2018 NFL

[Killeighman]

Stephen Wallace and his Management Team Billy Sheehan and Paul Mollen have selected their starting 15 to play Longford in the opening Round of the Allianz National Football League on Sunday at 2pm in Bord na Mona O'Connor Park

1. Alan Mulhall (Walsh Island)
2. David Brady (Edenderry)
3. Paul McConway (Tullamore)
4. Sean Pender (Edenderry)
5. David Dempsey (Ballycommon)
6. Cian Donohue (St. Brigids)
7. James Lalor (Raheen)
8. Shane Nally (Ferbane)
9. Craig Dunne (Gracefield)
10. Jordan Hayes (Edenderry)
11. Anton Sullivan (Rhode)
12. Michael Brazil (Tullamore)
13. Bernard Allen (Tubber)
14. Cian Johnson (Ferbane)
15. Nigel Dunne (Shamrocks)

[Kevin]

Good luck today to Stephen ''Timberlake'' Wallace and team as the quest to bring Sexy (Football) Back begins in earnest.

COME ON OFFALY!!!!

[DoingUntold]

Brought it back alright, down to earth

[Buttons]

Biggest regret that I had today was that I didn't go home at half time but waited til Longford scored their third to leave it 3-15 to 1-2. Regarding the team we lacked leaders especially around the middle of the field, we had a terrible first 10 minutes going 0-4 down but getting the goal and point to equalise should have woken us up but no.

One major problem today is we don't have anyone that can catch a ball or a target man, Brazil called 2 marks but no one else that I know caught one in first half. Mulhall was too slow and didn't know what to do, 2 balls were overkicked over the line on stand side, often a 2 v 1 was seen but he was too slow and when kicked long went to a 3 v 1 for Longford. Around the time we couldn't get out one player not named went out to 50m line approx on stand side and looked other way, that showed me a lot about this player.

It's going to be a long season and division 4 beckons for 2019.

[first_touch]

Shocking display today. Judging my that performance we have regressed since last year. All the old failings were evident: lack of physicality, inability to win our own kickouts, no strategy to win breaking ball. But added to that there seemed to be no coherent gameplan and the workrate was poor. Playing a 2-man full forward line with the wind in the second half was madness and is miles away from 'Kerry Football' At least under Pat Flanagan we usually played a running game and worked the ball into scoring positions.

The only bright spots today were a couple of flashes of brilliance from Cian Johnson and the return of Peter Cunningham, Niall Darby and Johnny Moloney. The quicker we get Eoin Carroll back too the better. We face an uphill battle to stay in Division 3 but it's only January and hopefully Wallace will be able to inspire the team to turn things around.

[Alloutbarthegoalie]

We were brutal today, all over the field. No leaders specially in defence. Here’s hoping it’s just a glitch with better times to come.

[jimbob17]

Jaysus lads that wasn't too sexy! The only sexy thing today came from a Longford perspective. When we went forward naively with little or no penetration, we got stripped of possession and got caught with our pants down! They moved in quickly and nailed us before we had chance to put up a defence as we were wide open!

Goals at start of second half were nothing short of abysmal from our perspective and they could and should have had at least 3 more! Lot of player turnover from last year doesnt help but there are too many quality guys out there that should be involved that are not! There are a good few lads on that panel that wouldn't make the Rhode team let alone a county team!

[substandard]

The sexy football comment is going to haunt Wallace any time a result or performance isn't up to scratch. Wasn't at the game, but the twitter updates made for sad reading. Not the start for the new management and a lot of young players, but the only thing to do is focus on a couple of key features and aim to get them right next time out.

[LooseCannon]

The sexy football comment is going to haunt Wallace any time a result or performance isn't up to scratch. Wasn't at the game, but the twitter updates made for sad reading. Not the start for the new management and a lot of young players, but the only thing to do is focus on a couple of key features and aim to get them right next time out.

Side to side, occasional hospital pass. That was it really. Poor kickouts from Mulhall, who I’ve been critical of before, and I think that Rohan or Dunican should be ahead of him. But it’s hard when you’ve got no midfield at all.
Rant over.

Ps. The rant may continue at a later date.

Ps. Ps. At least Cunningham and Moloney are back. Anyone know when Carroll is expected to be back?
I know where I’ll be next Sunday, and it won’t be Brewster Park.

[llkj]

This is not a trolling message. Genuinely, is this the worst result in the history of Offaly football? 18 points down to Longford. At home. Few consolation scores to put a gloss on an 11 point loss. Worst I had seen before this was Down at Home in the backdoor around 8-10 years ago, when the players simply didn’t want to know about it. Am I being too harsh?

[LooseCannon]

This is not a trolling message. Genuinely, is this the worst result in the history of Offaly football? 18 points down to Longford. At home. Few consolation scores to put a gloss on an 11 point loss. Worst I had seen before this was Down at Home in the backdoor around 8-10 years ago, when the players simply didn’t want to know about it. Am I being too harsh?

I don’t think you’re being harsh. Was talking to a few on the way out (around 70 minute mark), and they think similar.
Was at that Down match as well, I think Coulter did a lot of damage, if memory serves me correct. The sheer size of the crowd v Down was unbelievable, with the vast majority of them being from Down.

We SHOULD beat Sligo and Wexford. We can beat Westmeath, however the performance will have to improve significantly. Derry are vulnerable defensively, so if we ATTACK them, we may trouble them.

As for Fermanagh, I don’t see us getting anything from it, despite the fact that we’ve never lost there. Wexford got within 5 points, but they were at home.

Armagh, beat Sligo comprehensively. That doesn’t necessarily bode well for us.

To clarify, the performance will have to up significantly to beat any of the sides in division 3.

[Kemo Sabe]

No heart, no fight, very little football ability, not sure what they are doing in training but it's obviously not working. Division 4 beckons for this group. Disgrace to the jersey!!

[Wingforward]

No heart, no fight, very little football ability, not sure what they are doing in training but it's obviously not working. Division 4 beckons for this group. Disgrace to the jersey!!

Kemo Sabe, you are very harsh on the lads here. I wasnt at the game myself as i was still recovering from the high of the result the night before. No one should be branded a disgrace to their county jersey. Every player involved in an intercounty setup in Ireland makes serious sacrifices to represent their county let it be someone from Offaly, Leitrim or even Dublin, at the end of the day 99% of GAA stars have to rise for work on a Monday morning and its comments like that that make it a thankless task to bother doing the endless hours of training throughout the year and making large sacrifices which they make every year. Its small things like, holidays, weekends away and even being able to have drink at family events. They give up their whole social life in a lot of causes to try perform to the highest ability and in a lot of cases its all for nothing, well, except receving stone age comments like the one that yours finished up on.

Everyone has an off day now and again, unfortunately ours was last Sunday vs Longford and i do believe we are a lot better than that. We beat Longford by a similar scoreline in the league final in 2015 and come championship they turned it around and beat us by 3 so its a bit early for panic stations.

Offaly have been down in the doldroms long enough in both codes and making statements like that wont get offaly anywhere. We have been missing some of our bestfootballers over the last number of years this year, either through injury or lads travelling. Give it time, get the likes of Cunningham, Maloney and Carroll back in and it will make a great difference.

To finish my rant, it does makes my blood boil (as you have probably noticed) when lads say these guys are a disgrace to the jersey. Its a thankless task and its a wonder they even bother at times.

Keep the faith!

[Kevin]

Jaysus lads that wasn't too sexy! The only sexy thing today came from a Longford perspective. When we went forward naively with little or no penetration, we got stripped of possession and got caught with our pants down! They moved in quickly and nailed us before we had chance to put up a defence as we were wide open!

Hard to find the bright side of what happened to the footballers this weekend, but the above quip is priceless.

Hoping we recover quickly and get things on track.

[SearingDrive]

Jaysus lads that wasn't too sexy! The only sexy thing today came from a Longford perspective. When we went forward naively with little or no penetration, we got stripped of possession and got caught with our pants down! They moved in quickly and nailed us before we had chance to put up a defence as we were wide open!

Hard to find the bright side of what happened to the footballers this weekend, but the above quip is priceless.

Hoping we recover quickly and get things on track.

The bright side for me was the final whistle. Seriously though, it was day to forget. I believe Offaly will put in a better performance next Sunday v Fermanagh. John Moloney and Peter Cunninham came on as subs last Sunday, we need to get those experienced players on board if Offaly are to avoid relegation. Two away games, followed by a home game v promotion favourites Armagh, is a difficult schedule for any team.