O'Byrne Cup 2013

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
ryot
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by ryot »

11 places into top 20 might be reaching. For the League 7 places to 24 & a place in Div 3 would be massive but as I said earlier (or elsewhere) that might have to wait another year. A good performance on Sunday and a good start to the League would do for now.

kingscounty
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by kingscounty »

A good performance Sunday is all we can ask , Kildare are way ahead of Offaly in terms of the last few years , it would be great to get a win Sunday and it would be a good confidence boost going into a hard league campaign. He should send the lads out to attack Kildare and not sit back , take them on and give them something to worry about before the first round of the championship.

boomcha

Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by boomcha »

Yeah and it's great to get a chance to play Kildare before the championship in a competitive game and see how far Offaly have really come.

Ahlethimoutwithit
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by Ahlethimoutwithit »

Are there many lads playing on colllege teams?
I had a look through some of the teams on the paper and the only one that I saw was Bernard Allen, who came on as a sub v Wexford on the first day.
Any other lads actually start or appear for any of the other teams in any of the games over the last week?

summerindublin
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by summerindublin »

Offaly team to play Kildare is as follows:
Alan Mulhall,
Brian Darby, Eoin Rigney, Sean Pender,
David Hanlon, Derek Kelly, Graham Guilfoyle,
Alan McNamee, Richie Dalton,
Ross Brady, Brian Connor, Eoin Carroll,
Matthew Mitchell, Niall McNamee, Anton Sullivan.

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by Bord na Mona man »

This will be a good run out for Offaly.
Kildare will want to make sure Offaly don't get any encouragement for this summer's championship clash.
Offaly will be hoping to compete with Kildare and stop the run of recent mismatches between the sides.

Last year in the O'Byrne Cup, Offaly took them on with a questionable game plan and appalling fitness and didn't even raise an umpire's flag in the first half. The Championship defeat wasn't much better. Offaly had a decent 15 minutes, missed chances to build up a slight lead, left Kildare back into it easily by not marking Johnny Doyle, were soon jaded like a postman on a high nelly trying to keep apace with Lance Armstrong in the Alps.

If we are picking off decent scores in the 2nd half and don't at any stage get blown out of it, then it would be progress at least.

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townman
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by townman »

lets hope its a bit more tigher than the last two games between the two, i think offaly
will match them well enough as they seem to be putting in the work this year and been in
tullamore they might sneak over the line with another point or two win :wink:

DAF
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by DAF »

Kildare 1-12
Offaly 1-9

Great game of football and despite the result it was a great performance by Offaly who battled extremely hard and played some good football aswell.Brian Connor was immense in the second half and won some great balls in midfield, Peter Cunningham made a huge impact in the second half also.The lack of pace and positioning of the half forward line is an issue and when Cunningham was in there in the second half it made a big difference to Offalys attacking treath.Anton Sullivan and Niall McNamee did trojan work in the first half winning the ball despite being completely isolated and surrounded by Kildare players.I thought Shane Sullivan played very well on Tomas Connor and was very disciplined.Individual errors at key times and missed chances cost us today.Mark Young should have taken the penalty he scored one in the county final a couple of years ago and McNamee has never looked comfrtable taking penalties and I had a feeling he wold miss.The move for the penalty was brilliant and involved great play by McNamee , its a pity the penalty was missed as that move deserved a goal at the end of it.

The crowd was great today I would say it was close to 5000 and its great to see the support being so good so far thsis year and people seem to have renewed faith in the team and they are responding with good performances.In the long run it might be a good thing we didnt win today and the players will have gained confidence from the display today a hammering against Dublin which could happen would have knocked some of their confidence.I'm really looking forward to the league now.

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townman
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by townman »

yes they done well the missed pen was the beating of them, but by god they have came
on loads towards last year kildare had there best team out they are not any better.

they have had a great cup run, now they should turn to the league now with London
and their first home game again Limerick a few early wins and points on the board
and they could get on a great run in the league.

as DAF said a trip to parnell park again a strong Dublin side is a bit early for this offaly side
they have got what they wanted out of this O'Byrne cup, no point going into the league
after a bad beating from Dublin like what happen to louth today.

ryot
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by ryot »

Greatly encouraged by the display.

Had a feeling midway through the second half that it might go to extra time but missing the penoscuppered that !!!!

Keeper was solid but the one error was costly. Defence did well but dont agree that Shane was disciplined. He was extremely lucky in the second half that the linesman did not inform the ref of a silly moment. Alan did well and upfront Nial & Anton were superb and having had a pop at Anton on discipline last year I was delighted with him today. He took a belt early on and just got on with the game. Peter C really made a big difference but he should be used sparingly this year.

Big crowd, good game and nice to have a cuppa & a chat after.

DAF
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by DAF »

ryot wrote:Greatly encouraged by the display.

Had a feeling midway through the second half that it might go to extra time but missing the penoscuppered that !!!!

Keeper was solid but the one error was costly. Defence did well but dont agree that Shane was disciplined. He was extremely lucky in the second half that the linesman did not inform the ref of a silly moment. Alan did well and upfront Nial & Anton were superb and having had a pop at Anton on discipline last year I was delighted with him today. He took a belt early on and just got on with the game. Peter C really made a big difference but he should be used sparingly this year.

Big crowd, good game and nice to have a cuppa & a chat after.

What did shane Sullivan do?

I thought his defending was disciplined as too often in the past he dives in with rash challenges rather than doing a disciplined marking job which is what he did today.

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by Bord na Mona man »

Decent outcome for Offaly.

Until today, most of the players' experiences of playing Kildare was being blown out of it by benchpressing beefcakes vacuum packed into white jersies, with boobs like Pamela Anderson and biceps like an internet p*rn addict. At least Offaly managed to take them on in something resembling a contest. The missed penalty also gives a 'what if' teaser for summer time.
Agreed that Dublin in the final might have been a step too far and too early.

However this is Offaly playing closer to their ability ceiling than most other counties. And it's only January.

The managerial reigns of Pat Roe, Richie Connor and Gerry Cooney started with cutting players for show, wasting the Winter, hampering team sheets with low likelihood experimentation (wing forward Scott Brady and centre forward Ger Rafferty being the most memorable), losing matches, losing momentum, losing the dressing room, losing their jobs.

Emmett McDonnell has banked on getting a flying start and hoping that it doesn't plateau too early.
Come championship it will still be a Division 4 side taking on a Division 1 side, but for now progress appears to have been made.

Hyper
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by Hyper »

Sure BNM it might be a division 2 team playing a division 3!. Well done to the lads today on a good performance,they really put it up to Kildare. Now they need to build on that over the League campaign. It was really good to hear the support coming for the team today, a long time since that sort of atmosphere was heard in Tullamore for the senior footballers. Roll on Ruislip.

Alloutbarthekeeper
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by Alloutbarthekeeper »

Great game today and great support.Penalty miss was a killer after good build up.Cunningham was agreat sub, thought Mcguinnes would have made an impact if used, half forwards were invisable. Roll on the league.

jimbob17
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Re: O'Byrne Cup 2013

Post by jimbob17 »

also was very encouraged by the performance today. Kildare werent a whole pile off full strength and they were really shown today for what they are. Limited footballing robots (bar Conway, Johnston and Flaherty). Offaly had the better footballers in my opinion but the physical conditioning of the Kildare lads is still having them ahead of us and won the second half by 3 with a man sent off half way through. That said, the Offaly lads have made massive strides in the past 2/3 months with their fitness levels in comparison with this time last year and i hope now that players can see the benefits of hard work and a little unity which they seem to have in abundance.....With 2 / 3 years of conditioning to bring offaly to kildares level, there is no reason why we couldnt be there or thereabouts for a leinster. That said, things must be put in perspective for what it is (O BYrne Cup) and this performance must be built upon.

Kildare were only missing John Doyle of note while kavanagh is a loss, it appears he has had a fall out and wont be back under McGeeney. Without the Cavan man today, OY would have won as Johnston was excellent throughout and scored a good bit from play and frees. They took their time coming out after half time when they most likely got a right dressing down. Cunningham did well today and i think coming off the bech suits him for now when the game is broken up and players are a little tired.

From what i saw today, McDonnell has the lads working hard for each other and a bit of belief has developed from the few wins. There is no reason why we arent in the shake up for division 4 but there are 3 or 4 other teams there too that will be pushing hard for promotion including Tipp, Clare Limerick and Leitrim so nothing easy. The season is only starting but at least we are heading back towards being competitive again.... Well done lads and keep up the hard work.....
jimbob

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