Offaly U20 footballers 2023

[Doon Exile]

Edged out by a very late Wicklow point. Offaly were ahead by 4 points early in the first half, Wicklow hit back with 2-4 on the trot to lead at half time by 2-6 to 1-3. Offaly staged a good second half comeback to draw level in injury time.

Couldn’t make tonight due to club training. Were we poor or were Wicklow good?

[jimbob17]

Bit of both. Missed chances in first half. Wicklow then got scoring burst.

Then Offaly clawed themselves back. Wicklow dominant again at end with some terrible wides. They probably shaded it over all.

Guing was excellent for Offaly and only for him, would have been well beaten. That said Cormac Egan hit post that would have seen us lead near end.

Tight game. Need to beat Dublin and hope Louth beat Wicklow for Offaly to progress. Not outside bounds of possibility.

[SearingDrive]

The Offaly team looked reasonably strong on paper. Need to beat Dublin, and depend on other results going Offaly’s way. A lot of ifs.

[Superhans75]

Another very average performance against well organised but to be honest no world beaters
The wheels on the bus are definitely coming off.
We need to put in a good performance against the dubs
Just too keep up moral.
Realistically this team has played 5 games albeit 3 in
Tournament and won one against an awful Tipperary side .
Players are putting in the effort but the system they play is definitely not suiting them and management are definitely not up to it .
Have a good week people

[private joker]

Dublin fairly hammered louth so doubt offaly will do much there.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Difficult defeat to take alright after fighting back from 6 points down and creating loads of chances to win the game comfortably.
It's fair to say that we left 5-05 or 6 behind us whilst accepting that Wicklow butchered 1-03 in the second half. That tells one part of the story.
The other is the very poor performances of some players, no disguising it and I'm not going to name them but this was an area of concern over the last few games. Selections have been questioned and management have had challenges but we had so many rudimentary errors from the same players, that there are a few passengers on the team and in the panel. Injuries have been a scourge alright.
There were some exceptional performances and there are a few guys who can go on to make an impact at Senior. Many of the older lads in the team played really well. I know many of the plaudits go to Cormac Egan, but Jamie Guing, was exceptional and he will be guted at the goal chances missed.
Wicklow had a couple of excellent ball carriers and kicked some good scores, and an excellent midfielder in Jack Kirwan.

I suppose the point is that they need to beat Dublin and hope that Louth beat Wicklow or draw, and to be fair I think that they will give it a good lash. If they havn't any more injuries after last night and give it a shot then that is all we can ask for.


There is a point to be made though about what is going on at club level. We can point fingers at county mgt but they can only deal with the players available that will commit. One player from Edenderry, One from Ferbane, Rhode ..no starter, Clara 1 sub. Tullamore have upped the ante at underage level and the guys that started last night deserve to be there. Maybe too many on the panel overall though.
I know things change from year to year...and it is great to see a spread of players from some of the smaller clubs but it is a concern that very few of our players have exposed to high level football.

[jimbob17]

Another very average performance against well organised but to be honest no world beaters
The wheels on the bus are definitely coming off.
We need to put in a good performance against the dubs
Just too keep up moral.
Realistically this team has played 5 games albeit 3 in
Tournament and won one against an awful Tipperary side .
Players are putting in the effort but the system they play is definitely not suiting them and management are definitely not up to it .
Have a good week people

Interested to know the kind of system you say they play. From what I saw yesterday, we seemed to play 3 inside forwards with Egan moving around everywhere. Couldnt have said we were overly negative?. Not overly familiar with group or what they are doing, but on paper and playing credentials alone, they appear to be a strong management group. Furlong has Cathal Daly, Colm Quinn and Steven Lonergan as selectors. If them lads don't know enough about how to win football matches, none of us do. My only observation was we might be short on a ball winning midfielder in terms of size compared to Wicklow last night but other than that, we were every bit as good as Wicklow and could have won just as easily as we lost.

[greenairfield]

Did he say negative?

[Superhans75]

I was making a point I am friendly with one of the Wicklow selectors he was surprised at the way Offaly play considering we have to quote him some tasty players ..
But we do need players to make a lot more parallel runs when attacking to give options as basically we have pace
But not height..
Same type of play has crept into the senior team as well.
He was just making am observation.

[jimbob17]

Another very average performance against well organised but to be honest no world beaters
The wheels on the bus are definitely coming off.
We need to put in a good performance against the dubs
Just too keep up moral.
Realistically this team has played 5 games albeit 3 in
Tournament and won one against an awful Tipperary side .
Players are putting in the effort but the system they play is definitely not suiting them and management are definitely not up to it .
Have a good week people

Interested to know the kind of system you say they play. From what I saw yesterday, we seemed to play 3 inside forwards with Egan moving around everywhere. Couldnt have said we were overly negative?. Not overly familiar with group or what they are doing, but on paper and playing credentials alone, they appear to be a strong management group. Furlong has Cathal Daly, Colm Quinn and Steven Lonergan as selectors. If them lads don't know enough about how to win football matches, none of us do. My only observation was we might be short on a ball winning midfielder in terms of size compared to Wicklow last night but other than that, we were every bit as good as Wicklow and could have won just as easily as we lost.

No I posed the question re us being negative because there was no negativity in my eyes. The imposition was that we don't play to system that suits us. I don't know the system we play outside of it appearing to be relatively orthodox set up, but we missed lots of chances, particularly in first half on Tues night that on another night, we score and people are lauding management and team. Maybe helpful to expand on system that is used or could be used in comparison to what we are using.

A one point loss, while disappointing, should be taken in context, that is just that, ie a one point loss against decent and organised side in tight game. Wicklow manager coached senior Wicklow team last year and played inter county with Mayo so they are well equipped to contend this championship. Remember how far a narrow loss is between a clap on back or kick in hole. The margins are tight. That said, was little surprised with elements of team selection and maybe substitutions made or not made on evening but that is from outside looking in and not knowing what's going on re form / injuries etc so it is easy to be hurler on the ditch. Lot harder put name on line and take on such a voluntary and often thankless role as county selector.

Dubs beat Wicklow by 2 pts. Not inconceivable that we can still get through group with lots of key players either absent or partially injured for champ games.

[Superhans75]

Why does everyone go on this defensive when we talk about ways to improve the sport in this county.
We have talent !we are a little bit mentally weak
In trying to kill a game off .the results don't lie .
Remember it's the county set up that gets bums on seats
Or concrete lol
Have a good weekend hopefully we will be in good spirits come Sunday evening 4oclock
If not there is always the other spirits

[jimbob17]

Why does everyone go on this defensive when we talk about ways to improve the sport in this county.
We have talent !we are a little bit mentally weak
In trying to kill a game off .the results don't lie .
Remember it's the county set up that gets bums on seats
Or concrete lol
Have a good weekend hopefully we will be in good spirits come Sunday evening 4oclock
If not there is always the other spirits

Not sure if this refers to my comments above. For record, we played Louth previous week minus lots of regular starters, and somehow showed huge resolve to get result when we were dead and buried. I think that needed mental strength on lads part. You have to be objective here with this group of players given injuries to key players. Tom Hyland (full back in 2021) is only back playing maybe two weeks. John Furlong would be a key player and is only just back and not fully fit yet. Same with Cormac Egan. Marcus Dalton and Keith O Neill would be central forwards, possible centre and full forward respectively. There are other lads that started that wouldnt be fully fit either for other reasons. You cant just lose this type of quality, have so many lads carrying injuries and then give out about what we are not doing right to get over the line. These games are not easily won with full team, let alone missing the quality that we have been missing. Context, fairness and perspective is important here to be fair to lads. If Wicklow or Louth were missing that quality and we had full team, would we beat them? Absolutely. Lads are very quick to come on here and knock what is going on. We drew game 1 and lost game 2 by a point with all of above either missing or half fit. It is important to bare in mind if questions are being asked re why we have not won the games.

[Superhans75]

Look just play attacking football and to hell with it
We can't defend just physicalllynot up to it but have pace .
We have nothing to lose neither do the dubs as they have qualified

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Look just play attacking football and to hell with it
We can't defend just physicalllynot up to it but have pace .
We have nothing to lose neither do the dubs as they have qualified

Well, 5 goal chances and 5 pts more would say that we did attack, cut out the basic mistakes also.

Can I explain one thing that I've spent years preaching to young fellas and coaches of all ages.

Player "Ah ref, it was rolling", ref and all others "Yes, but it was rolling on what? TYhe F....cking ground!"

Anyway , best of luck to the team and management tomorrow night, yes there are injuries but with the right changes made after 2 games we may have a chance against the Dubs.

[Superhans75]

Hard luck lads thanks for the effort have a good summer your only young once enjoy it .