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enough is enough

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 12:24 am
by jimbob17
0k folks, enough is enough. lets call a spade a spade. the whole thing is rotten from top to bottom and seious changes are needed. we were beat 5 points by the dubs, but in all seriosness the dubs were at least 15 points a better team. it was embarrassing to say the least and for this i think heads should roll. it is very easy to point fingers at pat roe but we should be looking at the bigger picture. now everyone agrees that things were far from perfect under the killer but at least the team was well prepared by qualified people in the backroom team, despite little backing from the county board. they were competitive in div 1 of the NFL and had some good wins in challenges, o beirne cups league and championship beating armagh roscommon cork longford wicklow tipperary clare wexford fermanagh louth laois kildare donegal westmeath and were competitive in most games along the way all with full strength teams. in championship they were robbed by a ross munnelly goal after playing laois off the pitch and hitting 22 wides and reached a leinster final beating reasonable teams along the way. granted we were beaten by carlow and laois badly in qualifiers but players will tell you that there were lads on the beer solid up to 3 days before them games and put in little effort. massive shame last year with a q final place at stake. however, offaly are where they are because the same level of preparation was not put in this year and this happened because the county board put the structures in place and roe bowed his head to them unlike fahy and kilmurray.

GAA management is a business nowadays and while other county boards have individuals with foresight and cop on, offaly have stayed with the tried and trusted who rule with a tight iron fist. it has been brought to my attention that PR took on the job under certain conditions, one being that he wouldnt have group training sessions till january came because the co board wanted to cut down in expenses, effectively robbing of valuable time to get the players into shape after their excesses of the previous months. group gym sessions were also abandoned and players were given a programme to do, Titled (wexford senior football 2005) can you believe it, saw a copy with my own eyes, of which about 6 did correctly. players have commented openly that they werent physically prepared for battle with the dubs and this cost them effectively their place in the qualifiers too with all them early league defeats. co board officials have not got one iota of an idea of what is required to prepare a competitive inter county football team and try to cut corners at every opportunity. pat roe was left in a situation where he had no third selector despite half the county being asked because the county and its mother knew that things werent right and wanted nothing to do with the county board. he had no physical trainer coz id say the co board werent willing to pay someone to do it. hence you are lookin at a set up with two men to do the work of four for most of the year. i felt sorry for roe the last day because i think he might be good if he had the necessary back up.

as for the players, offaly football is wasting its time with some of them shapers. lads who have never achieved anything are doing the pub scene all over the county for the past 6 months up to a week before championship (FACT) parading as superstars, who do they think they are, there is also an underbelly of serious issues (and everyone has heard the rumours) regarding who some county players are hanging around with. being sucked into an ugly murky world that is so far away from where a senior inter county footballer should be. enough said. you cant be a good drinker and a good footballer at the same time.

so that is it folks, you get what you deserve in this world. div 1 to div 4 in the space of 6 months, tommy murphy, here we come. it all came out in the wash.
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jimbob