tom coffey new offaly manager

[clubman]

good choice by county board,thought he should have got it last time.hope all row in behind him.

[SearingDrive]

Just heard on RTE that Tom Coffey is the interim manager. Does that mean we will go through last year's charade again after the championship?
There won't be too many candidates queueing up for the job.

[substandard]

Hope it goes well for him, it'll be a tough ask to be ready for Kildare game, he and the players will need all the support they can get. Operation salvage what can be salvaged from this season, and have a stable structure to work on from the off next year.

[ryot]

Best wishes to Tom Coffey who has taken on the responsibility.

Lets hope everybody, County Board, Supporters and of course the playersgive him all the support he needs.

Kildare will be a big obstacle (living in the place for 39 years I know the effort put in) but Offaly must get that, "No Fear", attitude back and go for it.

[onthefence]

Best of luck to Tom Coffey hopefully he can lift the panel and retore a little bit of pride

[Unrealbanter]

Best of luck to tom and the lads,any word on who he has with him???

[azoffaly]

Best of luck to Tom. A good man, and I hope it works out for him. I fear it's a poisoned chalice this year, but if he can halt the slide and get some pride in the performances, he may convince people he deserves a proper shot at it.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Best of luck to Tom in the role. I hope he can make some headway with the players and that some of the guys come back in and give him the support he deserves.
Is he going to keep on his role with Athlone? If thats the case then he is going to be one busy man.

Any idea of the backroom team that he will bring with him to try and salvage something from the season?

It still remains a mess, what do the CB do? They need to give Coffey the space and support to do the role in the short term but what do they do if they dont feel that he is the right man for the long term?
I would suspect they will do nothing until Offaly are gone from the championship, but whatever happens Coffey must be given a shot at interviewing for the job on a proper basis, and the big thing is who is going to be doing the recruiting! They've made a right old mess of the last few appointments.

If there is any sort of credibility to be restored to Offaly football there must be a root and branch breakdown done of the issues that have gotten us into this mess ,and what can be done about about it, with responsibilty assigned to every club, coach & supporter in the county to start to put it right.
The GoGames seem to be a step in the right direction this year,the performance of Edenderry and Gallen, the u21s and Coolderrys performance are other chinks of light.
Yet there is a deep malaise at the minute that needs to be addressed around both football and hurling. And I really think that the clubs are responsible, and players are suffering at the minute from trying to secure jobs and hold them down to seeing young friends leaving to work abroad, and the other elephant in the room, depression and suicide. There is a real onus on clubs to tackle alchol and depression among young players. I know it may be a little over the top , but real awareness needs to driven about the benefits of sport to kids, and local GAA clubs need to drive this more through the schools.

Anyway look, maybe we have reached the bottom in football terms, and will be looking forward to how the minors do this summer.

[jimbob17]

Best of luck to Tom in the role which will no doubt be a difficult task. He is a brave man to take it on. does anybody know who is in with him helping out. For once one would have to commend the county board for going back for Tom Coffey. I would have thought that he would nt have been considered by the dinosaurs as he was overlooked previously.

Looking forward, I hope the players dig in now and work hard for the next 6/7 weeks and put in some sort of reasonable effort. They appeared to me to be well short of fitness throughout the league for whatever reason. The game has moved on a lot in the last ten years and the speed of it now is ferocious at the top level. We might see a few older heads called up i reckon in the short term to add some leadership to the team, just speculation, anyone any info???

[summerindublin]

Best of luck, the right man for the present, he'll have them well organised and as fit as possible, what more can we ask for, hear that Phil O'Reilly is one of his cohorts.

[bracknaghboy]

Yes Coffey should get the respect of the players....although there are some players on the panel who there will be no getting through to and are a lost cause. Nobody else has touched on what I am about to say but here goes. I'm not sure Coffey is the man for the job. He tends not be make changes when things are going against his team. He was clueless in 2008 in the Leinster Club final when Rhode began to collapse and stood by and did nothing in 2010 in the Leinster final when Rhode were being destroyed at midfield. Rhode were a talented bunch and when ticking over nicely they were well able for most teams without much sideline inout, however when things went wrong or it was put up to them (eg. 2009 county final) there seemed to no answers from the sideline.....except throwing on Roy Malone for the last 10 minutes!!
The only aim of the Kildare is a damage limitation excercise, the Offaly manager will need to be thinking on his feet from the first minutes to identify where they are exploiting us or getting on top during the game. I'm not sure that this is a strength of Tom Coffeys.

[red exile]

Best of luck to Tom Coffey , delighted to see him get a chance, 6 weeks to whip the squad into shape will be hard work , while Kildare were in Portugal on a 10 day training camp we were trying to replace our manager so realistically a 2 or 3 match run in the qualifiers would exceed my expectations this year

[bracknaghboy]

Coffey has confirmed he will be staying on with Athlone as well. I feel this won't help. An intercounty manager should be fully focussed on the county team and not sidetracked by a club side well in my opinion. This will turn out to be another half hearted half arsed appointment.

[Sharp Eye]

Coffey has confirmed he will be staying on with Athlone as well. I feel this won't help. An intercounty manager should be fully focussed on the county team and not sidetracked by a club side well in my opinion. This will turn out to be another half hearted half arsed appointment.

I do not agree, Dinny Cahill was able to manage Antrim, St Rynaghs, Portumna and the Kilruane Minors last year.

[Lone Shark]

Coffey has confirmed he will be staying on with Athlone as well. I feel this won't help. An intercounty manager should be fully focussed on the county team and not sidetracked by a club side well in my opinion. This will turn out to be another half hearted half arsed appointment.

I do not agree, Dinny Cahill was able to manage Antrim, St Rynaghs, Portumna and the Kilruane Minors last year.

Depends on your definition of "able". How many of those teams would say they had a good year?

That aside however, I'm torn on the issue of Coffey staying on with Athlone. On the one hand, I'm biased, and I'd like him to put every free minute into Offaly football. On the other hand, I wouldn't think much of a manager who made a commitment but walked away because something better came along.