Full Time Score 2-11 to 1-8

[the bare biffo]

No excuses here. Pathetic Offaly performance. Westmeath far the better team. Niall Mc the only forward to score.

The future does not look bright !

[Phoenix]

Niall Smith was a bright spot. He caught some great balls at midfield.

I hope they give the qualifiers a real go now. They've been training all year and they are better than they showed this evening.

[mad biffo]

Was listening to the radio on the way to work and the performance was very bad. Poor shooting and the sending off was very harsh. They would want to up their game a fair bit and stop relying on Niall mac.

Hopefully they can do well in the qualifiers! Come on lads pick it up now! Come on the faithful!

[uibhfhaili]

as a man once said DONKEYS dont win derbys.

[The Magpie]

Well, this is as bad as it gets. An absolute shocker.

A goal scored from a penalty that we were very fortunate to get (which we missed before pawing the rebound). After that, 8 points...mostly frees.

Players going backwards and sideways with the ball rather than shooting for a point. All responsiblity is abdicated in favour of giving the ball instead to Niall Mc and expecting him to kick it over the bar. He can't kick all of them over the bar.

The bright spots were the two lads from Gracefield. Both played very well and didn't want for effort. Shane Sullivan also did well while he was on the pitch, considering the year he put behind him last year. I have to say too that for much of the game the Offaly tackling was relentless.

We keep coming back saying the same things. The same players didn't perform. We continue to pick athletes rather than footballers. We continue to pick guys that haven't played well for the County for a number of years - and it's not like they're being picked for their great attitude and fantastic work ethic.

Last year I commented to LS that we played a championship game (Dubs) in which all of the substitutes used were not from Senior clubs. Today, when we were trying to change things, our solutions came mostly in the form of guys that are not playing Senior football. So, for two years running, outside of the starting 15, our next best footballers don't play Senior Club football. If they really are the next best footballers in the County:

1) Senior football in the County is not in a good state and we're deluding ourselves believing that we can compete in Leinster. We have 12 senior clubs. I guess that equates to maybe 300 footballers. Out of that we're producing 15-18 County-standard footballers.
2) Playing Intermediate (or lower) level football throughout the summer and winter is no conditioning for Summer-time Inter-County competition

I recall a very good thread about amalgamating clubs in a bid to make Senior club football more competitive. If we have such a rich pool of footballers outside the senior ranks, there is no doubt that this must be done for the benefit of those footballers and ultimately, the County.

[Bord na Mona man]

Not much to say really.
The players put in plenty of endeavour, but the game plan left a lot to be desired.
We were too much like the moth that continually flings himself against the light bulb.
For a game we had the majority of possession and came on top on midfield, it makes it even worse.

In hindsight, picking a very defensive side with two defenders in the forward line played into Westmeath's hands.
The wides tally and shots dropping short bears this out. When one or two of your small band of scorers are not on song, then suddenly you ability to get scores is seriously diminished.

There was far too much running at walls of Westmeath defenders.
Dropping back several players and allowing several free Westmeath man suited Westmeath more. They are masters of the blanket defence and counter attack game and have perfected it against top opposition after all. Offaly trying to counter it with something similar looks naive.
Too often the Offaly attacking player had zero options in front of him when in possession. Westmeath at least managed to use the width of the pitch more when on the attack. Too Offaly tried to barrel down the centre.

I had felt when Offaly gone to the direct game after the poor league campaign of short passing it would bring the benefits.
Unfortunately it was back to the high effort, low yield running game again today.

Even a badly executed direct kicking game would have yielded more. Niall Mac was managing to win very marginal ball that was kicked in towards him.
I suspected Westmeath would be a limited side, but I didn't think they'd play as poorly as they did for a lot of game. Unfortunately I didn't expect Offaly to coem up so short.

While his track record seemed sound before he came to Offaly, Pat Roe certainly hasn't brought the county any further. In fact I'd say he has helped put us into recession. The lack of initiative on the sideline was baffling. There was much heated debate, but little action. With a team down to 14 men, chasing the game, on a warm evening, to have only used one sub by the 65th minutes is bizarre!

[bronzer]

Where do you start with that performance.Not one player pushed themselves oveer their limits.Derbys are meant to bring out the best in players hence Mcmanus was nearly the only one trying!!!It meant more to him than any other player to get a result out of that match with him being so close to the border.

People can blame the management for this and that but at the end of the day it's down to the players on the field to do a job!!!That didn't happen.Certain players were played out of their positions tonight and it stood out like a sore thumb.Why leave a defender playing half forward for all the match when you have the likes of J Reynolds sitting on the line!!!!We're all great to give out but hopefully we'll get a decent run in the qualifiers!!!!!!

[DD]

The killing thing is that we had Westmeath totally figured out in the 1st half, Slattery's positioning meant that Glennon and Dolan weren't getting any space despite the fact that they were in front of their men most of the time. With Smith catching an amazing amount of clean ball for a senior inter county championship game and the fantastic workrate we we displaying the only thing that was missing was putting up a score.
However moving into attack instead of trying to get it into Niall quickly, we always seemed to play a pass or two too many until we ran out of space and ideas. One has to wonder, what is the point of isolating Niall if you're not going to try to utilise him by getting the ball to him fast ? Niall had a off day in front of the goal summed up by the 13M free that came off the post, it's not the first time he's missed one like that from that side and he really should be knocking that over with his left foot from the hand if he doesn't fancy the right footed kick from that angle. That said he never stopped trying and it is a terrifying prospect to think how we would cope without him if he is injured to decides to feck off around the world or whatever.
In fairness to Westmeath the introduction of Duffy gave them a lift and they showed a bit more patience in the 2nd half to create a couple of good scores from Dolan and Wilson as our defence ran out of steam. Once they put a gap between us it was looking grim as we continued to give the ball away cheaply. The 1st goal came as a result of a missed catch by McManus and a couple of seconds later the ball was in the net and despite Niall's penalty rebound goal it never looked like we were going to get back into it.
Westmeath's second goal came from another McManus mistake which was typical of his second half performance as he seemed to lose the plot against his near neighbours yet again. I didn't see the sending off incident but most of the people I was talking to after said he was unlucky. The only consolation in the end was that they didn't tag on another couple of goals and absolutely pulverise us.
The end of the road for 7 or 8 players at least, as I expect us to treat the qualifiers with the same respect we normally do. There's not many teams in the qualifiers that we'd beat on a good day so at half tilt (or less) our run will be short and not so sweet.
Roe without doubt is gone and good riddance.

[mad biffo]

In all fairness DD I dont think you can single out one player like mcmanus that is unfair. Yeah maybe he made a mistake but was there nobody behind him to defend? I taught the Full-Back line was totally out of it. Totally off the pace and rarely out in front. I think the sending off was a big turning point and I was talking to a friend after the game and he was saying that Dessie put on a bit of a show and maybe this caused the ref to make the decision to send him off. On the radio they taught that dessie was clean out only to see him get up and play on with no obvious injury after the sending off. Its sad to think players think that they get the one up by getting other players sent to the line.

[Biff]

What do you suggest Magpie, that we only pick players from Senior teams? Some of the best players in the county play for intermediate teams. Players are picked on effort and ability not what level they play at for their club. Reading some of these posts reminds me of Ger Raff's comments during the week about negative Offaly supporters.

[Hocker]

Why was Alan McNamee left on the park yesterday when he was clearly completely out of his depth??
Jason kelly was left on the bench when he was clearly the man to replace him.... I dont want to keep repeating myself but management must step down now.... Too many fuck-ups yesterday and all-year-round to mention.
It's the worst Offaly team I've seen since Wexford beat us in tullamore in the leinster championship in 1994...

IT'S A VERY VERY SAD DAY!!!

[gutless08]

regarding magpie quote of senior only, was nicky english or john leahy in his early days not junior players?itslike this if ur good enough it doesnt matter if ur a junior b playing with 14 fat bellies.
yesterdays match was awful, pooor kickouts, full back line 2nd 2 every ball then tackling tenaciously,eg the space dessie was giving, you cant give a top class footballer time on ball, soft centre in half backline,westhmeath eased through at times. 2nd to breaking ball, 40 metres between full forward and half 4ward line, we matched there game and didnt change it when it became clear we had 2 walk the ball through, niall was our only hope 2 win ball, deehan awful again. how did he last as long as he did. credit 2 these amateurs who give there time 2 play with offaly, a huge honour nonetheless, but it was evident v dublin and again yesterday that all players didnt give the level of committment, guts thats required 2 play county football,last but not least the qualiy of thev shooting was awful, in first half especially, missed free , no excuses from 14 yards whether ur a free taker or not,sorry niall, ur still a class act and were proud and lucky 2 have u.mcmanus ,darby had sum tame wides , not 2 mention mcconways chance when he chose the outside of foot ,when it was already on 4 the shot, do the basics before ur maurice or kieran mcdonald.
il finish with this,pat roe was appointed, after not been wanted by wexford carlow or his native laois, but low and behold our great county board step in and bring him 2 offaly.mistake. in his first season we get relegated with players breaking discipline , drinking at will, certain players may i add. then came the gutless display v dublin. not 2 mention the shambles v wicklow.low and behold the county board reappoint this guy 2 spearhead our 2008 campaign.. has the discipline improved, guys on off panel,etc were a laughing stock.but come the hour come the man and on the sideline he was completely inept tactically, trying 2 match there tactic when it became clear we were not competitivley ready for this, maybe if we put 6 forwards up we cudave pushed them back, it was worth a try . 4 points down and a spare man in half back line, not offalys style,look at kildare when they tried 2 change style, roe must go now, and his selectors, great county men but couldnt decide anything between them and looked clueless when making decsisions. please give us a manager who commands respect for a start ,look at the impact of micko, and there no great shakes, dnt 4get we were in a leinster final 2 yrs ago.lets not become a carlow , act now. look what impact tommy lyons had on offaly , give us a man 2 give us back our faith.

[Treasurer]

Desperately disappointing result in a very strange game. Management have to take the lion's share of the flack for a negative game plan that failed miserably. When we ran at Westmeath they couldn't handle it, but we didn't do it often enough. Too many times we were moving forward but had no options to lay it off. Slattery was rendered ineffective for a good share of the game, though no fault of his own. He has consistently got the better of his opponents in games and surely would have been more effective in a more convential man-marking formation. I really don't think they were that much better than us and that's what makes it so disappointing.

No marks to the handful of Offaly "supporters" who were roaring obscenities at some Westmeath supporters on the way out.

[black and red exile]

It looks like every aspect of this horror of a game has been covered by everyone. We are all very upset after the crap we witnessed last night and whether we like it or not there will be no chance of Roe stepping down before the qualifers but a decision has to be made about starting Jason Kelly in July along with Niall Smith[ who was outstanding last night] at midfield.
Its just my opinion but I think the Shannonbridge man is the most talented footballer in the County and it will be criminal if he does not start in the first 15 in the qualifers. Alan McNamee has got to go without arguement, he just does not do it at this level and I think Tommo should be given a short sharp shock and asked to warm the bench next month, since 2006 he looks like a guy that has lost interest which is a great shame because when he is switched on he is a joy to watch.

[The Magpie]

I thought my post was clear enough.

I'm not suggesting that guys playing intermediate football are not (or will ever be) good enough to play inter-county. What I'm saying is this, just in case it's not clear:

- Playing intermediate football is zero conditioning or preparation for Senior Inter-County Championship football.

- Offaly Senior Club football is in a very poor state.

- If some of our best footballers are playing in the Intermediate ranks (or lower), we should seriously consider amalgamating clubs at Senior level to stengthen the Senior Club Football Championship in Offaly. Apart from making the Championship more interesting (which is really just a bonus), it would give those footballers half a chance of playing more competitive football.

As for the negative comments, for my part I'm trying to be honest. If it appears to be overly negative, I'll apologise...but don't piss down on top of me and then tell me it's only raining.