Coffey turns down Offaly job

[offalyman]

I see that Tom Coffey has turned down the Offaly job, due to work commitments.....where does that leave us now? If were to go inside the county I'd love to see Pascal get a crack of it... I thought he had the under 21's flying this year and they looked the best drilled Offaly team for many a year....if were to go outside the county I think we could do worse than get the likes of Banty.... Someone with a bit of drive and passion what Offaly football needs badly at the moment..were rock bottom at the minute the only way is up..

[Bord na Mona man]

This appears to be a u-turn?
Coffey had been talking about the long term, which lead me to believe he wasn't just a caretaker manager.
He had spoken about what Offaly needed to do to rebuild and how much work would need to be done to bridge the gap to other counties.
My suspicions are that 'work commitments' might not the 100% reason.

We can either:
a) Start the drawn out nonsense of 7 man committees, selected from all corners of the county, mulling over (pissing off) candidates for months and eventually filling the post in about October...and have the manager walk next April

b) Have a bit of leadership from the top, grab the most impressive of the available names (and no the job isn't attractive) and have them in charge within a month. Start the building for 2013 asap.

It's time for decision making to take precedence over processes.

[kingscounty]

agree with bnm , the sooner a man is appointed the better. the county board should pick 3 or 4 of the best names and see who is interested . the team are that far behind that training would have to start the min the club championship is over. i think stephen darby should get the job but he prob wont be interested after the last shambles. there is some good managers out there but i hope to god the county board cop on and appoint a man asap , why do we need to set up a committee to pick a manager it was a joke last time. can they not pick 3 or 4 candidates and put it to all the clubs and let the clubs vote on who should be the next manager?

[townman]

its going to be the same sh.te different year, again it will go on for week's in fairness theres not going to be many looking for the job

[Daleamar]

Priority number one should be to get young lads wanting to play football again. This I feel would have to come from an outside man. A guy who has been a top player in his time.

Although Banty is a good manager, hes not what Offaly need just now. The short term objectives of the new manager should be to get the best players back playing for Offaly; to get Offaly up to scratch physically and mentally; to make Offaly hard to beat (if not winning the odd game!)

A man like Darragh O' Shea or the likes would be a great way of getting players back interested. He probably wouldnt go for it but there has to be somebody players would want to play for that can motivate them aswell. Paired with a good physical coach.

The players are there. Its a matter of getting them to play and stay interested is the hard part for now. worry about tactics and winning when at least the basics are there.

I dont think we could attract a high profile manager at this moment in time.

What do you guys think the realistic objectives of a new manager should be? Bear in mind we are probably in the worst 5 teams in the country at the moment?

[Bord na Mona man]

The short term objectives of the new manager should be to get the best players back playing for Offaly; to get Offaly up to scratch physically and mentally; to make Offaly hard to beat (if not winning the odd game!)

I would refine that and say get the most committed players playing for Offaly.
I'd be happy to have a panel of the 24 most committed players of the best 35 players in the county, rather than simply the most talented 24.
The serious training will never get properly done so long as the usual suspects are dragging everyone else back.

Also, its about time we wised the hell up tactically. Teams playing 2 man full forward lines and withdrawn half forward lines etc. completely bamboozle Offaly.

[Truth as i see it]

its going to be the same sh.te different year, again it will go on for week's in fairness theres not going to be many looking for the job

Look the bottom line is the problem goes much deeper than who the manager is, for my money the problem lies with the make up of the board members themselves

I don't mean to hijack the thread and apologies if it is heading this way but these board members have no ambition, no concept of modern gaa or how it works and their answer to everything is: we don't have the money (eh... O' Connor park anyone) in fact i would be interested to see a break down as to how much the county board spent on it and how much came from grant money

The representatives for the most part ignore any new initiatives sent down from Croke Park( I believe we were one of the last counties in the country to incorporate development squads, a full 7 years after Kilkenny first came up with the idea) with one member stating at a recent AGM this year "what does Croke park know about Offaly gaa"

(Yeah because your doing a bang up job on your own there lads and we in Division 4 in the football and struggling to beat powerhouses like Meath and Carlow in Minor hurling)

Who needs Croke Park

These lads have no new ideas, they have nothing new to contribute to Offaly GAA going forward, they rely on people outside the board to come up with new concepts and are unable to initiate any concepts themselves

Even if they did put a full effort into overhauling the current structure's they simply do not have the mindset or the comprehension to fix the problems as the majority are so old school they would still complain about the idea of collective training

There is light at the end of the tunnel however

I have often mentioned the good work being done at Edenderry, this is in no small part to their chairman (can't remember his first name but his last name is Cummins i believe)

Ferbane we all know about

Tullamore are starting to get their act together, they have a nursery going at the moment

Rhode in fairness have always done it right so there are a few clubs being run well on and off the pitch

If we can get at least someone from one of these clubs into the chairman hot seat we might see some improvment

I'm not saying it will cure all of our problems but it might point us in the right direction

The problem is a lot of these appointments are made in house, in other words its not the best guy for the job but the best lad to have a pint with or the golden circle as i like to call them

it all depends on who is appointed into the chairman hot seat this year

You can't build a house on foundations of sand and expect it not to sink

Right now we could have Mickey Harte in charge of the team with the way the county is run and we still wouldn't get out of division 4

Obviously there is a lot more to it than what I'm saying (never was any good at the nitty gritty) but the current thought process of the county board is so flawed, unless this basic element changes we will be here again next year with the same problem

much as i hate to admit it townman is right

Same results, different year

[Lone Shark]

There are several elements to this that are upsetting. Of course nobody knows Tom's mind except himself and possibly his family and some close friends, but he did send out signals at the start of the year that suggested that he was interested in taking this job and doing it for the long haul, which we all accept is the requirement at the moment. Certainly there never was a better time to embark on a long term overhaul of football in the county - expectations are low and nobody is asking for the team to be competitive against good sides in 2013. Supporters won't ask for much, and neither is the county board likely to castigate a manager for failing to move mountains in the next twelve months.

This suggests that something has changed from when he took on the job. Either the county board is tying his hands to a degree that he doesn't consider acceptable, or else what he saw while in charge over the last few months led him to believe that these players are either incapable or else unwilling to make the step up and to apply themselves in the fashion required to compete in the modern intercounty game. When we also allow for the fact that Tom has managed a lot of these players and he certainly is very well aware of the footballing capability of the players in question, that suggests that it's either the county board, or else the lack of willingness to increase the intensity on behalf of the players.

Equally, the notion that we should just hand the reins over to somebody immediately is a nice idea, but it possibly misses the mark on a couple of levels. For one, this is not a desirable position - indeed not since Tommy Lyons has a football manager left Offaly with their reputation enhanced. Some, such as Pat Roe, Richie Connor and indeed Gerry Cooney, have blotched their copybook to the extent that you'd imagine that even senior club teams would be slow to take them on. Rightly or wrongly there is a public perception there that the players are unmanageable, and that county football is third on the priority list of the county board, behind paying for O'Connor Park and the hurlers. (Note too that I say that perception exists, and it does. I'm not saying that it's actually the case).

Right now I'd like to see the county board arrange a meeting at the earliest possible time with guys like Ciarán McManus, Karol Slattery, Colm Quinn, Paschal Kelleghan, Scott Brady etc. Get their views on how best to proceed from here. There's no point falling back on the "expertise" of guys who played football in a completely different era and whose only involvement now is as a barstool expert who watches the Sunday Game every week. If senior players who understand the modern game feel that it's better to take a chance on a manager and get the process underway instead of taking more time and trying to get the best possible candidate, then I'd go along with that view. If they say that the right way to proceed is to appoint a trainer with a view towards giving lads programmes and looking after the physical side of things for now, then so be it.

Ultimately though, my worry is that something changed. Coffey was interested, and now he isn't. He hasn't changed job in the meantime, he would have had a good idea what the commitment level required was, and this year he was doing it while still looking after Athlone in Westmeath. Something's wrong here, and that aspect troubles me.

[townman]

look lads lets call a ace an ace, Tom Coffey is a fine offaly GAA gael who has gave his time over the years to minor and under 21 teams not to mention his playing
days in the offaly jersey who always gave it his all.

the problem is we need an outsider i think there would be problems with Tom later on in the year from playeres from in the squad or playeres who weren't called in
Tom answer the SOS this summer when Cooney left and fair play to the man.

my point is his first team or squad he put together was most from Toms neck of the woods i think the played laois in mountmellick with about 7 or more from Rhode
he brought Alan Mac back who was finish years ago, he also went back for Niall Smith who walked out on the team for about the 3rd time and didn't want to know about it again
kildare in portlaoise.

some one mention getting the likes of Dara O'Shea would be good or his uncle Paudie even better he would be the type we need and if a player did walk he would tell him to
keep walking and don't come back, there is no discipline in offaly football at the moment we need someone who will bring that back into offaly football a man who doesn't
give a shit about big name players or big clubs they come from but will get the best out of the squad he puts together.

just looking at laois last weekend how they have turn the thing around, the players are fit they also are a team and they want to play for their county and McNulty
which we can't say the same for offaly at the moment.

who ever gets it is starting from division 4 you can't get any lower only kilkenny are under us now which is a bloody well disgrace for a county with its history of the game
not looking for all irelands but offaly should be up there with the longfords,wexfords, laois of this world maybe division 2 would be great in the next few years.

but something will have to be done to stop the slide in offaly football, i wouldn't mind but there was some good club matches over the weekend are there is 4 or 5 clubs that will
be in with a shout of getting to the county final this year, its getting the right man for the job and players that want to play for the offaly jersey doesn't matter if they play junior B
its getting players that want to pull on the offaly jersey if you have that you are half way there.

[Daleamar]

First of all, I have never been to any of those county board meetings but I have often heard that a club delegate speaking up for change on behalf of himself or his club will result in that person ruining his chances for progression up the ladder in the county boards inner circle and/or the club losing out on fixtures being played in their club, funding etc. So I would assume that merely a change of the chairman is not going to be suffice in a rotting county board. Its going to take a full revolt, French style to change things in Offaly and I dont think we have anybody to be the driving force behind it so then I think its pointless talking or even thinking that a change in the chairman will magically overhaul the county board. Much like pretty much everybodies opinion that a top class manager cant chnage Offaly footballs fortunes over night.

What we maybe can do is influence the choice of manager/backroom team. Or am I just being delusional?

I think its pointless asking the older guys what they think should be done. Its the younger guys that wont play or dont give it all for the jersey that we hope are the future of the county. It their opinions I would think would matter most if you were to follow that line of enquiry. It may be stubborness on behalf of the younger players not to listen to the older guys or what have you, but sadly, that is the situation. Maybe ask the older players to approach some of the younger ones and try and get their honest opinion.

Also, getting an interim trainer to provide programmes for players while taking our time in appointing a manager. This will not improev the situation and only worsen it in my opionion. Firstly, this forces the hand of any potential manager by saying, these are the guys we gave programmes to (pretty much saying here is your panel). If the manager doesnt think some of these players are up to scratch for the current panel then these players hopes will be dashed, creating more bad feeling amongst potential players within the clubs..... Sure didnt Johnny spend the whole winter in the gym because he was called up to Offaly and then he was dropped without even getting a chance, yada yada yada.

[DAF]

Kieran McGeeney?
Micko?

[Alloutbarthekeeper]

Not sorry to see that Tom Coffey has ruled himself out,thought he made poor decisions in the Kildare match and I feared he had no plan B if the high ball into Niall Mc did not work( that was his only plan with Rhode). In my opinion Stephan Darby is our best bet at the moment. No big name would look at the Offaly job at the moment even if silly Kildare type money was on offer. Darby knows the club scene in Offaly and would get the respect of the players. He got messed about by the selection committe the last time but now he should get the opportunity.

[kano123]

Well able to manage Athlone though isn't he

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

I would say that Tom was told he aint getting the reins on the u21s as well as the Senior and he decided to walk. Whoever they get as manager is up against it anyway, and the real issue remains with the clubs out there who need to get their house in order.

Have to laugh at some of the opinions, DAF with Micko or McGeeney, (church gate collections for the GAA every Sunday), to handing out programmes to the players to do, to looking at Stephen Darby, to poking fun at county board,(the board consists of lads doing roles that noone in their right mind would consider doing!).

[Daleamar]

I would say that Tom was told he aint getting the reins on the u21s as well as the Senior and he decided to walk. Whoever they get as manager is up against it anyway, and the real issue remains with the clubs out there who need to get their house in order.

Have to laugh at some of the opinions, DAF with Micko or McGeeney, (church gate collections for the GAA every Sunday), to handing out programmes to the players to do, to looking at Stephen Darby, to poking fun at county board,(the board consists of lads doing roles that noone in their right mind would consider doing!).

Enlighten us so then?.... I guess your one of these useless f*ckers that knocks everything and does f*ck all.