Tipp and Clare will contest the Munster final
hard to know about Leinster and dont know what Leinster is like

thurlesblues (Tipperary) - Posts: 4475 - 14/05/2012 14:52:23    1171889

Leinster is unpredictable tb. Wexford have some really good young fellas coming through at schools and underage. Cats of course. Well what can you say! Dubs could be anything. Know nothing about Laois. Interesting year.

hurlingdub (Dublin) - Posts: 6978 - 14/05/2012 19:42:53    1172264

Yeah bennybunny it is in New Ross and would get players from places like Mullinavat and Glenmore but I am told that there was a lot more Wexford men on the team. It is only U-14 but good to be winning at any level and it breeds confidence in players. But your right too about beating KK in U-21 last year was great but counted for nothing when we lost to Dublin in the final. But the most positive thing overall is that Wexford and Dublin in particular are taking the battle to KK at underage and that bodes well for the future. Offaly and Laois are probably a bit back in terms of development at underage but they will get their too with the same work going in. It was disappointing to see Carlow beaten by so much by Dublin, I thought they were going in the right direction.
Keeper7 we had 19 barren years waiting for Bob O'Keefe in Wexford pre 1996 but hope it wont take that long. Having said that we've waited 7 already! But there is great work going in to underage hurling in all the clubs and that will hopefully bear fruit. Young lads are picking up the hurls again after years of neglect.
Sadly senior is a write off for another few years I feel but all we can do is keep going.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 14/05/2012 19:56:30    1172281

Bennybunny/Pinkie there was 12 Wexford men and 3 Kilkenny men on that Good Counsel team.

perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 14/05/2012 20:01:06    1172288

thurlesblues
County: Tipperary
Posts: 3495

1171889
Tipp and Clare will contest the Munster final
hard to know about Leinster and dont know what Leinster is like

Not as straight forward as that. Munster is very wide open has been the last few years and will be this year aswell. Not much between the 4 teams left. I know you wont admit to it but Clare, Waterford and limerick have caught up to Tipp and Cork who nearly always dominated in this grade. Results over the past 4 years prove that.

In Leinster Wexford manage to avoid KK and Dublin this year so should get an AI quarter final at least. Theyve been unlucky the last few years so theyve a chance to go and do something this year. Sorry didnt mean to disrespect Laois but Id imagine wexford should get through

deisebhoy (Waterford) - Posts: 416 - 14/05/2012 20:52:38    1172326

Leinster it will be Wexford and Kilkenny but then again Laois could shock Wexford, this is their best chance in a long while.
Clare and Tipp in Munster.
Antrim to win Ulster easily
Galway to win it out.

fonejacker (Kildare) - Posts: 315 - 14/05/2012 21:02:02    1172338

deisebhoy Wexford beat Dublin last weekend.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 14/05/2012 21:02:42    1172340

Clare look a real quality side though, them or Galway to win it out.
Great for Clare thats 3 good minor teams in a row now, long may it continue!!!!!

fonejacker (Kildare) - Posts: 315 - 14/05/2012 21:09:09    1172347

Four years ago there was an U14 AI Championship can't remember if it was in Waterford / Carlow direction and the best team on display was Laois. So not surprised they are now getting noticed at U18. They had a boy from the KK border and he was fantastic.

Brian_Coyote (Antrim) - Posts: 346 - 14/05/2012 21:57:22    1172408

Pinkie Im aware of that I meant at that semi final/knock out stages.

deisebhoy (Waterford) - Posts: 416 - 15/05/2012 08:09:32    1172411

What I mean when I say that there's no reason why laois shouldn't be aiming to produce good minor teams on a regular basis is that they have quite a competitive club scene and so the structures are already in place to start properly training the players and producing teams. Unlike somewhere like carlow who had to start from scratch.

The underage work is starting to bring rewards to wexford. I hope they win Leinster this year but you need 5 years of being competitive in minor before it will start having an impact on the competitiveness of the seniors.
Is storey any good of a manager for wexford minors?

hurlinspuds (Cork) - Posts: 1494 - 15/05/2012 10:24:54    1172462

hurlinspuds
County: Cork
Posts: 981


The underage work is starting to bring rewards to wexford. I hope they win Leinster this year but you need 5 years of being competitive in minor before it will start having an impact on the competitiveness of the seniors.
Is storey any good of a manager for wexford minors?

I am not sure what you mean by competitive hurling spuds. I think you need to be competitive certainly but that does not mean you have to win anything. I think Wexford have been competitive but just have not won much recently. That said,they have won the same amount of trophies at minor level as we have won recently (none) but would you say that Cork are not competitive? I think that we are competitive, possibly more so than ever, it just so happens we have already being knocked out of the championship for the year. However that is due to Clare doing extremely well rather than Cork in decline. We were not hammered in any of the games that we played but are out.

Wexford/Cork are anybody's competitiveness will depend on people in the county playing the game/the level of suitably organized competition in that county etc..Thankfully in the last few years, after decades of arrogance and neglect by an intransient county board, we in Cork are moving very much in the right direction with the establishment of Coiste Na n-Og (the abolition of the old Bord Na n-Og) and development squads... we have not won any trophies (In hurling) yet but winning trophies at intercounty level depends on other factors like a bit of luck/a tactically acute coach/team spirit/team workrate/ a bit of extra class

I am not sure if we can say how competitive other counties are. I would have thought that Carlow were very competitive but they got a most depserate hammering at the weekend.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 15/05/2012 12:21:20    1172587

carlow aren't that competitive at minor....they got to a leinster final a few years ago but that's about it.

Cork haven't won anything in a while at minor and rarely have gone on any kind of a run. We are not competitive at the moment.

Wexford seem to be starting to be. Last years minors were respectable and this years seem to be pretty good.

hurlinspuds (Cork) - Posts: 1494 - 15/05/2012 13:14:01    1172639

Hurlingspuds I hope you are right, in fairness we have been competitive the last 2-3 years at U-21 although we couldnt win it, the fruits of the effort that has went in since that disastrous loss to Carlow at minor will still take time to bear fruit although we are starting to see better hurlers appearing on the Wexford senior team, even if it will take time for these players to become leaders on the team. I still think it'll be 5 years min before we are even competing for Leinster, and in fairness with KK's dominance if your competing for Leinster your competing for the All-Ireland. Storey is doing OK, I still think he is a small bit naive tactically but he has 2 excellent selectors in Liam Griffin and Willie Cleary. Liam needs no introduction and Willie is 26/27 years old (or there abouts) and almost won a county title with Rathnure last year.
Bennybunny your dead right, success at inter-county level depends on things going right on the day and the like, but to be even competitive at inter-county level as you say the work needs to go on in the clubs. Thankfully that seems to be the case in Wexford and Cork and the work will pay off provided it continues, lets hope for an All-Ireland meeting when this effort starts to pay off! But hurling needs Wexford, Cork, Clare, Laois, Dublin etc to continue the work now and not pat ourselves on the back. Lets hope Offaly, Carlow, Antrim etc can put in place the structures we have done, because that is the only way to progress and there are no quick fixes.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 15/05/2012 13:20:21    1172644

It's a pity to see Carlow and particularly Offaly struggling to be competitive at this level. Hurling needs them all.

perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 15/05/2012 17:19:30    1172885

Pinkie I have a further update on that Good Counsel team that beat St Keirans-23 of the squad are from Wexford,7 are from Kilkenny,and 1 chap is from Carlow.

perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 16/05/2012 11:09:09    1173293

Hurlingspuds/Perfect 10

I guess we have different opinions of what competitive means (which is of course fine). To me competitive means having a chance of winning something or to be approximately at the same level as your opponents and for the games between the sides to be close (ie no team hammering the other on a consistent basis). Competitive does not mean (to me) actually winning trophies.

I think that Offaly are competitive. They only lost to Laois to by a single point. Let us now see what Laois will do against Wexford (who have already beaten Dublin in the championship). This will give us more of an idea of how competitive Offaly have been.

Cork, in my opinion, are most certainly competitive. They only lost by a point to Limerick. With a bit of luck we could be in the championship rather than this current melodrama among so called GAA writers in Cork that there is a minor hurling "crisis". The fact is that Clare and Limerick have improved an awful lot over the last few years and we should not expect to routinely beat them. We are as good as them but we just lost to them (both teams deserved their victories) but there is no crisis, you just get on with it for next year.

Carlow on the other hand were quite disappointing. I did not expect them to lose by that much. Maybe some of the Leinster posters might upadte on the level of competition that Carlow players regularly get? How many clubs are there in Carlow? Do the players have a regular programme of fixtures (or is hurling a sceond class sport compared to football)? Do their clubs play in Kilkenny or Wexford leagues?

To have a good underage teams that are competitive, you need good coaching, a well organized structure of games that are suitable to the level of the players and schools that actively promote hurling. Once you have that, you are well on your way (though this does not guarantee success).

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 16/05/2012 14:37:48    1173538

I was surprised by the Carlow V Dublin scoreline because Carlow beat Westmeath, who in turn only lost to Laois by 2 points (I think). It could've been just one of those freak results that occasionally happen at underage where a team gets a run on their opponents early on.

I think there are only 7 hurling clubs in Carlow.

Did anyone read the press releases about the Carlow seniors saying that they've already achieved their goal for the season (i.e. promotion to Div 1B) & they've only been getting 14 at training coming up to the championship???

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4089 - 16/05/2012 15:54:55    1173631

yes its wide open between Tipp Kilkenny and Cork

Tipp should win 19th All-Ireland though to go with 27th at senior also this year

Deiseboy Waterford have not closed the gap on Tipp at minor level tipp won two in a row in 06 and 07 and have 18 in total
when did Waterford win a title last and how many have they? one? two?

thurlesblues (Tipperary) - Posts: 4475 - 16/05/2012 16:08:58    1173653

sorry I meant to say between Tipp Kilkenny and Galway as Cork are gone!!

thurlesblues (Tipperary) - Posts: 4475 - 16/05/2012 16:10:13    1173655