U21 Football Management

[Lean Times]

What a win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Plain of the Herbs]

Offaly play Louth next. At NEUTRAl venues, according to the Leinster GAA site. Presume that'll be Navan.

Offaly 0-8
Kildare 0-7

FINAL

YESSSS!!!!!!!

[Bord na Mona man]

Great win!

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Well done to all the lads! Anton had a huge first half, but again he was a lucky man to finish the game. The lad is class but he will get himself a bad name with the refs.
Hard to judge a lot of the lads displays as there was a lot of hard work, but a lot of errors too. However in the end we got a break with the missed Kildare free with 2 mins to go, but should have had the match well wrapped up before that. All in all though, a fine win and a huge effort put in by the players over the last few months.
Paschal has done a huge job in getting a level of discipline and effort into this group that needs to be replicated across the board in Offaly. Not pretty, but very hard to beat.
We can make a Leinster final but this team would be very beatable if they believe the hype that will build around them now. Go for it lads but keep this work rate up and anything is possible!

[townman]

well done to paschal and his team tonite he is building a nice CV for himself and could be a future offaly manger
Louth next which is another winable game for offaly.

The Dubs gave our neighbours Leix a fair licking tonight 2-21 to 0-4 westmeath beat carlow in the other game.

[ryot]

Good win tonight.

Was able to sit back and smile on the way home as the Kildare man driving gritted the teeth !!!!!

Now other refs might not allow Anton away with as much. He was very lucky on 4 or 5 occasions not to get a yellow card even after he got the first.

No need for him to be messing like that, an excellent footballer and if he concentrated all his efforts on the ball he might even be better.

Was impressed by the number 5, Stephen Hannon, he has some engine !!!

[jimbob17]

very impressive win again tonight, well done fellas, management and players alike. The work rate was excellent. It was very clear from the outset that Kildare were a seriously well prepared team physically in terms of strength and conditioning as they were bigger stronger and faster than offaly, with a lot of money pumped into them over the last 4/5 years. However, they had too many similar players who were big strong men, probably midfielders with their clubs playing in a half forward line that lacked a lot of creativity, similar to dublin seniors a few years ago. They hadnt enough good ball players to match offaly who werent found wanting in the physical stakes despite being smaller in stature.

In fact i thought football wise, offaly were streets ahead of kildare and it was only Kildares physicality and ability to win 50/50 ball that kept them in the game. Offaly came with a very visible and coherent plan, playing good practical football and executed the plan to perfection without winning as comfortably as they should have done. They were by far the better team bar the last 5 minutes of the first half and the last ten minutes of the second half when they retreated into their shell and invited kildare on despite having an extra man. Offaly can be very pleased with this as it shows that they are a match for anyone in the country when they bring that intensity and workmanlike performance to the table. The football they played at times was superb with the team always coming first which is the way it should be. three goal opportunities from sullivan, hannon and Young could have and should have had Offaly out of sight a long time before the finish. The management deserve huge credit for this.

I thought that the whole team deserve credit, but if anyone was to be singled out, the wing back steven Hannon was immense this evening. he linked the play, tackled ferociously and ran up and down in support creating scores all evening and even kicked a crucial one in the second half. Young McPadden was excellent too and also did very well going forward. Graham Guilfoyle has at last begun to see the bigger picture on the pitch and seems to have better awareness of when to run and when to pass the ball. Allen was very good all night again and was very threatening while Anton was superb in the first half. However, he will need to realise that he is a marked man at this level and learn not to get involved in stuff. tonight could have seen him easily sent off even if he was roughed up a lot and got an unfair yellow. however his mouth could easily have brought a second yellow and if he can just concentrate on playing his own game, he'll be a better player for it!!

Going forward, we know that Offaly have a good team, a very good defensive unit and dont concede much. The most important thing now is that players dont get ahead of themselves and start listening to hype and believing pub talk about themselves and concentrate on the next game. The reason we won was because the way that we played, not the personnel on the pitch and fellas must realise that the same lads that clap them on the back will be the first to kick them in the arse when they are beaten. It was the good use of the ball and the tireless work ethic and self discipline on the pitch which restricted Kildare to very few opportunities that won this game. This is a team that can do things now but it is only the next 60 minutes that counts (probably in Navan) and that 60 minutes needs to replicate the savage like work rate and team ethic that we saw tonight. If we bring that to the table we only have a chance of winning, if we dont, we wont!!

Well done again to all concerned!! I am absolutely delighted.......Jimbob17

[kingscounty]

a great win over kildare , have to agree with some of the previous posts kildare had some huge men on the field but to me they had to many big men who had very little football in them.in the second half they had 2 giants in the full forward line and yet they never kicked high ball into them , i cant remember kildare getting many goal shots or our keeper making many saves. just like last week the game plan worked, but i would be worried offaly are depending on anton to much, he seems to start off as a forward scored some sweet points in the first half and when second half comes he could be down in the corner back position clearing ball. when the game started i would like to have seen mark young on the square with anton, young for me was not suited to the centre forward position but maybe kildare would have expected young to be where he was last week and pascal had a different approach. mcpadden had an excellent game,our midfield did better than i expected and especially against very big men, hannon played super, guilfoyle should be a great asset to the seniors in a year or two runs all day and if he can score and create more from all the ball he gets on he should be one for the future. its great to see offaly doing well and they have restored some pride back in offaly football and lets hope the seniors can learn from these guys that hardwork and never give up attitude is half the battle.

[dfaithful]

I left gracefield today with a bitter sweet taste in my mouth. it was great to get the win against kildare and to be in a leinster semi final, but i have to say I dont agree with everything said on this post.anton was offalys best player, he's a class act but didn use him to good enough effect in the 2nd half. Like others have said he was lucky to be on the field for the full game. the way we have played the past two games in my opinion has not allowed us to actually judge how good this team actually is. other than anton i thought hannon and guilfoyle played well with bernard allen coming in and out of it, but its hard to no how many of the other players would fair if they make the senior ranks.

they are obviously very clued in to what there out to do in which is play 13/14 and even at times 15 men behind the ball as much as possible, but because of this how can you judge the likes of john ledwith at centre back when you wouldnt get a monster truck down the middle of the offaly half. Im not suggesting they change their tactics for the next day or anything. Im probably and most likely am being synical but in watching the all ireland semi final last year anyone i talked to in offaly were saying how disgracful donegal were in there tactics, and now when we undertake the same stance as them we say how it was such a great win. may be im just a purest in the football sense and want to see offaly play an attractive brand of football, and i believe this team is well capable at this level with the forward line of anton, bernard allen, guilfoyle, mcpadden, mark young, stuart cullen, michael brazil, spain etc. would I be right in saying the back line as 6 defenders as a unit wouldnt be the strongest and thats why the managment want to play like that or would that be pascals managment theory in general?

i though we were lucky in the end as kildare kicked a few wides and had chances in the last few minutes, we didnt seem to no what to do with the extra man. we did have our goal chances and if we took them would hav been out of sight, i just thought we looked like an average team trying our best to stop kildare from scoring rather than try score ourselves. i cant argue with the result at all, i was delighted to hear the final whistle, it was only when the game was over I seemed almost dissapointed. I will be at the next game cheering the lads on again, just hope the bigger pitch wont make our job harder again. well done to all the players its great to have a bit of pride back again and hopefully we will get a leinster final appearance yet. lastly well done to gracefield. i thought they hosted the last two game brilliantly and has become a bit of a fortress ha. im sorry if i seem to be petty but again its just my opinion and how id lik them to play, but if i was to choose them to play with style and loose or play with the highly defensive gameplan and win id obviously choose the win everytime.

[Bord na Mona man]

Personally I didn't see what all the fuss about Donegal was last year. They defended brilliantly, granted they attacked aimlessly when they did get the ball.
Most of the outcry came from the old order.

Big counties like Kerry want everyone to play them with a traditional 6-2-6 formation with man-to-man marking and only one man standing beside their danger men like Cooper. And when he has taken the first back for a few scores, sure switch another fella onto him. Why not paint 6 squares on the pitch that players aren't allowed move out of while we're at it.

In most other sports there is no sense of being honour bound to give your opposition a fair chance of scoring.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Have to agree a little with DFaithful, and BNM you are a bit harsh on him.
The key was that we won last night, fair enough. Truth was we should have won by 4 points or more, but we should be sitting here today discussing what happened in extra time. We gave away good possesion continuously during the last 10 mins because we retreated back so much, and Kildare missed a great chance from a free with 2 mins to go. Indeed for all the praise of Anton, he was the one that gave away in the corner with the forward going nowhere.

So, what the key message? Well done to team and management, well done for the intensity and workrate. Overall, bar Anton, well done on the discipline (he simply has to learn that enough is enough, and indeed he went looking for hardship an a few occasions last night.
I would say that overall we used the ball better than Kildare but in other to develop further we need to use it better again. The kay is that the team take the confidence from this win, believe they have a right to win these games, but that this can only be done with a savage workrate!!

One worry would be that injuries might be a problem the next day, even though Guilfoyle came back on during the second half, id say he has some sort of muscle injury, and Hanlon will alomost certainly be out with what looks like a hamstring injury, which he carried in to the Meath game.

[summerindublin]

The Dubs gave our neighbours Leix a fair licking tonight 2-21 to 0-4 westmeath beat carlow in the other game.

What would you expect with that 'Roe' twit over them, he put us back 5 years.

[Bord na Mona man]

Ahlethimoutwithit. You should change your name Ahlethiminwithit.

I wasn't having a go at DFaithful.
I was pointing out that we should be careful about listening to vested interests about what the right and wrong ways to play football are.

I feel that a lot of the shouting against Donegal's tactics came from these same old money vested interests who want to teams to go out and play old style football because it gives them the best chance.

If it comes down to playing attractive football and losing and defensive football and winning, I know what I'd pick.
A county like Offaly desperately needs to start winning games moreso than collecting pats on the head for trying to play nice football.

Maybe Offaly could have won more convincingly last night with a more attack minded style? Or maybe a gym-built, ball carrying side like Kildare might have carried the ball too easily through a more open Offaly defence? Let the debate begin.

[The Magpie]

It's amazing how we all see differently through the looking glass.

I'm inclined to agree with a lot of what dfaithful has said. Were it any other team, and we on the receiving end of a low-scoring game like this, I think people would be quick to pour scorn over these tactics. It's not pretty, involves an extraordinary amount of hand-passing and favours athletes, rather than footballers.

Having said all of that, it has already proven in a very short-space of time to be very effective - mostly because people haven't really figured-out how to counter it. As I remarked to Lone Shark last year during the Offaly club championship, you can expect this tactic to start sweeping through the club-game, just like the "third midfielder", the "withdrawn wing-forwards" and all of the other tactics we've seen over the years. Donegal were excellent at it and I don't agree that they attacked aimlessly. If a fairly straight-forward goal chance had gone-in early in the second-half against the Dubs, I think they would've gone 1-4 to 0-2 ahead and we most likely would've been watching Donegal in the All-Ireland final. Don't forget, with 20 minutes to play in that game, the Dubs had only scored 3 points - but were still 3 points behind. As it was, they scraped through, but don't get let off the hook either - they were only marginally less defensive than Donegal.

As for Kerry, they may look a little more traditional nowadays with a big full-forward, but they're hardly an orthodox team anymore, particularly if you look at their use of wing-forwards. Also, both Rhode and Clara have played with withdrawn wing-forwards (in fact, half-forward lines) for a few years now - this in itself is really only a step away from playing another couple of guys behind the ball.

Overall, it's not outrageous to say that the game of football may well have evolved into what we're seeing. The northern teams introduced an extraordinary work-rate, other teams started to see the importance of possession, and as time passes, we see more and more men behind the ball when they don't have it and hand-passing statistics shooting-up. The Dubs put the cherry on the cake by removing the centre-field melee from the game this year.

This whole issue is probably going to pull a fine line between right and wrong. While it works, people will naturally look at the positives, but when it fails (as was proven for Donegal), people will be quick to stamp all over it.

Finally, to Offaly last night. Much has already been covered here, but I'll summarize anyway.

- A couple of excellent goal chances missed - either of which probably would've killed the game.

- Anton Sullivan is an excellent scoring forward. Why Offaly or Rhode continue to play him as a water-carrier is beyond me (compare first and second-half performances last night). I'll put it this way, if he plays as an inside forward for Rhode, there isn't a full-back line in the County that will contend with both himself and Niall McNamee.

- Stephen Hannon was outstanding. It's worth noting that the deep roll of the hard-working and naturally defensive Declan Hogan does allow the Offaly wing-backs to play with more freedom.

- McPadden had a very good game too, but is going to get himself badly hurt carrying the ball into tackles with his neck barely over waist-height.

- Bernard Allen remains a serious menace - we should be using him more.

- Although we should've been home and dry, we were very lucky not to have been beaten in the last 10 minutes. Our inability to win any sort of ball in the middle during this period almost caught us out.

- Kildare, to my amazement, continually failed to get an early ball into their full-forward, who looked useful and had the strength and height to win a lot of ball.

- Offaly's work-rate is phenomenal. It's obvious that they all buy into the game-plan and they're making it work. The Kildare guys around me didn't like the tactics, but were honest enough to say that Offaly were far hungrier.

Overall, another really good night in Gracefield. Although dfaithful rightly said that it's hard to identify good footballers with these types of tactics, it would be unfair to Offaly to suggest that we haven't seen some really good footballers over the last two games. In fact, over the two games, from a quick scan of the panel, I could name 9-10 footballers that have looked really good and will make big contributions at club-level this coming year.

Onward we look. I have no idea how good Louth are. On the other side of the draw, the Dubs are clearly setting the pace.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Good one BNM, and a fair summary from Magpie.
First of all I dont think we are as defensive as Donegal, they deliberately set themselves up that way. Offaly, probably because of the workrate through out the game and the fact that we missed a coule of good goal chances to kill the game, retreated to defend a slender lead, as often happens with teams.

I would also say that football has evelved into what we saw last night, and the fact that our wingbacks kicked 2 points (25% of our total) , is testimony to how fit and versatile footballers need to be. The real concern is that in playing this type of game especially in the last 10 minutes we really should have been able to exploit the space in the Kildare backline, (they were also down a man), and push on to get further ahead. Instead for for these reasons we struggled, a) they fouled us out the field knowing they could regroup and win the ball back, and b) knew we would not commit men up the field.

In my view the key is to try to keep 2 forwards within 40 yds of the opposition goal, and one guy trying to get into a wide position near midfield to take quick turnover ball from our defence which is transferred to either of the 2 inside. Of course this is all great in theory and I am sure that this is similar to the type of plan that Paschal has in place, but too often we had no out ball, after 6/7 lateral passes had brought us to midfield.

I am not naive to think that we could probably go man to man with Kildare, but I dont think we are at Donegals level of negativity yet. Kildare and Dublin at senior level play a more fluid game that Donegal, and in fairness i have to say I like watching Kildare play, (Maybe not in Portlaoise this year!!) but in general they move the ball quick and they really try and move forward as quickly as possible. Our 2 points by the wing backs last night were typical of the type of scores that Kildare end up getting.

There were a lot of lads around me of a certain vintage shall we say, who were getting very annoyed and would be on the warpath today if we had lost, but those of us who are involved in ttraining teams now and see how the game has evolved can apprieciate what is being done by the management.
Thats the beauty of this u21 management team, they are young, are trying new things, and most importantly, have gotten the players to buy in to the system.
They are learning too and also along with them they have Colm Quinn , Padraig Kelly, and Roy Malone. Guys who hopefully will move into coaching teams themselves armed with this knowledge.
All in all with decent minor team and a strong momentum around this time things will begin to turn for Offaly football. Pachal we are all behind you 100%,and the team (even I was behind the ball meself for all the second half!!)


I would also agree that there are 7/8 potential senior players from what Ive seen.