Offaly hurling

[youbetterbelieveit]

McIntyre rings the changes

John McIntyre Offaly Hurling Manager
20 December 2006


Offaly hurling manager John McIntyre has raised eyebrows by completing overhauling his panel for the coming season.

Established stars such as Michael Cordial, Damien Murray, Mick O'Hara, Joe Brady and Aidan Hanrahan have all been surprisingly omitted from the 28-man training panel. But the biggest shock of all is a lack of a single Whelahan family member since 1989. A county board spokesman said that the most celebrated of the brothers, Brian, is "not available", while Barry and Simon simply haven't been included.

In all, 12 players from last season's panel have been culled, and this has paved the way for McIntyre to introduce 10 players who are still under 21 in 2007. Amazingly, 23 of the 28-man panel is under the age of 25 so the Tipperary man is clearly building for the future.

Among the newcomers are Cathal Horan and Shane Dooley, sons of former county stars Padraig Horan and Joe Dooley. The other new faces are Ray Murray, Trevor Corcoran, Michael Verney, Conor Hernon, Kevin Kelly, David Kenny, Alan Middletown and Derek Molloy.

The panel in full is: J Bergin, E Bevans, K Brady, B Carroll, P Cleary, A Egan, D Franks, G Hanniffy, R Hanniffy, D Hayden, D Hoctor, B Mullins, B Murphy, G Oakley, B O'Meara, C Parlon, J Rigney, B Teehan, C Horan, S Dooley, R Murray, T Corcoran, M Verney, C Hernon, K Kelly, D Kenny, A Middletown and D Molloy.

[Bord na Mona man]

Fairly drastic cull.
Though something serious had to be done.
The lack of enthusiasm and the lame insipid manner Offaly lost to Limerick and Clare this year was sickening and in many respects as bad as 2005 vs Kilkenny.
The panel badly needs an injection of vigour. Hopefully it will lead to young hungry players fighting for places.
There are a few players that I'm disappointed to see gone, but I'll give the management the benefit of the doubt.
It's really the last fling for McIntyre next year.

[AZOffaly]

Fairly serious cull alright. Sorry to see diggy Cordial getting the boot. I thought he had potential as a half forward type. Should be very interesting to see them in the league, but as you say BnM man, something had to be done after the laissez faire attitude that prevailed in Ennis and Tullamore v Limerick in the second half. For the past few years this Offaly team have not been properly up for games, especially where we were underdogs, and that is just not acceptable for a county like us.

We always punch above our weight, but at the moment, we are barely punching AT our weight.

[tayto]

ah ha! so there is goings on down in Offaly, i knew it couldnt be that quiet!

[bottlethrower7]

I wouldn't be overly surprised at any of those omissions. Well except Joe Brady maybe but he got an awful roasting off Cleary in the county final replay. He was always a makeshift forward and never mobile enough to make it in the half-back line. I wouldn't imagine any of those cut would be the best to train either. Might have something to do with it.

[turk]

they sent them letters!

imagine a letter coming and the lads all excited thinking it's a christmas card - and it's a letter - it makes my blood boil

[AZOffaly]

I'm surprised the county board stumped up for the stamps! They'll probably dock it from the players' expenses.