Relegated

[Fargo Boyle]

Getting relegated is like making love to a beautiful .......................

I'll get me coat

[clubman]

as a true football suppoter who has only missed one offaly match this year and paid good money in hard times to follow them,i think every footballer who puts on the offaly jersey or does not ,should except that he is in for criticism if he does not give 100% for his county.having said that it should not get personel .when i go to games i expect to see the best players giving it all for our county not 3 , 4, or more not bothered or committed.was told one of the starting 15 against tipp was out drinking on the saturday nite ,just not good enough, heard the story about niall smith ,dont no if true or not but it should have been dealt will .to many players are pulling themselfs off the panel then going back on., the blame has to go to gerry cooney and his selectors for this. they cannot stick to a set of rules that players buy into,the keep changing their minds ,players know they can walk away and come back in again. our season is gone now but we should bring in a new management team ,restore some pride and get a team ready for next year.if the county board waits till this year is over it could turn out like last year and dray on and on.

[jimbob17]

have to agree with some of your points re fellas coming and going. I think it is a very poor reflection on the character of some of the players as they jump ship when things arent going for them. It just shows the value in which they hold a place on the Offaly senior football squad. I think that while management would ideally feel that they should just get rid and be glad to see the back of defectors, the fact is that the fellas left behind are not good enough on their own.

I was at all the home games this year and was very disappointed coming out of Tullamore on all occasions bar the westmeath game in the o byrne cup albeit an inexperienced westies team. what followed in the early league games really showed us up. We appeared to be well short in football and more specifically fitness in a lot of the games. it was always going to be a difficult year with the clearout happening though i would contest that there are some fellas that still wanted to play should have been held on to.

1 Scott Brady was one of our most consistent defenders last year.
2 John Reynolds was Offaly's second best attacker last year and was excellent in the club championship.
also, Karl Slattery should have been coaxed to stay on for another year.

It was asking too much for such a clean out to achieve any sort of success, with ciaran macmanus retiring, joe quinn unavailable and Niall Macnamee unavailable for most of the campaign. The whole spine of last years team had been ripped out with those left behind lacking the leadership to step in to the breach.

Brian Connor and Alan Mac now at midfield, with neither nowhere close to the fitness levels of intercounty midfielders. Alan knows the level he needs to be at for this level but young Connor has a long way to go to get to the pitch of it at this level despite his undoubted talent. and this is not trying to knock the chap, i fully believe that if he worked hard enough at his game, he could be one of the best midfielders in Leinster!!

I always go back to this and i will do it again. How come the young players who have gone through minor and 21 in the past 5 years are way off the mark in terms of fitness and strength and conditioning. Is this not being looked after in Offaly at all? This would shock me as it is a fundamental in all other competitive leinster counties. You could clearly see the difference between OY and wexford last year in tullamore, and it'll be even more evident this year v the lillies.

The mindset of the county board is way off and somehow i think that they are actually afraid of success as i have heard some horror stories of what has gone on in both hurling and football at 21, minor and underage squad levels in the last few years with some obvious exceptions where things are run properly. It is the only thing that can explain their naivety. I would love if somebody from the county board could read this and respond with a valid explanation for their reasoning for some of their appointments. While there are many well meaning people involved, the county needs steer clear of appointing well respected buddies and former legends who invariably achieve nothing. They need to show some intelligence and put people in place that actually know what is required at the top level to bring the county squads back to a level of competitiveness again. They are p"£$ing up again a drainpipe with what they are at for the last few years.

[Lone Shark]

With regard to the central point of this topic, I think the sad truth is that I've never felt so disconnected from the county senior team, and a lot of supporters would feel that way. From early in the year it became obvious that relegation was very likely and while it could and should have been avoided, in a lot of people's minds, the battle was lost before it was even fought. Similarly against Kildare - you'd struggle to find anyone who thinks that we have even a 10% chance of winning this game, and a lot of people are worried that it could be an unmerciful hiding - yours truly included. I see what Bord na Móna man is saying about players approaching a game differently when the aim is to keep the score down, but I'm not sure that we really know how to do that - Offaly club football is many things, but it's not defensive. Players in Offaly don't grow up working with advanced defensive systems, they grow up being told to mark your man, stick tight, and get forward where possible. I'm worried that Kildare could blow us out of the water.

For good measure, this current management has taken away the one thing that Offaly football people identify with - fast, direct attacking play - and replaced it with nothing in particular. Now I understand completely the need to evolve tactically and I'm not saying they were wrong to do this, but the sight of Niall McNamee fielding a long delivery, jinking and swinging the ball over the bar is a joy to behold. We've even lost that, and there's nothing in its stead which would warm the hearts of those watching. It's one thing watching a team lose, it's another watching them lose and not even getting any real satisfaction out of the few scores they do take.

Then you see players that many had hoped were going to be at the heart of the next generation of Offaly footballers - Pender, Smith, Connor - all choosing to leave the squad at different times. If these guys aren't willing to be part of it and make a solid commitment through thick and thin, it's very hard to get supporters to be too vested or involved.

I also think it's very lazy to blame things on drink, specifically. There are plenty of teams out there who will have a good summer but they aren't completely on the dry - the key issue is that they are responsible in terms of what they do, and that theme runs through their entire lives. Some Offaly footballers can be a little bit like unsupervised teenagers. They'll do exactly what they're told to do and no more, until you turn your back. I guess it fits in with the whole thing of feeling under pressure to be involved when deep down there isn't a love or passion for it at the back of it all. You get the feeling that for all the culling of panels, there's still a few of those involved.

[bracknaghboy]

With regard to the central point of this topic, I think the sad truth is that I've never felt so disconnected from the county senior team, and a lot of supporters would feel that way. From early in the year it became obvious that relegation was very likely and while it could and should have been avoided, in a lot of people's minds, the battle was lost before it was even fought. Similarly against Kildare - you'd struggle to find anyone who thinks that we have even a 10% chance of winning this game, and a lot of people are worried that it could be an unmerciful hiding - yours truly included. I see what Bord na Móna man is saying about players approaching a game differently when the aim is to keep the score down, but I'm not sure that we really know how to do that - Offaly club football is many things, but it's not defensive. Players in Offaly don't grow up working with advanced defensive systems, they grow up being told to mark your man, stick tight, and get forward where possible. I'm worried that Kildare could blow us out of the water.

For good measure, this current management has taken away the one thing that Offaly football people identify with - fast, direct attacking play - and replaced it with nothing in particular. Now I understand completely the need to evolve tactically and I'm not saying they were wrong to do this, but the sight of Niall McNamee fielding a long delivery, jinking and swinging the ball over the bar is a joy to behold. We've even lost that, and there's nothing in its stead which would warm the hearts of those watching. It's one thing watching a team lose, it's another watching them lose and not even getting any real satisfaction out of the few scores they do take.

Then you see players that many had hoped were going to be at the heart of the next generation of Offaly footballers - Pender, Smith, Connor - all choosing to leave the squad at different times. If these guys aren't willing to be part of it and make a solid commitment through thick and thin, it's very hard to get supporters to be too vested or involved.

I also think it's very lazy to blame things on drink, specifically. There are plenty of teams out there who will have a good summer but they aren't completely on the dry - the key issue is that they are responsible in terms of what they do, and that theme runs through their entire lives. Some Offaly footballers can be a little bit like unsupervised teenagers. They'll do exactly what they're told to do and no more, until you turn your back. I guess it fits in with the whole thing of feeling under pressure to be involved when deep down there isn't a love or passion for it at the back of it all. You get the feeling that for all the culling of panels, there's still a few of those involved.

Excellent post. Best I've read in a long time. The point about being disconnected sums up the whole situation. Offaly were dire in the early and mid ninties but I still travelled around the country watching them. I even remenber going the games like Dublin in '92, Kildare in '93 and Meath in '95 and actually thinking there was a chance of an upset even though we were bet out the gate in all 3! But there seemed to something about the players back then which I can't put my finger on.....were they just more likeable?......were they less cocky and less of the superstar attitude we see today?....did they come across as being honest in their efforts?... I don't know but I do know there is very little to warm to these days. I'll still be in Porlaoise in June but there really is an emptiness surrounding the Offaly Senior football team these days.....you can even sense it in the posts on here (or lack of them). Most people want the kildare game out the way quickly followed by quick exit from qualifiers and lets get on with the county championship. Where to from there is anyones guess.

[bazza]

I think a lot of people are ignoring the biggest issue regarding the Offaly senior football team at the moment. The manager and his selection committee are completely out of their depth. How can players get motivated when someone like this is in charge. And don't be fooled by comments saying the manager isn't as important as the players. It is all about the manager and that's a fact. Put Stephen Darby or anyone of his calibre in charge of these boys and if they still perform poorly and look disinteresdted I'll hold my hands up but until then I'm holding back any criticism of the panel of players.