Replying To Viking66:  "Excuses. The first 10 of those apply to Offaly as well.
Wexford had better days in the last 10 years than Offaly have had this millennium.
Was it not a school night in Offaly as well? Offaly have had a hundred worse losses than Wexford had. Financial burden from all the other Wexford games nobody has gone to?
That rut will get worse if players decide "why bother, nobody supports us anyway".
I thought last night Wexford would have a massive support, it was in Carlow like not Cork or Thurles which are always bandied out as excuses for not going."]I was there and in Thurles last year . I m at a loss to why they don't travel.
I do find sometimes I ask myself why I go I ve been going for too long to remember not every game but enough to know the difference between excuses and reasons .
Think in last 10 years we ve seen some abject performances. One stands to mind most of all in Cork v clare qualifier 1/4 final was the closest I ever came to leaving a game at half time I thought we showed nothing and cared less I also then thought of the effort the lads put in over the year and said who am I to turn my back on my own .
. 2nd half was better .
Not everyone is die hard that's a fact every county has their die hards and the bandwagoners .
I merely trying to get my head around it .
I d guess the promotional aspect of this Offaly team have done a good job they ve certainly had great moments in last few years why would nt they draw a huge crowd with the success and future looking goid for this bunch
Side note one player also won an all ireland football u20 couple years ago too with offaly and played last night too name eludes me
The dual player Is dead in our intercounty set up after u13s"]Conor Murphy played for our u20 footballers last year."]I know he is a clubmate of yours, but I thought he struggled the last two games and would have been a better asset to the u20 footballers.

On the dual player issue, Eoin Whelan played both codes in 2021, along with Darby Purcell who was on the extended panel Wednesday night. Niall Furlong played full-back for the minors Tuesday night (and looked good) and was a starter for the minor hurlers as well. In fact he played two championship games on a bank holiday Monday and Wednesday a few weeks ago when other lads aren't allowed play two different grades across a longer time-frame. Jack Hennessy was also a dual player for the minors last year.

It may not be as prominent as it was, but its still a thing. Another encouraging aspect of our under-age set-ups lately is the number of non-traditional clubs being represented. Buffers Alley, Rathnure, Kilrush and Marshalstown supplied players for the minor footballers on Tuesday. Clongeen and Horeswood for our under-20s on Wednesday. I'd say it isn't too often that Fethard had the most representatives on any given Wexford team either."]Not sure if it was nerves but he didn't look right Wednesday. I haven't been talking to him since. Thought he did what he was picked to do against Kilkenny, which was nullify their creative midfield threat. His man was scoreless while he was on the pitch and scored 2 after he was subbed off. In the Offaly game I thought their number 8 Spain was excellent. Another KK clubman and lightening fast like his clubmate Screeney. Not really the type of player that it suited him to mark. At the same time when they were winning all the ball around halfway during the 2nd half I thought Conor mightve helped the team by slowing that ball down if he was on the pitch. Offaly won all the 2nd ball and rucks and then broke forward, either getting scores or winning frees that Screeney scored. Of course we should've played more long ball in, especially after Keith Rossiter sent on Farrell instead of Dundon, but our lads played 14 men like you are coached to play against 14- keep possession and use the spare man. Think the Offaly manager, who obviously would know the usual way of playing against 14, countered it very well with the crowded midfield, and most importantly his lads played ferocious right up to the final whistle.
Agree 100% about the representation of clubs and credit is due to all the management teams for looking at lads from non traditional clubs."]Posting this again in reply to Beano as its way too much to read with all the previous posts-
Not sure if it was nerves but Conor Murphy didn't look right Wednesday. I haven't been talking to him since. Thought he did what he was picked to do against Kilkenny, which was nullify their creative midfield threat. His man was scoreless while he was on the pitch and scored 2 after he was subbed off. In the Offaly game I thought their number 8 Spain was excellent. Another KK clubman and lightening fast like his clubmate Screeney. Not really the type of player that it suited him to mark. At the same time when they were winning all the ball around halfway during the 2nd half I thought Conor mightve helped the team by slowing that ball down if he was on the pitch. Offaly won all the 2nd ball and rucks and then broke forward, either getting scores or winning frees that Screeney scored. Of course we should've played more long ball in, especially after Keith Rossiter sent on Farrell instead of Dundon, but our lads played 14 men like you are coached to play against 14- keep possession and use the spare man. Think the Offaly manager, who obviously would know the usual way of playing against 14, countered it very well with the crowded midfield, and most importantly his lads played ferocious right up to the final whistle.
Agree 100% about the representation of clubs and credit is due to all the management teams for looking at lads from non traditional clubs."]I d suggest anyone should talk to some of the dual players and ask them are they encouraged to play both.
You won't get the answer for fear it gets back to the management. In fact they more or less bully them without saying it go sure but u ll have some job getting on this team may be zn odd exception due to total talent but will still get the reverse physiology .
Purcell and whelan were pivotal to the hurlers that particular year and the management knew it did nt stop them trying to get them to choose from what I heard.
Both stood their ground others maybe not so pivotal to the team choose as felt if they did nt their chances would let's say diminish.
Whelan and cian Byrne were a huge part Iof fethard s winning leinster intermediate. Cian bryne surely would have been on senior league team Walsh Cup teams other than that as he was giving his all to his club which he can only be commended for others would have taken hurling option through fear .
Is he ready for senior intercounty 100% he is what we are crying out for in senior workrate and brave good hurler free taker accurate most of the time can win his own ball not perfect in lots of ways but better option than some if not all that have been used up to now .
At either code . Whelan not far away either prob better footballer. Cians brother Cillian will be another In a year or two .
The dual player will get token acceptance and forced without being upfront to choose sooner rather than later in their underage intercounty careers if you think anything else you are fairly niave .

Replying To Viking66:  "Excuses. The first 10 of those apply to Offaly as well.
Wexford had better days in the last 10 years than Offaly have had this millennium.
Was it not a school night in Offaly as well? Offaly have had a hundred worse losses than Wexford had. Financial burden from all the other Wexford games nobody has gone to?
That rut will get worse if players decide "why bother, nobody supports us anyway".
I thought last night Wexford would have a massive support, it was in Carlow like not Cork or Thurles which are always bandied out as excuses for not going."]I was there and in Thurles last year . I m at a loss to why they don't travel.
I do find sometimes I ask myself why I go I ve been going for too long to remember not every game but enough to know the difference between excuses and reasons .
Think in last 10 years we ve seen some abject performances. One stands to mind most of all in Cork v clare qualifier 1/4 final was the closest I ever came to leaving a game at half time I thought we showed nothing and cared less I also then thought of the effort the lads put in over the year and said who am I to turn my back on my own .
. 2nd half was better .
Not everyone is die hard that's a fact every county has their die hards and the bandwagoners .
I merely trying to get my head around it .
I d guess the promotional aspect of this Offaly team have done a good job they ve certainly had great moments in last few years why would nt they draw a huge crowd with the success and future looking goid for this bunch
Side note one player also won an all ireland football u20 couple years ago too with offaly and played last night too name eludes me
The dual player Is dead in our intercounty set up after u13s"]Conor Murphy played for our u20 footballers last year."]I know he is a clubmate of yours, but I thought he struggled the last two games and would have been a better asset to the u20 footballers.

On the dual player issue, Eoin Whelan played both codes in 2021, along with Darby Purcell who was on the extended panel Wednesday night. Niall Furlong played full-back for the minors Tuesday night (and looked good) and was a starter for the minor hurlers as well. In fact he played two championship games on a bank holiday Monday and Wednesday a few weeks ago when other lads aren't allowed play two different grades across a longer time-frame. Jack Hennessy was also a dual player for the minors last year.

It may not be as prominent as it was, but its still a thing. Another encouraging aspect of our under-age set-ups lately is the number of non-traditional clubs being represented. Buffers Alley, Rathnure, Kilrush and Marshalstown supplied players for the minor footballers on Tuesday. Clongeen and Horeswood for our under-20s on Wednesday. I'd say it isn't too often that Fethard had the most representatives on any given Wexford team either."]Not sure if it was nerves but he didn't look right Wednesday. I haven't been talking to him since. Thought he did what he was picked to do against Kilkenny, which was nullify their creative midfield threat. His man was scoreless while he was on the pitch and scored 2 after he was subbed off. In the Offaly game I thought their number 8 Spain was excellent. Another KK clubman and lightening fast like his clubmate Screeney. Not really the type of player that it suited him to mark. At the same time when they were winning all the ball around halfway during the 2nd half I thought Conor mightve helped the team by slowing that ball down if he was on the pitch. Offaly won all the 2nd ball and rucks and then broke forward, either getting scores or winning frees that Screeney scored. Of course we should've played more long ball in, especially after Keith Rossiter sent on Farrell instead of Dundon, but our lads played 14 men like you are coached to play against 14- keep possession and use the spare man. Think the Offaly manager, who obviously would know the usual way of playing against 14, countered it very well with the crowded midfield, and most importantly his lads played ferocious right up to the final whistle.
Agree 100% about the representation of clubs and credit is due to all the management teams for looking at lads from non traditional clubs."]Posting this again in reply to Beano as its way too much to read with all the previous posts-
Not sure if it was nerves but Conor Murphy didn't look right Wednesday. I haven't been talking to him since. Thought he did what he was picked to do against Kilkenny, which was nullify their creative midfield threat. His man was scoreless while he was on the pitch and scored 2 after he was subbed off. In the Offaly game I thought their number 8 Spain was excellent. Another KK clubman and lightening fast like his clubmate Screeney. Not really the type of player that it suited him to mark. At the same time when they were winning all the ball around halfway during the 2nd half I thought Conor mightve helped the team by slowing that ball down if he was on the pitch. Offaly won all the 2nd ball and rucks and then broke forward, either getting scores or winning frees that Screeney scored. Of course we should've played more long ball in, especially after Keith Rossiter sent on Farrell instead of Dundon, but our lads played 14 men like you are coached to play against 14- keep possession and use the spare man. Think the Offaly manager, who obviously would know the usual way of playing against 14, countered it very well with the crowded midfield, and most importantly his lads played ferocious right up to the final whistle.
Agree 100% about the representation of clubs and credit is due to all the management teams for looking at lads from non traditional clubs."]I d suggest anyone should talk to some of the dual players and ask them are they encouraged to play both.
You won't get the answer for fear it gets back to the management. In fact they more or less bully them without saying it go sure but u ll have some job getting on this team may be zn odd exception due to total talent but will still get the reverse physiology .
Purcell and whelan were pivotal to the hurlers that particular year and the management knew it did nt stop them trying to get them to choose from what I heard.
Both stood their ground others maybe not so pivotal to the team choose as felt if they did nt their chances would let's say diminish.
Whelan and cian Byrne were a huge part Iof fethard s winning leinster intermediate. Cian bryne surely would have been on senior league team Walsh Cup teams other than that as he was giving his all to his club which he can only be commended for others would have taken hurling option through fear .
Is he ready for senior intercounty 100% he is what we are crying out for in senior workrate and brave good hurler free taker accurate most of the time can win his own ball not perfect in lots of ways but better option than some if not all that have been used up to now .
At either code . Whelan not far away either prob better footballer. Cians brother Cillian will be another In a year or two .
The dual player will get token acceptance and forced without being upfront to choose sooner rather than later in their underage intercounty careers if you think anything else you are fairly niave .

Replying To Viking66:  "Tbh Conor Foley was one of the lads who didnt play that well. He's only young and will hopefully learn to be more composed as he gets more experienced."

Replying To beano:  "Reck's injury frequency is a huge worry by now. Always seem to pick up some form of injury to impede his championship (never season ending yet hopefully). It's got to the stage where we should be managing his work-load in training (I believe he goes 100% in every session) and maybe even reviewing our medical procedure given the unusually high number of casualties we seem to have had this season. Some players are just injury prone unfortunately.

Although, Chin has gone from an adonis to someone who picks up niggly injuries now too so you'd wonder were the players flogged too much under the celebrity manager?"

Replying To hunting:  "I was at the game Wednesday night, very disappointed with the wexford support it was way behind Offaly's. There is no doubt that it was a home match for Offaly in everyway apart from the venue and worth a few scores to them.
CBD and JR in particular will be very disappointed with their performances. I taught carley, Foley(apart from the time he got turned over for a crucial score)Roche and the two Byrnes were very good, with Cian outstanding both for play and frees.
There was really nothing between the two teams and it is hard to fault anyone really, but the only big disappointment for me was that we never went long into seamie O Hagan in the second half, we ran onto trouble and got turned over for scores.
Well done to all involved, but it will go down as an opportunity lost considering we were a man up for half of the second half."

Replying To hunting:  "I was at the game Wednesday night, very disappointed with the wexford support it was way behind Offaly's. There is no doubt that it was a home match for Offaly in everyway apart from the venue and worth a few scores to them.
CBD and JR in particular will be very disappointed with their performances. I taught carley, Foley(apart from the time he got turned over for a crucial score)Roche and the two Byrnes were very good, with Cian outstanding both for play and frees.
There was really nothing between the two teams and it is hard to fault anyone really, but the only big disappointment for me was that we never went long into seamie O Hagan in the second half, we ran onto trouble and got turned over for scores.
Well done to all involved, but it will go down as an opportunity lost considering we were a man up for half of the second half."

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "I taught over the 60 mins he had a good game, awful pity about the vital turnover near the end."

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "While its great for hurling in general to see green shoots from Offaly does anyone think the media love in after the u20 game is bit OTT, the coverage with them say compared to the Sligo u20 footballers who beat Roscommon, Mayo, Galway and Kerry to make an Ai final has been alot more in your face and I say that as someone who great time for Offaly supporters bar the few bandwagon boo merchants who came the woodwork Wednesday night and that Offaly u20 team is impossible to dislike in fairness."

Replying To Stmunnsriver:  "THERE IS AN EXPRESSION "IV A PAIN IN MY SIDE FROM LAUGHING" RIGHT NOW THAT IS THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR"

Replying To Stmunnsriver:  "THERE IS AN EXPRESSION "IV A PAIN IN MY SIDE FROM LAUGHING" RIGHT NOW THAT IS THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR"

Replying To Viking66:  "He got caught wrong side a few times also. And a couple of loose passes. He tends to over commit. He's one of the best prospects on that team though he has great heart."

Replying To Stmunnsriver:  "THERE IS AN EXPRESSION "IV A PAIN IN MY SIDE FROM LAUGHING" RIGHT NOW THAT IS THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR"