A major effort to restore Offaly hurling to its place among the top hurling counties will kick off with an Offaly Hurling Open Forum on this Wednesday (September 10).

A Leinster Council initiative, headed by former Offaly Manager, Diarmuid Healy has been established to put a process in place to re-establish Offaly as a top hurling county.

An Offaly Hurling Committee has been put to assist in the process.  The committee is chaired by Kieran Keenaghan(St Rynagh's) and includes Pat Cleary(Ballinamere); Joe Errity(Birr), Cillian Farrell(Edenderry), Martin Hanamy(St Rynagh's); Liam Hogan(Ballyboden St Enda's and formerly Coolderry); Finian McDermott(Tullamore); Damien Martin(St Rynagh's), Pat O'Connor(Coolderry) and Diarmuid Healy.

The role of the committee is to identify issues, identify solutions to those issues, draft plans to deal with the issues and identify people to implement those plans.

The committee has already indentified coaching and team preparation at club and county level as two major issues.  Plans are already being drafted to organise courses in coaching and team preparation by top coaches from outside the county.

High powered intensive courses are also being planned for all county mentors to commence in October.

An Offaly Hurling Open Forum will be held in the County Arms Hotel, Birr on Wednesday September 10 at 8pm.  This Forum will consist of presentations by Diarmuid Healy and former Kilkenny selector, Martin Fogarty on Stage 1 of Offaly Recovery -Coaching/Team Preparation which will focus on defining hurling, coaching and team preparation.  This will be followed by questions and answers and a sharing of ideas of how to restore Offaly to its rightful place among the top hurling counties. 

The Forum is open to all.  Club officials, team mentors, players and club members are particularly encouraged to attend.

Individuals willing to submit ideas can also contact any member of the above committee or email Diarmuid Healy at [email protected]

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