U21's at the weekend

[True Red]

Bracken is named on the bench for this weekend's game v Carlow

[crossbar]

I can't comment on Quinlan as I haven't seen much of him to be honest but if I remember correctly Bracken kept cleansheets in all four u-21 championship games last year. Just seems a little strange. Like the William Mulhall situation im just curious as to whether he has been dropped or is there other personal reasons..

[Hyper]

From what I can gather Willie's form is not up to his usual though he is likely to be drafted in at some stage

[Bord na Mona man]

Great to hear of such a production line of top goalies! Bracken always impressed me as future county material. If competition is that good, then it is a good omen.

If only we had half a dozen 6 foot 5 midfield lighthouses jockeying for places on county teams...

[OY13]

From what i know willie mulhall picked up an injury in a challenge game against wexford with the seniors before the national league and that kept him out of action for a good while and is only back playing recently. On the bracken situation i believe he was only drafted into the panel in the last few weeks so obviously quinlan would be the first choice considering he has been there all year, why he wasnt on it in the first place i dont know.

[Lone Shark]

Lost 1-11 to 0-13, that after leading 0-9 to 0-2 after 20 minutes. A couple of lads can take great pride in putting their heart and soul into it, but a few fellas were all at sea and the absence of any help from the line was killer. Carlow made a couple of really important switches and turned the tide, we tried very little in response.

Very disappointing - not a star studded team by any means, but this bunch are not used to losing close games like this.

[Hyper]

I'd agree with you there LS, the line seemed to be slow in making changes. The forwards got very poor supply in the second half. Ken Casey seems to bottle it when the chips are down. A simple tap over at the end would have guaranteed extra time.
I thought the minors from last year were nearly the best on show along with Ger Grehan and Niall Darby. Mahon was good in patches. Diarmuid Horan made a couple of howlers. He seemed to be missing the hurl! willie Mulhall could have been introduced earlier as Knight was clearly struggling. All in all a very disappointing result after a promising start. Hopefully tomorrow doesn't go the same way.

[OY13]

Terrible result at the weekend, offaly were miles the better football team but just stopped playing after the first 20minutes because they thought they had it won. I think there were a few bad decisions on the line too!! Gerry Tracey should have been given a run and willie mulhall should have been introduced earlier if not started!! A few bad performances from some of our key players?? Any comments??

[Barracuda]

!! A few bad performances from some of our key players?? Any comments??

Thats the key here- assuming we are thinking of the same ones - i cant for the life of me figure out how they are considered key players as they never seem to perform when required.

[Lone Shark]

Certainly Mulhall did well on entry, and I've no idea how well Gerry Treacy is playing but an earlier swap for someone like Rory Connor, Nigel Dunne or Ross Brady might have been no bad thing. I'm not sure if they're the guys ye're referring to, because this team was a bit light on obvious stars - and I don't mean that as any offence to those that played, merely that outside of casey no-one on that team has the whole county waiting for them to play senior for ten years.

It was disappointing because I had a very high opinion of Tom coffey, and even though he still did well in terms of the game plan before the game and some of the ballsier selections like Ger Dunne and Sean Pender, he left Diarmuid Horan hang out to dry on a guy who was skinning him alive and Conor Carroll at midfield had stopped playing after a great start. Horan in particular needed to be switched - and the very last point came from his man getting out in front, rounding him and laying off into space.

Apparently that had happened a fair bit in challenge matches - the team would burst out of the blocks before stopping up almost completely, but even still I didn't see them losing that game at any stage. I still think if Casey fisted over that ball at the end we would have won - it was a very bad decision which hopefully he'll learn from.

[OY13]

I would totally agree with you LS that horan needed to be switched, he was struggling big time for the whole game!! As far as i know gerry was playing decent football and in my opinion would have been an excellent impact sub because of his pace and running. With regards to mulhall i cant figure out why he wasnt started? If i was to pick the forwards he would be next on my list after casey and maybe darby. Surely if he was fit enough to play the last 20 minutes he would have lasted the full game. I was very dissapointed with how carroll faded out of the game, in the beginning it looked like he was going to win the midfield area on his own. Was very impressed with ger dunne even though he did miss a few late chances.

[Bord na Mona man]

With regards to mulhall i cant figure out why he wasnt started?

He was deemed good enough to be given a run against Dublin in senior last year, but didn't make the U21s.
Again I wouldn't know anything about form, preparation or fitness to speculate, but at face value it seems strange.

[footballobserver]

some of the ballsier selections like Ger Dunne and Sean Pender,

just curious why you feel these were ballsy decisions as i thought they were 2 of the better players on the day and seen as they both were county minors for 2 years they were well worth there place.
have to agree about mulhall though.offlay clearly missed him.

all in all offlay threw this game away

[Lone Shark]

some of the ballsier selections like Ger Dunne and Sean Pender,

just curious why you feel these were ballsy decisions as i thought they were 2 of the better players on the day and seen as they both were county minors for 2 years they were well worth there place.

I agree completely that they were two of the better players on the day, however seeing as there were older players with a good minor track record on the bench, and it would have been very easy put Gerry Grehan into Pender's slot and select John Knight instead of Dunne. (I know he ended up starting anyway, but that was due to Lonergan's virus) The right calls were made in both cases, but I don't think they were easy or obvious decisions in either case is all.