Messages

I don't get the chance to go to the senior hurling matches as much as I would like to. Would lads say that the standard has got better over the past few years with the 8 team championship or stayed the same/dropped in standard?

Arles through to the 'C' final.

Be great to see some of these lads who won a senior county title 20 years ago go on and win a Junior title this year.

A tasty derby between Killeshin and Graigue. Stradbally and Park another interesting game.

Crettyard beat Arles yesterday and 6 points didn't flatter them. They had more forward power and overall offered more.

Unfortunately Kilcruise don't have enough players of quality and can't see them getting back senior any time soon. They play Timahoe now in a 'B' semi final which won't be easy at all.

Arles beat Portlaoise in the JFC C championship on Wednesday evening. Into a semifinal next Tuesday. Portlaoise had a younger team but it was the old dogs experience got them through with Chris Conway scoring the decisive goal.

I see that Murphy has finished with Offaly. Would he be interested?

This day 20 years ago most of us would have been nursing hangovers after our Leinster final win the day before.

Lads were celebrating for the best part of a week.

Think we'll be waiting 20 years for the next one if we're lucky.

What a few days it was though.

Just talking about the margin of defeats, I thought the Dublin defeat was the worst in my memory but the Down game surpassed that.

When were we last beaten, if ever, by that much in a championship game?

Handicap is 5 points.

We will see how much Billy and the team have learned over the past few weeks.

They know how Down are going to play.

Use of the mark similar to Kildare last weekend would be something they could try.

Fair play to the Laois team it certainly lifted the mood among a few of us in Athens.

Great finish to the game and lets be honest, after the group stages, we are in real bonus territory now and credit must go to all involved. It would have been easy to throw in the towel and write of the year.

Traditionally we've never done well in Limerick and I didn't think that would change so fair play to all.

Looking forward to going to Croke Park next weekend now.

We're as well off keeping it in-house at the moment,

There isn't much point in spending money on an outside manager to keep hings ticking over.

Delegates need to stand up at county board meetings and demand change, push proposals etc

The clubs have the power to make change but as somebody said it's up to individuals to put themselves forward to inspire the change.

Really exciting game to watch and to see what it meant to the Carlow people.

As Marty Kavanagh said it was their All Ireland.

A game against the Dubs now and they should give it a right go.

You have to feel though that we left this one behind with that draw against Carlow. No doubts Carlow were good and Offaly maybe underestimated them but we were playing well and that performance in Kerry showed that.

To have Dublin back in O'Moore Park would have been a great day again. But not to be.

Offaly on a steep upward curve.  U20 Leinster on top of last years minor win.

If the will is there, there is a way.

I have very little knowledge of the in's and out's of county board business or who may or may not be the type(s) of individuals who would drive things on.

When our young minor hurlers starting competing well in the Leinster championship about 10 years ago or so we had Zoom involved with Setanta and Cheddar managing the minor team.

I would happily have both men involved in the running of hurling in the county from the youngest age.

Pay them for their time and give them a reasonably free hand in appointing coaches they want etc with a view to producing competitive underage hurling teams over the next few years with a goal of winning a minor leinster championship. . Both men have more than enough credit in the bank to get others involved. How many lads, former team mates and ex county players would turn down a few hours a week if asked by Critchley or Cheddar.

Would they want it though? Have they ever been asked?