Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

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LooseCannon
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by LooseCannon »

Killeighman wrote:https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic ... 83873.html
I didn’t actually realise this was a rule brought in through our own county board and not nationally like I first thought. I can see the point the county board are trying to make but with a county of our small talent pool we need everyone that is good enough to line out. He is an exciting prospect and it’s a shame to not see him line out for the seniors this year in championship.
It was stupid to come out and say that. He’s a target on his back now, be it at u20 or senior level, with club or county. I heard that he refused to play an u20 challenge v Galway last week, instead opting to train with the seniors.
It wasn’t very wise in my opinion, at this moment in time, he should be focusing on his leaving cert.
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by Kevin »

Holding him back would be fine if the plan was clearly communicated to all involved. It would further be easier to stomach if the reasoning was to protect a young player from injury.

It appears that the player and senior management either did not get the memo or ignored it.

Either way, expectations have not been managed here.

We find this out 5 or 6 days before the SFC opener?? Jeez!
Kevin Clancey. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by Bord na Mona man »

If Stephen Wallace wants him and needs him, then he should pick him regardless.
If it's a made up local rule, then it's nobody's problem outside of Offaly.

Let the crunchie board argue among themselves about the motions, bye-laws, points of order and misplaced fadas.

substandard
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by substandard »

Presumably it was a decision that sounded good at the time based on player welfare grounds, but now looks like they have backed themselves into a corner.

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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by greenairfield »

The simple move to make here is to change the decision...but unfortunately tommy Byrne doesn't make that many good decisions so can't see it happening.

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azoffaly
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by azoffaly »

Lads, am I missing something here. I don't see the massive deal. He's a gossun, and if we need him to beat Wicklow, we are in trouble. Look at it this way, unless I am completely off base, he will be allowed play with the seniors when the U20s are knocked out. So either he'll be available for a Leinster semi final, or qualifiers, OR Offaly U20s will be on a good run. I don't see a major issue here.

Also, just in case there's confusion, the rule is that if you are named on a Senior Panel, you are ineligible for U20 subsequent to that point. So what the Offaly county board are saying is 'don't use him for Senior, and let him play U20'.

I bet if the U20s are knocked out, he'll be allowed play Senior.
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Lone Shark
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by Lone Shark »

azoffaly wrote:Lads, am I missing something here. I don't see the massive deal. He's a gossun, and if we need him to beat Wicklow, we are in trouble. Look at it this way, unless I am completely off base, he will be allowed play with the seniors when the U20s are knocked out. So either he'll be available for a Leinster semi final, or qualifiers, OR Offaly U20s will be on a good run. I don't see a major issue here.

Also, just in case there's confusion, the rule is that if you are named on a Senior Panel, you are ineligible for U20 subsequent to that point. So what the Offaly county board are saying is 'don't use him for Senior, and let him play U20'.

I bet if the U20s are knocked out, he'll be allowed play Senior.
My view would be pretty much along these lines, with the addendum that it is disappointing that Cian seems to be surprised by this rule now, so he clearly wasn't informed properly of what was going to happen. I've no problem with him training with the Seniors during the league campaign since he was always going to be used by them at that stage, but it should have been done on the understanding that he was going to go back to the Under-20's afterwards.

Also, in terms of Cian's development, and Offaly's success, I would suggest the Under-20 squad is the place to be. Realistically, as AZ said, if we can't beat the team that finished 32nd out of 32 team in the National League without him, we're wasting our time. And moreover, if Cian was the greatest 18 year old ever to play the game, he still wouldn't be enough to get us a result against Dublin. On the other hand, the Under-20 is a competitive championship, where one might expect that Offaly wouldn't be too bad. Offaly should have beaten Louth at minor last year, and this is a chance to set that to rights. And if that doesn't happen, all the senior footballers need to do is to win one qualifier game and he's back on board.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by True Red »

Completely concur with the above.

His time will come. He is ready to a point, but he still has some developing to do.
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by Kevin »

It's go time.

Let's give 'em the Black Flag boys!!!

COME ON OFFALY!!!!!
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by kingscounty »

Lost 1-15 to 1-20 AET , might be a blessing the Dubs would have absolutely hammered us

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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by Doon Exile »

kingscounty wrote:Lost 1-15 to 1-20 AET , might be a blessing the Dubs would have absolutely hammered us
That defeatist attitude drives me insane. Yes, maybe they might. But maybe we might improve a little with a bit of confidence under our belt after a win.

The whole occasion of the dubs coming to Tullamore would be fantastic.

They didn’t destroy Carlow last year as let’s be honest they’d hardly be at full tilt against us.
Doon exile....

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Lone Shark
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by Lone Shark »

The next match is the next match, today's match was today's match - and today's game was worth winning as a championship game in its own right. We didn't do it, and the reasons are several, but as a cumulative effect, it meant we lost to the team that finished 32nd in the National League.

Would Cian Johnson have pushed us over the line? Possibly. Would leaving Nigel Dunne on and letting him play his way into the game have changed the result? Almost certainly in my view. Moreover, if you take a lad off and he's clearly unhappy, you've messed up his head for that day. You don't then bring him back on. Did we miss leaders like John Moloney? Painfully so. Also, why would you name Eoin Carroll on the 26, and not get him involved? Either he's fit to play, or not. If he was fit to play even a small part, he's a 100% player who would have won a few key balls at vital times. If he wasn't, why was someone else not there as an option?

All that said, there's a lot of ingredients gone into today's mess, going back a long time. It's not all about 2018 either.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by Offaly101 »

A lot of people in the county are all talking about cian Johnson and how good he is and don’t get me wrong he is good, but most are also forgetting lads such as Shane Tierney who I think is just as good. He came on today and he showed for every ball, in a negative offaly set up where himself and Bernard Allen were isolated for majority of the game. When playing teams such as Wicklow who we shouldnt be afraid of we should be setting up to constantly attack them and not worry about getting extra men back. It’s hard to take at times but that’s the way our guys are being trained to play now and it looks like we’re going to have to learn to accept it...

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Lone Shark
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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by Lone Shark »

Personally I'd be happier to see a lot more of Shane Tierney in an Offaly senior jersey, and himself and Bernard Allen can hold their heads up high after today.

However I don't see how it was a negative set up. There are a lot of things I'd criticise this management team for after today, but not that. Offaly went to attack with every possession, and the reason they didn't get a lot more scores was very simple - bad execution. Anton Sullivan, Nigel Dunne, Conor Carroll, Craig Dunne all missed the target from thirty metres with time and space to shoot in the first half, Conor McNamee didn't test the keeper with a goal chance, Cian Donohue blazed an effort way wide when the win was on at the end, I counted five missed handpasses from close range, Anton had a great chance to set up Tierney for a goal chance early in the second half and he overshot the pass, there were just far too many unforced errors overall.

I've seen Offaly games where the inside forwards were isolated and outnumbered - this wasn't that game.

Unless you want a 1970's approach where the half forwards only track back on special occasions.....but I shudder to think how that would go against any modern team.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Offaly Senior Footballers Championship Thread

Post by The Biff »

Oh Lord this is often a painful life being an Offaly Football supporter. I agree with the Shark, there was no shortage of effort here, especially in the first 35 minutes. But we should have been 6+ points up at half-time as we had completely outplayed Wicklow. Bernard Allen got a couple of sweet points that just screamed that he should be fed the ball as often as possible. Anton's goal was a cracker that should have lifted him and all around him. Tierney did really well when he got passes suited to his stature. But some of the substitution decisions just baffled me (and I'll admit that's often easy to do). We had this game won, and then we threw it away. My only consolation from the day is that we didn't look as bad as Louth, so I start praying that we might draw them in the Qualifiers. As much as bringing the Dubs to Tullamore might cause some to salivate, I shudder to think of the outcome for all the Faithful contingent on field and off. :roll:
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