Offaly footballers - Starting 15 for championship

[Bord na Mona man]

Original team projected in January

1 Padraig Kelly/Colin McNamamamamara
2 Shane Sullivan
3 Conor Evans
4 Cathal Daly==>Nigel Grennan -->Ger Rafferty
5 Barry Mooney
6 Scott Brady
7 Karol Slattery
8 Ciaran McManus
9 James Grennan
10 Neville Coughlan
11 Colm Quinn
12 John Reynolds -->David Egan
13 Mark Daly ==>Thomas Deehan
14 James Coughlan
15 Niall McNamee

A couple of changes.
It looks like Padraig Kelly will get the nod in goals. There's not much in it.
Being optimistic, I'd hope that he has quelled the urge to over-commit himself and contest marginal high balls.
There was one tester last Sunday that he rightly stayed away from, and I wondered if the Padraig Kelly of old might have gone out to try and claim it?

Nigel Grennan - A good first year, but his form dipped a little of late. Not his preferred position. Looked a little out of sorts at wing back for the U21s.
After a few false starts, Cathal Daly looks eager and should be able to nail down his place in the last two matches.

The championship will come too soon for Thomas Deehan, who is just back from injury.
Mark Daly is a man that I'd have in the side. Obviously I might be biased, but I think we need his ability to read the game and pick up breaks in the middle of the pitch. Good ball usage will be welcome. He won't outjump anyone for a kickout, but he might 'outread' them.
We do need to compress the middle a bit more, because teams who carry the ball at us are getting far too much joy. Cork's second half score spree came from Levis, Sexton etc. providing the overlap and working their way through the Offaly lines far too easily. I can understand why Roy Malone would have been taken off. When deployed in a deep role, he's not a player to halt an upfield surge by the opposition. He is more likely to foul than execute a successful tackle.

[TheManFromFerbane]

Right well heres my 2 cents in on the whole thing:

1: Colin McNamara - still hasn't done anything wrong to lose his place and although Podge is a very good keeper he has done wrong in the past

2: Cathal Daly - While he may have his doubters now, he is still in my mind one of the best man markers in the country when fit, and i think he will be come the big show. Froggy has never let us down in man marking situations (except Matty Ford last year when in fact the Good Lord himself would have found it hard to stop him!)

3: Conor Evans - This man is 20 years after his time had he been around in "the old days" he would have been a legend, as it stands he is an excellent man against traditional big full forward but struggles aginst the new modern full forward. in this situation I would bring in Nigel Grennan or Ger Rafferty and put Froggy on the most dangerous forward.

4: Shane Sullivan - Very solid corner back that can mark and play ball.

5: Barry Mooney - I have no problem playing attacking wing backs and infact I like it, IF you have forwards that will defend if needed. These two wing backs are excellent exponents of that game.

6: Scott Brady - Has everything you want in a centre back. Powerful, can play ball and has proved he can man mark as well.

7: Karol Slattery - See 5

8: Jimmy Grennan - Jimmy Please Please PLEASE get fit in time for the Championship, we need your high fielding like Mary Harney needs a personal trainer!

9: Ciaran McManus - There is one rule with Mad Mac that one should never forget, he will mess up an awful lot of ball that he gets (in fairness he is doing less of that this year) but the stuff he doesn’t mess up is pure magic. For him and the team he needs to be on the ball as much as possible and there is no place on the pitch where you control your own destiny as much as you do when playing mid-field. Other options like centre forward and centre back are still good places to put him but if you have jimmy playing, he will basically hang around the centre, you need Mac to put in the milleage and control the game, and there is no doubt he can do that.

10: Neville Coughlan - This guy has all the physical attributes to do it all in the game, and his footballing talent is very strong also. Some days though he lacks the attitude. When its on, ITS ON and you have to start him for that reason. Plus as I said in 5 you need your wing forwards to track back as needed when his attitude is right he will do this all day and not even realise he is doing it. Amazing athlete.

11: Pascal Kellaghan - If there is a situation here, fix it! That’s an important part of what a managers job is and shame on the management for letting one develop. I know his head isn't right sometimes but its always on the side of over aggression rather than laziness. If he gets yellowed off there are options on the bench. Rule #1 - Start with your best team.

12: Joe Quinn - Slight bias here as I am fierce fond of the fella but putting that aside he is the other work horse you need in the wing position that will sweep up ball all day, use it well most of the time and track back and hassle when needed. If you play Slatts and Barry you need Joe and Neville and that’s not a bad compromise.

13: Colm Quinn - So far so good from Quinny. Last couple of years weren't great but he is coming back to old form. He can score and he can pass so you can play him as 3rd midfielder or corner forward, either way he will do a job for you.

14: Niall McNamee - It is shocking the way the modern GAA pushes talented youngsters like Niall Mc, he is obviously injured. But in an ideal world he is fit and ready to go. He is strong enough to win ball and to play FF if you are playin 3 inside forwards and deadly enough to kill a team in a 2 man system. I didn't see enough of him to make a judgement but my Da once said that Matt Connor looked like the laziest player you ever saw in your life, but just as you were gettin thick at him for being so lazy he'd bang in a goal and a couple of points just to remind everyone what he was there for. Every generation has a Matt Connor, if everything goes right (doesnt go off the rails or get ruined by injury and bad man-management) I expect to be tellin my kids the same thing about Niall McNamee.

15: James Coughlan - Jimmy doesn't ooze the class that Niall Mc does but he is as much as a danger, left right makes no difference, on his day he will score from everywhere. I've known Jimmy for a long time now and played a lot with him and the only thing that can stop James Coughlan is James Coughlan. He lacks the mental toughness to miss one and get on with it. When one goes wide its hands on the head and looks of desperation, maturity will solve this and the sooner the better because when he's on form he is a joy to watch.

Subs I'd be anxious to get on when it was obvious one of our starters wasn't goin well.
Full Back Line - Ger Rafferty
Half Back Line - Nigel Grennan
Midfield\Half Forwards - Alan McNamee
Half Forward Line - Roy Malone
Full Forward Line -David Egan

[Lone Shark]

At this stage I'd say a lot of the jerseys are nailed on. Here's my read anyway.

1 I'd still have McNamara, but Kelly will probably start.
2 Froggy will start - I'm not convinced yet though. Not having been in Donegal at the weekend, it's hard to comment though.
3 Evans will start. I'd have Rafferty warmed up early doors when we're up against a lively out the field kind of player though (witness what Glennon and Penrose did)
4 No Question - Sullivan. Any of the wing back notions were settled at the weekend too I believe.
5 Mooney.
6 I'll hold my hand up to having been a doubter, but good work Scott Brady - he's made this his own. Now stay on the pitch for the whole summer and my Damascene conversion will be complete.
7 Slattery. He's stepped up in recent weeks when we needed him.
8 Now that he's not trying to do the work of 3 men, McManus is simply playing like just the one - the one legend that he is.
9 This will be a close call between McNamee and Jim Grennan. On form you'd have to pick the Super, although you'd worry against good fielders - i.e. Garvan and Clancy.
10 Neville. Back to his best again in the last few weeks - like Slatts, his revival is integral to our better results.
11 I think this is where I'd play Mark Daly. Not sure it's ideal for him, but between dropping back to midfield to add an extra fielding dimension and using his undoubted distribution skills he could play a big part from here. There certainly isn't 5 better options between 8 and 12 at the moment in my eys, so this is where I'd put him.
12 I expect Shaper to hold the jersey, though in contrast to the team, his influence has diminished as the campaign went on. Being honest, I think he's not scoring consistently enough be picked over Roy Malone, who would actually be my choice.
13 No contest - the revitalised Colm Quinn of 2005 has been inspirational.
14 Again - you couldn't have anyone over Niall - assuming fitness, which is no small matter at the moment.
15 Another one I got wrong - I expected Jimmy Paw to suffer from a degree of secornd season syndrome, but it hasn't happened. Our scorer in chief, who has really stepped up when Niall was only at 50%.

The main subs obviously being Kelly/McNamara, Keane, Rafferty, Nigel Grennan, Alan Mac/Jimmy, David Egan, Roy/Shaper, and in my opinion, Damien Hunt and Alan Mulhall as alternative options.

[Percy Sledgehammer]

Jaysus we didn't exactly do too well did we?

Granted Hunt came out of nowhere and Brady and Sullivan everyone thought would be the other way around, but even in terms of the settled players we had a lot of them arse about face.