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.