Of the established players (23-32 years old) on the Offaly team I think the Sampsons, Cillian Kiely and Connelly are the only ones that would even make a top tier panel.
Dan Bourke, Chalie Mitchell, Donal Shirley are all young but could be ready. Dan Ravenhill was injured today but if he gets himself fit then he will be too.
Adam Screeney, Cathal King, Colin Spain and a couple of more of those 18/19 year olds will get eaten up next year.
Cork will beat them by 25 points in two weeks time.
Ah you cant hit 17 wides and expect to win shit. Offaly tied up, we had them ran down, despite the goals, and fucked it away
Pity
Ah we got what deserved really. Iâd feel for a few lads who hurled savage out there but the finishers didnât finish.
Heâs been fucked with injuries all year. Never got a run at all. He hurled on memory out there and it showed. Him, Willie and Roddy to a lesser extent didnt do what they were brought in to do.
Corby and Paddy emptied themselves.
Probably but Clare beat Dublin by 18 points last year. Dublin could win a Leinster title this evening. Will Offaly win Leinster next year, no they wonât, but it is to say that teams can improve if they have expectations of competing and winning and a proper set up in place.
Because of Offalyâs history of success and recent underage success, the demands and expectations that will be in Offaly as regards senior hurling are far, far greater than they would be in Laois. Laois had they won today would have had no greater hope in the Leinster championship than to finish fifth on a perennial basis. This is true of the Laois team and public. Westmeath and Carlow would have lower expectations again.
Even the game today demonstrates this. Laois were in position A1 to win it and any rational reading of the game with 68 minutes gone said they would win it. Offaly were in freefall. But there were three points scored from then on and all of them were scored by Offaly, why, because Offaly are Offaly and Laois are Laois.
Offaly is a totally different ball game to Laois or the other Leinster minnows. They are a hurling county.
âŚthey are shite. A rubbish Cork team would hammer them out the gate.
Cork arenât rubbish. Cork will very likely hammer Offaly out the gate. The point is not about Offaly competing seriously at senior now. The point is about Offalyâs history of success and status as a hurling county meaning they are a different animal to Laois, Westmeath and Carlow in terms of what can happen in future.
theres a belief that, barring Offaly destroy that generation of hurlers, thatâs as close as weâll get for a decade. Iâm not sure Iâd subscribe to it but today was a real missed opportunity to keep our foot on their throat.
Exactly. Offaly getting promoted is inevitable.
Missed opportunity from Laois to postpone it another year though.
Not much in it at all, Purcellâs shot that flashed over, different game if thatâs a green flag. There was another clear goal chance butchered after that as well. The two Laois midfielders were brilliant.
In the end of the day - Itâs 2 years for Willie Maher at the helm and with McDonagh being the target, itâs a failure.
They were betting favs going into it this year.
I see Sean Flynn was part of the backroom team. By all means did absolutely nothing with Ahane when he was over them. Talks the talk on Twitter and the Examiner pod but in reality is just another Twitter Coach along with your Kevs etc
Yeah, it was a bit messy this year too. Hard to know. They shoulda won that. Is it his fault they went to sleep at the start of each half? Can he be blamed for 19 wides and experienced players taking wrong decisions repeatedly? I dunno.
Wexford next week will be interesting.
Whatâs the atmosphere like sham?
Tis buzzing in the pub, fucked if Iâd stay around for that
Nah def canât be blamed for wides unless game plan at times is âshoot on sightâ which some of the shots definitely were
Funnily enough, a line I heard him say before was â95% of the time the team that shoots more winsâ. He might be right in that but it didnât work for Laois today
Agreed though - Iâm not picking on him, Iâm just noting how in reality itâs a big disappointment for Laois
Anybody who knows hurling will be in agreement with me.
Itâs not that long since Offaly were beating Limerick out the gate on their own ground, Limerick struggling over Laois by the skin of their teeth in a qualifier, and fielding scab teams in the championship.
Heâs the only stats nerd Iâve ever heard who talks down the importance of stats
I rest my case
As Lionel Hutz said.