Offaly on the rise?

[davereilly]

Perhaps but Offaly still have a young team, the likes of Diarmuid Horan being one of the senior stars while still u21 is always a good sign

[AZOffaly]

Ah yeah, I'm hopeful. The likes of David Kenny, Diarmuid Horan, Joe Bergin, Shane Dooley, Daniel Currams et al can, WITH WORK, go on to be very good senior hurlers for Offaly, and there are others coming through as well. Also the likes of Rory Hannify, Brian Carroll, Brendan Murphy, David Franks etc have a good few years left in them.

I'm not taking anything for granted with Offaly, but I am hopeful for our progress, certainly. I do think Kilkenny will come back to the pack a little bit, but I still think it will be 3 years at least before we are in a position to catch them on any given day in Leinster.

[INDIANA]

dave go and watch the club championship in kk at the weekend, you'll be crying into your cornflakes the next day when you see the standard.  there are probably 20 players not on the cats 30, that would walk onto any other county side bar cork,tipp and waterford. kilkenny's b team would beat every team bar those 3 at the moment an average cats u21 made shite of good dublin and offaly teams. thats what they described their u21 team this year to me- average.
F**** sake i'd hate to see what they call good.

[EddieMerx]

Dave Kilkenny won the U21 two years ago, they were in the minor AI final last year and are again in it this year. Ballyhale won the Club All Ireland last year and had it not been for injuries they would have made a good stab at winning it again.

[davereilly]

Dave Kilkenny won the U21 two years ago, they were in the minor AI final last year and are again in it this year. Ballyhale won the Club All Ireland last year and had it not been for injuries they would have made a good stab at winning it again.

Likewise Limerick made an AIF last year and this year they've sacked their manager and it looks like they're out of good players, alot can happen over a year.

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly made strides this year, but it all could be quickly undone with a couple of lean years.
However it is heartening to see players putting in performances of guts and determination.
This had been sorely missing for the last 8 years and there have been some very spineless displays in the interim.

Long term, the performance of the minors is worrying in that we still have a long way to go to raise the standards at underage.
There is definitely the spine of a good senior team there, but you need to keep topping the senior panel up with good fresh talent.

[Bord na Mona man]

dave go and watch the club championship in kk at the weekend, you'll be crying into your cornflakes the next day when you see the standard.  there are probably 20 players not on the cats 30, that would walk onto any other county side bar cork,tipp and waterford. kilkenny's b team would beat every team bar those 3 at the moment an average cats u21 made shite of good dublin and offaly teams. thats what they described their u21 team this year to me- average.
F**** sake i'd hate to see what they call good.

I think people make a mistake of overstating the back up strength of the best team of the day.
Very often when these teams that lose their best couple of players, the standard of the team drops dramatically.
Fogarty, Rice, Power, Tyrell etc are fine hurlers, but they certainly wouldn't siginificantly raise the standard of any of the other top hurling teams around if they defected to them.

Kilkenny have a few really top class players and a strong enough squad to make sure they don't have any serious weak links in their 15.
However, I wouldn't go as far as to think their subs would beat other top county teams.

[youngfella]

here are kilkennys subs,

James McGarry-Goalkeeper- Bennettsbridge
17 James Ryall- Right Wing Back- Graigue-Ballycallan
18 Richie Mullally- Midfield- Glenmore
19 Eoin Reid Left Corner Forward Ballyhale Shamrocks
20 John Dalton Centre Back Carrickshock
21 P.J. Delaney Centre back Fenians
22 Michael Fennelly Midfield Ballyhale Shamrocks
23 Michael Rice Left Wing Forward Carrickshock
24 Eoin McCormack Right Corner Forward James Stephens
25 Richie Power Right Wing Forward Carrickshock
26 Peter Cleere Midfield Blacks and Whites
27 Donnacha Cody Left Corner Back James Stephens
28 T.J. Reid Left Corner Forward Ballyhale Shamrocks
29 Michael Murphy Left Corner Forward Mullinavat
30 John Tennyson Centre Back Carrickshock

I think there subs could make the semi's fairly handy. They may even cause an upset and get into the final.

Regardless The cats have some depth about them

[Bord na Mona man]

here are kilkennys subs,

James McGarry-Goalkeeper- Bennettsbridge
17 James Ryall- Right Wing Back- Graigue-Ballycallan
18 Richie Mullally- Midfield- Glenmore
19 Eoin Reid Left Corner Forward Ballyhale Shamrocks
20 John Dalton Centre Back Carrickshock
21 P.J. Delaney Centre back Fenians
22 Michael Fennelly Midfield Ballyhale Shamrocks
23 Michael Rice Left Wing Forward Carrickshock
24 Eoin McCormack Right Corner Forward James Stephens
25 Richie Power Right Wing Forward Carrickshock
26 Peter Cleere Midfield Blacks and Whites
27 Donnacha Cody Left Corner Back James Stephens
28 T.J. Reid Left Corner Forward Ballyhale Shamrocks
29 Michael Murphy Left Corner Forward Mullinavat
30 John Tennyson Centre Back Carrickshock

I think there subs could make the semi's fairly handy. They may even cause an upset and get into the final.

Regardless The cats have some depth about them

With all due respects, there is not a hope of them getting near the semis.
Most of these players can slot well into a top class 15, but are not standalone brilliant players.
There are no game winning players like Shefflin, Walsh, Delaney, Comerford etc there.

I think people are dazzled by the overall Kilkenny package.
They are a few points better than the rest, but that certainly doesn't mean that 16-30 are better than most people's 1-15.

[Reillers]

They're bench LOOKS dazzling. But they're not good enough to be near the team. Cody tries to put in this we're better then everyone else, superiority image for the rest of us, and to scare his own team. When he says that everyone on the KK team is irreplaceable, it's bull just talk. The reality is that it's just talk. That bench isn't good enough to replace the good chunk on the KK team.