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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 10:05 am
by azoffaly
I thought there was some seriously bizarre decisions/non decisions yesterday. As mentioned, if Eoin Carroll was fit enough for the 26, why was he not given game time? Same argument for Shane Nally. And the way Nigel Dunne was treated left me baffled. He hadn't started well, had dropped a shot short, missed a free, decided to not go for another and wasn't going well. So to a certain extent I understand taking him off. But to then bring him back on, and end up with more of the same, a bad wide, a similar free not attempted, and of course the penalty saved. Surely a lad going a bit better with his striking on the day should have been given the responsibility for that? I give Nigel great credit for continuing to put himself forward, it shows character, but it just wasn't his day yesterday and he should have been helped out by his management and/or his teammates.

I didn't see Sean Pender doing a whole lot wrong, and I thought when he went off, that was the signal for Wicklow to start running through the middle. I also thought Michael Brazil looked gassed when he went off after putting in a decent shift, so to see him coming back on again in extra time with Carroll on the bench was bizarre. Also , it was clear from the first couple of minutes that Ruarí Mc was just not at the level of fitness or agility needed. He wasn't moving smoothly, and looked like a lad that was off the scene for a while. I couldn't see why he was left on as long as he was, but I know he'll have better days too.

I thought Offaly moved the ball very well at times, and got some lovely scores, but then they took some really poor decisions, or just had plain bad execution in shooting for goals or point. We looked physically strong as well, but I thought we faded a lot more than Wicklow as the game went on.

To me, this is a reality check for Wallace though. The football was decent at times, the effort was there, but the decisions made on the line didn't help the team in my view.

I should mention the ref seemed very harsh on our tackling particularly in the second half, but when you know their goalie is going to trot up and kick it over the bar, you just have to be disciplined.

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 11:40 am
by Offaly101
Maybe yesterday wasn’t as negative as other days but it’s still hard to watch the ball being handpassed around the 45 for 2 or 3 minutes and then for nothing to come of it. I’d say Bernard Allen must be so frustrated inside seeing that happen when he’s making great runs for a kick pass to come in. Don’t get me wrong I agree the players are putting in huge effort it’s just hard to look at at times and is frustrating for all supporters. Almost every post that has been put in about the match here or even over on Twitter has mentioned cian Johnson, as I said he’s a great player but he’s still only 18/19 and personally I don’t think he would have made much of a difference Yesterday when little ball wasn’t being delivered to the full forward line. The team lacked a presence of leaders, it would have been great to have eoin carrol there yesterday as he’s the best fielder of the ball we have and he brings so much to the team, but unfortunately he was injured and it was the correct decision not to risk him although maybe they shouldnt have named him on the 26 and named Cathal mangan instead..

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 12:00 pm
by azoffaly
If he, or Shane Nally, are injured, then it's crazy to name them on a 26. You can only be named on the 26 if the management are willing to use you.


As regards the ball going into the full foward line, I agree, but at the same time a lot of the lateral hand passing was because Wicklow had set their defence, and the direct ball wasn't going to be on. In those circumstances it's not the wrong thing to re-cycle, switch angles and attack from elsewhere. What we didn't do enough of in those scenarios was attack at pace off the shoulder of the man in possession. We looked like we wanted to kick it in, so we kept going laterally looking for an easier angle for a footpass. The odd 'burst' from a half back or midfielder coming onto a ball at pace would have been a lot more effective in those situations.

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 12:16 pm
by Offaly101
Maybe it might show a lack of confidence in the lads outside the 26 from Wallace or maybe it was just to try boost the team by having eoin back. It is strange I’ll admit that

It’s hard for the management in a way because as we all know there is players in this county who would walk into the starting 15 but most of them don’t want to play, Richie Dalton from edenderry in my opinion is the second best midfielder in the county behind eoin carrol he would make a massive difference to the team.. but there’s no use talking about the lads that aren’t there I guess.

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 12:38 pm
by azoffaly
Midlands Radio 3 reporting serious unhappiness in the camp.

http://www.midlands103.com/sport-centre ... o-wicklow/

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 1:28 pm
by Looktothefuture
Should offaly have hired a manager that couldn't give his full commitment due to the fact he was managing a team in Kerry (we will leave out the dirty box shows great caractor in the man). The country board clearly vetted him I'm sure. We can say what we want about the players but unless the country board is refreshed and the geriatrics are once and for all retired the county will not progress rotten to the core. No point worrying about what has happened should plan for 5 year time.. But we will just wait and see silence for 5 months and all forgotten just like last year.

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 1:35 pm
by Offaly101
You see how much of an improvement the hurlers have made under a local man who’s passionate about offaly hurling and not just a lad who’s in looking to add some experience to his cv for the future, county board should take example from the job Kevin Martin is doing and go for someone who has a passion for offaly and has our counties best interests at heart. And I do agree about shaking up the county board and getting a whole new system in place in there

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 2:00 pm
by biffinbanner
that piece off radio3 is very embarrassing.its like something you would hear out of a junior b match 30 years ago. a player dressed and halfway out the gate persuaded to come back? not that id blame him as he is one of our best players and taking him off after he fluffed a few chances was madness. and asking him to take the defining penalty was also madness. it goes on and on and on..were at the bottom now lads..really the bottom.the 32nd rated team in ireland beats us..

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 3:33 pm
by kingscounty
Reports of a lot of unrest in the camp, former players now having there say also.

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 4:05 pm
by Bord na Mona man
I wasn’t able to make it to Portleix yesterday, so it was the radio and twitter for me.
As the game wore on, the more worried I became. With a Div 4 basement side like Wicklow, they longer you leave them in the game, the more they start to get their act together and believe.
Offaly should have been strong enough to see them off, but only just.

Unfortunately in a county that has a small pool, not having Division 1 standard players like Eoin Carroll and Peter Cunningham is a big blow.

As I said during the week, Stephen Wallace should have ignored the board and gone ahead and put Cian Johnston in his squad. I get the player welfare and burnout argument. But what difference does making him sit out one Sunday do for his overall wellbeing? It’s pure tokenism. So he does the hundreds of hours of senior county preparations, but the magic couple of idle hours yesterday will save him. Only in Offaly!

I feel Wallace picking up the 8 week ban put him on the back foot. Obviously it disrupted the organisation on the sideline. It also undermined his standing with the squad. Say if he was trying to correct the poor on-field discipline which has been a problem for the last number of years, then he wasn’t setting a great example. Do as I say, but not as I do.

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 4:13 pm
by The Biff
That interview by Brian Gavin with Midlands Radio 3 has been picked up by Balls.ie https://www.balls.ie/gaa/offaly-footbal ... ace-388940 so the story will now start to spread. That will hardly help to improve things in the short term, or maybe it all needs to be brought to a head anyway. :oops:

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 4:40 pm
by LooseCannon
I see that a current panelist liked Super’s tweet, and a panelist from last year also, as well as a current hurling panelist.
Not looking good.
Odds on next manager anyone?

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 4:53 pm
by first_touch
First of all I agree with Kingscounty when he says that it may be a blessing that Offaly lost yesterday. That may sound defeatist and negative but anyone who watched Offaly's performance yesterday could only cringe at the prospect of having to face Dublin in the next round. Playing Dublin with a full squad would be difficult enough but missing so many key players (Moloney, O'Connor, Rigney, Ruairi Allen, Guilfoyle and possibly Cunningham and a non-match-fit Eoin Carroll, not to mention Niall Mac and Brian Darby to retirement ) could only mean annihilation. Allied to that would be the continued absence of the manager from the sideline.

I don't accept that Offaly were overly negative yesterday. They showed effort and commitment and tried to play positive football. The problem was poor execution - giving the ball away cheaply, some very poor wides, a couple of missed goal chances, being turned over in the tackle too easily at times. Wicklow were terrible in the first half and were there for the taking. But Offaly were simply not able to take advantage and you could see Wicklow's belief rising and the crowd began to get behind them.

Which brings me to my next point. The abysmal Offaly support. We must have been outnumbered at least three to one by Wicklow followers, who had much further to travel. For a brief moment I thought that Anton's well-taken goal had been disallowed such was the muted response from the crowd. I have no doubt that the lack of Offaly support contributed to the decline in the level of the team's performance as the game wore on. If there was a big enough following there to get behind them it would have lifted the players' morale and possibly got them over the line. I can't understand why Offaly supporters cannot make the effort to support the team in the Leinster championship. It's only one day a year after all!!

I think it's fair to say the appointment of new team management has not been a success (so far at least). Granted, they have been dealt a poor hand with so many injuries and withdrawals. But some poor decisions on the line yesterday and inadequate levels of player fitness and conditioning, as well as the sideline ban debacle, reflect badly on management and there is a lot of room for improvement.

Hopefully we can get a good draw in the qualifiers and get some of our injured players back and have a cut.

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 5:26 pm
by bracknaghboy
Theres so much that could be said about the match but I'll address the elephant in the room instead.
Who the hell does this Brian Gavin think he is?
Could they not have at least begun to address this in house before he went blabbing to the whole nation about what allegedly went on. Management have zero chance of getting anything near a fair trial here now. He essentially dismissed them having been fired already and started to name potential successors.
The footballers are a shambles at the moment but as much as I think that I also think that players, management and county board deserved the right to discuss this internally themselves and not have Gavin telling the whole world what went on just so he can be seen as the guy who broke the news. Has the man no cop on?

Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:10 pm
by kingscounty
bracknaghboy wrote:Theres so much that could be said about the match but I'll address the elephant in the room instead.
Who the hell does this Brian Gavin think he is?
Could they not have at least begun to address this in house before he went blabbing to the whole nation about what allegedly went on. Management have zero chance of getting anything near a fair trial here now. He essentially dismissed them having been fired already and started to name potential successors.
The footballers are a shambles at the moment but as much as I think that I also think that players, management and county board deserved the right to discuss this internally themselves and not have Gavin telling the whole world what went on just so he can be seen as the guy who broke the news. Has the man no cop on?
I was thinking the very same thing, I think he has to much to say and is trying to stay in the lime light because he’s no longer a ref. Yes the footballers are in a bad situation but it doesn’t help the cause when you have a guy talking about in house issues. He must have great access to the set up.