NFL Division 3 2019

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
LooseCannon
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by LooseCannon »

From the Irish Independent
Westmeath 0-13 Offaly 0-12

Trailing 0-11 to 0-3 in the second-half, it looked as if Westmeath could endure an O'Byrne Cup hangover in Tullamore yesterday, but against all the odds they came back to kick nine points in a row to help them edge out Offaly by a point.

Offaly played with the wind in the opening half and opened up an impressive 0-6 to nil lead after 20 minutes, with Bernard Allen to the fore.

While Offaly led 0-7 to 0-3 at half-time, crucially Westmeath gave themselves something to fight for.

The home side then stretched their lead out to 0-11 to 0-3 with the first four points of the second-half as John Maughan's men looked primed to start their league campaign with a win.

However, Westmeath then kicked nine points in a row to go into a 0-12 to 0-11 lead as Ger Egan led the charge, while Offaly had centre-back Paul McConway in the sin bin eight minutes from time as the momentum swung in favour of Jack Cooney's men.

Shane Tierney equalised for Offaly on the stroke of full-time, but in injury-time, Kieran Martin (above) scored what turned out to be the match-winner as a late '45' from Offaly goalkeeper Paddy Dunican dropped short.

While it was a superb comeback win for Westmeath, Offaly will be left to rue not closing out what seemed an unassailable lead.

Scorers - Westmeath: G Egan 0-5 (3f), R O'Toole 0-3 (1f), L Loughlin and K Martin (1f) 0-2 each, T McDaniel 0-1. Offaly: B Allen 0-5 (4f), R McNamee 0-2, P Cunningham (1f), D Dempsey, S Horan and A Sullivan 0-1 each.

WESTMEATH - E Carberry 7; K Daly 7, R Wallace 8, B Sayeh 6; J Dolan 7, N Mulligan 7, D Lynch 7; S Flanagan 6, S Duncan 7; G Egan 8, P Fagan 6, R O'Toole 8; N O'Reilly 6, K Martin 9, C McCormack 7. Subs: T McDaniel 8 for Fagan (29m), D Corroon 7 for Flanagan (half time), L Loughlin 8 for McCormack (45m), J Halligan 6 for O'Reilly (46m).

OFFALY - P Dunican 6; D Hogan 7, E Rigney 6, D Dempsey 8; J O'Connor 8, P McConway 6, C Donohue 7; C Mangan 6, P Cunningham 7; S Horan 8, A Sullivan 7, N Darby 6; B Allen 9, J Moloney 7, R McNamee 7. Subs: E Carroll 6 for Mangan (55m), S Tierney 7 for Sullivan (59m), C Carroll 6 for McNamee (64m), PJ Daly for Hogan (69m).

Ref - C Branagan (Down).


I’ll put up my thoughts in a while.
Good Luck

LooseCannon
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by LooseCannon »

Pros:
Panda in the first half.
Some nice link up play at times-we tried to do the right thing with the ball.
Start of the second half.

Cons:
The last 15 minutes of the first half.
Obviously conceding 9 on the trot.
When they pushed up on our kickouts, we were goosed.
No ball winning midfielder -Carroll did come on, got minutes into him, which is good.
Kickouts when the pressure was put on by Westmeath.

I’m surprised that Nigel Dunne wasn’t brought on.
By the letter of the law, Kieran Martin should have walked.

Plenty of room for improvement, which I believe there’ll be.
I fancy us to take Longford, particularly because they’re short the St Columba’s lads.
It’s a relatively even division. There’s no reason why we can’t challenge. Everyone will take points from everyone.
A team with 10 or 11 points could get promoted.

Remaining games:
Longford A
Louth H
Carlow H
Down A
Laois H
Sligo A

There are certainly winnable games there.
Good Luck

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bracknaghboy
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by bracknaghboy »

What a difference a couple of kicks of the ball make. It would have been unreal momentum going into the Longford game had they have got over the line but instead that was a hard one to take yesterday. At 0-11 to 0-3 it should have been over but Westmeaths physical advantage took over and Offaly didn't know what to do......keep trying to go at them or swamp back...in the end neither really happened and death by a thousand cuts (or 9pts in a row in this case) commenced. For 45 mins there was a real buzz about Offaly out there. Bernard Allen is playing very at the moment and with Dunne to come back surely they will pose a threat.As Cannon said above the lack of ability to win kickouts was a killer but thats been the case for years now. I hope that Carroll and Cunningham are not back too early because given the injuries they've had I'd hate to think what another set back for either could mean. All said a really encouraging performance and plenty of positivity from the sideline which makes a big difference to the shenanigans of last year.

Kevin
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by Kevin »

bracknaghboy wrote:What a difference a couple of kicks of the ball make. It would have been unreal momentum going into the Longford game had they have got over the line but instead that was a hard one to take yesterday. At 0-11 to 0-3 it should have been over but Westmeaths physical advantage took over and Offaly didn't know what to do......keep trying to go at them or swamp back...in the end neither really happened and death by a thousand cuts (or 9pts in a row in this case) commenced. For 45 mins there was a real buzz about Offaly out there. Bernard Allen is playing very at the moment and with Dunne to come back surely they will pose a threat.As Cannon said above the lack of ability to win kickouts was a killer but thats been the case for years now. I hope that Carroll and Cunningham are not back too early because given the injuries they've had I'd hate to think what another set back for either could mean. All said a really encouraging performance and plenty of positivity from the sideline which makes a big difference to the shenanigans of last year.
Thanks for that!

Feeling a little better now.
Kevin Clancey. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

ryot
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by ryot »

I am still really annoyed that Paul Mac was given Black and the nasty vicious foul by K Martin was ignored....

I felt it deserved a straight RED........

LooseCannon
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by LooseCannon »

ryot wrote:I am still really annoyed that Paul Mac was given Black and the nasty vicious foul by K Martin was ignored....

I felt it deserved a straight RED........
Most certainly. Pity that Niall Smith wasn’t around. :wink:
Good Luck

Buttons
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by Buttons »

Regarding McConway this was the way I saw it, the 2 subs were warming up, Cunningham was ready to take a free but mcconway signalled he was in trouble pointing to his leg, a spray is put on, a few minutes later after WH score he goes down but ref signals kick it out and play on, a minute later he gets the black card from memory. When a player goes down a change has to be considered and a player must know if they can play on or not.

The ball into panda in the first half was as good as I have seen, still only early in the season but 2 points could be a major difference and ones that got away.

I like the mark but not sure why we didn't get it in the second half on one occasion. It favours donie Kingston type players but then if the right ball is played it favours the attacker.

LooseCannon
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by LooseCannon »

Offaly team to play Longford
1 Paddy Dunican
2 Declan Hogan
3 Eoin Rigney
4 David Dempsey
5 Joey O’Connor
6 Peter Cunningham
7 Cian Donohoe
8 Cathal Mangan
9 Shane Horan
10 Nigel Bracken
11 Anton Sullivan
12 Niall Darby (C)
13 Bernard Allen
14 Johnny Moloney
15 Ruairi McNamee
Good Luck

kingscounty
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by kingscounty »

A draw, good result and by the sounds of it we should have won, longford by accounts seemed very defensive

Tullman
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by Tullman »

Good to get a draw considering we were 1 down in injury time. Louth beating Laois and Westmeath drawing makes it all to play for. Not a good game of football loads of mistakes on both sides and terrible shooting, Longford missing key players and Robbie smyth had to go off injured didn’t help them. Louth at home next week is a must win if we want to fight for promotion

No Goal for us in 2 games
12 points last week 9 points this week
1 point defeat and a draw
Cian Johnson sitting at home
Awful shame.

LooseCannon
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by LooseCannon »

Tullman wrote:Good to get a draw considering we were 1 down in injury time. Louth beating Laois and Westmeath drawing makes it all to play for. Not a good game of football loads of mistakes on both sides and terrible shooting, Longford missing key players and Robbie smyth had to go off injured didn’t help them. Louth at home next week is a must win if we want to fight for promotion

No Goal for us in 2 games
12 points last week 9 points this week
1 point defeat and a draw
Cian Johnson sitting at home
Awful shame.
Cian Johnson is now with the u20s. Rightly so, in my opinion. There’s plenty of time to play senior.
Good Luck

Tullman
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by Tullman »

I wouldn’t say rightly so considering how much we’ve struggled up front to get scores? Surely he would’ve been worth a point to us today? And last Sunday? We could be sitting on 4 points and top instead of 1 and in 7th place

LooseCannon
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by LooseCannon »

Good Luck

LooseCannon
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by LooseCannon »

We’ve Niall McNamee to come back yet. There’s no better scoring forward in the county.
Good Luck

Tullman
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Re: NFL Division 3 2019

Post by Tullman »

I know that but we’ve 1 point from 4 and have it all to do. 0-6 from play in 70 minutes. 2 out of the starting 6 forwards scored. Can you not see my point?

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