Leinster Championship (Proper)

[seafoid]

Galway are 10/1 for the all Ireland which looks quite good considering the performance on Saturday.

[Franko]

Another zero on the end of it and I might consider it... there's every chance that last weekend's performance was Galway's annual 1-game show.

[johnneycool]

Leinster U21HC semi-finals
Westmeath v Dublin, Mullingar, 7.30pm
Wexford v Offaly, Wexford Park, 7.30pm

Is this right? Kilkenny out before the semi-finals, who beat them?

[Roashter]

Wexford beat them in Nowlan park

[macdanger2]

Leinster U21HC semi-finals
Westmeath v Dublin, Mullingar, 7.30pm
Wexford v Offaly, Wexford Park, 7.30pm

Is this right? Kilkenny out before the semi-finals, who beat them?

Westmeath beaten by a pt, good progress for them to be competitive

Offaly hammered, going backwards by the looks of it

[AZOffaly]

Offaly lost by the amount Kilkenny did.

[macdanger2]

Perhaps they did but when I turned it on at one stage in the 2nd half it was something like 2-13 to 4. I don't know much about the setup there but ye seem to be struggling to stay in the top bunch which must be difficult to watch, is it lack.of numbers, or the setup or what?

[mouview]

Another zero on the end of it and I might consider it... there's every chance that last weekend's performance was Galway's annual 1-game show.

True. They haven't put a good sequence of games together since, ....oh..., 2012.

[johnneycool]

Perhaps they did but when I turned it on at one stage in the 2nd half it was something like 2-13 to 4. I don't know much about the setup there but ye seem to be struggling to stay in the top bunch which must be difficult to watch, is it lack.of numbers, or the setup or what?

I'd agree with that, Offaly were way off the pace and it was 2-9 to 0-2 at half time as well as Wexford being down to 14 men for at least half the first half.

Wexford eased off in the second half and it was only then that Offaly tacked on 7 or 8 points to take the bad look off it.

I'd say Gerlock would have had some laugh at the Offaly fullback, he'd a full blown belly with a neat little round sweat spot on the jersey where his belly button is. In saying that the bollox could hurl, but just wasn't fit, fast or strong enough for McDonald in full forward for Wexford.

Offalys number 11 looked handy enough, but he was ploughing a lone furrow with so many of his team mates just not at the same level as the Wexford lads.
I found it sad in a way to watch as Offaly were the kingpins of Leinster and AI underage hurling in my day, they're light years away from that now.

Dublin didn't get it so handy in Mullingar against Westmeath, but it'll be interesting how the final pans out.

[AZOffaly]

Perhaps they did but when I turned it on at one stage in the 2nd half it was something like 2-13 to 4. I don't know much about the setup there but ye seem to be struggling to stay in the top bunch which must be difficult to watch, is it lack.of numbers, or the setup or what?

I'd agree with that, Offaly were way off the pace and it was 2-9 to 0-2 at half time as well as Wexford being down to 14 men for at least half the first half.

Wexford eased off in the second half and it was only then that Offaly tacked on 7 or 8 points to take the bad look off it.

I'd say Gerlock would have had some laugh at the Offaly fullback, he'd a full blown belly with a neat little round sweat spot on the jersey where his belly button is. In saying that the bollox could hurl, but just wasn't fit, fast or strong enough for McDonald in full forward for Wexford.

Offalys number 11 looked handy enough, but he was ploughing a lone furrow with so many of his team mates just not at the same level as the Wexford lads.
I found it sad in a way to watch as Offaly were the kingpins of Leinster and AI underage hurling in my day, they're light years away from that now.

Dublin didn't get it so handy in Mullingar against Westmeath, but it'll be interesting how the final pans out.

I think that's the problem right there. I'm convinced we have hurlers in Offaly. Our results in the club hurling championship would at least indicate that we should be able to pick a competitive team. It's not the case that one team is going well, and the rest of the clubs are woeful, we actually have, between Birr, Coolderry and Kilcormac/Killoughey three teams that have reached All Ireland Finals in the not distant past. We also have signs of life from Rynaghs which is important.

I think what has happened in Offaly, in Hurling and Football, is that we sat, complacent, that there will 'always be hurlers' and 'always be footballers' in Offaly, and because we are small we would inevitably see lulls before we'd have bounce backs. That was reinforced in many people's minds when Offaly Won All Irelands in both in the early 80s, having won football in the 70s and reached AIF in football in the 60s. Then we had the great hurling team of the mid 90s, and we also had a Leinster championship football in 97, and a division 1 NFL in 1998.

As this movement towards better preparation, largely driven by Clare in the mid 90s in the hurling and several football teams, mostly from Ulster originally, in the late 90s and early 00's, Offaly kind of sneered at it, and waited for our next crop of natural hurlers to arrive. We were not good at our development squads and structures and we almost totally ignored the physical preparation that other counties were doing.

Where we are now is that every year we've lost in that probably translates to at least an equivalent year or 18 months in catchup. The other teams are not standing still either. I do believe we have the talented players, but our players are just not as physically prepared as other teams. I know they are trying hard, and I know they are training, but they are this 'lag' behind other counties and there's no cure for that except time and effort. I also know that some lads are not nearly at that stage of physical preparation, and the evidence is in front of our own eyes every time they take the field. Whether's it's being 'horsed' off the ball from not being as pysically 'hard' as the likes of a Dublin or Kilkenny or whether it's running out of gas because you are not as conditioned as them, the net result is the same. You can't live with them.

In football, at least, the Development Squads have been competitive, and Alan Mulhall seems to be doing a great job with them. They are turning out teams that are not world beaters, but they are competitive at their own level and are getting some decent results at Minor and Under 21 in the last couple of years. I believe the U16s beat Roscommon in the Fr. Manning there this week too. I know from my time with Tipperary Football development squads that Offaly were always as kitted out, organised and set up as well as anyone, and they had some very nice players whenever we came across them. The worry will be that these lads will come into a Senior set up which is not at the same level as other counties, and their development will stall, especially in the physical stakes, but I'm hopeful that Offaly are in the process of rectifying that. There's going to be no short cuts here though I'm afraid.

In hurling, that does not seem to be the case, for whatever reason, and I think we are coming to the realisation that these wristy hurlers have to be able to win their own ball, and match the pace and physicality of other teams, as well as be able to execute the skills they have in a much higher octane environment than club hurling. This will also take years to get back, but in the hurlers case I'm afraid that the development squads are not as advanced as their football counterparts, and you are very much relying on a crop coming from nowhere again.

[johnneycool]

Wexford seem to be pulling themselves up by the bootstraps all the same, with some good U-21 teams of recent years putting Kilkenny to the sword even if they don't seem to have the resources of Dublin hurlers, so all is not lost if the right men are put in the right places and invariably the serial committee men who involve themselves in county boards are not the right men.

IIRC a few business men got together to set up a 'Club Wexford' to fund the Hurling development led by George O'Connor. That was probably 6 or 7 years ago and they seem to be reaping a benefit as they're a competitive senior team as Clare will soon find out and underage wise are making inroads into what use to be the sole domain of Kilkenny.

[AZOffaly]

Yep, the George O'Connor thing at the time was flagged up as being well run (similar to Alan Mulhall in Offaly) and they are seeing it now. That's the model (no pun intended) that Offaly hurling needs.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Another zero on the end of it and I might consider it... there's every chance that last weekend's performance was Galway's annual 1-game show.

We didn't even get 1 game last year. Year before that we got 2 or 3 games out of it.

[theskull1]

Yep, the George O'Connor thing at the time was flagged up as being well run (similar to Alan Mulhall in Offaly) and they are seeing it now. That's the model (no pun intended) that Offaly hurling needs.

Lets not forget the impact Antrim 21s beating them had. Don't say that wasn't ammunition used to get a reaction. Looks to be a bit more purpose in the yellow bellies this year

[AZOffaly]

Well I'm not specifically talking about last night, or their u21s, I'm talking about Wexford's approach to development in general. I'm sure the Antrim issue has been a harsh lesson for them but it's not changed the fundemental approach that O'Connor has put in place.