Offaly vs Laois preview

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Lone Shark
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Offaly vs Laois preview

Post by Lone Shark »

Offaly Potentially, Laois Probably


As anyone who has spent any time working in the gambling industry in this country knows, you can travel the length and breadth of the world and you will not find any more patriotic punters than the Irish. Unlike others who commit nothing but devotion, we invariably decide to part with our hard earned for good measure. As a result no bookie ever wants Ireland to win the Six Nations, Padraig Harrington to win a US Masters, or even Donna and Joe to win the Eurovision. (Granted the good people at Powers and Boyles mightn’t have lost too much sleep over that one!) But not content with engaging in this massive self delusion on a national level, even on a local basis we tend to decide that our boys are going to do the business, whoever our boys may be. Rest assured that the wagers being laid in Portlaoise and Tullamore over the next few days will reflect just that.

Lone Shark will confess to having indulged in this practise previously, but having seen the error of his ways, is speaking from the head alone when he says that Laois are the more likely victors this Sunday in Croke Park.

There is an accepted wisdom out there that Laois are part of a second tier of teams in the All Ireland football championship – behind Kerry, Armagh and Tyrone, but in there with Mayo, Dublin, Donegal and Galway as dark horses who could be there or thereabouts if they got the rub of the green. Offaly on the other hand are widely presumed to be a good resilient tenacious team with not an inconsiderable talent, who will never go down easily but invariably will go down. The Lone Shark view runs very contrary to this, and goes something like this – Laois are a solid and consistent team, with good performers all over the field, and can be depended on to play to at or near their potential – and that should be good enough to win on Sunday. However they do not have enough to win the All Ireland, and in this writers humble opinion do not have enough to win Leinster. The loss of Colm Parkinson has cost them a lot of their flair and unpredictability, while Beano McDonald, a great player before his injury, has been struggling to find his form since his return. Darren Rooney was a fantastic attacking threat from wing back, but he has been called into action at full back in recent times, and this too has blunted their attacking edge. These losses have cost Laois their X factor, that ability to create something special that is needed to compete with the very best. Players like Fergal Byron, Tom Kelly, Noel Garvan and Ross Munnelly are all fine players in their own right, each of whom are as good in their chosen position as you will find anywhere in the country, but only Knockbeg college student Donie Brennan has really inspired their followers over the spring, and it’s a huge ask of a school student to be the talisman to carry his team into the last eight of the All Ireland and beyond.

In contrast to this, Offaly are very short on blue chip performers in the key roles. Shane Sullivan at centre back, Alan McNamee in the fielding role are both good and developing players with bags of potential, and Mark Daly has been a solid performer for years now, but when you put them up against Conway, Garvan and Kelly, you see how Laois have experience and dependability. There is no question that in a serious role reversal on recent years Offaly now look to have the sharper inside forward line than their southern neighbours, particularly with Paschal Kelleghan back on board, whose recent form has been very encouraging, including scoring five points in last weeks challenge match against Roscommon. That said, we still lack a player with the ability to put up three or four points from play on a bad day, or with very little service, so again it’s a case of potential rather than proven class. However while Offaly are much more in development, this panel of players has the ability to compete with the very best – are players like Niall McNamee, Ciarán McManus and Colm Quinn are certainly not short on ability to produce something magical, our X factor if you will.

Several key individual battles will go a long way towards deciding the winner of this match. Karol Slattery and Ross Munnelly had a fiery confrontation in the O’Byrne cup match between these sides in January, and a renewal of hostilities looks likely here. Certainly any Gracefield man will not lack for motivation going into battle against Laois, so if he can channel that aggression Slattery can have a big say in how this match goes.

Alan McNamee had one of his best ever intercounty performances against Louth in Navan, but he has to face a much more formidable opponent in Noel Garvan on Sunday. Garvan is solid in possession, a fantastic fielder and a good passer of the ball. McNamee will have to use all of his fitness to bring Garvan around the pitch, and hopefully play the game on his terms. If he does this, the Rhode man can cancel out Laois’s main man and will have done more than his share.

The clash between Mark Daly and Tom Kelly at centre forward/back concerns the Lone Shark deeply. Mark Daly has struggled to rediscover his form of past seasons this year, and while he brings a lot to the table in terms of physical presence and distribution of the ball, Tom Kelly is the platform around which Laois build their entire basketball style game. He covers countless yards up and down the pitch, and the selection of Damien Hunt for the Louth match appeared to be with this in mind. What Hunt did wrong is a mystery to this observer, and to expect Mark Daly to do a marking job like this in this stage of his career seems unrealistic to say the least. Laois will be looking to Kelly to carry the ball at Offaly and support off the shoulder as he does, and Daly will have his work cut out trying to stop this at source.

It goes without saying that this will be a close game. This cliché is over used in recent years by commentators who have perfected the art of fence sitting, but in a fixture where an aggregate of two points separates the sides over their four championship meetings this decade (Offaly 2-51 Laois 5-40), it would be foolish to predict anything else. However for all Offaly’s potential, Laois have won many more games than our lads in recent years, and with a close finish almost guaranteed, their experience and know how is likely to prove the difference. Just if you see the Lone Shark on Hill 16 before throw in next Sunday, don’t remind me, because that self delusion is due to kick in any day now, and I’d hate to spoil it …….

Offaly Team for Sunday: Padraig Kelly, Cathal Daly, Conor Evans, Scott Brady, Barry Mooney, Shane Sullivan, Karol Slattery, Ciarán McManus, Alan McNamee, Colm Quinn, Mark Daly, Neville Coughlan, James Coughlan, Paschal Kelleghan, Niall McNamee.

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