2016 National League Div 3

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
Exiled in Connacht
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by Exiled in Connacht »

We must beat Limerick on 3 April and hope other results go our way to have a shout of going up.

Otherwise we could still be relegated if results go against us, I think.

I agree that division 2 football might be a step too far for us.We have been very competitive in all our games which shows we are creating a foundation for the championship.

We must target a win against Longford in Leinster championship as its 2007 since last win. If we could its Westmeath then and that would be interesting after today's game.

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townman
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by townman »

poor result today

jimbob17
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by jimbob17 »

Poor performance today. Pity as we had great chance had we won. The way results rolled, we'd be up now with a win today or very close to it at least! There is a scenario where we can conceivably still be promoted. If Westmeath beat Longford and Tipp and Sligo draw then we would go up by beating Limerick if Clare lose to Kildare. This is not an unlikely set of circumstances. Sligo and Tipp are both looking to be promoted and in the same breadth are looking to avoid relegation! So that will be or should be at least a closely contested affair.

I'd expect Westmeath to beat Longford and if they do, someone on six points will be relegated. There is little between all teams on 6 points as they are between -7 & -9 on points difference. Clare seem to be in pole position for final spot but both Tipperary and ourselves can top them if results go our way as both teams will beat Clare on head to head. That said, we cannot afford to be anyway complacent against a Limerick team with nothing to lose. They are always hard to beat in Newcastle West. If we are any way off, i'd fear a loss will see us relegated if other results go against us!
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Exiled in Connacht
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by Exiled in Connacht »

Jimbob or indeed anyone - would you be of the view that perhaps division 2 would be a step too far for this team at the moment, or should we be looking to play the best teams in order to improve ?

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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by jimbob17 »

Exiled in Connacht wrote:Jimbob or indeed anyone - would you be of the view that perhaps division 2 would be a step too far for this team at the moment, or should we be looking to play the best teams in order to improve ?
I think if we went up, we'd be straight back down next year. We'd be better off this year to consolidate and really go for it next year with a stronger panel and more depth. Our spine is young and inexperienced, Mulhall and Smith aside. Rigney, Moloney, Carrol, Gethings, Brazil could all do with another year to develop. Joey O Connor Peter Cunningham are serious prospects and few more with a little more muscle - and more conditioning would be all the better to go up and be in a position to really compete and stay there. There are more young lads there such as Evans that can be blooded and brought along and we can really go for it next year. In fact, I think, for our confidence, it is better that we didnt get promoted before we were ready. Kildare are obviously ready for it. I'd have thought Tipp too would be ready but they have come up shorter than id have thought. Whoever goes up with Kildare, i'd feel will come straight back down - we'd be in that bracket, but in a years time under present management (who are doing quite well i'd feel), i'd be very confident of going up and be in a position to stay there!
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Exiled in Connacht
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by Exiled in Connacht »

I think consolidating our position in division 3 should be our goal. Yo-yoing from division 4 to 3 and back to 4 is doing us no good and saps morale.

It would be great to get the monkey off our backs and get a championship win. The loss in Tullamore last year after beating Longford in the Division 4 league final was tough to take. As I said previously if we could get a win in the first round it would be nice to head to Mullingar on 12 June.

May will be a busy month with Longford on 15th and 3 hurling qualifiers that month also.

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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by SearingDrive »

Exiled in Connacht wrote:I think consolidating our position in division 3 should be our goal. Yo-yoing from division 4 to 3 and back to 4 is doing us no good and saps morale.

It would be great to get the monkey off our backs and get a championship win. The loss in Tullamore last year after beating Longford in the Division 4 league final was tough to take. As I said previously if we could get a win in the first round it would be nice to head to Mullingar on 12 June.

May will be a busy month with Longford on 15th and 3 hurling qualifiers that month also.
I agree that a further year in Div 3 would be better than promotion to Div 2. As things stand 4 counties are on 6 points. Offaly, Sligo, Longford, and Tipperary, the first3 are on a -7 score difference, with Tipperary on -9,so it's vital we beat Limerick, who are relegated.
Offaly's backs were excellent today, but the big problem is up front, we need to improve our shooting, and our decision making. For a period either side of half time, Offaly played well, but that was not shown on the scoreboard.
Are there any forwards who can do the simple job of kicking the ball over the bar, or taking a goal chance, we only scored 2 goals so far in the league. I will be following the different games with interest next Sunday.

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by Bord na Mona man »

You could say that Offaly lost the game in the first half by failing to build a lead with the wind. Equally Offaly lost it in the second half by a very poor conversation rate of attacks to scores.
Like against Longford last year, Offaly fell into the classic problem of not being organised quick enough in the first half to get full value of the wind. There was a 10 minute spell early on where Offaly were penned back in their half most of the time. At half time, it looked bleak, but Offaly got a surprisingly decent amount of possession in the 2nd half, which simply wasn't used wisely.

The Offaly backs performed heroics for a lot of the game winning great turnovers from 60-40 duels, the forward play just wasn't up scratch. Simply too many muddled attacks with no real purpose which ended with poor possession decisions and poor shot selections. Westmeath clearly aren't a great side, but unfortunately they didn't need to be great to beat Offaly.

A couple of pointers as to why Offaly aren't ready for Division 2. Just before half time Westmeath bought a couple of handy converted frees by players going down easily in contact. The second one was a spectacular salmon leap from the midfielder as soon as he felt contact. On the other hand, early in the second half Anton Sullivan went on a run, as he approached the goal he was dragged back by a Westmeath player, he tried to keep going, fell a couple of steps later and got penalised for overholding. There were several other situations where an Offaly player was subjected to a 'half foul', but didn't know how to milk it. If Offaly are to progress we need to be able to make the most of those situations.

Another small example, when teams get free against us, too often the freetaker is able to stroll a few steps forward and take the free from a better position without an Offaly player holding their ground and bringing the yard stealing to the referee's attention. There a lots of little small factors like these that the top teams manage better.

Also this game further highlighted the futile notion that the black card would do anything to reduce cynical fouling to close out a game. The last 10 minutes, when Offaly were trying to chase the game, was mostly pulling, dragging, blocking quick frees and general cynical game killing with no meaningful sanction. When a Westmeath player was fouled, he was able to lie down for a while and kill the clock. I'd expect Offaly to do the exact same in the same situation btw.

hopper82
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by hopper82 »

Well put BNMM sums up exactly how i feel. After a great start it was dissappinting to go in at the break by the minimum of margins . The goal was soft however they could of had one a couple of minutes before this when a rocket of a shot came back off the frame of the goal.
The black card rule frustrated me yesterday Smith , Heslin and the Westmeat number 10 all could have escaped with yellow cards but instead got black , Anton who once again played on the edge all game escaped any disciplinarary charges from a below par refereee.
For a 10 minute spell after half time id say we had over 60 percent of the ball but coudnt buy a score which is worrying , the Westmeath full backline looked comfortable no matter what we thew at them.

Up next a hurting Limerick who are allready relegated .We have a dreadfull away record and if were one bit complaicent going down here we could find ourselfs in division 4 next year which would be a nightmare as we are making steady progress.

Well done to Westmeath,hopfully we get another crack in the summer , yesterdays win was a great confidence booster for them if we were to meet .To beat us without Heslin on the pitch most of the game is a sore point and im sure it will be brought to my attention tomorrow at work by the Westmeath contingent .
Next Sunday will be very intresting to see how results go all to play for on the final day.

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by Bord na Mona man »

hopper82 wrote:The black card rule frustrated me yesterday Smith , Heslin and the Westmeat number 10 all could have escaped with yellow cards but instead got black , Anton who once again played on the edge all game escaped any disciplinarary charges from a below par refereee.
I'm not sure there is much grounds for complaint on the black cards. Heslin's was fairly textbook where he dragged the man all the way to the ground. Better tacklers have copped that to avoid the black card you release the man early. So these days it's more likely to be a forward who isn't a skilled tackler who gets a black.

I'm not sure why Connellan threw a tantrum at his card? He took Anton Sullivan clean out of it off the ball when Anton was closing in to intercept a WH attack. Once Anton was taken out of the equation, they were able to bring the ball up the field unopposed to get the insurance score. The linesman saw it, but unfortunately can only bring the referee's attention to it after the score has been gotten. Granted Anton did get back up and started a ruck and could have gotten a yellow card himself.

Maybe Smith's could have been a yellow, but at that stage the ref probably felt he had to even up the cards.

Notice in the second half where the ref ran over to book Denis Corroon (I think it was) after a fairly hefty foul. When he copped he had already booked him in the first half, he had to sheepishly put the book back into his arse pocket. You'd have to imagine that if Offaly had already been disadvantaged by a black card or two at this point, he would have gone ahead and issued the red.

Killeighman
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by Killeighman »

As it stands were getting promoted

kingscounty
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by kingscounty »

It's saying now Clare are promoted by having better score difference , should it not be on head to head?

Hyper
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by Hyper »

nope cos Longford were on 8 ptsas well, so it went to score diff,

kingscounty
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by kingscounty »

That's a shocking pity after we beaten Longford and Clare , well done to the lads great effort in the league this year could have easily won one or two more games but we are making good progress.

Exiled in Connacht
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Re: 2016 National League Div 3

Post by Exiled in Connacht »

Disappointing but not a complete disaster.

As mentioned previously in this thread we probably would have struggled in division 2 next year.

So we lose one friendly neighbour in division 3 in Westmeath and are joined by another in Laois along with Armagh.

All in all it was a good league where we won 4 games and were competitive throughout. Were gaining stability and are becoming hard to beat which augers well for the championship. I would have been happy with that at the start.

Focus now turns to championship. Longford in Tullamore and all going well a quarter final against Westmeath who must be shattered having been in a Leinster final last year and have now gone from division 1 to 4 in successive years. Hopefully the shock of losing to Longford will stand to us and if we play well we can progress.

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