I fully expected a 10-25 to 0-18 type scoreline, regardless of Offaly’s progress this year.
Indeed. Thought they would beat the handicap with plenty to spare. Maybe not a bad thing as you say.
A lot of people poo-pooed Offaly last week, saying they would have been better off losing to Laois. They showed the stupidity of that viewpoint today.
Offaly are a hurling county with a recent history of success, they are a different animal to Laois or Westmeath or Carlow or Antrim or Kildare.
The others will never bridge the gap. Offaly will. Because they are Offaly.
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Joyce didn’t look great today.
Who exactly said that?
This is just from last Saturday.
There’s never any point in not winning or not being promoted. Every year you stay down at McDonagh level is another year for you to stagnate. Offaly will have a proper go at it next year, they’ll stay up and they’ll grow from there and the Leinster championship will be a far better competition for it.
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Was it not just people taking the piss as Wexford would have been the easier option and maybe a shock win to get? No one truly thinks that they would be better losing 2 joe macs in a row and not getting into leinster proper
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I’d say the line of thinking was that they might be better concentrating on winning another All-Ireland U20 and come up from the Joe McDonagh next year. As long as they beat Antrim then it’ll be fine. If they didn’t though they would be Joe McDonagh again in 2026 which wouldn’t help those lads development.
Fuck Tipp.
And fuck Offaly.
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I don’t know as unlike a lot of lads I haven’t all day every day to be on here,I missed all that
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Yeah but there is no guarantee they go up next year. Carlow beat them last year and are decent. Westmeath have potential to get back to better form and Kerry have been improving. Nothing guaranteed, will Laois expect to win next year? Go up amd learn at the higher level
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Your better off going up and seeing exactly what it takes to stay there,if you’re relegated so be it
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Wexford could beat Laois by whatever they want. The most important thing when facing Laois is to avoid serious injury and a strong referee in case they lower the blade.
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Yes Cork weren’t at full tilt here, I don’t think anyone would question that. But people are not allowing for the fact that Offaly have improved a lot in the last 12 months. Their 20s are a year older and would have taken a lot of confidence from their win against Tipp and the JM final. They have plenty hurling in them. Obviously they’re going to have to bulk up a lot if they’re to compete meaningfully in Liam McCarthy.
If I was cork I’d be a small bit worried about conceding 3.19 against a 2nd teir team but then again they were always going to win.Anyone who has played sport knows that sometimes when you know your going to win you don’t really give a shit,win and move on
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If you’re coming off a low base as a county, hurling isn’t the sort of sport where you can cotton wool lads if you have serious designs about ever winning a senior All-Ireland.
For far too long there was a culture in Dublin of “the underage is more important than the senior”. People thought the future would somehow take care of itself. But the future never came, because nobody in Dublin ever really believed it could.
Kilkenny can cotton wool lads. Limerick can at the moment. Others can’t.
You have to be thrown in and know what the standard is.
The most important thing in getting up to the standard is deciding in a serious way that your aim is a senior All-Ireland. If you do that, you have a chance of doing it, because most counties have decided they aren’t serious about winning an All-Ireland. The Offaly public will make the decision for the players that they are serious, because they will fill Tullamore for Leinster championship matches next year.
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I’d agree with that 100%. Beat Antrim next year and they should stay up. Good building block for the class of 2005 then. Was just portraying the likely thoughts of those who thought they’d be better off in the Joe McDonagh for an extra year. But you’re always better going up when the opportunity presents itself.
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To be fair a league and Leinster title wasn’t too bad an innings considering they started from a really low base. Dublin never won an All-Ireland during that period of underage success did they?
The Leinster title was an end, not a beginning. And no, they never won an All-Ireland at any inter-county grade, nor came close in any of the finals they reached.
The Dublin public never demanded hurling success. It was “oh, the hurlers won a match, very good, maybe I might think of going to a match one of these days”.
The floating Dublin public that turned up for that All-Ireland semi-final against Cork were like the Aussie public turning up for the International Rules. It was an optional entertainment event that they were curious about, but not passionate about.
If Offaly get a sniff of success at senior hurling the county will be alight, because it is their very identity.
Not so sure they are. Wexford were leading Dublin by 6 points on 70 minutes before falling asleep and conceding 2 goals in injury time to draw. Galway had 16 points from play on the board by half time against them and I’d be fairly confident would have won but for the David Burke sending off.
The laboured Dublin 5 point win over Carlow probably the most accurate reflection of where Dublin are at.
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