The Offaly county board were moved to rebuke Daithi Regan three years ago when he predicted that Offaly faced a Christy Ring future.
One wonders how they'll deal now with having a couple of their number compared with a famous fictional mobster.
According to Daithi, several Offaly county board members have a thing or two to teach Michael Corleone in the skullduggery department. Young Mikey needed to shed himself of those few remaining scruples.
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There was some amiable chat on Off the Ball tonight about the dreary nature of the League Final before Daithi was let loose on Offaly hurling and all who currently sail in her.
Interestingly, he suggested that the rot set in at schools level during the mid-nineties, when the Offaly senior team were still flying.
Three years ago, I got lambasted in our county for suggesting that, within three years, we would be a Christy Ring side.
There's too many people with their heads up their asses who couldn't see what was happening in our county, where our county was going, the inadequacies at school level, from primary schools through to our principal secondary schools, and I refer to Birr Community School and Banagher Vocational School, where back in the 80s, both were winning All-Ireland finals and hammering the likes of Kieran's College and North Mon.
The current county board are not the core problem in relation to the ills of Offaly hurling at the moment. That began in the early-to-mid nineties, with the types of coaching that were lost.
But what I will say about the county board now is that they've absolutely buried their heads in the sand over the last few years.
Why can I say this? Because I know enough of them. I've had enough dealings with them. I've attacked and questioned the county board chairman. I know three years ago when I stated we would be Christy Ring, he used a public forum to basically question my contribution to Offaly over 12 or 13 years.
Michael Corleone wouldn't hold a candle to some of these guys, to be honest with you. Hurling is dying on its knees. It's died for twenty years. And successive county boards have stood over it and watched it.
He wouldn't hear any criticism of new manager Eamon Kelly.
The problem lies with a county board that has had their heads lodged up their posterior for a couple of decades now. In Daithi's telling, they only seem to remove their heads from their backside to bawl him out of it.
The other problem is a bit of a leftfield one from Daithi.
The players.
People were asking, Daithi said, why Kelly had dropped a number of well-regarded players off the panel. Daithi had an answer for those people. Quite simply, because they're 'gobshites'.
Eamon Kelly is a damn good coach and a damn good trainer. Eamon Kelly, and I know from guys involved in the panel, they've been very complimentary towards him.
And what he did this year in Offaly, he made it very clear if you want to play at the highest level in Offaly, these are the lifestyle choices you must make.
There's an amount of people in Offaly questioning why don't we have our best team out, why aren't some of these players togged out?
They're not there and they won't tog out cos they're gobshites. Because they weren't willing to commit to the levels that this man has required for our county, which he rightly has done.
And there is apologists out there lacing him for not having them there. I admire him. He's a really, really good coach.
We are where we are. We are not a good side. We are a poor hurling side.
