Surprise packets Brosna Gaels face a tough test against K/K

The resumption of the Offaly hurling championships this weekend will see senior hurling action taking place in six different venues across the county, thus providing plenty of interesting choices for supporters looking to take in a game or two. With two rounds of fixtures already completed, the tables have an interesting look about them, particularly in group 1, where Brosna Gaels are the surprise package of the year so far and they sit happily with two wins from two games. . When the Gaels first hurled in the senior championship in 2010, they pulled off a shock win over Seir Kieran in the early rounds before eventually getting pulled into a relegation play-off and losing out to Belmont. This year they have another shock win on the board at the expense of Kinnitty and it will be fascinating to see if they can build on that success this time around against Kilcormac/Killoughey. For the moment the Intermediate champions look a lot stronger and more cohesive than they were two summers ago, but it's easy to look good winning games - beating a good team like Kilcormac/Killoughey is another matter. The commentary and analysis since Brosna's game against Kinnitty has been fascinating and more than a few supporters have remarked that Brosna Gaels "aren't the most natural hurlers". The love of stylish, wristy hurlers runs deep in Offaly and sometimes teams that do things a different way aren't always accepted or respected quite as much as they could be. The irony is that if we were to measure Offaly clubs by the attributes required to succeed at inter-county level, Brosna Gaels would score a lot better than most "traditional" clubs. In fact it's a sad indictment of the state of hurling in Offaly that there remains that patronising attitude to the kind of powerful, possession based hurling that is employed by all successful teams on a national level. Ask anyone what was the biggest single factor behind Galway's win over Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling final and chances are they would talk about the intensity and ferocity that the Tribesmen brought to the table and how they dominated the battle for possession. Kilkenny were denied a score until nearly half-time and it wasn't that they were missing chances - they weren't even getting the ball. Far more scores in modern hurling come from a player winning a high ball and drawing a free than from clever flicks and touches, yet we see teams like Brosna Gaels getting damned by faint praise, rather than appreciated for their mastery of the more modern aspects of hurling. Their opponents on Sunday have also been lambasted in the past for not spending all their time trying to play a more evolved style, and for the fact that there will be some tactical variance on display, this could be the highlight of the weekend. Many of the fixtures have been discussed in the betting column that can be found elsewhere in this edition of the Offaly Independent, but to leave any meeting of Birr and St Rynagh's pass without further comment would be to do a disservice to a rivalry that was perhaps the most celebrated club rivalry in the country throughout the 1990s. These two clubs have already played out a wonderful under-21 final this year and tomorrow's clash in Kinnitty will be very illuminating. Birr comfortably won last year's county semi-final but the stage is set for this group of St Rynagh's hurlers to step up to a new level and the age profile of the squad suggests that now is the right time for them to do so. By no stretch of the imagination are the Banagher club struggling at underage level, but they aren't dominant either and they need this current group of 18-21 year old hurlers to start leading their senior team very soon. It's not easy to prove yourself against established performers like Rory Hanniffy, Paul Cleary, Dylan Hayden and Seán Ryan, but that's the level that Rynagh's now have to find if they are to become county championship contenders. A blip against Shinrone can be forgiven if it turns out to be just one bad day at the office - but now they need to put a big win over a big team on the board. Birr, for their part, need to rediscover their form quickly. A narrow win over Drumcullen doesn't evoke imagery of the great Birr teams of times gone by, teams that would have eaten that Drumcullen side alive in a championship situation. However, that greater spread of players with senior county experience will stand to them and defensively at least, they have some talented young players coming through. They also have several good hurlers unavailable to them, but even so this game is of huge psychological importance as it's been a long time now since St Rynagh's beat Birr in a meaningful senior championship game and breaking that duck will never be an easy thing to do. The curtain raiser to that match is the meeting of St Rynagh's and Carrig & Riverstown in the Intermediate championship and anyone who has the time could do a lot worse than to take in this fixture. Carrig & Riverstown may have only won two games in the league, but they've had a lot of decent displays in good company too and they should be learning from their experience of hurling at that level. Both these sides should make the knockout stages of the championship this year, but a win in this fixture against a good St Rynagh's side would be a big boost to Carrig & Riverstown and might give them the confidence to push things on to another level - and as we've seen from Brosna Gaels this year, any new blood in the senior championship has the potential to really shake things up on their arrival.