County Football (Potentials from junior and inter clubs)

[jimbob17]

While i have been critical of the soundings from Coffey in recent posts, i was very impressed by his comments in the recent article in the Tribune where he states that the present panel needs to be scrapped and opened up to cater for some junior and intermediate club footballers. Generally, he seemed to have his finger on the pulse in relation to what is needed. So just wondering who ye think might be able to offer something to the county senior panel from junior or intermediate clubs if trained up to a serious level of fitness as Coffey suggests.

Just a few that came to my mind...
Daingean: Liam Brennan and young Kilmurray
Clonmore Harps: Phillip Foy
St Brigids: Sean Casey, Cian Donoghue, (Ken Casey and David Egan already involved)
Shamrocks: Leonard Mooney, Scott Delaney
Kilcormac: Conor Mahon
Cappincur: Noel Andrew Graham, Carroll brothers.
Bracknagh: Peter Cunningham
Birr: Steven Lonergan, Sean Ryan and Donie Ryan.
There must be a few more though and clubs such as the following should have guys with potential
Ballyfore:
Clonbullogue:
Doon:
Shannonbridge:
Killeigh:
Ballinamere/ Durrow:
Kilclonfert:
Ballycommon:
Ballinagar:
possibly a few more
Weaker senior clubs should also have a few with potential such as Ferbane, Pollough, Rynaghs and Tubber.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Just a few that came to my mind...
Daingean: Liam Brennan and young Kilmurray (Colm Kilmurray? No way too light, Liam was asked in and wont go in as far as i know)
Clonmore Harps: Phillip Foy (Probably)
St Brigids: Sean Casey, Cian Donoghue, (Ken Casey and David Egan already involved) Sean Casey (no way, would not go when offered in the past, Cian probably)
Shamrocks: Leonard Mooney, (His time has come and gone!, Scott Delaney dont know much bout him
Kilcormac: Conor Mahon (yes if he could realise that he is wasting his time at the hurling)
Cappincur: Noel Andrew Graham in his atitude needed, and address!! , Carroll brothers, maybe
Bracknagh: Peter Cunningham already in there and likely to be kept
Birr: Steven Lonergan, Sean Ryan and Donie Ryan, maybe Lonergan and Donie Ryan

[Daleamar]

Liam Brennan was in with the county seniors before. Was brought training and the rest but never given a chance to actually play competitively. (has to drain confidence)

This notion that a player isnt big enough, surely the idea of getting them in at a young age is to bulk them up, if they have the dedication themselves to do so. (This is where a Junior intercounty team would be ideal to keep guys interested, however the county board will be quick to point out that they can hardly fund a senior team). Surely Panda is no bigger than Kilmurray?

I wonder if we followed the lead of our american friends would a Combine approach to selecting physically strong and fit players from the Junior and Intermediate clubs.

Or join Parishes together for a one off competition after the championships are finished. The guys still playing at this time of the year have the dedication (and love of the game) for inter county football and in most cases will not have stopped training. If hes serious about it he will know why hes doing it (i.e. to get on the offaly panel) and therefore will probably be doing some gym conditioning.

The greatest barrier to all of this of course is money. And we know the county board.

Change has to come from the top down and that doesn not look like happening anytime soon. The politics in Offaly GAA runs far too deep than to simply produce the best teams possible.

[clubman]

good idea to look at inter and junior clubs. although i would not get to carried away with naming some of those players.have seen a few inter and junior matches this year and you be surprised who played well and who didnt.some of those players named only play well when there team is winning,they dont do the dirty work or win the 70/30 ball,we have enough of them on the offaly team already.but there are some good footballers on inter and junior team that will give all and would give all for county.who the manager is must look at all these players a number of times and pick good ,honest,committed and with raw talent that the can mould into county players.but im afraid that most will be gone out of championship before offaly appoint there manager and we will have lost another year

[the Untouchable]

I think this is clever spin from Coffey...kind of like Paul O'Kelly claiming in 3 years we'd be all ireland champions if he was to be left in charge...despite losing to Laois in Tullamore and then to Roscommon over in Cusack Park!!

At the end of the day, there wouldn't be 5 lads playing intermediate or Junior football in Offaly today that hasn't being called in to the Offaly panel in the past and unless I've watched very different intermediate games to the rest of ye...there wouldn't be too many top footballers plying there trade there anyway!!

In the end Tom has a very tough job trying to clear out the deadwood off the panel...lord knows if we face in to another year of watching Alan McNamee walk around a football field...or the eternal question of will Tommo Deehan be togging out or not!! Not only does he need to replace lads like this, but he's also got to find players better and more commited to the Offaly cause...like seriously, how many times have you walked out of a club championship match having seen a player stand out from everyone else as a county footballer...much like Finbar Cullen or Peter Brady would in their hay day...I can't recall anyone off hand, but maybe thats why I'm not managing the team!!

If we're going to be serious this year...then we need to get the club championships wrapped up...and start with county trials and start to implement a training squad...have a panel of 40+ lads...training twice a week together, get to know each other...then by November he has a clear idea of what his 30 man panel would be..then have a full gym and nutrition program for the lads...to work on during the "training ban" period!!
It wouldn't take alot to take Offaly back up in to the top 10 to 12 teams in the country, it would just require a small bit of professionalism from our management and players, which has being sadly lacking for the past few years. Look at the strides the likes of Longford and Wexford have made over the past few years, it wasn't wholesale changes, just a bit of planning and the will to follow through!!

[timber]

Would it be fair to say that club football in the county has slipped dramatically since after 2008. Up to that you had a Rhode team that had huge ambitions for a leinster title and they were training harder and harder every year to get closer to that title. They had set the bar pretty much in Offaly. However I strongly believe that the final defeat to Kilmacud in Parnell park in 2008 when they lost a game that really they had been the better team for most of the game, really knocked something out of that team. I know they came back to play in another leinster final and perform admirably but they were not as sharp as before. That Rhode team was training harder than the county team, but they have lost that hunger.

Then you had the chasing pack of Tullamore, Shamrocks and Clara who all had very good sides and were pushing to catch Rhode. Tullamore although having a big pick of players and some good underage talent have slipped back. Shamrocks seem to have a completely new team and lost all interest, and Clara seem to have stayed in or around the same level. They are a team that can be good or bad on the day, but I wouldnt say they have slipped back nor have they improved either.

Rhode's standards dropped, then it might be fair to say that alot of other teams standards dropped or did not improve anyway. Teams have not had to become that much better to catch Rhode. Edenderry winning the championship last year was refreshing to see and showed how hard work within a club can pay off but from a quality point of view, was this also a sign of just how much club football has fallen back for them to come along and claim the title.

The gap between teams that are very poor and the sides seen as the big guns in the county is no longer that big. I think nearly all the club teams in the county are poor at the moment. Standards have dropped, maybe just interest from players has dropped. We can talk all we want about the potentials from Junior and Intermediate football, but I seriously dont think there is any hidden gems there. We are not a big county, any major new talent would have been spotted.

[theman]

Think the last 2 posts there sum up Offaly football's attitude - Negative!

There are plenty of Footballers plying there trade in Junior and Intermediate that arent on the panel due to:

1- Playing a low standard means they dont get noticed enough as much as Senior footballers.

2- Negative attitude. I have seen it in my own club where a player gets called in and won't go ''sure why should I go, there never gonna pick me anyway. waste of time'' Until this attitude changes we wont go anywhere

3- There is no junior team anymore. Back in the late 90's - Early 00's Offaly were always doing well in this competition and a good few Offaly players came through this set up. I know in my own club - Clonbullogue - we had a lot of players get called into the Senior panel due to performances at Junior county level. Although they never really made it, at least they got there chance. If there was no Junior team they more than likely wouldn't of got the chance.


The Senior panel needs to be wiped clean and started from scratch. Doesnt matter if a players has been the first name on the teamsheet the past 5 years. He should be given the same chance as a club footballers that is lucky to be called in. If that club footballer is better than the current senior player, well then so be it. He should be on the panel for the coming year.

[Lone Shark]

Sadly I'd fall into the view that I don't think there are a plethora of good county players out there waiting to be discovered. I'm not saying there aren't guys who couldn't be moulded into good squad players with the potential to do a specific job, but in terms of game changers or elite players, those guys always stand out. Even when Tubber were intermediate, Ciarán McManus stood out by a mile. Likewise James Coughlan for Doon, Ken Casey for Croghan, Seán and Donie Ryan at Birr, you can't help but notice the guys that are a cut above the general standard. Yet, in the majority of cases, these guys still struggle to make the step up - and we're suddenly saying that by going down into the next tier, below that again, we're going to find four or five guys who'll be deserving starters for the county? I'm sorry, but I don't buy it.

That's not to say that guys playing for intermediate or junior clubs can't cut it for the county - but if you're county standard, you'll stand out by a mile playing club football, with the possible exception of a goalkeeper or a specialist corner back.


Trying to right the wrongs in Offaly by tinkering with the personnel is doomed to failure - there are no low hanging fruit here. The issue is not the bodies that fill the jerseys, but the culture of accepting second best, of doing what you're forced to do instead of what you should do, of coasting, You change that culture, you ask more of players, and you reward those who strive to be the best they can be with specialist tuition and playing time. You don't reward the guy who makes the effort by longing for the waster to come back and make himself available again. How many times on this board and indeed in the stands and terraces around the county have you heard people talk about "imagine how good we'd be if Player A got fit, if Player B came back from America, and if Player C could be cajoled back in" - as if it's the manager's job to coax players to play for their county! That only demeans player D, who might not have the same natural ability, but who is trying to do what it takes. Then, when we have thirty guys with the right mentality, we'll be pointed in the right direction at least.


The standard of the club championship is not an excuse, because there is no way our club games/teams are weaker than those in Longford, Louth, Sligo, Laois, Donegal, Monaghan, Roscommon, Wexford, or a rake of other counties that are all in a much better position than us. In fact I'd be very confident that if Rhode, Edenderry, Clara, Tullamore and maybe Walsh Island or somebody played five games against the top five clubs in each of those counties, the Offaly teams would win at least three out of five games every time. I say that as somebody who has to price county championships every year - the standard of our domestic games are very decent for a county of our size.

Neither is it an excuse that there is no junior team. Junior teams are suited to counties like Cork, Kerry, Dublin and Kildare, where there are a lot of clubs in the county and players do get missed. It makes no sense in Offaly where I'd wager 50% of players in the senior club championship at the very least have been on an Offaly senior, minor or U21 panel at one time or another.

[heman]

spot on lone shark...

[TheManFromFerbane]

Best post on here in a long time