The Monday Morning After

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
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Lone Shark
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The Monday Morning After

Post by Lone Shark »

Not many of the fans who journeyed to the Nurburgring Circuit last weekend for the European Grand Prix would consider themselves to be of a similar breed to the 35,000 souls who clicked through the turnstiles in Croke Park on Sunday. And yet sitting disconsolately on Hill 16 at ten to four, some five minutes after Ross Munnelly’s shot had been added to this Offaly team’s list of Championship hard luck stories, it was hard not to see the similarity. Of the 100,000 plus spectators who took in the Formula 1 in Germany over the weekend, it’s probably fair to say that a good proportion were probably there for the thrills, spills, and if truth be told, to see a good crash or two. No doubt the midlands followers split across Hogan, Cusack, Canal and Hill wouldn’t thank you for being compared to such a breed of sports fan, but Offaly fans on Sunday witnessed a crash of the most spectacular and fiery variety, and what’s worse, if you were anything like Lone Shark at the time, it felt like you had paid in to see the crashing of your very own car, two or three days after the insurance ran out.

People might say that this result was far from inevitable, and in one sense they have a point. However when you start the inquest into the defeat, and you look at the reasons it came about, it’s not hard to see how painfully predictable it all was. Depending on your perspective, the causes included first and foremost the shooting of nineteen wides. Horrific though that might sound, this is maybe two or three above the average for this team, and no more. Anyone who had followed this team around the country in the spring, or travelled to Navan some three weeks ago would have seen a team with great passing and movement but a chronic inability to hit the target. To have hit nine wides as opposed to nineteen would have been much more a much more unlikely outcome.

Others might say that we conceded a sloppy goal as a result of a mistake. Again sad though it is to say, this is hardly an unusual occurrence for this team. It was hard on Scott Brady, for whom this was an unfortunate last act in a wonderful display, but this Offaly side concedes goals. When Fermanagh scored a goal on Armagh two weeks ago it was the first goal that team had conceded for over a year of Championship football. To find the last time Offaly put two clean sheets back to back requires some serious archive research.

There are those who talk of the poor display from Ciarán McManus as being disappointing and surprising. Without meaning to be harsh on the Tubber legend, who has been among the country’s elite midfielders for some time, his acrimonious relationship with Croke Park is by now long established. It was once put to me that when he doesn’t try to win the game by himself, he’s invariably the main reason why we do win. When he decides he has to carry the team by himself, and Lone Shark is very aware of the perversity of admonishing a player for trying too hard, he invariably falls between more stools than you’d find in all the bars in Offaly, and only gives away possession in his quest to atone for his mistakes. Anyone who saw his performance this year in Donegal in that vital league match will testify to how he can still be a match winner on his day. Headquarters has always brought out the worst in him however, and yesterday was no different. There were many reasons why Offaly came out worst on Sunday, but to say it was unexpected is a touch too naïve.

And so to the qualifiers - the Saturday Night Fish’n’Chip Shop Tour, as Colm O’Rourke so famously labelled it some years ago. Having witnessed the car crash, the next step is to salvage enough from the wreckage to restore the vehicle to something approximating its former glory. For this team to get a run going and gather momentum, several things will have to happen. This coming weekend’s round of club fixtures are a blessing, as it will allow the players to go back to their clubs, take their minds off another Leinster Championship gone awry, and get back into the rhythm of playing football. After that, the question is how to remedy the assorted ills of the team. The lack of a natural leader in the forward division is one issue which became very apparent on Sunday. Certainly Colm Quinn’s role in the team as a third midfielder leaves the front unit short of a cool head in a crisis. Ironically, this is where the intelligent play of someone like Damien Hunt, new and all as he is to the county scene, could be useful to bring back on board. His natural pace gives him time on the ball, and his ability to find players in space and distribute the ball could give the other forwards the extra split second that could be the difference between good and bad shot selection. With so many potentially good young forwards yet a shortage of consistency, there is also a serious lesson to be learned by management – do not be shy to make substitutions. Scoring forwards are streaky creatures, and only the truly great players have the ability to play their way out of a slump at the highest level. While in Niall McNamee, Thomas Deehan, James Coughlan, John Reynolds, Neville Coughlan and Paschal Kelleghan we have several options for the inside line, we should be quicker to replace those that aren’t having a good day. While Jimmy and Niall are both first choice on merit, and can be very free scoring when in form, neither have great knack for recovering from a bad start, and as such leaving them on too long when they are clearly struggling rarely ends well.

All said and done, supporters and players alike however should remember that this is a Laois team rated as Leinster favourites and All Ireland contenders by most observers. Offaly dominated them in many areas of the pitch, and had the winning of the game but for some wild shooting. Conor Evans is maturing into one of the finest full backs in the land, and Alan McNamee followed up his great display in Navan with another fine performance here – these are key areas of the field that were serious concerns only a few short months ago. There is still great potential in this side, and if the draw for the next round leaves us with a little travelling to do, Lone Shark is exhorting all who can to make whatever trip we are drawn with, and show the faith that we are known for. That this side is remarkably unfortunate is beyond doubt, but Clive Woodward led the England Rugby team to the top of the pile by emphasising the mantra that the best teams always do enough to allow for even the worst of luck running against them. We are less away from that stage than many would believe, and if the players are to keep putting in the commitment it’s only fair that we do too. See you on the terraces……

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