2018 Bord na Móna O’Byrne Cup

[SearingDrive]

Westmeath won by 2 points. Offaly reverted to a possession game today, particularly in the first half,when they faced a stiff breeze. Joey O'Connor scored a goal putting Offaly ahead, for a while, this was Offaly's only score from play in the half.Two pointed frees by Nigel Dunne completed the scoring. Westmeath replied with a goal and four points, to lead 1-7 to1-2 at half time.

Westmeath scored a point early in the second half. Offaly scored a point from play after 12 minutes, and added four more points, while missing as many chances. Westmeath added one more point, and finished ahead by 2 points.

Why Offaly played a slow possession game in the second half baffled supporters, who thought a more expansive game plan had arrived. Offaly players got into scoring positions, but overuse of the hand pass meant the chance passed.
Cian Johnson played well when he came on at half time. Anton Sullivan was replaced at half time, but returned In the second half. Other subs from memory were Bobby O'Dea, Shane Tierney, and Michael Brazil. Conor McNamee, Sean Doyle, and Bernard Allen were replaced. James Lalor started at 7 for Declan Hogan.
A big improvement will be needed for the upcoming league campaign.

[SearingDrive]

Final score Westmeath 1-9 Offaly 1-7.

[LooseCannon]

Westmeath won by 2 points. Offaly reverted to a possession game today, particularly in the first half,when they faced a stiff breeze. Joey O'Connor scored a goal putting Offaly ahead, for a while, this was Offaly's only score from play in the half.Two pointed frees by Nigel Dunne completed the scoring. Westmeath replied with a goal and four points, to lead 1-7 to1-2 at half time.

Westmeath scored a point early in the second half. Offaly scored a point from play after 12 minutes, and added four more points, while missing as many chances. Westmeath added one more point, and finished ahead by 2 points.

Why Offaly played a slow possession game in the second half baffled supporters, who thought a more expansive game plan had arrived. Offaly players got into scoring positions, but overuse of the hand pass meant the chance passed.
Cian Johnson played well when he came on at half time. Anton Sullivan was replaced at half time, but returned In the second half. Other subs from memory were Bobby O'Dea, Shane Tierney, and Michael Brazil. Conor McNamee, Sean Doyle, and Bernard Allen were replaced. James Lalor started at 7 for Declan Hogan.
A big improvement will be needed for the upcoming league campaign.

Thanks for that. Was listening to parts of it on Radio 3.

[kaiserchief]

Would love to hear Wallace's opinion on Offaly's performance yesterday.

It was far from "kerry" and "sexy" football..

Same stuff on backwards and side to side football..

[SearingDrive]

Would love to hear Wallace's opinion on Offaly's performance yesterday.

It was far from "kerry" and "sexy" football..

Same stuff on backwards and side to side football..

Seemed like nothing had changed looking at the game yesterday.

[private joker]

The higher the standard, the harder it is to play the way you want. Way too much expected too soon of this team

[kaiserchief]

The higher the standard, the harder it is to play the way you want. Way too much expected too soon of this team

are you for real? westmeath are a higher standard that we have to play differently.. I would expect it against mayo, dublin, etc or even a division 2 team but westmeath don't deserve that rank..

[private joker]

Westmeath have "contested" two Leinster finals recently. Yeah, they are of a higher rank than Offaly.

[Killeighman]

We were in serious trouble yesterday. In the first half we couldn’t win a kickout and therefore we had no chance of any attacking platform. When we had the ball the big blanket Westmeath had just swallowed us up. We didn’t move at any pace to break through the blanket defence. We never had a chance from there. In contrast to the second half we won 80% of the kickouts and we had a platform to attack and we made some space and broke tackles and we got scores. We were never going to win that game from half time on. Look i don’t think this game is any harm. We were all raving about the progress and how it was going under Wallace. They will learn from the loss and they will knuckle down and hopefully get it right for the first round of the league which is arguably the biggest game for Offaly. On another note it was good to see Peter Cunningham and Eoin Carroll out doing some light running during the game.

[SearingDrive]

Westmeath have "contested" two Leinster finals recently. Yeah, they are of a higher rank than Offaly.

Division 4 last season, Division 3 in 2018. Hardly operating at a higher level. Sunday's game could have been won, but wasn't. Time to move on, and focus on the league.