Post Scallion Indigestion

[Lone Shark]

The dust may have settled a little bit since Offaly GAA’s historic new low in Dr. Cullen Park almost two weeks ago, but if you are an Offaly football fan, you would be forgiven for treading warily when opening newspapers, so laden with bad news have they been over the last short while. That Sunday in particular, reading the assorted newspaper articles describing the game, which was often referred to as “the shock of the championship so far”, was a painful process, and not an experience many would wish to repeat.

It’s hard to escape the view though that this was a lazy viewpoint, and one for the most espoused by those who have not seen Offaly play football in some time – because for Lone Shark and the small band of Offaly followers who have been in attendance at the O’Byrne Cup in Portlaoise on January 2nd and every game the county has played since – the only shock in Carlow on that sad Saturday was that anyone was surprised. Since the inception of the backdoor system, Offaly has managed to defeat London, Clare, and put in one great performance against Kildare. In that same time, we have suffered defeats at the hands of Louth, Limerick, Roscommon, Wexford and Carlow, five games against very beatable opposition, in four of which we started clear favourites with every bookmaker across Ireland. In each of these years we entered the backdoor set up on the back of a crushing narrow defeat in the province, in most cases to the eventual winner, a trend which could very possibly be repeated in 2005. However only in 2002 could the defeat have been even nearly as harrowing as this year’s loss in Croke Park to Laois and Ross Munnelly’s late goal, and while many people have been holding their head in their hands at the thought of a loss to Carlow, it’s not as if teams like Limerick or Wexford were perceived as big name teams at the time either.

The truth is that this Offaly team has no stomach for the backdoor, and no resilience to take a defeat on the chin and come back out the next day and put in a performance worthy of their potential. We invariably travel to provincial venues where our support is greatly outnumbered and lose our composure in the face of a tricky tie where stomach for a fight and a do-or-die mentality are more prized commodities than silky skills and flair. More so than any other team in the draw, Carlow fitted the profile of the kind of team that eliminates us, and to anyone, journalist or otherwise, who proclaimed the result a shock, well then you just don’t know Offaly football.

Since the game, there has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth, with most followers polarised. There are those who lay the blame squarely on the doorstep of management, and there are those who claim that it’s not Kevin Kilmurray’s job to kick the ball over the crossbar, and that he has done well in keeping us in division one. Never one to swim with the tide, Lone Shark disagrees with both viewpoints. First and foremost, from a management perspective, 2005 was an utter disaster from start to finish. Coming into the year, our senior footballers certainly had the winning of a Leinster title in them, and our Under 21 footballers were probably the team best equipped to bring home a trophy of some sort of all Offaly teams in either code. Both teams exited their respective championships by narrow margins, and with the gulf in management know-how exposed in both cases.

In Tullamore in March the under 21’s took on Meath on a windy day in Tullamore. Meath took the strong breeze in the first period, and played some good football, running up 0-10. Offaly took them on the whole way through, gritting their teeth and taking the punishment waiting for the elements to favour them in the second period. The second period came, and Offaly got a lesson in the harsh realities of the game, as Meath killed momentum and ran out the clock at every available opportunity, delaying kickouts, making substitutions, treating a large number of injuries on the field of play so as to kill the game. A more savvy management team would have been doing the same in the first half and might have kept the deficit more manageable going into the second period. Our lack of same ended up costing us the game.

Fast forward to the Laois match in May, and this time roles were reversed. Offaly had the lead the whole way through, but when Laois were coming back at us, at no stage were our players given a breather by the management on the sideline, or at no stage was any effort made to check the momentum of our neighbours, instead we naively let them play their game and play their way back in. For those who would argue that this is a cynical viewpoint, those people were clearly not in the crowd in Tullamore in 2003 for the replay against the same opponents, where Mick O’Dwyer gave a masterclass in time wasting, successfully wasting over seven minutes of game time treating “cramped” players, (for those who suggest that that could have been genuine, compare it with how many Laois players went down with cramp the previous week while their team was behind), making slow substitutions, running in onto the pitch himself forcing the ref to escort him off etc. Be under no illusion, if it were Laois leading at half time by six points the lead would have certainly been retained.

To those who try to defend the management team by saying that they didn’t kick all the wides, the retort is simple – they didn’t kick them, but they saw it happening the whole way through the league and left the problem unchecked. It is a known phenomenon of this current Offaly side that far from converting 60% of chances as is the benchmark for successful football sides, we do well to convert 50%, and usually fall short of even that. This was a problem waiting to happen, with several potential remedies. We could have used running players to try and draw more fouls, thereby creating easier chances. Players could have been encouraged to try to fist the ball over the bar more – a skill woefully under utilised in our county and a much more accurate way of finishing from inside 25m. Above all we could have rotated our forwards more. For a county with such shooting problems, only three real inside line players, Jimmy, Niall and Paschal saw regular game time this year. Not to give a chance to the likes of Thomas Deehan or David Egan in any relevant game was costly in this regard. So to say management is blameless for this terrible year is clearly wide of the mark, not inappropriately.

However those calling for blood are also out of order. There is a lot more to Offaly football than just the 2006 Championship, and those screaming for the catharsis that a head on a stick would bring would do well to remember that we have the reputation for being a managerial burial ground. To fire another man in mid contract would be very detrimental in the long run, and would set that burial ground idea in stone. While we don’t have a track record for going for proven talent, if we were to look for a manager of the calibre of John O’Mahony for example he would certainly be wary of undertaking any arrangement with our county board of proven Machiavellian tendencies. It should also be noted that Kevin Kilmurray is as yet in his first year of any managerial position of note. He was a coach at St. Brigid’s in Dublin as opposed to manager, and to expect him to be wise in the ways of management when he was taken on with to all intents and purposes no experience is possibly unreasonable. He should not be fired.

However they do say you learn from your mistakes – in which cases Kevin Kilmurray has a lot of learning to do this summer, because he and his selectors certainly put together a large syllabus of mistakes to learn from. If he does feel that he can do the county justice going forward, the key points to note are:

(1) This is a twenty man game these days. Using only seventeen players and making your first substitution after more than three quarters of the game has gone is foolishness and should be the rarity, not the norm.
(2) Changing things around is not admitting defeat – it is merely adjusting to suit the game as it develops. In Carlow John Reynolds skinned his opposite number for pace twice in succession, leading to one score and one blocked shot. The wing back facing him was then withdrawn on sixteen minutes before any real damage could be done. Shaper faded out of the game from there. Even though we were trailing to a division two side throughout, our first switch was after nearly an hour, much too late. If it’s half time against a team like Carlow and the score is 0-7 to 0-4 to the opposition, it’s a safe assumption that not all fifteen players are playing well – a switch or two might be advisable.
(3) The backdoor is where a lot of football is played. You have to ensure that your team is mentally prepared to give 100% in that arena.
(4) Tactics are a huge part of the modern game. Most observers assumed reticence on Kilmurray’s part when he was asked about the game plan coming into the Laois match and he answered that he had picked the team and he was just going to let them do their thing. Then it turned out that there was no obvious gameplan, and certainly no plan B. Would Mickey Harte or Joe Kernan be similarly caught out? Hardly.
(5) Though staying in the division is important, players should spend the league getting used to playing as they will in the big games in the summer. Offaly played an entire league campaign plus an opening match against Louth with a two man inside forward line. The big game rolls around and we revert to three, which had not been used outside of challenge matches. Just because you have three inside forwards you want to play does not mean you change your system if there isn’t room for them. If there are hard calls that need to be made then they must be made.
(6) Niall McNamee is Offaly’s best scorer and biggest goal threat by a considerable margin, but he is not and never will be a half forward. The modern half forward is no more defensive or attacking than a half back, as for both lines the primary role is winning ball and support play. It should be noted too that Gerry Fahy was equally guilty of this selection error. To see Offaly’s best scorer carrying a long term groin injury tracking back fast wing backs in Carlow was a dagger to the heart of Offaly supporters.

Whoever is in charge next year, be it Kilmurray or A.N.Other, a huge task lies in front of them. We will still be in a very tough division 1A, with four away games, and our home games will include Kerry and Tyrone, hardly guaranteed wins. The legacy of the seventies and eighties of Offaly being a tough team to beat is now officially dead and buried. We now have a reputation for giving up leads and folding in the face of adversity, and as a result we are the team everyone now wants to play. To restore a bit of stubborn-ness to the county’s play will be a huge ask.

2005 has been a traumatic time for all involved in Offaly football, and it will go down as another year of real missed opportunity. It’s a short step from where we are now to becoming like Cavan – successful in the past, but so long ago as to be nothing but a distant memory. Our legacy as a hard to beat team was pawned away over the last few years. We will shortly be back to a situation where none of our players will ever have won a provincial title – this can’t be let happen. 2006 must be better. It must.

See you on the Terraces.

[Hyper]

Well put together LS

[Percy Sledgehammer]

We can't afford another year like that. Our players have no idea what it's like to win a championship game, and quite literally, have become losers.

Another year with that fella in charge and they'd be sick of the sight of a football altogether.

With no leaders in the team they nead a leader off it. They certainly don't have one now.