Trouble brewing in Offaly?

[Bord na Mona man]

From Hoganstand:

Trouble brewing in Offaly?

Reports in Tuesday’s papers indicate that their may be a players revolt in Offaly against football manager Richie Connor.

It is claimed that up to 10 players walked off the county senior panel on Monday and moves have been made to get a petition signed by the panel indicating no confidence in their manager.

Connor, an All-Ireland winning captain with the Faithful’s, previously managed Laois but has lost the three competitive games he has been in charge of so far this year; with an embarrassing 0-16 to 0-7 NFL defeat against Roscommon on Sunday apparently the straw that broke the camels back for some of the senior squad.

[Pot Noodle]

Hoganstand actually ripped it off the back of today's Irish Mirror, like they do with all their stories...

[Archangel]

This will be great if it's true,.. I was getting soooo bored with things lately.

There's 2 sides to this story....
- A manager with no track record and serious off-field distractions.

-A squad of underperforming players with a record of copping out and walking away when things don't go their way.

Just might be what the doctor ordered...

[Bord na Mona man]

It is starting to come to the boil now.
Was anyone listening to Newstalk?
Pat Nolan from the Mirror who had the story this morning and Eugene McGee were talking about the situation.
There is a meeting tonight between the players' and management, but by all indications a lot of players have already withdrawn from the panel and won't be there.

[Slieve Bloom Man]

Just heard newstalk alright-interesting stuff. Things are very bad at the moment and this could turn into a right mess! Let's hope it can be sorted quickly-whatever the outcome. It is so vital that Offaly do not get relegated from divison 3 this year. Very depressing when we'd hope to be at least fighting for promotion.

[bracknaghboy]

RTE news at 6 said that Connor was meeting with players this evening to air out any discontent that exists in the camp. I dont like this at all. It has Cork written all over it. If you dont want to play for whatever reason then walk away and let another man in. I'm not in favour of these group walkouts. This will hurt us more in the long run....and yes we will be relegated from Division 3 by the looks of things. I think Tom Coffey should be manager and he'd get respect but Richie was the man put in place and I respect that 100% and he must be let get on with things (even though hes doing a poor job). I'll be sickened if this goes the Cork way.

[biffo_king]

Any More News On This Topic?
Will Richie Go?
shur Hope So....

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Any smoke from the conclave?

[Archangel]

According to reports this morning only 10 layers turned up to last night's meeting.

If they're stuck for players, sure I'll give it a go for a few games, back on topic, the players better have the county at heart on this one because they haven't earned the brownie points the Cork hurlers earned for their supporters. Thin ice time I'm thinking.

[Bord na Mona man]

Today's Times

GAELIC GAMES NEWS ROUND-UP: OFFALY ARE the latest county to be facing a player revolt as members of the senior football panel have come into conflict with manager Richie Connor. A special meeting between the county players and management was called last night in an effort to distil some of their differences but half the current panel are reported to have announced their intention not to return to Connor’s set-up.

It’s yet another example of how a tense relationship between players and county management can suddenly explode, and follows another revolt in Offaly just over four years ago, although in that instance the players backed the manager over the county board.

O’Connor seemed unsure of the extent of the players’ grievances except to state he was surprised and puzzled by their nature.

Offaly County Board chairman Pat Teehan sounded equally surprised by the sudden deterioration in the relationship: “All I know for now is that a meeting has been called between the players and the team management,” he said. “But at this point I can’t comment beyond that, until we wait and see what comes out of it.”

Connor was appointed Offaly manager last September, succeeding Pat Roe, who had spent just two seasons in charge. As the All-Ireland winning captain of 1982, the Offaly team that recorded the famous win over Kerry, Connor came into the position with reasonably good credentials, including a spell as county under-21 manager and some time with Laois. He was given a three-year term along with Ollie Daly and Mark Plunkett as selectors.

However, the management endured a difficult opening few weeks in charge, first losing to a Dublin development team in the O’Byrne Cup, then to Carlow in the O’Byrne Shield, and then last Sunday saw their opening Division Three National League clash to Roscommon end in a fairly embarrassing 0-16 to 0-7 defeat.

After that game, up to a dozen players informed Connor on Monday they no longer wished to be part of his set-up. Connor’s team selections had also been raising some eyebrows, not least the positioning of Ciarán McManus at full back, Karol Slattery at corner back and Ger Rafferty at centre forward.

Connor was cautious about predicting the outcome of the meeting last night, particularly as he was unsure how many of the panel would show up.

“I don’t want to pre-empt anything,” he said. “If they don’t come we’ll have to look at the situation. Hopefully they’ll turn up and they’ll have something to say. If it turns out that Richie Connor is the problem and Offaly are going nowhere we’ll have to look at that but having said that, if it’s without substance, the players will have to look at themselves.

“There’s a bit of frustration there I suspect. By and large the players involved are fringe players and they probably feel they’re not getting a chance. When the team is beaten, maybe there are other reasons and I hear that some of them are not happy with training but we’re only a couple of weeks at it. I hope to find out exactly what the problem is but nobody came to me and said they had an issue with anything.”

However, Connor admitted several players, after Sunday’s defeat to Roscommon, had indicated to him their intentions not to stay on: “A couple of fellas I have spoken to have given different reasons. I wouldn’t like to go into them. I was shocked when they pulled out, I couldn’t believe it.

“To be beaten last Sunday, nobody enjoys that but there’s probably a built-up frustration as well after doing so badly in the championship last year and they may have been thinking, ‘here we go again’. But last Sunday we had three players making their league debuts, two of them minors from last year. We’ll be taking risks in every game trying to unearth new blood. Trying out new players is a risk and unbalancing at times. But when the whole thing boils down, they shouldn’t be playing for Richie Connor and his management team, they should be playing for Offaly.”

In September 2004, the Offaly footballers revolted over the failure of then manager Gerry Fahy to get the full backing of the county board for another year in charge – prompting his resignation. The players were upset over the high turnover of managers, given Fahy had just replaced Paul O’Kelly, and this resulted in a lengthy stand-off that was only resolved after the intervention of former manager Eugene McGee. Kevin Kilmurray then took over for two years, before Roe came in.

[TheManFromFerbane]

I'm a bit conflicted on this one. Initially when I heard it I went mad. Calling the players all sorts but after reading it appears to be subtley different to the Cork situation. In Cork ALL the players are saying we won't play for McCarthy, get him out and we'll all come back and save the day for you. Here it appears that SOME of the players are saying. Things aren't going well, the training isn't right, the selections aren't right, if we stay going the way we're going it's going to be another disaster of a year so I'm going to walk.

If that is the case well then I think you kinda have to respect them for it. Especially since as AZ says they aren't coming from a strong position of success at all. I think most of us agreed when talking about the Cork situation that if a player didn't want to play for any reason, went to the manager and said "look I'm not interested" and walked off. Well then the feeling I'd have is "fair enough so, thanks for your honesty and effort to date".

It looks as though their reason is that they think they are going no where and in that case you'd love them to dig their heals in, put the shoulder to the wheel and drive it on. But if they themselves feel it's so bad and that no one in management or County Board level is doing anything about it then it's kinda understandable. I'm not saying it's what I'd do but I think it's different to the Cork thing.

I'm really confused though. I just don't know how to feel about it!! I suppose is it a show of player power or just person power

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly chairman to hold crisis talks with players

Thursday February 05 2009

OFFALY County Board chairman Pat Teehan is to summon the senior football squad to a meeting at the weekend in an attempt to find a solution to the problem which has arisen between a number of players and manager, Richie Connor.

Some of the players informed the County Board on Monday that they were quitting the panel following a bad start to the season in which Offaly lost to a seriously depleted Dublin and Carlow in the O'Byrne Cup and to Roscommon in the League.

Teehan met Connor yesterday and will now arrange a meeting with the squad, which he hopes will take place on Saturday night.

Six of the senior panel are on the Offaly U-21 team which plays Westmeath in the Leinster championship on Saturday so it was decided to wait until after that game to hold the meeting.

"The players, Richie and the County Board all want what's best for Offaly football. How we go about that is the big challenge now. I'm hoping for an amicable solution," said Teehan.

The senior side will not train together for the rest of the week, which puts them at a further disadvantage for their next League game against Longford on Sunday week.

The fact that the disgruntled players conveyed their feelings to Teehan rather than to Connor directly is not a promising sign although Teehan insisted that there was no parallel between this and the stand-off that's taking place in Cork.

"Hopefully all the players will agree to meet me so that we can go through things in detail and plan a way forward," said Teehan.

- Martin Breheny

[bracknaghboy]

Nobody will have any sympathy for us. We have always been seen as a proud county who never gave up and fought to the end. Now we willl be seen as a bunch of whinging good for nothings that want to blame everything and anyone for our dire displays. I hated every minute of Pat Roes spell as manager however if one thinks back to the spineless display against Down then you realise it was the players not giving 100% that led to the embaressment. Some of these players want all the glory and are not willing to put their neck on the line for it. Doesnt matter who is over the team players should run themselves til they cant run no more for 70 mins for the GREEN WHITE and GOLD. This has not been happening of late and that explains the results.

[Silken Thomas]

Can anyone tell me about the process behind Richie Connor's appointment?
I know Laz Molloy had assembled a 'team' and that Stephen Darby was interviewed, was there anyone else?

More importantly who sat on the commitee that interviewed these candidates, decided upon the questions and put forward Richie to this position?

[Bord na Mona man]

More importantly who sat on the commitee that interviewed these candidates, decided upon the questions and put forward Richie to this position?

This committee was headed by County Chairperson Pat Teehan, Secretary Martin Boland along with three former players Sean Lowry, Vincent Henry and Declan Kelly.

http://www.offalyexpress.ie/general-gaa ... 4530900.jp