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The Allianz HL Thread (For All Divisions)

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Hi all, less than a week to go to the start of the allianz hurling leagues. How are things shaping up for your county? We can use this thread to discuss all things related to Division 1A to 3B. The prediction thread went well last year so if we can get good numbers, I will set up a new one in the mean time. PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 21/01/2019 16:03:40 2158677 Link
Going well. Impossible to call the league really. Each game should be ok as a stand alone game. However, with no relegation and no major incentive to go and win it, I doubt there will be many super competitive games in the too two Divisions. Unfortunately. bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 21/01/2019 17:15:56 2158701 Link
Looking forward to the league. We've a couple of injuries heading into the Wexford match but nothing too major (apart from Richie macs cruciate).. Be hopeful to see lads that were on the fringes make their mark this year, lads like Barry Nash, paddy o loughlin etc.. Limerick have a strong panel and we'll need it if we want to make an impact again in 2019. skillet (Limerick) - Posts: 1106 - 22/01/2019 11:26:22 2158851 Link
Replying To bennybunny: "Going well. Impossible to call the league really. Each game should be ok as a stand alone game. However, with no relegation and no major incentive to go and win it, I doubt there will be many super competitive games in the too two Divisions. Unfortunately." I agree that the league will be somewhat different this year in that there is no relegation but there's still the financial incentives of getting to the knockouts eg. extra gate receipts for the county board. I'm looking forward to it and nice to start the year off at Semple Stadium. Waterford will be weakened with no Ballygunner players and injuries to Patrick Curran and a few others. The reports are good from the Offaly camp with training going well so maybe an upset is on the cards. PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 23/01/2019 12:33:32 2159081 Link
I've decided to set up a prediction thread for the upcoming allianz hurling leagues. All welcome to join in the fun --> http://hoganstand.com/Forum/Details/106741?Latest=1#Latest PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 23/01/2019 14:11:20 2159100 Link
Tony Kelly red card was a shocker , ruined the game as a contest , don't know what the ref or his officials seen but never a red card. Tipp were great but a Clare team with the wind and Tony KELLY on the field would have been a different finish. I'm sure there's Tipp fans that are probably just as annoyed cause they'd of like to see how it would of went with Tony still on the field. clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 27/01/2019 07:54:14 2159833 Link
Tony Kelly has been sailing close to the wind with his discipline for a few years now. He is one of those players who always looks silly when getting involved with other players. It just doesn't suit him. This might be a lesson to him bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 27/01/2019 17:24:21 2159981 Link
As regards Offaly I really thought that they had levelled out and were going to improve from 2018 on.. But there could be worse to come.... I think only 3 players that started against Dublin last year started yesterday... Why such dramatic changes for such a small county, are the shinrone players completely gone... At this rate even a top four finish in the Joe McDonagh could be very difficult... Westmeath Laois and antrim must be definitely ahead of them now and kerry can't be far off either... preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 803 - 28/01/2019 21:04:27 2160551 Link
Replying To bennybunny: "Going well. Impossible to call the league really. Each game should be ok as a stand alone game. However, with no relegation and no major incentive to go and win it, I doubt there will be many super competitive games in the too two Divisions. Unfortunately." And still crazy that 9th and 10th ranked advance to QFs while 5th and 6th do not. Also, in 2020, I don't like the Strongest 3 each rolling all over 1 or 2 of the Weakest 3 (Offaly, Laois, Carlow or 2A Champ). A better balanced set up could have had the Strongest 3 + Weakest 3 play the Middle Six - with top 4 of 12-team table to SFs. omahant (USA) - Posts: 3243 - 28/01/2019 23:34:13 2160605 Link
nothing saddens me more than where offaly have found themselves,a once great county teethering on irrelevance. i always said that in wexford while not all the men of 1996 are involved,most are doing soemthing to arrest the slide which happened,at least now we are at least competitive and can take any of the top teams on their day. what are the offaly men of the 90s doing bar sittting on the airwaves and twitter?i hate the "i told them that years ago" mentality,for god sake everyone needs to swallow pride at some stage and forget about being right or wrong and do what is best to save a great hurling county. re sunday,kilkenny looked very strong from the highlights,i think they will go all the way this year and do a league/leinster/all ireland double. limerick scraped over the line,we were competitve but the game plan has run its course.what saddened me most on sunday in the wexford limerick game was what i felt both teams were trying to get one another sent off,physios on every 2 minutes,it was terrible to watch. tipp clare was a decent game ruined by a poor refereeing call. re the limerick posters on the wexford page,pathetic is the only word. credit to carlow,they gave the dubs a good run for their money.a free out on eamon dillon for throwing up the ball and catching it? perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 29/01/2019 12:54:57 2160700 Link
Replying To preddan: "As regards Offaly I really thought that they had levelled out and were going to improve from 2018 on.. But there could be worse to come.... I think only 3 players that started against Dublin last year started yesterday... Why such dramatic changes for such a small county, are the shinrone players completely gone... At this rate even a top four finish in the Joe McDonagh could be very difficult... Westmeath Laois and antrim must be definitely ahead of them now and kerry can't be far off either..." You're right only 3 players that started against Dublin last year started on Sunday. Yes the Shinrone players have packed it in which is a pity, Sean Ryan has retired he owes his county nothing, Dermot Shortt is gone as well. Shane Dooley, Joe Bergin, Cillian Kiely, Colin Egan, Conor Mahon, Brendan Murphy, David O'Toole Greene, Oisin Kelly and Ben Conneely were other notable absentees in Thurles. I believe Dooley and Bergin will be back though, plus Kelly and Conneely not sure about the others. It's extremely disappointing because there was marked improvement last year. That was basically our third team we had out against Waterford. It may be the case with the Shinrone lads who have all withdrawn from the squad but I don't believe there's been a fall out. Unfortunately some players are not willing to play for their county and there is a life outside of training over 30 hours a week. PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 30/01/2019 12:23:26 2160903 Link
From Plain of the Herbs on Twitter The Offaly team that lined out against Waterford in summary: ‏ An extremely inexperienced Offaly hurling team chosen. A mere 138 previous appearances (c'ship & NHL combined) between the 15 selected. 5 debutants. Only 4 (Rigney, Camon, Kinsella, Connolly) with more than 10 appearances. Only 6 there before Kevin Martin's management. PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 30/01/2019 15:23:05 2160963 Link
Replying To clondalkindub: "Tony Kelly red card was a shocker , ruined the game as a contest , don't know what the ref or his officials seen but never a red card. Tipp were great but a Clare team with the wind and Tony KELLY on the field would have been a different finish. I'm sure there's Tipp fans that are probably just as annoyed cause they'd of like to see how it would of went with Tony still on the field." Should've been two yellow cards for diving, it was cringe to see them both sprawling back as if they both got hit. Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12352 - 30/01/2019 15:29:27 2160966 Link
Replying To PortInFaithful: "From Plain of the Herbs on Twitter The Offaly team that lined out against Waterford in summary: ‏ An extremely inexperienced Offaly hurling team chosen. A mere 138 previous appearances (c'ship & NHL combined) between the 15 selected. 5 debutants. Only 4 (Rigney, Camon, Kinsella, Connolly) with more than 10 appearances. Only 6 there before Kevin Martin's management." offaly just don't have the numbers of players or the number of clubs to cope with that turn over,,,,,,you always had small numbers but I think there was more clubs in general and a better standard 20 years ago in all grades...clubs like lusmagh, drumcullen and seir Kieran were always comfortable senior clubs with seir Kieran especially strong. theres many clubs gone extinct too in the last while especially in north offaly where they were strong junior clubs....the player numbers fallout from club hurling is staggering ,,the worst in any county id say preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 803 - 31/01/2019 17:53:35 2161253 Link
Whatever about the pitch in Cork yesterday, did anybody else think that the standard of refereeing was abysmal. I could easily count 10 blatant wrong decisions and some absolutely baffling yellow cards. What are Croke Park saying to these refs? they all seem so nervous and uptight its unreal? Worrying really. Sean Cleere seemed intent on changing the handpass rule himself on Saturday night wheras in both matches on Sunday i can't recall one free for throwing the ball. Then Johnny Murphy was handing out yellow cards for the craic on Sunday but missed O' Mahoneys blatant red? LarryOBrother (Wexford) - Posts: 412 - 04/02/2019 11:55:05 2162440 Link
Replying To LarryOBrother: "Whatever about the pitch in Cork yesterday, did anybody else think that the standard of refereeing was abysmal. I could easily count 10 blatant wrong decisions and some absolutely baffling yellow cards. What are Croke Park saying to these refs? they all seem so nervous and uptight its unreal? Worrying really. Sean Cleere seemed intent on changing the handpass rule himself on Saturday night wheras in both matches on Sunday i can't recall one free for throwing the ball. Then Johnny Murphy was handing out yellow cards for the craic on Sunday but missed O' Mahoneys blatant red?" Apart from the hand-passing issue I though Sean Cleere was (again) awful on Saturday night. Fortunately, his decision-making didn't affect the result as Limerick were very worthy winners but he was flashing yellow cards for harmless challenges, some of which were hardly fouls. Yet he completely ignored the one bookable tackle in the whole game - the one that forced Heffernan to leave the field late on. Hegarty's elbow may well have been unintentional but it certainly merited a yellow card. Yet Cleere didn't even award a free! Sadly, this isn't the first howler we've seen from this man. As I said, his performance didn't influence the outcome of the game but if he continues to be appointed for high-profile games, one of these days he will be the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. midlands (Westmeath) - Posts: 604 - 04/02/2019 14:50:45 2162524 Link
Replying To LarryOBrother: "Whatever about the pitch in Cork yesterday, did anybody else think that the standard of refereeing was abysmal. I could easily count 10 blatant wrong decisions and some absolutely baffling yellow cards. What are Croke Park saying to these refs? they all seem so nervous and uptight its unreal? Worrying really. Sean Cleere seemed intent on changing the handpass rule himself on Saturday night wheras in both matches on Sunday i can't recall one free for throwing the ball. Then Johnny Murphy was handing out yellow cards for the craic on Sunday but missed O' Mahoneys blatant red?" yeah, some poor ref decisions on Sunday, no doubt. But as for the refs seeming nervous and uptight, I can understand that. They're in a no-win situation. Implement the actual rules, and blow for actual fouls consistently, and they'll be accused of destroying the flow of the game, making it a stop start affair etc, even if they apply the advantage rule well. If they let 'the game go', they'll be raked over the coals for not blowing up blatant fouls. And if they do try and 'let the game go', its their own subjective opinion on the context of a foul that will decide if they blow up. So fouls will inevitably be called inconsistently. And they'll get this from the media, not just the fans. Look at Saturday night. The referee was being called out for blowing up for thrown handpasses. The commentators on TV said this was worrying, as it would slow down the game. Further reasoning was because of the way players now get bunched up, and their passing arm gets held, a clean pass is impossible. That arm holding is another foul thats gotten called out before, but doesn't get blown up regularly because it would, you guessed it, slow down the game. So because fouls involving grabbing the player in possession's arms don't get blown up, the player has to commit another foul to let the ball go. Then at half time, you had the pundits on pitch arguing that you can't blow for throws, because the hand pass is so quick now., it can consist of 'one millimeter' hand movements. How on earth is a ref thats 10-15 away (if they can even get that close given how fast the game now goes) discern a throw from a one millimeter hand twitch? I think the requirements being put on hurling referees are becoming impossible to satisfy, so I imagine we'll see erratic reffing performances like we saw on Sunday. Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 04/02/2019 17:11:02 2162564 Link
Marlon_JD you are dead right. the worst of all was the wexford one where conor mcdonald got a yellow card when he tried to pull his hurl off the cork player who was holdng it and it broke.the referee booked him. there was so many poor decisions,i think what the referees need to do is ask themselves 1 question,was there intent or malice in what the player did.if the answer is no,then you cant possibly be booking or sending players off. i hate the twitter referees though,there are too many of them,michael duignan,daithi regan,anthony daly,to name a few. i also hate the "book them both" mentality,i personally think you should book the instigator provided the reacting player didn't say break a hurl across him in retaliation.if a player is provoked,i have no problem with him standing up for himself. perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 04/02/2019 20:37:46 2162619 Link
Any thoughts on this weekend's games? PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 15/02/2019 13:54:25 2165493 Link
Replying To PortInFaithful: "Any thoughts on this weekend's games?" The Kilkenny v Limerick match intrigues me the most. Should be a great one. Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 2509 - 15/02/2019 14:17:42 2165503 Link