Offaly Minor Football 2014

[Bord na Mona man]

Very disappointing given the hope there was beforehand.
At the moment the most important attribute in gaelic football is the ability to run with the ball at speed. Especially since the introduction of the black card, which renders tackling of a runner extremely difficult.
Dublin were on a different planet in this regard. Offaly looked like a team with lead in their boots.
Funny thing is, Dublin's kicking and shooting skills were only average. They almost found it easier to run in goals than kick points.

Minor can be a funny grade in how players collapse mentally after a setback. After a half time where I'm sure the management did everything to gee up the players, Offaly went back out and conceded 2 piddly goals in the first minute when the team collectively switched off. It's not something you can plan for.
It's a pity Offaly didn't get this trashing in the 1st round where they'd have a chance to get the defence a bit better organised.

2014 - what a year!

[substandard]

Gutted for the lads this evening; a nightmare from start to finish. Missed getting a program, so didn't get names of Dublin players, but numbers 3, 9 and 10 were huge men. There was a complete system breakdown; the game plan failed miserably. As was said earlier, there's no point playing everyone behind the ball if you can't break out fast. Several times in the first half, Offaly had 2 players in the Dublin square, and 13 inside their own 45. Every Dublin kickout was either short or knocked down to a Dublin player. Likewise, bar one short kickout that went to Killian Keiley, virtually every break from Offaly kickouts was hoovered up by Dublin. Despite the numbers back, Dublin players made ground far too easily, or just released to the overlap- their 3rd goal saw a 4 v 2 in front of the Offaly goal coming across from the right corner.
Colm Doyle, who is an excellent man-marker, was left in no man's land as the spare man, and this didn't suit him at all. Offaly struggled to string 3 or more passes together, and too often ran into traffic and got turned over- the lack of a support run or out-ball option time and again was hugely frustrating. Jack Walsh was excellent, and tried to take the fight to Dublin at every opportunity.
It's a cruel end to the season, but as a Rossie who went to Tullamore to see Ros u21s in a similar upbeat mood of expectation, only to see a far worse mauling- the closest description would be a Brazilian Garth Brooks fan!!
These lads can, and will, play much better in the future. Tonight was a harsh lesson, but with many underage next year, they can see the level they need to aim towards in terms of physicality. They didn't set out to get beaten like that tonight, they have worked hard this year. It's hard to judge how good that Dublin team is- some excellent individuals, some very strong lads, but in all fairness, they won't get it so easy to boss any other opponents this year.

[Offalys Future]

I wasn't overly surprised that Offaly were well beaten last night. That Dublin team will probably win the all-Ireland this year or get very close.
I do think the Offaly team was over hyped and I know a good bit of work has been put in at u-16/minor level but the reality is unless there is a strategic plan and everybody is following it then you won't achieve success. A few people putting in Trojan work wont cut it anymore at inter county level.

I feel sorry for Pascal as I think he is a good coach. he needs the experience and should be let continue for another 2 years at least and also be more involved with u-16's.
I do think though that he was wrong to say the aim was to win a Leinster title. I know you have to show confidence as a manager but you also have to be realistic. What happened is the pressure got to our young players. This is a set back but hopefully defeats like this will ensure the relevant people running Offaly GAA will open their eyes, think outside the box and allow people who have a genuine interest in improving Offaly GAA to get involved. I live in hope!

[timber]

Hard luck to all involved. Very much a case of everything that could go wrong, did go wrong and more. I believe the better team won no doubt but the manner of the result was probably a bit of a freak. I do not think Offaly were as bad as they looked, nor were Dublin as good. But the Dubs are a very well prepared group to be fair and that comes from having great structures in place and massive financial backing which gives them the opportunity to develop these players in a near professional environment.

In the build up to the game I was a little worried by the hype about the team. Its big pressure for lads who in my opinion feared Dublin and were possibly 5 or 6 points down before a ball was even kicked. Probably hard not to when you see what their senior and U21s have been doing. Papers talked a bit about how badly the county needed a boost and this team was the great hope. Fierce pressure to lay on their shoulders. Tactics on the night probably did not work out but they can learn from that.

Look they can lie down and mull over this result or get back up and learn from it and start preparing for moving on to their next grade. Work has to continue with these lads. No reason they cant go on to do very well at under 21. But the work has to continue with them, keep them together and be driven to get an opportunity to prove that they have progressed from last night.

Offaly and most of the country are at a huge disadvantage compared to the resources Dublin have as well as a massive population to select the type of player they need. Success breeding success is going to become even more evident. More lads that would have opted for another sport are sticking with football in Dublin now because its the fashionable game and they are doing well.

Keep the heads up lads. Ye are a hell of alot better than one bad night. Work hard and aim to right the wrongs over the next few years.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

"Keep the heads up lads. Ye are a hell of alot better than one bad night. Work hard and aim to right the wrongs over the next few years."

Here here, this is a terrible defeat but they are a decent bunch of lads who have worked their socks off all year.

I would like to say though, that the management had the team poorly set up and they were very poorly set up under their own kick outs and were very defensive from the start. Ended up being hemmed in by Dublin.
Pascal needs to move away from this ultra defensive set up, but I think that that is his style.

[kingscounty]

Cant blame any of the players last night , Dublin looked fitter, bigger, stronger and way better organised . Pascal once again set up defensive and it just doesn't cut the mustard . We were cut open down the middle each time and id say we won about 2 kick outs in the whole game. The pressure on these young lads was huge and by the size of the crowd from Offaly we were pinning all our hopes of 2014 on this bunch of players. Plenty of time for these lads to develop more and under the right guidance they can improve further. Keep the heads up and don't get to down over last night , learn from it and move forward.

[townman]

No you can't blame them young lads last night the are better than that i am sure, but it did show how much a gap has open with offaly and other counties in every grade of football and hurling. we like to think they are doing well but in fact we are getting worse. i know millions goes into Dublin gaa and they have some pick but we shouldn't be taking beatings like that at our home ground.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Townman, the bookies who are not normally too far out had us 2/1 for the win which is not indicative of a huge gap between the teams.

We dont think things are being done perfect but they are improving on the football side and these lads need to be backed because they put in a huge effort and the maintenance of this effort over the coming 2 years will see them making progress at U21.
Pascal put in a serious effort with them but needs to learn from this.

[townman]

Townman, the bookies who are not normally too far out had us 2/1 for the win which is not indicative of a huge gap between the teams.

We dont think things are being done perfect but they are improving on the football side and these lads need to be backed because they put in a huge effort and the maintenance of this effort over the coming 2 years will see them making progress at U21.
Pascal put in a serious effort with them but needs to learn from this.

i didn't say offaly or Pascal didn't put effort into it he done everything he could as did the players.
my point is even in doing that we are miles behind other counties, i was talking to a laois man a few weeks ago and he told me that their was little between laois and offaly this year at minor he then told me that laois or offaly wouldn't keep it kick out to Dublin and kildare in the semil's , i said i don't know about laois but i said Dublin won't kick it out of offaly in tullamore, how wrong i was and right he was
in saying that he had a young fella that was in with laois and had his ear to the ground.

[Lone Shark]

Having seen this group on a few occasions this year, I'd be very confident that this was just one of those nights where nothing went right. Of course there are aspects that were worrying and there were aspects that people need to learn from, but this result was very much out of kilter with everything this team did so far this year and needs to be looked at in the context of the year as a whole.

This is still a talented group of players and one bad day doesn't change that, neither does it suddenly undo the good work that was done by the management team in getting them this far.

[substandard]

Been mulling over the game all day, and read the posts here, stuff on facebook, hoganstand, etc.
I think the tactics last night didn't suit this team; the plan was containment, and obviously it backfired badly, so I'm wondering if the team had gone man to man from the start, how might the game have transpired?
I know too well that the sideline is a very lonely place when your team is getting walloped, and your plans and set up are gone out the window, but on 24 minutes, the score was 1-6 to 2; not out of sight score-wise, but Dublin had a complete monopoly on possession, and Offaly couldn't get their hands on the ball, and when they did, there was no support or options. Compare that with the movement against Westmeath- obviously Dublin were massively superior and physically stronger, but my point is that when Offaly moved the ball fast to the support runner, which happened far too rarely yesterday, they looked a completely different team.
On the Dublin kickout, by going man to man, you cut out the short option, and make the keeper put it up. Yes, Dublin had a strong midfield, but yesterday evening Offaly rarely contested breaking ball, so at a guess, probably 80 or 90% of the ball was won by Dublin. Could it have been much worse by going man to man? The men Offaly were bringing back were too far away from the breaking area, so Dublin were getting a colossal supply of ball uncontested up to the Offaly 45.
When Dublin moved into attack, they were allowed to carry the ball far too easily. They could afford to send up to 2 defenders at a time to create overlaps, and still have 2 loose men as a screen behind their midfield if their moves broke down. With so many committed to attack, they were easily able to crowd out any Offaly defender if they did lose possession.
So back to the original point about trying to take the game to the Dubs. Given a number of key speed/ physical mismatches which would have to be addressed by switches/ changes, one way of reducing these threats would be simply to have a higher percentage of possession. Easier said than done, granted, but compared to what happened last night, could it have got much worse? Try and get traffic in front of runners, and at least make them change direction, or move the ball. No matter how big or how fast they were, they still have to hop or solo every 4 steps- box them in, get in stride with them and time the hand in.
I know it's ifs and buts, and if your aunt had balls she'd be your uncle, but I genuinely think the set up last night didn't allow the team to play to their strengths.
I appreciate as a supporter how bad it feels, and everyone will acknowledge how the players feel, but the management will also be in pain seeing their work, their dreams and their plan obliterated like that. However, to use a phrase I despise- going forward- there are important lessons that can be taken from the ashes, tactical adjustments for management, and for the players. With so many of this panel available next year, I hope between here and u21 the players stick at it, improve step by step, and I believe we will see a truer reflection of the players and management.

[blue biffo]

This will be short and maybe not so sweet,did we get carried away with ourself.I may get slated for this but we beat Kilkenny in the first round then a bad Westmeath team next but having said that I saw that match and we played a good brand of football that night but how bad was Westmeath.I now hear as you do after been beating, we were well beaten by a Longford team that Dublin beat in an earlier round and these lad went to Limerick for the weekend a few weeks ago and played Kerry,were beaten by 30 points and only scored 3 point in the game, heard that 2th or 3th hand not sure on that.

[kingscounty]

This will be short and maybe not so sweet,did we get carried away with ourself.I may get slated for this but we beat Kilkenny in the first round then a bad Westmeath team next but having said that I saw that match and we played a good brand of football that night but how bad was Westmeath.I now hear as you do after been beating, we were well beaten by a Longford team that Dublin beat in an earlier round and these lad went to Limerick for the weekend a few weeks ago and played Kerry,were beaten by 30 points and only scored 3 point in the game, heard that 2th or 3th hand not sure on that.

I thought I seen the score from the Kerry match , Kerry 5-18 Offaly 5-10 , so someone must be telling porky pies somewhere. If they only scored 3 points that's very worrying , why lie about score line , you will just get found out in the end!!

[first_touch]

Agree with everything Substandard said and I'd have the very same questions about the tactical set-up on the evening. I thought we set up far too defensively, inviting Dublin onto us. When we did win possession we got corralled into our own half. I also could not understand some of the positional switches made at the start. Why change a winning formula?

I think all this nonsense of playing a sweeper and pulling back four forwards behind midfield shows a defeatist attitude and gives a psychological advantage to the opposition. By all means track back when you lose the ball but surely its better to go out man-to-man with an attacking approach, move the ball quickly, have support runners etc. We also seriously need to develop strategies at all levels of Offaly football for winning breaking ball.

[boomcha]

This will be short and maybe not so sweet,did we get carried away with ourself.I may get slated for this but we beat Kilkenny in the first round then a bad Westmeath team next but having said that I saw that match and we played a good brand of football that night but how bad was Westmeath.I now hear as you do after been beating, we were well beaten by a Longford team that Dublin beat in an earlier round and these lad went to Limerick for the weekend a few weeks ago and played Kerry,were beaten by 30 points and only scored 3 point in the game, heard that 2th or 3th hand not sure on that.

I thought I seen the score from the Kerry match , Kerry 5-18 Offaly 5-10 , so someone must be telling porky pies somewhere. If they only scored 3 points that's very worrying , why lie about score line , you will just get found out in the end!!

Yeah, they only lost to Kerry by 7 or 8 in a high scoring game so that would seem right. It was a terrible outcome but I would still leave everything as it is and learn from the mistakes next year. How many are minor again?

Side note: did anyone see the game being advertised as all ticket?? Are all games in OCP all ticket now?