Football League Division 3 2014

[True Red]

Having attended the game yesterday I walked out of O'Connor Park particularly crestfallen.
I don’t believe that the current Offaly team are as bad as what i witnessed yesterday, and Christ Almighty was it bad. I take on board that Cavan were well set up, had got adequate physical conditioning, their game plan was good and they have 2 nice inside forwards that can take scores and in this division that will win you a lot of matches. Man for man are they better players than Offaly? My honest answer is no.
I believe Offaly have genuine footballing talent, and from what I am led to believe they really want to achieve with the county.

Unfortunately they are been hamstrung by a few crucial factors. In my opinion the team are not aerobically fit enough, certainly not enough for the game plan the management are trying to instill. The team is set up to play a high intensity, all action type of football. You tackle hard when we don’t have the ball, and defend as a unit throughout the field. When you have possession, the whole team moves forward with pace, and quick hands will transfer (hopefully) the ball into the hands of the finishers - Niall McNamee, Ken Casey, Joe Maher etc. Long kick passing doesn’t come into it.

This type of game requires huge fitness, aerobic capacity and a high skill set. Offaly's skill set in these areas is not up to speed. And that is not to say they haven’t got those skills in the locker, quite obviously they have.

There are some team selection/positional issues but I won’t delve too deep into that here. I do have cause to mention the placing of Niall McNamee at centre forward (or in that area). Mind boggling. Our chief scoring threat is a minimum of 45 yards from goal when he gets the ball? Lunacy.

Also the spare man at the back is a tough role to play. Whoever the player is needs to be told that he doesn’t mark 30 yards of space. He marks the ground 5 yards in front of the opposition’s chief scoring threat. If the forward gets the ball well then the spare man assists in gang tackling that forward. Also, if the opposition start running with ball, hand passing up the field, the spare man needs to recognise this and meet(stop) this threat at a minimum of 30 yards from his own goal. He also needs to support the attack, creating overlaps where possible - As i said this role is tough to play and requires huge fitness and indeed footballing nous. Either the management decide to go this route properly or dispense with it altogether because it didn’t work yesterday.

I also would concur with a previous poster and comment that the basic skills weren’t good enough. Effective Tackling was poor (this can be coached), Hand passes and foot passes went astray (this can be coached)

The biggest issue for me is the fitness. Has to be improved in order to facilitate the type of game offaly are trying to play, and until it does, they need to go back to basics and try and come up with a simpler game plan i.e. catch and kick because they are not fit enough to play the game the management are trying to play.

[townman]

in fairness they have had played 2 of the 3 best teams in this division Roscommon the other.
Cavan are a good side with 3 under 21' ulster titles so it was never a game we could win.

need the points again Sligo now to stay up.

[hawksforever]

Was at the Cavan game , very dissappointed with the tatics used , are we going forward or backwards , other supporters that I spoke with feel that div 4 is where we will be next year. Also nobody blameing players seems management are not up to sratch. Thoughts please

[DAF]

[quote="Lean Times"]

Players are low on confidence. It must be frustrating for the effort they are putting in. The Offaly crowd (that actually turns up) piss me off. Cannot support a team and personally I feel they don;t know how to. If anybody can remember the O'Byrne Cup games last year against Kildare in particular. The crowd and the atmosphere was partisian and electric and the players fed off this. The opposite happens when nobody turns up and those who do only groan, give out and are negative. Negativity transfers.


quote]


There wasn't much to cheer yesterday.The crowd feeds off the team when the team play well the athmosphere will be better.

[hawksforever]

How can we get behind the team when we had nothing to shout about, in the 27 minutes that Cavan had failed to score we produced very little.can we expect to win games with only 2 or 3 forwards fighting for possession against 4 to 5 backs . Majority of us supporters are very passionate and as everyone knows it does take a performance to lift the support , do agree not many fans from the faithful in tullamore yesterday.

[Bord na Mona man]

I think everyone who has posted about yesterday has it nailed on about the tactics.
In summary it boils down to:

1. Dropping players back but not actually stopping the opposition creating chances.
2. No effective counter-attack strategy for when we break upfield. No support runners on the shoulder, or link players upfield to play it up to in the traditional half forward role.
3. Predictable long balls to the full forward line. Meat and drink for the opposition who'll have an extra man back after about 5 minutes of seeing this tactic.

I do think we can improve significantly on this for the next day. I think there was a lot of effort yesterday from players, but a lot of it was individuals trying hard, but not looking like they were working to a particular plan. The players and management just need to clear their heads and make sure that everyone has a good idea of what they're at. I would hope for a bit of a backlash in the next couple of games and I'd be disappointed if we didn't pick up at least a win.

[Bord na Mona man]

Also the spare man at the back is a tough role to play. Whoever the player is needs to be told that he doesn’t mark 30 yards of space. He marks the ground 5 yards in front of the opposition’s chief scoring threat. If the forward gets the ball well then the spare man assists in gang tackling that forward. Also, if the opposition start running with ball, hand passing up the field, the spare man needs to recognise this and meet(stop) this threat at a minimum of 30 yards from his own goal. He also needs to support the attack, creating overlaps where possible - As i said this role is tough to play and requires huge fitness and indeed footballing nous. Either the management decide to go this route properly or dispense with it altogether because it didn’t work yesterday.

A good summation of what a spare man should do. It's a tricky role and if done poorly it adds nothing, but takes away from the team in other areas.

[Lone Shark]

Also the spare man at the back is a tough role to play. Whoever the player is needs to be told that he doesn’t mark 30 yards of space. He marks the ground 5 yards in front of the opposition’s chief scoring threat. If the forward gets the ball well then the spare man assists in gang tackling that forward. Also, if the opposition start running with ball, hand passing up the field, the spare man needs to recognise this and meet(stop) this threat at a minimum of 30 yards from his own goal. He also needs to support the attack, creating overlaps where possible - As i said this role is tough to play and requires huge fitness and indeed footballing nous. Either the management decide to go this route properly or dispense with it altogether because it didn’t work yesterday.

A good summation of what a spare man should do. It's a tricky role and if done poorly it adds nothing, but takes away from the team in other areas.

This is actually one of my biggest bugbears in Offaly football - this role is vital and rarely coached. All too often players sit in acres of space, too deep to cut off runners coming through and too far forward to cut off a lot of the long deliveries that go into the full forward line. Also, once in possession, they should look to initiate attacks at pace and not just play a foot pass out of defence and then relax - this guy needs to be able to take opponents out off the game and create overlaps. The closest I've ever seen any player come to executing it correctly was Anton Sullivan, who at least looked to do something positive with the ball when he picked it up. I wouldn't say he had it down to a tee, but he was a lot closer than anyone else I had seen and with training, I'd say he could do it very well.

[bracknaghboy]

I didn't see a lack of effort but did she a team totally devoid of any confidence. They are being set up to play like a soccer team looking for a 0-0 draw! There was no way that team could possibly get enough scores to win that game yesterday. 12 lads pricking about in their own half and none of them really looking like they knew what they were at. Once you see Nialler foraging around the middle of the park you may as well get your cap and head for the Arden Road! So thats 2 games played in the NFL and both were effectively over by the 20 minute mark. 1-6 to 0-1 down to Wexford and 0-7 to 0-0 down to Cavan. Whats McDonnell afraid of? We have players that can attack so let them do it. Its like he has watched the tapes of Donegal and is thinking lets pack boys back behind the ball and that'll work. Cavan walked through it yesterday.
McDonnells rein is set to come to an inevitable conclusion if he doesn't try something new fast. As for the crowd...well people are paying in to see their team try and win games......the way they are currently set up winning games seems virtually impossible. By the time the Longford game comes around in a few weeks time it could be played out in front of 50 people. Our managers total lack of experience at any level of adult football is starting to tell. The fact that we were marginally better than most D4 teams last years was enough for us to fall over the line. The D3 teams are that 10-15% ahead of us and beating them requires a bit more thinking and planning.
The squad need a week off in my opinion not weights sessions and being run into the ground this week.

[jimbob17]

I wasnt there myself so cant really comment on this game. There has been a trend though under McDonnell to just park the bus and see how we do. This can bring you from being hammered regularly to being competitive mostly but that is all. It will just lessen the amount you are beaten by as opposed to encourage you to go and beat a team. At schools level, where MCDonnell had a lot of success, teams wouldnt generally be as cynical where a more open brand of football is played. While St Marys have done well in recent times, they have done so with some exceptional players at this level, Daryl Flynn and young Cribbin from Kildare both played kildare senior had or have spells with Aussie rules teams. Cian McMonagle played kildare 21s last year while still in school, Anton Sullivan was an Offaly senior while still in school, the list of talent is endless. Could they have won these games by even more if a more attacking policy was used? I saw them play terrible stuff a few years ago in a q final with 13 behind the ball but they won by a point or two. The school is the biggest school in Offaly as far as i know, maybe Birr is bigger. It has ahuge catchment area spreading through bits of Offaly Meath and kildare. More importantly, there is little or no hurling in these areas.....They underachieved for years but because they won a little, McDonnell was proclaimed a messiah and given the county senior team. Would this happen anywhere else?

Jack O Connor had his school success, loads of it winning maybe 3 all irelands, but was also Kerry U21 manager, club senior manager and a Kerry senior selector for a few years before he was even considered for the senior job. Even then, people were very slow to accept him in Kerry. McDonnell on the other hand had barely managed a club adult team (Ballinabrackey intermediate for a year), never managed a senior club team, looked for the minor job and was given the senior gig. He is and was inexperienced at this level. The county board put him in before his time. This is not to be knocking or cynical as i for one think he has huge potential. This is all he has dreamed of as a coach (Co senior job) so he isnt going to turn it down..... because of inexperience....

The county board are responsible for putting him in. He struggled for ages to get a selector, and when he did, he had no experience at this level either....and as far as i am aware, those in the backroom and i stand to be corrected are very meaningful people but have little experience at the senior inter county level aswell? So really, what should we expect? I do feel for McDonnell as he is getting a little bit of a pasting on here when he probably needs more support in terms of qualified and experienced people to be put in around him.

Only the county board can help with this but to me, they are going to do what they always do....wait till the manager cocks up and then hang him out to dry..... In a long line of others in recent times......What have the following done since leaving the Offaly senior job? Paul O Kelly, Gerry Fahey, Kevin Kilmurray, Pat Roe, Richie Connor, Tom Cribbin, Gerry Cooney, Tom Coffee.....In my mind, the county boards lack of support with appropriate resources for this day and age has ruined all of their reputations......one after another.... and i fear it will continue as long as the current incumbents of the county board preside over all matters GAA in Offaly.

[Killeighman]

Anyone know what the team is for todays game vs sligo?

[jimbob17]

Hard to figure out what is going on with our senior footballers...... Fair enough, the loss to Cavan was fairly expected given where they are. Wexford away was always going to be tough but doable and we came up short after battling hard. However today v Sligo in 2nd half conceding so much was very poor. Sligo would be no great shakes and while we scored a penalty late on, it was very much consolation... looks like we are doomed to div 4 for next year unless we can get 2 wins. Wasnt there but the 2nd half performance, even more so than the result is most disappointing.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

This today was really disappointing display. Again, wasnt at it , but listening to the second half was shocking stuff.
We were in the game at half time, and had great chances early in the second half, missed and folded up the tent. We are destined for Div 4, and I do feel that we have not developed at all under the management, and our forward play is at an all time low.

[Bord na Mona man]

So far the league has gone as many of us expected with Offaly struggling.
2014 and 2015 hinges on the next game against Longford.
Lose and we're going back to Division 4 and might not be as fortunate to get out again.

Win and Div 3 survival becomes more doable and a marker is thrown down for championship.

[Lone Shark]

Oddly enough, the fixture list has been really kind in terms of avoiding relegation - if we win our two home games against Longford and Limerick, chances are we'll be okay, due to head to head records against those two. Even if we need something in the last match against Fermanagh, it's eminently possible that they might have nothing to play for at that stage. Of course at this stage we're the long odds on favourites to go down, but the nature of the fixtures are such that we have more of a chance of survival than might otherwise have been the case.

Nonetheless if we are being outclassed by Sligo - and all reports so far suggest that we were - then there is a lot of ground to make up. Limerick went very close to Sligo in Markievicz Park, and I saw Limerick in Kiltoom yesterday - they ain't very good, to say the least of it. Roscommon are absolutely flying at the moment, I'd say that they would be a top half of the table team if they were in division 2 and would be far more competitive than Westmeath in division 1, so chances of us getting anything from that trip are between slim and none. We absolutely have to win next Sunday to have any chance of survival, and right now, we deserve to be big outsiders.

Anyone know how far Brian Darby is from getting back into contention? His return would be a huge boost to this group right now.