St. Vincent's Senior Team

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
jimbob17
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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by jimbob17 »

Ahlethimoutwithit wrote:Jimbob, you have not answered as to why Noel Andrew and Bracken might be lost. Most county players spend 85% of their time in training with the county, and if a guy is dedicated with his club it will shine through. And the dedication to play county football needs to be there to. The guys you have spoken about from KK , (especially Currams and Mahon) have been asked in to the Offaly senior set up to train with them for the panel and refused citing a committment to hurling, no tmuch you can do with that. Liam Brennan for Daingean will be a fella who Cooney might look at, not too many else there. Clonbullogue will have a couple of guy, Croghan have a couple of young lads, Cian O Donoghue, Brickland who could be asked in, but overall there are a lot of minors who come through and for a variety of reasons drift away, but to blame the clubs and the fact that guys are playing Junior and Intermediate football is not the main issue. As another poster has pointed out, guys who put it in with their clubs stand out and if they have the dedication they will make it as they will spend most of their time training with the county and not with their clubs.
I suppose the reason that they are lost is that once they leave the minor and 21 co panels, they go backwards quickly while playing junior football. They get by without pushing themselves too hard because they are able, and before they know it, they are no longer in the picture. I am not saying that those 2 players in question will be lost for certain but just using them as examples. Bracken was on the senior panel in 2006 and wasnt looked at under Rowe while he played senior football in Dublin. He was looked over by Cribbin till this year. That is 5 years without playing at the top level. However if he was playing for Rhode or Clara he would be more in the spotlight and be picked every year and probably be a mainstay at this stage. Graham is an obvious talent that may easily be wasted as once he leaves the 21 grade he will no longer have the opportunity to play at a high level barring he is a co senior panelist. I could have used many others in this example, but i used him as most would identify with it. This is why Kerry's divisional system works so well where all junior and inter players have an opportunity to showcase their skills at a higher level. A prime example is the Ballinamere Gaels hurlers who won the 21A hurling when all would have played B grade hurling up along the ages. Some of their players werent even considered for co minor as they came from the wrong side of the county, and this year a couple of these same lads played key roles on the OY u21 team and were some of offalys best players in their one championship game v the dubs despite being thrashed.

Fair point, some lads will refuse and some will fall away, but if fellas are given the opportunity and they grab it, are we not in a better place. I can think of at least 4 lads who played junior this year who would be better than half last years senior panel and all would have played very well at underage level for offaly in minor and 21 level. The 3rd KK lad who you didn mention may have been able to play, and may also have declined but i can guarantee you this that a lot of the talented lads i can think of would jump at the chance to be involved with the OY seniors.

Answer this, would these clonbullogue lads genuinely have a chance of making the cut coming from the lower level if only given one trial to impress like its been in the past. These fellas should be brought in and assessed physically and put on appropriate programmes to bring them to the desired level. Times have moved on from simply playing well at club level senior, inter or junior to being a co senior standard player. These guys at the top are elite athletes in terms of every thing. You see what we did to the aussies in the compromise rules. we need to help them make this massive leap in terms of aerobic fitness and strength and conditioning from Junior and inter club football, and senior club football for that matter.

Kildare have used the intermediate county grade to great effect since mcgeeney came in as have cork in progressing lads from 21 to senior in terms of strength and conditioning. These teams are generally kept at U24 and work as feeders for many players (many of whom come from junior clubs) towards senior. They get all the support in terms of nutrition, strength and conditioning, psychology etc to make the jump to the seniors. Injured Seniors also have to prove themselves with this level in training before being brought back to the senior panel. Davy fitz did a similar thing with the Waterford hurlers and was very successful in transforming their hurlers from an old team to a relatively successful young one in the last few years. He is replicating this again in Clare at the moment with a development panel of 20 in training outside the immediate senior panel of almost 40. Obviously it costs a little, but if we are unwilling to invest in our own players, why should we return to the top any time soon!! Its all about keeping up with the rest, but the administrators in the co board are clueless as to what is actually required at the top level these days. Pay peanuts, get Monkeys!! Easy to supply top rate people to do the relevant work. There are plenty around. If they enquired, they would realise it wouldnt even cost that much. One training per week for this key group and fitness monitored and programmes adjusted every few months.

Some of the names you have mentioned are well capable of playing senior but a year in such a squad would do wonders for them in terms of their development. obviously, when this pathway doesnt exist, then the jump to county senior from junior club becomes greater and greater the further on in age a junior club player is despite the innate talent. this to my knowledge is the main reason why OY are where they are. if some of the mentioned names go to trial and dont make it at 19 years of age, that doesnt mean they will never be good enough, but with the present system, they wil have the perception of failure despite being very close at a young age. This talent needs to be nurtured. The centre of OY football region is stacked with these junior clubs with obvious talent. The inability of the co board to invest in and support these players transition is costing the county dearly, whether it be lack of opportunity to play in a divisional side in senior championship or lack of willingness to invest in the idea mentioned as carried out by cork and kildare and waterford hurlers.
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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by kingscounty »

its a pity offaly dont enter teams in the junior and intermediate county level anymore.i think this would be a great way of bringing lads on and gives senior manager some options if a lad is going well he can give him a shot at senior. i know it prob costs alot to run these teams buts its a pity because we might do well at these grades and it keeps an interest especially if the seniors exit the championship at an early stage.

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Lone Shark
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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by Lone Shark »

Jimbob, I appreciate your frustration, but I don't buy into your logic simply because it all seems to be based around the central premise that a player can only improve by as much as his club allows. Your opening line states that players "go backwards" playing junior football. I hold the view that this does not have to be the case, and if a player is going backwards, then the bulk of the responsibility falls with the player himself. Indeed if you want to play county football, you have to go above and beyond even what a senior club asks you to do. Right now there would be very few senior clubs holding training - but there are probably hundreds of players out there training by themselves, or in small groups. That's what's required, and being part of a junior or intermediate club is no barrier to that.

You use Padraig Bracken as an example. Of course I don't know the circumstances behind Padraig Bracken's life, but I do know this about him as a footballer - the only good football I've ever seen him play has been as a primary possession, fielding midfielder. If he was with Clara or Rhode, he mightn't even be playing football because I don't know that I'd pick him over Mark Dunne, Alan McNamee, or either of the Bradys, which would be his competition. He could be back playing intermediate or junior football anyway if he was at either of those clubs. I'm not saying it's likely, but it is a possibility.

Likewise, think about Liam Brennan. If he went to Clara or Rhode, chances are he'd be given a job in the corner, or on the wing. If he stays with Daingean, and mans the crucial full back position, he'll get to prove firstly that he can provide the leadership to drive a good junior club up a grade - and Daingean have plenty of good young footballers to be able to do that - and in the process he'll spend his time marking the best forwards that a lot of similar clubs have to offer, because he'll be given that responsibility. If he was playing intermediate football, he'd be marking players like James Coughlan, Paul Kinnarney, Ken Casey, Peter Cunningham, Bryan Lonergan and plenty of others like them.

It's a double edged sword, which can work either way. At the end of day it's still down to the player how much they improve, and if you want to play county, that has to be substantial.


On the point about a county junior football team, of course it would be preferable if we had one, but I don't like comparing Offaly's situation to that of Kildare. They spend the square root of feck all on hurling, and have twice our population and possibly treble our wealth. Likewise Waterford and Clare hurling are very much primary sports.

I'd need to see the numbers and how this would be funded before I'd castigate anyone for the absence of such a team.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by Ahlethimoutwithit »

Like Loneshark I can see your frustration Jimbob, but its not fair to say guys will be lost because they are playing Junior or Intermediate. Guys are lost primarily because they do not have the ambition. However you make a valid point about how guys are brought in for 1 trial or so and then they are ditched because they may not have shown up well. There needs to be a template given to every club of the work that needs to be done in the off season in order to get up to the level of fitness to be considered for trial, and guys who are on the radar by the county train together in small groups from different clubs (ie Clonbullogue, Daingean, Cappincur, Kilclonfert could train together for 2 months at the end of the championship) and then go through the trial process.

I think the bigger issue may be the lack of a programme put in place by trainers for their players to keep them ticking over or indeed improve their core strength and fitness.
Real problem with amalgamations is take Vincents for example, how committed would their players be to training with a parish team when they see the chance of glory in their first intermediate campaign in years, similarly Daingean, they will want to bounce back from their final defeat and try to get up Intemediate.
If Senior team is not to be relegated, they would need full commitment from the elite players in the parish. In fact I would say if they were not preparing now, then they would struggle.
On the subject of amalgamations, the only way they work is if it is agreed to play under one banner, ie St Vincents, and put out 4 teams at 4 different grades. The other way of coming together would be too loose to succeed in the objective of raising the standard.

More effort put into encouraging our clubs to develope themselves and their players, more 7 aside tournaments in off season, and even during the Summer when county teams are playing would help. Players need to work together at this time of the year in order to come back fit and ready for coaching and games, rather that the big slog to drop a stone for the first month! The McPaddens did not make much progress, and look how one of them was denied playing in an Intermediate final for 5 mins of Senior?

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by jimbob17 »

to be fair to junior and inter, the demands that are placed upon them in club training sessions are way off what would be expected of them at senior but is utterly dependent on management at club level. No matter what you say, players need to be challenged physically in training, they need a certain level of good coaching. this generally doesnt happen at junior level sessions, believe me i know from experience. Coming back after 3 years out of playing one time i coasted through sessions for most of the year, and i wouldnt have considered myself even near peak fitness at the time. the standard of training at junior level is poor to say the least. Barring players do their own thing on the side, they are generally ill prepared from my experience. If they were at senior level doing harder, higher paced training with better players, would this not help them make the transition to senior inter county?? to say that players dont go backwards if they are a co 21 player and resort back to junior club football only when they are finished at this level is naive to say the least...The competition doesnt demand them to play at a high level, it doesnt require high fitness levels to be competitive. You may suggest that this is more a reflection on a player, but i disagree. If they were challenged further with senior football, they would gladly train harder and gladly make the sacrifices demanded of them.

However, as you said, if they were supplied with programmes and monitored in a county set up, with a chance of being involved at senior level, would this not be a good idea. If the co board thought this could be done for ten grand a year, would they jump at it, cos that is all it would cost i reckon!!

By the way, The Vincents players are mad keen to play together as a club. It is the older administrators in their fifties that are anti change. dont forget that all these players are friends and have played together right the way thro from ten to 21 until they split up and go their separate ways to their respective junior clubs. Dont for a moment suggest that they would have difficulty with the likes of tubber. Take all u 25 alone and you have at least 10 who have played at co 21 level, thats leaving out 6 co minors of this year and last year. Many of these would be in with or given a chance with the co seniors if they were in other senior clubs. I would safely say that they would be above even Tullamore and even edenderry in the pecking order at senior level going on their respective underage structures in the last ten years. People dont realise the talent that is going missing and wasted in this area especially.
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Lone Shark
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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by Lone Shark »

On point of fact, none of what you say can be disagreed with. Take the same player with the same natural ability and put him in senior training sessions versus those of a junior club and as a general rule, he will improve more in the framework of the senior club.

However this falls down on one crucial issue - no county player becomes a county player simply because of club training. You have to go the extra mile, and then several extra miles on top of that again. If you don't have that in you, that drive to improve yourself, you're never going to get to the level required, and it's inconsequential from an Offaly point of view whether you turn out to be a middling senior club player or a middling junior club player.

Your key point - would it help them make the transition? Certainly. But that presumes they're going to do the additional bit themselves, which in fairness, if they were going to do, they'd find their club moving up the rankings anyway.

As for the likely fate of a Daingean parish team, our reigning county champions struggled to get over Tubber. Don't think for a minute that Vincents would walk past them, it would be a 50/50 game at best, and that's assuming a well trained, well co-ordinated St Vincents team, which is far from a given. If you honestly think that they'd be above Tullamore or Edenderry in particular, all I can say is that I'd love to have you as a customer in a betting shop. I've been ten years pricing up county championships all across Ireland. I've assessed amalgamations, divisional teams, parish teams and all sorts. It takes years for them to be as good as the sum of their parts, and 90% of them never are and end up disbanding. The divisions in Kerry are long established and mean something to all of them, likewise in Cork. The system failed utterly in Mayo, was abandoned in Laois after Ballyroan Gaels won and is almost never used up north. When successful, it's usually an amalgamation of a lot of clubs, not three or four, and that's after a lot of time. Our own history in Offaly is particularly bleak when it comes to amalgamations, and I say this as someone coming from a club that spent well over a decade recovering from one that was supposed to lead to wonderful things at the time.

Also, the parish of Daingean fielded seven adult teams a few years ago and it's bad enough that's gone down to five. Already participation in the parish is dropping. When you amalgamate the parish and say they field a senior, Junior A and Junior B team (presuming they're allowed saunter into senior, which would be contentious) - what are you proposing all the other footballers do? Alternatively, how do you plan on working a system that lads can play both?

Of course it's frustrating, but I disagree that there is a huge pot of gold there from a county perspective. If these lads are feeling held back by their clubs, then take it on themselves and change things. I guarantee you that if all these frustrated young players go to the AGMs of the four clubs involved, they can change things if they want. Those fifty somethings you castigate will be surprisingly amenable. They always are, when people come up with practical solutions. I'm just not sure what your such solution actually is.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by faithfullad »

jimbob17: Did you ever stop to think that Tubber have a population which is barely more than, equal to or infact smaller than that of the St.Vincents clubs. This incessant whinging about a Vincents senior team is pretty annoying. If Ballycumber, Doon and Pollough all got relegated to junior, should they be allowed to request what you are requesting with regards to the possible Daingean parish time. These 3 sides plus Tubber have all got(I know Doon are gone now) to/stayed at senior due to hard work, in some cases coming all the way from junior.

Sorry if that seems a bit rash, but I think you are over-stating some things.
Last edited by faithfullad on Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by bracknaghboy »

Lads are getting carried away a bit talking about senior football here. The senior championship in Offaly is set up to be uncompetitive, drawn out and lacking in any sort of intensity. The current 8 teams out of 12 getting to the knockouts means most of the group games are meaningless and by the time the knockouts come around the whole is gone flat! Yes lads would improve a bit playing senior buts nowhere as much as they would if the championship was set up more competitively.

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by osteitis pubis »

bracknaghboy wrote:Lads are getting carried away a bit talking about senior football here. The senior championship in Offaly is set up to be uncompetitive, drawn out and lacking in any sort of intensity. The current 8 teams out of 12 getting to the knockouts means most of the group games are meaningless and by the time the knockouts come around the whole is gone flat! Yes lads would improve a bit playing senior buts nowhere as much as they would if the championship was set up more competitively.


its true the structure needs to be changed to make it more exciting and bring the best out of teams in do or die matches.

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by jimbob17 »

Lone Shark wrote:On point of fact, none of what you say can be disagreed with. Take the same player with the same natural ability and put him in senior training sessions versus those of a junior club and as a general rule, he will improve more in the framework of the senior club.

However this falls down on one crucial issue - no county player becomes a county player simply because of club training. You have to go the extra mile, and then several extra miles on top of that again. If you don't have that in you, that drive to improve yourself, you're never going to get to the level required, and it's inconsequential from an Offaly point of view whether you turn out to be a middling senior club player or a middling junior club player.
While I feel that this is true to a certain degree, one will only get to inter county senior level if they have the raw athletic talent combined with the ball skills required. The two determining factors in a co player are speed and strength. While these can be developed, pace over 20 - 50 yards is crucial at the top level and is generally innate. While strength may be developed, one must have the physical frame and natural athletic spring to make it at the top. without this you are a slow footballer. All my argument is suggesting is that many with these junior clubs are not developing these ordinarily at junior level, where there is a lesser level of professionalism in many cases than at the higher senior level. Many young players at minor have the potential to make it to the top, some do some dont. Howevr, the lads at junior dont have the same support as the lads in senior clubs to make this transition. There is a much higher percentage that fellas make it thro senior clubs as they are generally operating within much better structures getting more professional training, holding on to and developing their natural power and pace through much higher intensity training!!
Lone Shark wrote: Your key point - would it help them make the transition? Certainly. But that presumes they're going to do the additional bit themselves, which in fairness, if they were going to do, they'd find their club moving up the rankings anyway.
Many players that have gone thro these junior clubs have had this raw potential, ive seen it with my own eyes, and it has been lost in Na Fianna and Vincents areas once they leave minor and 21 level as they have not had to try at junior level and still be good players at that level.

Lone Shark wrote: I've assessed amalgamations, divisional teams, parish teams and all sorts. It takes years for them to be as good as the sum of their parts, and 90% of them never are and end up disbanding.
While i agree that this may often be the case in most cases, Vincents is different. They are the one club at underage level, and play as one all the way up together. It is only at 22 that they break up to their various clubs for good. The players want to play senior, its the older individuals in the respective clubs that dont, dominating the AGMs etc. They are essentially a senior club waiting to happen and their own players who have played through the ranks wouldnt consider themselves an amalgamation. I can think of many who were excellent co minors and 21s over the past few years all who came thro vincents, Treaceys of cappincur, Jason Gethings, Brian Norris, Noel Graham, Carrolls Ditto, Mangans Daingean, Thos Hyland, Jamie Hayes, Colm Kilmurray ditto, Manns, Ballycommon, Liam Brennan Daingean, Fays Daingean, amongst many others. these are only examples of guys in the last 3/4 years alone. They have consistently got to semis at underage A level for the past ten years and have plenty of more classy players coming down the tracks and are starring for OY at underage level. In fact i know of 5 players in particular who are the best players their age in the county from 14 to 17 and all are from vincents at various age levels. they had a 14 team this year who went to Cork and acquited themselves very well in the Feile in Cork. There are a few gems at this level that are certainly county senior material in the making and anyone who has seen them will know who they are. And yet all will only manage to play at junior level for their clubs. This is ignoring the Na Fianna lads of Ballinagar, Killeigh Raheen and Geashill who have plenty more who are falling away and lost to junior and inter many of whom have also starred at OY underage,

One neednt necessarily amalgamate the parishes, just play a divisional team in senior championship, forget about league as they would play junior league with clubs. They could still play Junior championship with clubs, maybe even leave the inter clubs alone, which would leave out cappincur and kilclonfert?? Or maybe not!! The Junior with these teams could easily be played midweek during the summer, god knows enough are held off for long enough for little reason. Minors wouldnt be allowed play senior with the vincents senior team which would stop a lot of unnecessary hold up of fixtures, fellas are crying out for it if you listen to lads who have played with vincents all their lives and are now stuck in junior. I certainly feel its worth a try!! What is there to Lose? The powerhouses wouldnt want it though?? Or would they like a bit of a challenge??
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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by Fargo Boyle »

I don't know where all these so called experts from the Daingean parish are getting their info from but there is little appetite for a senior amalgamation in the parish. Ask most lads and they are happy to represent their own club and wear their own jersey. Never mind the finances etc. required to start a new club with most clubs already struggling. This is a dead duck which has been on the menu so long that the idea is stale

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by Lone Shark »

We're going over old ground a bit now, but just to summarise the key points from what I can tell:

(1) If players are not improving themselves at junior level because as you put it "they don't have to try" then those guys would never make county footballers anyway. If you don't have the motivation within yourself, you'll go nowhere. The fact that you say they consider themselves "stuck" at junior level baffles me - try harder. Get fitter, get stronger, and you will win junior. Of course it's nice if you're in Rhode, Edenderry or Clara and you have a training team to guide you, but it's not rocket science. These guys have all played county underage, they can easily replicate what they've done at minor and under-21 level.

(2) It's simply impossible to adjust the playing schedule to allow for parish teams and still have lads play for their junior club as well. The room just isn't there, unless you have games for the parishes and the junior club on the same week - and then you make one team the second class citizen. If you play the senior on Saturday and the junior the following Tuesday, the junior club will feel that they're not being given a chance, and the same if it's the other way around.

(3) If the players in the clubs really want this, they can go to their AGM's, round up support and make it happen. Take up places on the committees and start working for it from within. The fact that nobody to my knowledge has done this suggests to me that the will is not really there, it's just a nice idea to talk about in the pub and a nice excuse for lads in their mid twenties to explain away why they never made it.

(4) You keep going back to the talent that this area has coming up along the ranks. That's as may be, but talented footballers is only one element of a successful senior team. You need the finance to administer it, the committee men to keep everything running in the background and to do all the little bits required, the co-ordination and diplomacy to make sure that all the sectors feel they're getting a fair deal. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I disagree with you utterly about Daingean Parish being different. I see nothing whatsoever different about them to any of the countless examples all across Ireland.



Jimbob I appreciate that you genuinely believe in this, but your argument lacks completeness. There are huge holes in it and you're glossing over that by essentially saying that the senior clubs are running scared of Daingean parish, as if this is why it's not happening. This is a complete nonsense - you have to address the weaknesses in the concept of the divisional team and how you would overcome the various hurdles - where are the funds going to come from, take this year's fixture list and explain exactly how many teams would be playing at senior, who would you need to relegate, where the extra games could have fitted in, work out how exactly you're going to provide senior football for all intermediate and junior players in the county (it's not fair to bend the system to suit Daingean and Killeigh Parishes but to leave footballers from K/K, Clonmore, Bracknagh, Shannonbridge etc out in the cold).

There has to be more to it than just looking at a rake of decent young footballers (who let's not forget, for all this supposed talent, have still only won one under-12 title in the last ten years, and nothing at U14, U16, minor or U21) and saying that if they all got to play together, they'd be brilliant. That's what you do with fantasy football teams.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by clubman »

the most successful under age team in offaly over the past few year is ferbane,so if what jimbob is saying this means if ferbane and shannonbridge join up they would win the senior . then u have st. broughans,rhode og,st vincents, na fianna who over the last few years have been close in terms of winning at underage.its very easy to get carried away and think ur better than u are,think lone shark is right if your good you will make it at county level no matter who you play for so all these good footballers in vincents and every where else stop moaning and get out there and prove yourself.

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by Ahlethimoutwithit »

Look Jimbob, you cant say DAingean parish would beat Tubber! And you keep talking about Junior football, Kilclonfert and Cappincur are both Intermediate. Daingean were in the junior final. I will say it again if Senior is the be all and end all, then why is there no one from Tubber (1 retiree), Pollagh, Tullamore, Shamrocks, Rynaghs, Ballycumber & Ferbane on the Offaly team??
You rake through the Vincents & Na Fianna & Broughans and check exactly why some young lads did not make it and you will find a lot of it is not down to the atitude of the clubs, but the players themselves. Many of the Vincents lads have your atitude of looking down their nose at the clubs, some of their parents in one of the clubs certainly did, but take Cappincur, those young lads have driven that club on and won a championship. If they want to they can push hard towrds an Intermediate over the next 2 years. They will develop as players and as men, and this is what is required for County footballers. If they are brought in with the county they will develop and learn in that environment.

Finance is a huge issue too, many clubs are in debt and if Vincents or NA Fianna were to make an impact on Senior they would need to train together exclusively, another trainer to be paid. If they didnt, I guarantee they would be relegated in the first year.

The big issue is the lack of talent coming out of the Senior clubs at the moment, and the challenge is to trawl through Junior and Intermediate and take a chance on bringing in more players for Junior & Intermediate.
I also feel that there is a huge amount of money being wasted on "journeymen coaches", getting paid ridiculous money with no ability to coach and develop players. And one of the main problems they face is that the first 3 months of the year are spent slogging , trying to get lads fit, with little sign of a football.
Unless the standard of work being done in the off season improves then we will continue to see the gap widen between Offaly and the rest.

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Re: Lost in the Bog

Post by Lone Shark »

True Red wrote:
(I'm presuming he went to college??)
Philip Foy is still in St Mary's Edenderry and training hard for the 1st round of Leinster A Colleges in January........
Proof that junior clubs don't hold you back at all. Saw Philip play for St Marys Edenderry yesterday against Moate in the North Leinster Colleges league final. He was outstanding, man of the match stuff.

Oddly enough the Moate college had more Offaly starters than the Edenderry one, six as opposed to five.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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