clare as well.

Having said all that, I can't shake a sneaking suspicion that for Offaly's long term development, maybe a 2 point defeat with a great comeback included is better that Kilkenny coming in and being keen to put a boot on your throat again. Kilkenny are the only ones that don't want to see the 90s revisited in Leinster, and they'd glory in putting Offaly through the combine (as they should).

However for this to be true, we need to win a couple of qualifier games at least.

[awfulynice]

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.

[GaillimhIarthair]

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.

Its our biggest problem at the moment.  Leaving aside the national league final v Cork, we seem to have these "valley periods" in all our games where we go for 15 - 20 mins wiithout troubling the scoreboard.  Replicate that again next Sunday and we will be beat out the gate by the cats.  Kudos must go Offaly for their excellent comeback on Sat, they showed a  lot of that old offaly fighting spirit that has been missing for a very long time.  I actually think they are a far better team than people are giving them credit for and are well placed to take a big scalp ot two yet this year!

[Croí na hÉireann]

Are we witnessing the rebirth of Offaly hurling? Hopefully so as Leinster needs them...