Offaly Minor Football 2014

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
Ahlethimoutwithit
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Ahlethimoutwithit »

Best of luck to the lads tonight, expect that there will be a massive crowd in for this.

Hope that the lads remain calm and focussed, lot of hype around these lads and the shite will be flowing around them. Pascal will have them well armed for that.
They have done the work, so now is the time.......Cmon Offfffly!!!

Pop76687
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Pop76687 »

Best of luck to the lads tonight. Anything can happen with young fellas but having seen both sides this year I wouldn't have thought there was a whole lot between them. Bookies have Dublin favourites and that is fair enough having beaten Longford and Meath, two of the stronger teams in the competition. Dublin have made a few changes, some improve the side such as Eoin Murchan coming in who started for them last year and is a good little player. Others seem to have been forced upon them like Conor Kavanagh who has been one of their best players this year. He was man of the match against Longford from wing back and scored 6 frees from centre forward the last day out against Meath, a really good player and his absence is a plus for Offaly. Con O'Callaghan the full-forward is their most potent attacking threat but both himself and McHugh, the midfielder lined out only Sunday for the Minor hurlers and may show signs of fatigue after Kilkenny gave them the runaround up in Croke Park. Basquel, the centre forward is another who started last year. His form hasn't been great so far this year but he is very good on the ball and has the potential to do damage. Clayton is a good centre back, he's big and quick and likes to attack but the wingbacks either side of him wouldn't be naturals in that position with O'Reilly in particular a converted forward.
They key as in most games is winning ball in midfield and I think that if Offaly can at least break 50/50 here they have plenty upfront to punish Dublin. Longford scored 5 points in the opening 8 minutes against the Dubs and their backs looked very beatable but then Longford didn't win a ball at midfield the second half and the scores dried up. Against Meath the Dublin midfield was well on top.
Hopefully the Dubs will underestimate us and we can reproduce a performance at the level or above of the Westmeath game. Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing how it unfolds and regardless of the result good work has been done and hopefully this can be built on given the recent success of the Manning Cup sides.

summerindublin
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by summerindublin »

The Offaly minor football team to play Dublin in the Leinster MFC semi-final on Thursday night has been announced.

The team will line out as follows:

Offaly (MFC v Dublin): Cain Brereton; Aaron Whelan, James Lalor, Clint Horan; Jack Egan, Adam Mahon, Colm Doyle; Cathal Mangan, David Maloney; Ryan Heavin, Patrick Dunican, Jack Walshe; Dylan Hyland, Ruairi McNamee (Capt), Shane Tierney.

Clueless
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Clueless »

summerindublin wrote:The Offaly minor football team to play Dublin in the Leinster MFC semi-final on Thursday night has been announced.

The team will line out as follows:

Offaly (MFC v Dublin): Cain Brereton; Aaron Whelan, James Lalor, Clint Horan; Jack Egan, Adam Mahon, Colm Doyle; Cathal Mangan, David Maloney; Ryan Heavin, Patrick Dunican, Jack Walshe; Dylan Hyland, Ruairi McNamee (Capt), Shane Tierney.

By all accounts Adam Mangan will start instead of Shane Tierney.

Offalys Future
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Offalys Future »

I wish the footballers the best of luck tonight.
I hope people haven't got ahead of themselves here and put massive pressure on these chaps. Dublin are a very good side and a win would be a unbelievable achievement.
What's more important is the solid structures that seem to be put in place at u-16 and minor level are now paying dividend.
" In The Presence Of Confidence Doubt Cannot Exist "

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tmorelad
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by tmorelad »

Best of Luck to all players and management this evening

Kemo Sabe
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Kemo Sabe »

Goodluck to pascal and the lads tonight .a win would be a huge boost to the county .hope a big crowd turns up to let the dubs know its our home ground and they are not going to have it all their own way as usual .COME ON THE FAITHFUL !
great history hoping for a better future

Pop76687
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Pop76687 »

Offalys Future wrote:I wish the footballers the best of luck tonight.
I hope people haven't got ahead of themselves here and put massive pressure on these chaps.
I think you might be overestimating the influence of this forum if you think a few good luck messages has put 'massive pressure' on this minor side. The high expectations have been set by Pascal himself...."Our goal seven-eight months ago was to win Leinster and it hasn't changed"...and credit to him. Win or lose its refreshing to hear a manager with ambition. I hardly think that messages that have been drilled into them for the best part of a year will be undone by a bit of chatter on here. Of course a win over Dublin would be a great achievement and they are a good side, maybe a very good side with two impressive enough wins. Everyone likes to go into a game as underdogs, and Offaly definitely are. We've beaten Kilkenny and Westmeath and that alone should keep us grounded going in against Dublin. Early in the year we were taken apart by Clare in the league and beaten by a better Longford side so look it's easy to find reasons why we won't win. What they've given us is hope rather than expectation which is more than we have had in recent years. They should believe and I'm sure they do that if they play to their potential they won't be far away.

Pop76687
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Pop76687 »

Offalys Future wrote: What's more important is the solid structures that seem to be put in place at u-16 and minor level are now paying dividend.
In total agreement. Very refreshing to see that last year's Manning Cup wasn't a once off and that this year's group have had 3 wins out of 3 and are into the final once again. Not sure if it's the same management team but fair play to those involved.

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townman
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by townman »

best of luck to offaly this evening god knows the county need's a lift.

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townman
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by townman »

half time. Dublin 3-7 offaly 0-3 can things get any worse for us :(

Don Hurley
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Don Hurley »

As a Dub living in Offaly, who couldn't make the game, the half time score is disappointing - a bit sad in fact. Sounds like the young Dubs got on top and never let the Offaly lads get going at all.

I'm really a hurling person but on the football side in Dublin there is an amazing conveyor belt of very well prepared, conditioned and trained young lads and no small talent and I think its reasonable to assume that for the foreseeable future every Dublin team will be a contender in every grade. That doesn't mean world domination as every year one county at least will produce a great team and on any given day....
If it wasn't for the fact that they are managing to combine it with an attacking style that can be good to look at I wouldn't be too happy.

Buttons
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Buttons »

The least said about tonight the better, from queueing to get the ticket to the game it was a disaster. The power, build and speed of the Dubs compared to our slow movement was the match throughout. They ran straight through and Offaly couldnt handle it, in 2 or 3 years some of these could be on the senior team in that they have the build and power. The number 9 for Dublin i thought had a great game.

Didnt do Paschals CV any good, great crowd too to witness a massacre when so many went in with great hope for this team

Pop76687
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by Pop76687 »

Ah...it's the hope that kills ya. I for one was a bit carried away with our prospects and in hindsight the games against Kilkenny and Westmeath woefully under prepared us for a physically imposing Dublin side. I said earlier that if we got 50/50 at midfield we had a chance but we were completely destroyed. McHugh (9) had a powerful game for the Dubs and we had no answer, we must have tried 5 or 6 lads there. Bizarre move to play Egan there to start and he was whipped after 15 mins. The subs that came on were happy to watch the game rather than participate and we were bullied all over the pitch. Would agree with Buttons, our build up was slow, nobody took on responsibility to break a tackle, there was no overlapping at speed and I'm sorry if you are going to get 13 men behind the ball, lads have to be prepared to make the hard yards or be turned over again and again. The few times we got to midfield and looked up there were 3 Dubs marking 2 Offaly lads and no support runners to help out.
With young lads when heads drop they tend to drop low and our basics were deplorable, terrible soloing, our balls into the forwards high and aimless, awful shot selection. A few of the goals were comical.
Leaving the ground I wasn't sure if our fitness was a major issue or whether lads had thrown in the towel and were happy to be half arsed about tracking back. The number of times you saw a Dub running at pace and an Offaly lad trotting after with false hassle was reflected in the winning margin. I'm inclined to think a bit of both. After the early goals went in they just didn't seem up for it and there was a general lack of leadership. McNamee was a loss but with so little ball going into the forwards it was negligible.
Look Dublin are good and it seems overly harsh to be so critical of a team I was quietly confident in earlier but the lack of fight was very disappointing. Dublin had beaten Longford and Meath by 3 points each and there was something seriously lacking when we were the wrong side of a 24 point drubbing. I'm not sure management knew there best team and plenty of mistakes were made tonight and obviously in the lead up but I'm sure Pascal will get another run with this group next year and that should bring him on too, which is something we want, rather than fast tracking him to a position he might not be ready for just yet. I genuinely don't believe we are as bad as that and hopefully these lads can pick themselves up and that we can continue the good work that is being done at U16 level.

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townman
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Re: Offaly Minor Football 2014

Post by townman »

Dublin do have some talent, even after beating Meath the last day they still made 5 changes i think for tonights game that shows you the talent they have, they meet kildare who also had a huge win over laois in the other semil the gap is getting bigger it seems ever year, and i am sure Dublin will be as good if not better next year.

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