McDonnell in running for Offaly football job

[uibhfhailiabu]

Emmet McDonnell has emerged as a surprise contender for the vacant Offaly football manager's post.

The Kinnegad man, who guided St. Mary's of Edenderry to an historic Hogan Cup success earlier this year, is understood to have held talks with the special committee - comprising county board chairman Pat Teehan, secretary Martin Boland, Fr. Sean Heaney and ex-Kildare and Offaly footballer Dave Kavanagh - charged with the task of recommending a new manager.

McDonnell is currently managing Meath intermediate club side Ballinabrackey, having succeeded current Offaly U21 manager Pascal Kellaghan in the role
at the start of the year.

Stephen Darby, John Evans and Pat Flanagan are among the other names to have been linked with the post since Tom Coffey - who served as interim boss in this year's championship - withdrew his candidacy last week.

http://hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=175137

[townman]

Emmet McDonnell has emerged as a surprise contender for the vacant Offaly football manager's post.

The Kinnegad man, who guided St. Mary's of Edenderry to an historic Hogan Cup success earlier this year, is understood to have held talks with the special committee - comprising county board chairman Pat Teehan, secretary Martin Boland, Fr. Sean Heaney and ex-Kildare and Offaly footballer Dave Kavanagh - charged with the task of recommending a new manager.

McDonnell is currently managing Meath intermediate club side Ballinabrackey, having succeeded current Offaly U21 manager Pascal Kellaghan in the role
at the start of the year.

Stephen Darby, John Evans and Pat Flanagan are among the other names to have been linked with the post since Tom Coffey - who served as interim boss in this year's championship - withdrew his candidacy last week.

http://hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=175137

don't know much about the man, but what i would be worried is the lads looking for a manger Pat Teehan, Martin Boland Ex kildare player
Dave Kavanagh good god

[DAF]

Wouldn't it be a better idea seeing as he has done such a good job with football at St Marys to have him working with the underage squads to help develope the players coming through to senior level.The senior job seems like a big step and personally I think the Offaly job at the moment is a job for someone with a bit of experience at intercounty level be it underage or senior.Its a massive rebuilding job and a job like this could destroy a young coach

[jimbob17]

Agree DAF, if this is the case the county board are a joke going again for what they may perceive to be the cheap option. This is not to knock McDonnell whom i believe to be a very good coach but things must be put in perspective. He won an all ireland schools with a talented bunch of players and has done consistently well over there. The next step for him should be an offaly minor or 21 role or a club senior job or possibly a role in the background with a county senior team but in my opinion he is well out of his depth to take on the big job just yet.

Only in offaly would someone with as little experience be given such a role. A bigger question should be why Coffey is not interested in continuing. Something tells me it might be to do with a wish to start immediately with strength work that would cost the county board money. as far as i am concerned, Steven Darby is the obvious candidate closely followed by pat flanagan and then Phil Reilly and Peter Brady. Other than that, itll be an outsider with possibly luke dempsey or someone of that ilk coming in to contention.

[Slieve Bloom Man]

Midland 3 have reported on Facebook that Emmet McDonnell has the Offaly senior job. Surely he should have been given minor job and Stephen Darby the senior job. Doesn't make sense. Hope a decent 3 or 5 year plan will be put in place.

[Jolly Roger]

The start of new growth and ideas. He knows the vast majority of the current squad through schools football already. Will bring belief to a talented but currently lost generation of players.

[joe bloggs]

Midland 3 have reported on Facebook that Emmet McDonnell has the Offaly senior job. Surely he should have been given minor job and Stephen Darby the senior job. Doesn't make sense. Hope a decent 3 or 5 year plan will be put in place.

Can't say I know anything about the man but seeing as he is from kinegad I would say that it would be highly unlikely that an outsider would be appointed to an underage team.

[uibhfhailiabu]

Midland 3 have reported on Facebook that Emmet McDonnell has the Offaly senior job. Surely he should have been given minor job and Stephen Darby the senior job. Doesn't make sense. Hope a decent 3 or 5 year plan will be put in place.

The Committee, (Pat Teehan, Martin Boland, Fr Sean Heaney, Dave Kavanagh) appointed to recommend senior management for 2013 are recommending the appointment of Emmet McDonnell as manager. Full details of his backroom team will be released later. Emmet has managed several underage teams in Westmeath and is the current manager of the St Mary's Secondary School Senior Football team who won the Hogan Cup (All-Ireland Colleges Championship) in 2012. Emmet has also managed Mary's to two Leinster Colleges titles along with many other successes. Emmett is wished every success in his appointment from all at Offaly GAA

http://offaly.gaa.ie/offaly-news/offaly ... allmanager

[True Red]

Just to throw this into the mix - can anyone recall what inter county experience Eugene McGee had prior to getting the Offaly position?

[DAF]

Just to throw this into the mix - can anyone recall what inter county experience Eugene McGee had prior to getting the Offaly position?

I dont think he had any but he did win a bucket load of Sigerson Cups with UCD and I would think they would have had many senor intercounty players on the team back then I would think.

I like everybody else here hopes it goes well for McDonnell but it is a very bold move and he needs at least 3 years in the job and it is a big step and it could ruin him as a coach to throw him in at the deep end so early.I'd prefer an experienced man to really put his stamp on the team and iron out all the indiscipline and get the right attitude in the Offaly camp and then have an up and coming coach take over after he has a few years with the underage teams.

It is alot easier for him to coach St Marys as he would be teaching all the players and obviously would have had a lot of respect from them so it would have been easier for him to put his mark on the team.Discipline has been a big issue for Offaly and we really need a real hard ass to sort out our problems although there arent a huge amount of candidates out there .The Offaly job is a very difficult job to take over in my opinion.We are about 2 years of hard training behind almost every other team in Ireland

[townman]

Just to throw this into the mix - can anyone recall what inter county experience Eugene McGee had prior to getting the Offaly position?

he also had some of the best footballers that pulled on the offaly jersey to work with to. Sean Boylan was a hurling man but look at the players
he had when he took over Meath.

[Over The Black Spot]

The Committee, (Pat Teehan, Martin Boland, Fr Sean Heaney, Dave Kavanagh) appointed to recommend senior management for 2013 are recommending the appointment of Emmet McDonnell as manager. Full details of his backroom team will be released later. Emmet has managed several underage teams in Westmeath and is the current manager of the St Mary's Secondary School Senior Football team who won the Hogan Cup (All-Ireland Colleges Championship) in 2012. Emmet has also managed Mary's to two Leinster Colleges titles along with many other successes. Emmett is wished every success in his appointment from all at Offaly GAA

http://offaly.gaa.ie/offaly-news/offaly ... allmanager

I love the way that Offaly GAA have seen fit to announce this on their website and wish Emmett every success despite the fact that this is only a recommendation and must still be ratified by the club delegates. I know there's only a tiny tiny chance that it won't go through but surely we've learned lessons from the amount of f**k ups we've had in the past and should be doing things procedurally correct.

Anyway, I'm personally delighted to see a young man been given the reigns and wish Emmett the best of luck. I had feared that some of the journeymen mercenaries (a la Dempsey, Carr etc) on the circuit would be brought in so well done on at least going for something fresh.

[the bare biffo]

Know nothing about Emmett McDonnell but obviously he has a winning mentality.
This is the single most important thing we should be looking for in any manager, plus their ability to communicate that mentality to the players.
How many medals he has won in the past or at what level he has managerial experience are secondary considerations.

For those that want an experienced manager, I would say, the only experienced manager likely to take the Offaly job is one who is experienced in failure and the likelihood is that they will replicate that experience with Offaly.

For those that want an Offaly man in charge, I would cite Fr Tom Gilhooly, Eugene McGee, Tommy Lyons, Dermot Healy, Eamonn Cregan, Michael Bond. I think club affiliations in the county are so strong that it is much more difficult for an insider to bring a county panel to where they put county ahead of club. And like it or not thats whats needed for intercounty success now.

So if it is to be McDonnell, best of luck to him, give hime at least 3 years to work with, after all we cant fall any further.

[Phoenix]

Fr. Heaney was Chairman when Offaly had two relative unknowns as managers - Eugene McGee and Diarmuid Healy. Look how that turned out!

I remember well that Tommy Lyons was a dark horse when he got the Offaly job.

By the way, in answer to townman, Dave Kavanagh gave some of his best years to Offaly intercounty football. He and Mark Plunkett had Meath on the ropes in Croke Park when a point attempt rebounding off the post eluded Michael Duignan and gave Colm O'Rourke the chance to stick the game-changer. If the team were fitter they'd have beaten Meath that day.

[jimbob17]

Shocked to say the least with these latest moves. I certainly wish McDonnell well. However, I hope he realises what he is letting himself in for. its a massive step up in every way and a long way from schools football where the media (local and national) hang on every word and soundbite. More importantly i hope that he is allowed to put a professional back room team in place as you are only as good as the people around you and he should get any promises written in writing as the co board are likely to pull the carpet from under a fella no matter what promise is made. only people with appropriate qualifications, ie At least a degree or masters level in sport science / PE should be involved in the training of the team. A big bug bear of mine is that the team has taken the field in recent times and werent even fit enough to compete and this is mostly down to unqualified journeyman trainers due to co board tightness with money. We havent even been competitive in the last few years.

From the selectors point of view he should do his homework and not let the board appoint selectors or backroom people as they will often be contrived or politically motivated choices though i doubt all of this will be within his control. they should also get a spread of people to cover ferbane west offaly and tullamore and environs area who would know players capable of operating at this level. My fear would be that a young manager that wouldn be too familiar with the way the board do business would place too much trust in them and they fail to sanction support that is now essential at this level.

I have no doubt that he will be exceptionally well organised and hope that he is allowed to put as much stamp on his role as he wishes. Maybe its time that a young progressive coach gets a chance though i think he 'd be better served (for his own sake) with more experience at underage co level (minor/21) and club senior before he sets in to the role. I cant think of any other manager with such little experience get such a role in recent times. Jason Ryan had won a co senior title before he got the wexford job, Jack O connor had served as 21 manager and had been a senior selector prior to his promotion while also winning titles with the school. There are little or no other comparisons and in that regard.

Assuming he is ratified he should be let start right away though i dont think that'll happen knowing some of the powers in operation. Success would be to win 4 games in div 4 and be in the shake up for promotion. Expectation would be to win 3 games minimum in div 4 respectability and a competitive performance in Leinster championhip. either way, i wish him the very best and hope that the players pull with him to move offaly in the right direction again.