Offaly football panel 2010

[noodles]

hey folks, has anyone any idea who's on the current panel for the new season, any surprises

[Bord na Mona man]

http://www.hoganstand.com/Offaly/Articl ... ?ID=122244

Retirements expected in Offaly

06 January 2010


Padraig Kelly, Alan McNamee, Conor Evans, Ger Rafferty and Neville Coughlan could have all played their last games for Offaly as manager Tom Cribben attempts to build a new team.

The Clane native commenced his rebuilding programme during last year's championship and that is set to continue in the coming season. While Cribben stressed that no-one has been ruled out of his plans yet, the highly experienced quintet of Kelly, McNamee, Evans, Rafferty and Coughlan haven't been included in his O'Byrne Cup squad and are unlikely to feature at all this year.

Long-serving goalkeeper Kelly, who along with Ciaran McManus is the only remaining link with the Faithful County's 1997 Leinster SFC winning side, has remained part of the set-up, but only as a coach to the other three goalkeepers on the panel at the moment - Walsh Island's Alan Mulhall, Brian Quinlan of Edenderry and Tullamore's Eoin Brennan.

Cribben explained: "Padraig is going to come in and coach with the other keepers for a few months. He is happy to step aside from the league and let other lads get experience. If one of the other lads is good enough, he is happy with that and if we need to use him, we will. He will be doing all the training."

Conor Evans has been monitored in club league games in Dublin but it is looking increasingly unlikely that he, Alan McNamee and Neville Coughlan will not feature in the National League.

Explaining that former captain McNamee is struggling with injuries, the manager added: "He is undecided himself. He is not fresh enough at the moment."

Cribben also revealed that Coughlan is doing marathon running at the moment and may also be going to Chad on army duty at the end of May which would rule him out of championship, while another former captain, Ger Rafferty, is also currently out of the equation.

The Offaly boss was disappointed to note to all of the dual players considered good enough for inter-county level, with the exception of Birr's Sean Ryan, have opted to concentrate on hurling this year. Tullamore's James Keane and the Kilcormac/Killoughey pair of Conor Mahon and Daniel Currams will be devoting all their energies to Joe Dooley's hurling panel in the season ahead.

"Some of them would have liked to have come in but it is really not feasible with where we are and where the hurlers are in terms of development," he added.

Cribben is currently working with a panel of 31 players which includes Scott Brady who has agreed to return to the fold after a year-long absence after captaining Clara to senior championship glory last year.

[Lone Shark]

Nothing in all that suggests a huge revamp - Kelly will still be available, it just means that the other keepers will get playing time during the Spring and a chance to step up, while McNamee appears to be out due to injury as much as anything else while Coughlan's absence also reads as if it's for other reasons.

There are openings for players in the full back line however - appears to be very much an open book in terms of who will fill those slots in the coming weeks and months.

[Plain of the Herbs]

More news here: -
http://www.midlandtribune.ie/articles/s ... -kilkenny/

[Frank Mcguigan]

Out of the four keepers picked including Kelly , None of them are in the top two keepers in the county For what reasons Meehan from Clara and the walsh island keeper are not involved I do not know.

Also does anyone know if young Darby from Rhode is backing playing yet or how is his injurying coming along and does anyone know if Joe Quinn is available for the county this year.

[noodles]

thanks lads, have read those articles too, just wondering who the other 20 odd players are. Have to agree with you Frank, wouldn't be overly impressedwith the goalkeepers either

[Black Spot]

Agree with that Walsh Islands Ian Duffy should deffintly be giving a shot in goals his young,very confident and a good shootstoper with a good kick.The more experience he gains now as a young lad the better he will become in time.
Dont understand why Mullhal is still in contention hes an out feild player and in my openion was an experiment of Richie Conners that didnt really work. if Cribbens building a team for the future it dosnt make sense not to give Duffy or Quinlan a go.Dont know much about the goalie from Tullamore.
I think meehan from Clara is only getting back into things after injury,unfortunatly cant see him playing in the Obyrne cup or the league,which more than likley means he wont be in contention come championship.
Its a real pity that the hurlers cant commit to both,Shane Dooley might add somting along with Currams and Mahon.Tullamors Garroid O'Grady wouldn't be a bad addition either if he was intrested.
Will be intresting to see what team will feature in the Obyrne cup,I'd love to see a few under 21s feature like Anton and Brian Conner along with the experienced lads it would bring a bit of excitment to it.

[offalyman08]

Would have been interesting to see what team would have lined out today but none of the u21's would be playing until after their championship.
Anyone any idea what the team would have been

[bluegoalie]

Kevin Meehan is without a doubt head and shoulders above anyone in the county when he's fit n as far as im aware hes over his injury.

Dont rate Quinlan at all, and I think a few games in senior will test Walsh Islands Keeper. Eoin Brennan is a decent keeper but not at this level.

Anyone know if Dean Bracken was approached to join the panel???

[black and red exile]

Its all opinion of course but anytime i've seen Brian Quinlan i've been impressed with him, True Red would of course be better qualified than most of us to give an insight into the Edenderry man. In my opinion id certainly have him in there instead of Alan Mulhall or Kevin Meehan, I've seen a fair bit of the 3 of them and I would'nt hesitate in putting Quinlan in at No 1 choice with Meehan as No 2. Last year Alan Mulhall struck me as being very shaky in Portlaoise against Kildare and did'nt exactly inspire confidence, to be honest I've only seen Eoin Brennan in action a couple of times and can't honestly give an opinion on him.

[Georgio1]

Bracken from wht Ive heard and seen would not have the necessary interest or committment to play Senior County football. Think he committed to soccer last year.
Meehan is watery enough under the high ball and lets face it, this is the bread and butter of the job. I think Mulhall should be given another try, and would also think his club colleague Ian Duffy is handy enough too.

On another note would be great to see Conor Mahon in that Offaly team during OByrne cup and see if he could make a job of it, midfield or centre forward. Unfortunately he will be persevering with the hurling. Best of luck to him there of course , but I think he would be a far greater asset with the footballers.

[Bord na Mona man]

At this moment we need a keeper with a good kickout as a priority.

In a championship campaign you might never actually reap the benefit in having a keeper with great hands between the sticks.
Goals being conceded are an inevitability, but more often than not, they are from situations that a keeper can do little about.

In Offaly's case, with problems in fielding and winning breaks around the middle of the field, you need to avail of every ploy possible to counteract this. A keeper is going to have to kick ball out roughly 25 times a game (15 scores conceded + 10 wides).
You can easily cause a 3 or 4 point swing against you in every game by kicking out short, inaccurately, to the wrong area, or towards the wrong player.

One thing noticeable about Offaly last year was that there seemed to be breakdown in communication in the kick out strategy.
Frequently it looked like the outfield players had little idea where the ball was going to be kicked to.

We'll say for example when they ball was landing on Niall Smith (sensible enough), too often no other Offaly players seemed aware this was going to happen to be sweeping in for breaks, or to defend if he didn't win it.