easy side of the draw

[red exile]

judging by wexfords destruction of westmeath, it must surely bring into question ,were offaly as brutal as we thought or were they made look brutal by a very good team who must fancy their chances of a leinster title,

[puzzled]

judging by wexfords destruction of westmeath, it must surely bring into question ,were offaly as brutal as we thought or were they made look brutal by a very good team who must fancy their chances of a leinster title,

Maybe too many of us were caught up in the hype of we're going to get to a leinster final before a ball was kicked I know i was and possibly some of the players as well and the more I thought about it Wexford were in an All-Ireland semi not that long ago and even though Matty Forde has retired they are stll a decent outfit with the best young manager around! Time will tell how good they are but wouldnt it be great to see them winning a Leinster!

[Abercrombie Fitch]

I would still think we have fallen into the lowest tier of Leinster football with the Carlows and Wicklows of this world. It shouldnt matter what Wexford did to Westmeath. To be using these counties as our touchstones shows how far we have fallen. I wouldnt back Offaly to beat anybody at the moment in Senior football, and i include New York and London into that. I'm not saying they wouldnt win those particular games but i wouldnt be confident enough to part with my money after what i've seen over the past 3 years.
I can say with some regret that i will not be paying to see these footballers again this year. I'd rather go to cork and see the hurlers go down fighting(if that turns out to be the case) than watch another Offaly football match this year. And thats from someone who is going religiously to Offaly football matches since the the mid 80's when i was just a chap!

[offalycork]

Hi Guys,

Its awhile since I have posted anything due to my own ignorants and regretable shyness, however i do regularly reads all posts.

I fell now implelled to say something about the offaly senior football team and situation.

I was based in cork and a season ticket holder making every game i went to an away game. I now work in london and still am a season ticket holder and went 6 out of the 8 league matches. If any of the team read this i will continue to support you and go to as many matches as i can.

Every match you will always see the usual faces and people at the matches especially away. It always disappoints me the turn out at the games. I know you will all contradict me saying there is nothing to go and see. Remember when we got to a leinster final against dublin i can remeber going down to queue and collect tickets for a friend of mine. the queue was down the road and not one did i recognise. My point is we all have to start with ourselves, are we offaly supporters and are we going to support our team.

if we want pride back in the county and the players to follow suit then the turn out for our next match we should turn up in our 1000's not 100's. When the team runs out onto o'connor park and looks across into the stand and it half empty what do you think this does to players and there is more away support than home support.

I left the wexford match as disappointed as anyone and went thinking it was a game we could win. when i arrived and seen such a bad crowd i started to wonder will this rub off on players and i'm convinced it does. i cant be sure but i would say that there was as many from wexford at the game as from offaly.

A lot of guys were saying that offaly threw in the towel very early in the second half if you looked around in the stand the offaly supporters also started to leave.

Draw tonight hope its laois at home, best of luck to all the players involved.

[Truth as i see it]

Hi Guys,

Its awhile since I have posted anything due to my own ignorants and regretable shyness, however i do regularly reads all posts.

I fell now implelled to say something about the offaly senior football team and situation.

I was based in cork and a season ticket holder making every game i went to an away game. I now work in london and still am a season ticket holder and went 6 out of the 8 league matches. If any of the team read this i will continue to support you and go to as many matches as i can.

Every match you will always see the usual faces and people at the matches especially away. It always disappoints me the turn out at the games. I know you will all contradict me saying there is nothing to go and see. Remember when we got to a leinster final against dublin i can remeber going down to queue and collect tickets for a friend of mine. the queue was down the road and not one did i recognise. My point is we all have to start with ourselves, are we offaly supporters and are we going to support our team.

if we want pride back in the county and the players to follow suit then the turn out for our next match we should turn up in our 1000's not 100's. When the team runs out onto o'connor park and looks across into the stand and it half empty what do you think this does to players and there is more away support than home support.

I left the wexford match as disappointed as anyone and went thinking it was a game we could win. when i arrived and seen such a bad crowd i started to wonder will this rub off on players and i'm convinced it does. i cant be sure but i would say that there was as many from wexford at the game as from offaly.

A lot of guys were saying that offaly threw in the towel very early in the second half if you looked around in the stand the offaly supporters also started to leave.

Draw tonight hope its laois at home, best of luck to all the players involved.

Have to agree with you there, as the fans we have to be more proactive in getting behind the team and i include myself in that, i am usually working on Saturdays and Sundays but i should be making a better effort to get to more home games.

[old yellar]

Abercrombie, as a Carlow man, I d like to point out that we are in the Leinster semi final v Wexford, ye are? Thanks for the vote of confidence in us in your post!

[black and red exile]

old yellar, that was a terrific result today for ye against the most overated team in Leinster, Offaly beat Louth in Drogheda in the league by a point and it should have been 6 or 7, I thought Louth were very ordinary, there was way too much hype and bullshit about them last year after the Leinster final and for today's game it was disgraceful the way every Tom Dick and Harry was going on about a Wexford Louth semi final without even giving Carlow a mention and also the coverage on the Sunday game was shocking, well done Carlow and Wexford won't have it all their own way in the semi final.

[the bare biffo]

old yellar, that was a terrific result today for ye against the most overated team in Leinster, Offaly beat Louth in Drogheda in the league by a point and it should have been 6 or 7, I thought Louth were very ordinary, there was way too much hype and bullshit about them last year after the Leinster final and for today's game it was disgraceful the way every Tom Dick and Harry was going on about a Wexford Louth semi final without even giving Carlow a mention and also the coverage on the Sunday game was shocking, well done Carlow and Wexford won't have it all their own way in the semi final.

League form has been proven irrelevant by Wexford, Westmeath were promoted, Wexford werent, Offaly finished level on points with Wexford. Louth were favourites on the back of a good Leinster Championship run last year, not just the Leinster Final. That just makes it all the sweeter a victory for Carlow. Well done to them.

As for Wexfords beating of Westmeath giving any sort of excuse to Offaly thats just bullshit. It wasnt that Offaly were beaten or even that they were beaten badly, it was the complete lack of urgency and passion from the throw in, compounded by crab like movement of the ball and juvenile technical errors throughout the team that was so damning of that Offaly performance.
If anyone thought it was an easy route to a Leinster Final, then I'd like to know on what grounds any Offaly person, supporter, player or management came to that conclusion. Wexford beat them in Tullamore in the league and have consistently beaten them in championship since 2006. If Offaly players were in any way complacent then its just another damning of Tom Cribbens management because its his job to have the players heads right.

[Long John]

I dont think the Wexford result at the weekend makes the Offaly performance any less terrible than it was. The bottom line is this Offaly team were well beaten by Wetmeath in an important league game.

Our side is just terrible and its as simple as that. Theres a major lack of discipline and commitment within that squad.

Home advantage now against Monaghan, a side that not so long ago Offaly were able to match. I think they drew up in Monaghan in Divison 1 of the league in 2006 and were beaten by one point in Clones in 2007 and missed some clear cut chances to win it that day aswell. Both sides have taken very different routes since then.

I hope the lads have knuckled down and put in some hard graft on the field. They have to forget about the Brewery tap and the wolftrap and concentrate on bloody restoring a bit of pride in Offaly football.

[Abercrombie Fitch]

Old Yeller, as an adopted Carlow man i was delighted with yer win. A good few lads i'd have a pint with around Carlow made a nice few pound on them too. And no disrespect was meant but you must see where i was coming from. The celebrations in Carlow town last night show where ye are in Leinster football and i was merely stating that Offaly are going that direction too. Louth also are the most over rated team in Leinster and i'd expect Meath to relish the chance to put this little saga to bed, which i'm sure they will.
Also, as an Offaly man living in Carlow, what i'd do to see the kind of joy and excitement in Tullamore that i saw in Carlow last night. I'd say a lot of wives had dinners ready for lads who never made it home.

Now, Roll on the 25th so i can go to this hurling and hopefully be updated by text of an Offaly resurgance against Monaghan.