Offaly v Sligo NFL 25/03/2012

[Offaly Proud]

Any reaction to the team named today for Sunday. First start for Eoin Rigney at full back and 4 others from the u 21s that played on Wednesday night. Looks a very young team overall but still plenty of experience. Maybe we can build on the win in Cavan last week.

[llkj]

What club is Peter Boland from?

[Abercrombie Fitch]

Rigney was outstanding in all 3 U21 championship matches and I would have no fear in putting him into Div 3 League. I would not be surprised if 1 or 2 more of that U21 team force their way onto the Senior team by the time Kildare come round.

[Johnno81]

Peter Boland is from the Thomas Davis club in Dublin.

His father is from Durrow so he is with us under the parentage rule!!!!

[DAF]

Sligo 1-14 Offaly 1-12

Offalys defending was shocking the full back line all day were miles behind their men and the amount of times simple balls were kicked in and the Sligo man got out in front got off an easy shot was embarassing.Management have to take responsibility for this for two reason first how in the name of god can an intercounty team in late March be so unfit and also the fact that the didnt make any changes to try and make things more difficult for Sligo's full forward line.Sean Pender should have been taken off after 15 minutes he picked up an early booking and was very lucky not to be sent off after he recklessly lunged into a challenge near the corner of the field and thus couldnt go near his man for the rest of the game for fear of getting another booking and being sent off.The support play in general was poor and some of our forwards seem to think that standing behind your man doing nothing is acceptable at intercounty level the off the ball movement from our forwards is poor.In the second half Niall McNamees arrival seemed to improve morale and there was a bit of heart shown toward s the end and we could have snatched something but it woudl have been unjust as Sligo were at least 10 points the better team.Players have to take responsibility and not expect Niall McNamee to lift them as he was clearly injured and barely able to move but was kept on for morale as much as his football.Also Derek Kelly was taken off at halftime I can only presume he was injured as he was one of Offays better players and scored a great point in the first half and there were at least 10 players who could have been taken off instead of him.There is still too much tippy tappy crap and we are not fit enough or have good enough support to play a running based game so the management need to accept that and play a more direct game at least we played with more men in attack which is a plus but still there is too much fluting around for my liking Sligo played a lovely direct game with accurate foot passing that is the type of game we need to adopt.


Has anyone here seen Offaly train this year it seems one of two things is happning.Either they doing a whole load of heavy training during the week in order to catch up due to the low base of physical preparation Offaly started the year with or is it a case that knowing that the fitness levels were so poor at the start of the year are the management holding off on the heavy training for the league hoping to scrape by and avoid relegation and then planning to run the sh1te out of the palyers in the run up to the championship in the hope of being able to compete with Kildare.

[horrible player]

the whole set up is a shambles any wonder they are where they are !!! half of the panel wouldn't make some of the club teams in offaly and there on the county panel...bring in half the 21's panel they have proved their worth !!!

[jimbob17]

have to agree with a lot of what you say DAF. I thought the support running from offaly was very poor today. It seemed that Sligo always created the extra man for the overlap while we were never able to achieve this. this comes simply from a lack of running and support from those not in possession.

I agree with the fitness point too and this might be part of the reason for the above. Too often, Offaly men couldnt track their men from midfield areas, and breheny in particular wreaked havoc with good straight line runing and support. I felt that young Connor was absolutely knackered after 40 minutes and should have been pulled as he couldnt keep with his man. While he is only back a few weeks he is clearly not fit enough for a full game at this level yet, ditto Alan McNamee. Niall smith tried hard and won his share of possession, but for me, he needs to contribute more in the general game than he does. Hard to see why kelly was pulled, but maybe it was for defensive frailties, i dont know, though i felt he has doing very well going forward. he is a footballer and wouldnt be too used to playing wing back i think, and normally does his stuff at midfield/centreforward. would have liked to see the young guing lad from edenderry tried by this stage of the league as he was going well with the sigerson.

I thought maloney was out of sorts at centreback and was exposed a few times, mainly however, due to Costelloe sitting back and running the game from the middle of the field with incisive passing to the inside line. that and good support runs from midfield that werent tracked!! as alluded to in my earlier point. Think he would make a very good full back though as i think that rigney got his eyes opened today. In time he might be the answer but the step up from 21 to senior is massive though he acquitted himself reasonably well for a debut given the quality of ball they had delivered to the forwards. Keane for me tried hard, but appeared to be knackered with 20 mins to go.

Didnt expect Pender to start at all as i thought he had left the panel a few weeks ago. Not sure if starting him sends out the wrong message to the likes of Hiney who has stayed and trained hard. While maybe its the case that the management felt they had a better chance of winning if pender started. Either way, I hope its not a case of the tail trying to wag the dog. he was lucky to stay on the field and probably should have been subbed before the end imo.

Good to see Jimmy Coughlan back in the fold and he would have something to offer if he was fit and up to speed. he looked eager and should be able to offer something more in a few weeks time with more training.

While i dont like to knock young players and i feel the 2 i am talking about will be our best in years to come, it annoys me that guilfoyle, Casey and sullivan always have to run with the ball before passing it. while they are good young players, all are guilty, and Guilfoyle in particular always slows down the play instead of moving it quicker and running on to support it. They need to learn that the holding on to it allows the opposition to get back and Guilfoyle was caught out a few times by soloing into trouble today. it might work at club and underage level, but not at county senior when evryone is almost as quick as him. if one of them passed it earlier today, Pender was in on goal today with ten minutes to go. It didnt happen and we didnt even get a score.

On a positive note, i felt that the last ten minutes from Offaly were good and i wouldnt be too downhearted. Div 4 is our level at the moment and it will give lads time to blood in and learn the ropes of senior football as some have a lot to learn. Its a young team and this was much better to watch than some of the earlier displays in the league which is a little encouraging. I think that if we beat tipp, we could still escape relegation if cavan lose, as we beat them in the league, so still something to play for unless it is decided by score difference which i dont think is the case. Either way, Here is hoping that the pace is upped considerably in training from now as Kildare had a run away win v the westies and are operating at a much higher level than us..

[Superted]

Very dissapointing performance, fitness wise we are miles behind! I really fear the kildare game in the championship.

[happy harry]

i very much fear the daunting prospect of kildare in the championship. the sligo game should have been won. i cant understand the management taking off guilfoyle and dunne. madness. guilfoyle has pace to burn and although he should play with his head up more than he does, he is still young and can progress.his runs can cause damage iff he learns to offload to a colleague at the right time.i taught dunne was our best forward on the day. he created havoc in the first half and had a hand in every score we got. he got two from play aswell. casey had a good game too i might add.
i dont for the life of me rate young allen, great goal though, lazy and walks around the pitch.niall mac is still dangerous even though on one leg. we have very good forwards and midfield but i reckon we have a poor backline.
its all over the place.
pender- poor
darby-tried hard
rigney-ok considering debut and was exellent for the under 21s
keane-no
maloney-not too bad, has been good all year and will be the mainstay of this team
kelly-cant undertand subtitution
we can still aviod the drop , so heres hoping

[Long John]

I dont think there was any positives. The forwards were crap. Its well and good kicking a point or two but the amount of easy ball Sligo walked down the field with was ridiculous. This put heavy pressure on the backline.

The problems in attack are that Guilfoyle, Dunne, Casey and even Anton take the wrong option too much at this level. These lads have to learn that they dont always have to take off on solo runs or try work their own shot at goal everytime they get a ball. They simply dont work as a team. Guilfoyle would not be selfish in terms of shooting but he overdoes the soloing far too much and his man gets on far too much ball for my liking. Dunne and Casey want to shoot any time they get on a ball when a quick pass could open up the whole thing. Playing as individuals is a big problem.

Midfield was killing the backline. Time after time overlaps were created that the best defenders in the country wouldnt have a hope against.

And why they are bringing in these rubbish footballers from Dublin is another problem. They are offering nothing only a mindset that theres no talent in the county. Would be far better off drafting in a few more u21 players and giving them experience. They couldnt be any worse than Boland and Hanamy.

Division 4 is their standard at present. No harm dropping down and building a team from scratch with a management that want to be there for 3 or 4 years.

[happy harry]

dunne shot one wayward shot likewise casey..
so thats funny u say that.
dunne is our best passer and creater in the forward line. i do agree that ther isnt great cohesion among them . but i dont think its what you are saying. they need to be coached.
your a funny man long john

[summerindublin]

And why they are bringing in these rubbish footballers from Dublin is another problem. They are offering nothing only a mindset that theres no talent in the county. Would be far better off drafting in a few more u21 players and giving them experience. They couldnt be any worse than Boland and Hanamy.

Totally agree, heard that Boland was twisted on the Sunday night in Tallaght, now he's taken playing with Offaly very serious, get rid of these lads and play the u/21's and get the team fit because otherwise Kildare will do what they did to the Wasties and maybe worse, this match is live on TV and what we don't want is people turning to a different channel because Offaly were woeful and the match over by 15 minutes, get them fit.

[Lone Shark]

A couple of comments here are gone way beyond the pale in my view. Whether or not Peter Boland and Brian Hanamy are good enough to start in a championship fifteen for Offaly is one debate, but they are making the commitment and putting the effort in now, and whether they turn out to make the grade or not, they shouldn't be viewed any differently to a lad who plays his football here in Offaly. Speculation about what a player was doing in his free time is not what this forum is about and while we all understand the difference between down time and going too far, this is a public forum and it's not the place for commentary about players being twisted/drunk or anything like it. God knows plenty of native born Offaly players have lost sight of where the line is in that regard in recent years too.

The sad fact is that in Dublin club football, the general standard of play is higher. They've had five different championship winners in the last six years and all five were competitive in Leinster. If the Dublin senior management comes looking for a player, in the vast majority of cases their fitness and conditioning levels are high to begin with. I wouldn't blame Gerry Cooney for trying to tap into this if he could. If it didn't work out, what odds - it's not as if there are loads of obvious candidates in Offaly who haven't got a chance in the last few years, whether they took it or not.

[happy harry]

loneshark im curious as to what starting 15 u would start against kildare ?
your head seems to be screwed on and your usually on the ball.

[Long John]

dunne shot one wayward shot likewise casey..
so thats funny u say that.
dunne is our best passer and creater in the forward line. i do agree that ther isnt great cohesion among them . but i dont think its what you are saying. they need to be coached.
your a funny man long john

Not being funny Happy harry. Fairly peed off with the whole football set up to be honest.

And you are really sickening my arse building up certain players saying they are this that and the other. Having a couple of points beside your name in the paper does not mean you had a great game. All these lads have a long way to go. Alot of learning. This is not about them. Its about the team.

The Offaly county team at the moment would struggle against most of the division 4 sides.

The sad fact is that in Dublin club football, the general standard of play is higher. They've had five different championship winners in the last six years and all five were competitive in Leinster. If the Dublin senior management comes looking for a player, in the vast majority of cases their fitness and conditioning levels are high to begin with. I wouldn't blame Gerry Cooney for trying to tap into this if he could. If it didn't work out, what odds - it's not as if there are loads of obvious candidates in Offaly who haven't got a chance in the last few years, whether they took it or not.

I wont go into the drinking side of it. There has been alot of that within the county set up before these Dubs appeared on the seen.

Sure, the standard is higher in Dublin. Most teams will be within 4 or 5 points of each other on any given night. There is no massive gaps between the standard of teams and so they are all preparing very well.

But the lads that have been drafted in are very poor. Its sends out the wrong signal to other players in the county. Id much prefer to see some more under 21s getting a run than these lads being brought in. They are getting well bet in most games as it is. It couldnt be any worse to give them a go.