Killyon, Longwood, Clan na Gael Moylagh-Kilskre are all clubs who are on the Westmeath border.Boardsmill,Trim,Rathmolyon,Na Fianza all really close.Do some people need geography lessons?

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts:303 - 03/05/2016 13:42:22 1851606

Longwood and Na Fianna are on the Kildare border not the Westmeath border. The hurling area in Meath is bigger than people think and covers a lot of South Meath but as it covers a quiet big area most of it is not on the Westmeath border.

bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1356 - 04/05/2016 11:28:00    1851879

Killyon, Longwood, Clan na Gael Moylagh-Kilskre are all clubs who are on the Westmeath border.Boardsmill,Trim,Rathmolyon,Na Fianza all really close.Do some people need geography lessons?

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts:303 - 03/05/2016 13:42:22 1851606

Longwood and Na Fianna are on the Kildare border not the Westmeath border. The hurling area in Meath is bigger than people think and covers a lot of South Meath but as it covers a quiet big area most of it is not on the Westmeath border.

bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts:102 - 04/05/2016 11:28:00

Exactly bdbuddah, I have a feeling if you said to some of them Meath clubs that were mentioned that there on the Westmeath border they would not be impressed.

wd45 (Westmeath) - Posts: 211 - 04/05/2016 11:53:56    1851893

Where's the County training ground in Down??

It was meant to be in Bryansford, but the building bubble burst and Down CB were left holding onto some very expensive farmland...

Dublin don't need to worry about developing a stadium, Parnell will do for their hurlers, CP is there for their footballers, all sorted on the relatively cheap.
Whereas Cork are putting heavy investment into Páirc Uí Chaoimh to have similar facilities. How many coaches could they have funded with that sort of money instead of bricks and mortar?

bricktop (Down) - Posts: 2503 - 04/05/2016 12:09:41    1851901

@tearintom

I don't agree at all that the GAA made an investment in Dublin hurling because they thought it would be a money spinner. I think Dublin's relative success has been mainly down to good organisation, volunteers working hard and well organised competition. When we played Dublin in the AI semi final I'd say Dublin brought about 35,000 people tops. I think Offaly probably brought about the same for their biggest days. If they tried to make Dublin strong purely for financial gain then they're only fooling themselves. The fact that Dublin have more money to spend in general is another matter but I would think that the reasons for underage success in any county are mainly internal to that county.

This opinion is in line with what Daithí Regan has said on the radio. It is internal problems. I have no problem with a county trying to build a nice ground where they can put on their county finals but building a big ground that will never be full for internal club competition is stupid in my view.
In munster for example, I would have liked Semple stadium to be rebuilt into a modern and outstanding 50,000 seater stadium and then each of the other counties have various size smaller but modern county grounds. I don't see why there is much need for cork or limerick to have a stadium with more than 25 or 30,000 capacity.

I don't think anyone is saying that the problems are purely down to the money spent on the stand in tullamore but people are saying it is indicative of the type of head in the clouds and vanity that exists among the powers that be.
We both agree that this can only be fixed internally, I would just add that CBs everywhere need to be made responsible to their provincial and national counterparts for letting the game slip the way in which KE40 has described.

hurlinspuds (Cork) - Posts: 1494 - 04/05/2016 12:26:27    1851908

A few things form my point of view.

Offaly 2 years ago there was Stage one of the recovery.
[url]http://m.hoganstand.com/Home/Details/224051?county=National
That was 15 Aug 2014.
The idea that over 200 people turned up each night for 4 nights and the county board never followed up with stage Two and still haven't done the final report for there programme of recovery.
Half a****d is the best description of this.

We're a small county, We don't have a huge amount of hurlers so when we lose one it's a huge loss. The manager the county board have been appointing have been in response to the hurlers we had in the late 90's. a group of happy go lucky, Love to hurl but love to party. The mangers appointed have been coming to discipline the group of hurler we have at the moment who are not a party and drinking mad men.

The managers see players whose life is in the way of there training as lack of commitment. It's rubbish. We can't afford to let lads mess around with training but equal we can't afford to let lads miss out of work and miss out of family life by forced them to driving for hours 4 or 5 days of the week in winter to trying and get into a panel and these lad are bollix for game at the weekend cause there doing so much driving.

Again we can't be missing 14 or 15 of the best hurlers because the commitment required is impossible for them.
The commitment should be the max the player can give but when the has to choose between looking after his family or going to train that an issue.
Winter training especially with the hurlers we have at the moment can be done close to the players home as possible. Some players were driving for hours to do yoga this year. Yoga a great idea but it can be done in a players front room and the manager can you there xbox profile to keep track of the players progress. Then they can do two night of yoga from home and get much more value out of it. But in Offaly if you not will to driving your life away you're not committed.

Development Squad in Offaly are sending out the wrong message. Most Development Squad is about taking good hurler in the county to get them to the next level. In Offaly the message when you get to Development squad in Offaly the message is the club are not production hurler so was trying to develop them. This message is pushed by local media as well. If you're a good hurler in Offaly all you hear from County board and local media is that you're useless. The problems grows and grows when you send out that message. Talking to lad in the development squad u-14 and u-15 there development is running up hill and hand passing.

Which bring up back to point one.
Getting a great coach and ignoring what he tell you.

That my 2 cent of what it worth.
From a huge Offaly hurling fan. Who goes to any Offaly game I can, Club or county. Underage or otherwise.

toxicity234 (Offaly) - Posts: 31 - 04/05/2016 14:23:41    1851944

@hurlinspuds

I think the only real difference in opinion we have is the modus operandi behind the reasons for the investments made into Dublin hurling in the past.

Im not arguing all your points about internal solutions that need to be done by Offaly themselves. Thats my point, they will have to do it for themselves as they arent going to get the level of support from GAA unlike Dublin in the past when Bertie and Sean Kelly came to their arrangement. Im not arguing all that Dublin have done, im making the point that Dublin hurling received special treatment and funding which wont be made available to Offaly or the likes? Why? Population apparently is the answer.

Offaly will have to do it themselves, as will Wexford and others, we recently developed a centre of excellence for our county teams to train but we didnt receive all the funding because we couldnt show money in the bank to back up a grant so its not complete but we will get there.

tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1349 - 04/05/2016 15:11:35    1851960

toxicity234, you paint a depressing picture, but the reality is that Offaly is just as close to Dublin as Kilkenny is.....

Somebody above said Offaly is "An Agricultural County". So is Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipp largely. GAA clubs are built on farming families and farming in general.

What toxicity234 is saying is that getting players willing to give up the social life to hurl for Offaly is not happening. But bringing the horse to the drinking trough springs to mind here.

The reality is that every dual county has their hurling and football areas. It is not the end of the world if Birr is the hurling heartland and north Offaly is football area.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 04/05/2016 16:25:48    1851992

Pinkie

What I was saying is that getting lads to give up there Work and Family to go to training. 4 night a week in the deeps of winter is the problem.
Drinking in the offaly club hurling isn't a problem for the players we have now. There a handful of lads that like to have a few pints not like in the 90's where all club players like a few pints. 99% of Offaly club player give up drink for club training but there aloud a pint after a match.
Drinking isn't the problem at the moment. The physical commitment of going to training 4 school night a week is the problem and we need a creative solution.

toxicity234 (Offaly) - Posts: 31 - 04/05/2016 17:45:53    1852039

creative solution?the only creative solution is to like every other county find men who care enough to give it.

perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 04/05/2016 19:19:25    1852072

What is happening at underage level in Offaly? I remember when Birr Community School was a powerhouse in the 80s and produced many great future inter-county stars. For many years now, Offaly teams at schools and underage inter-county levels have not been competitive.

Gaillimh_Abu (Galway) - Posts: 996 - 06/05/2016 17:28:06    1852634

http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/gaa/offaly-county-board-under-fire-7935236

14 Months collection dust. the recovery plan for Offaly hurling.

another day another mess.

from the same men that brought you.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/gaa/offaly-county-board-botches-appointment-6868476

toxicity234 (Offaly) - Posts: 31 - 10/05/2016 13:07:02    1853589

You have to start somewhere!

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 10/05/2016 16:22:52    1853689

The Offaly county board is now refusing to answer question from the local media and newstalk.
Original cause they weren't submitted through the correct channels
So the journalist resubmitted through the correct channels and they still will not answers then.
Why cause the local lads broke this story this week

toxicity234 (Offaly) - Posts: 31 - 11/05/2016 13:02:22    1853983

The county board in Offaly are a complete Joke. Hurling is on it's knees in a county that once set the standard. Apparently the clubs were all given the development plan within 24 hours once the document was leaked to local radio and journalists. According to Liam Hogan, it was submitted to Padraig Boland in December 2014 and ready to be launched in April. Hurling just seems to have been slowly choked to death within the county. Edenderry not entering a senior team this year is a sign of the times and how little is being done to promote the game in the east of the county. Years of poor development squads at underage has finally caught up with some surprising results to outsiders this year. What Tommy Byrne (the PRo) said about no explanation for the defeat to Westmeath is laughable. The supporters are shouting it from the roof tops!!!! And they sit on a detailed report/plan of action to address the slide since 2014.

They are really making themselves look foolish by imposing a media ban on the issue now aswell instead of acknowledging their mistakes.

I have always lived by the phrase "Esto Fidelis" when it comes to supporting Offaly.....but my faith in the people in charge of how our county is run is at an all time low.

wing back (Offaly) - Posts: 115 - 11/05/2016 15:34:54    1854077

As I said before, counties that achieve brutal results for consecutive years should have to report to the GAA hierarchy. Counties that refuse to properly make an effort to promote either code should be punished. Counties with county boards that are inept to the point of not being able to do their job should be subject to removal by the GAA.

hurlinspuds (Cork) - Posts: 1494 - 12/05/2016 09:20:56    1854248

Offaly like Carlow Westmeath Longford and to a lesser extend Laois (seems to be a midland trait) took their eye off the ball the people in these counties don't seem to be driven and hardworking or have the passion like your Donegal's or Waterford's of this world.

I think the attitude of the people in this area (midlands)where I live defo has a drip effect of the way the mindset is and has been for so long....

Its a case of Ahhh Sure why bother .....

Unless this changes especially for a county like Offaly then I can't see them ever coming back to the top table to dine!

BigJohn.6_8 (Galway) - Posts: 704 - 12/05/2016 10:13:23    1854264

The County Board are refusing to answer questions put to them by Midlands 103 and by the Midland Tribune as to what is going on with a number of situations.....namely around the Pathway Hurling report, The centre of excellence, as well as other issues around coaching and fund raising. They have open invitations from local Media and Newstalks Off The Ball show to come on and defend themselves and the abuse being thrown at them. But instead choose to implement a Media Ban with these sporting news outlets.

Appears very like they have made serious errors and are just trying to buy time to cover up and think of excuses.

The next question that needs to be raised is why they are taking so long to address all the questions being put to them?

wing back (Offaly) - Posts: 115 - 12/05/2016 14:37:33    1854410

Has anyone seen the report or have the contents of it been made public?

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 12/05/2016 14:58:05    1854423

The report was apparently sent to the clubs late Monday night in order for them to form opinions on the report before the County Board meeting on Tuesday. This meant they would have had less than 24 hours to review........... In my opinion this I thought the short notice probably contributed to the lack of questions following a presentation of some findings in the report.

But it transpired last night that only 9 pages of the 39 page document was sent to the clubs. So they had less than 25% of the information to begin with. Offaly County Board are really digging a hole for themselves by not addressing the events of the last number of days and taking up the invitations from local and national media to explain themselves.

wing back (Offaly) - Posts: 115 - 13/05/2016 09:32:43    1854563

More misery:

Leinster MHC semi-final
Offaly 2-13 Wexford 2-24, O'Connor Park - FT

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 14/05/2016 16:39:24    1854899