Offaly Senior Football Team - Championship 2023

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Well done and tough luck to the players today on an incredible effort. You did us proud. Louth are just that bit further along the road. Keep at it and your time will come. We can all see the potential is there. Louths own example is instructive, they were in Division 4 just two years ago.

Overall, the best team won but there are many positives to be taken from the game. Equally, our weaknesses as a team are that bit more apparent. The trick now is to fix them.

The new championship structure and the Taitleann Cup brings with it many positives for a team in Offaly's position. Having already played three championship matches, we now have three more matches guaranteed and, hopefully, more if we get out of the Taitleann Cup group stages. Every match brings more opportunity to develop players, learn more about the team and tactics while giving fans further opportunity to acutally support the team. Contrast this with the grimness of an early provincial knock out followed by an early qualifier knock out.

Making every effort to win the Taitleann Cup and with it promotion to the Sam Maguire next year must now be the goal.

[FJB]

I can't believe our county chairman wasn't at the game today but instead was co-commentator on the hurling game in Nowlan Park.
I don't think that's acceptable at all.

[Hasselhoff]

I can't believe our county chairman wasn't at the game today but instead was co-commentator on the hurling game in Nowlan Park.
I don't think that's acceptable at all.

I'm sure that Micheal would have preferred to be in croke park as well but he must be under contract with rte to do certain games.
County chairman or even club chairman or even training a team is very time consuming and often a thankless job.

I see a lot of lads on social media who wouldn't give a help out to club or county giving out and stirring it up.
In my opinion Duignans presence at croke park would have had zero impact on the result. Its just optics.. He is entitled to earn a living.
The executive in the county board have done their best to have offaly teams prepared properly and thats the real role of chair to lead and improve.

It would be nice to see him at the game, but if he cannot make it, so be it. It's all just bar stool talk.

[Plain of the Herbs]

With all due respect to MD, he's 55 (or thereabouts) and I don't think his presence would have got Offaly over the line today. Even allowing for Dublin bringing retirees out of retirement in the game that followed.

I can't believe our county chairman wasn't at the game today but instead was co-commentator on the hurling game in Nowlan Park.
I don't think that's acceptable at all.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

I can't believe our county chairman wasn't at the game today but instead was co-commentator on the hurling game in Nowlan Park.
I don't think that's acceptable at all.

I'm sure that Micheal would have preferred to be in croke park as well but he must be under contract with rte to do certain games.
County chairman or even club chairman or even training a team is very time consuming and often a thankless job.

I see a lot of lads on social media who wouldn't give a help out to club or county giving out and stirring it up.
In my opinion Duignans presence at croke park would have had zero impact on the result. Its just optics.. He is entitled to earn a living.
The executive in the county board have done their best to have offaly teams prepared properly and thats the real role of chair to lead and improve.

It would be nice to see him at the game, but if he cannot make it, so be it. It's all just bar stool talk.

Agree 100%. It’s a non issue.
Let’s discuss the match.

[the Untouchable]

If I’m honest that’s a tough defeat to take, more so because of the margin of victory for Louth when for 70+ minutes we were more than a match for them. Fantastic spirit shown by the lads to produce a great fight back in the 2nd half when Louth looked to have gone up a few gears and got a nice lead for themselves…but we seemed to have nothing in the tank for extra time and as a poster mentioned previously Louth got more out of their subs than we did.
Been outscored 10pts to 1-01 in 20 mins of extra time isn’t great but hopefully there’s enough of positives from their performance to regroup and go again in the Tailteann cup.

[Fairplayalways]

Jaysus Fairplay...ya don't half put a downer on things!

I hope that whoever goes on Sunday enjoys it nd gets behind the team.
Its a day out and after the last few years we deserve it.
My kids are years going to football matches and were buzzing after it, we has a really lovely evening chatting about the game and the big days of the past that they never got to experience (yet!). So thye have their train tickets booked and are heading off with the friends amd really looking forward to it.

Lots of decent role models for our young on this team and other Offaly teams coming through and its great to see.

Make sure ye throw a few bob towards the walkers next Monday also.

Unfortunately I am one of many who cannot afford a day out myself in Croke Park, let alone bring my family..its nothing got to do with being mean or scrooge it's just a simple fact, we are both working paying our bills and living as best we can on whats left..I am actually heavily involved in another sport which wouldn't be as costly as the Gaa to be honest..not all sporting figures are role models either, that's another thing has crept into sport in recent years.. I know a few sports people who are excellent at their sport but are certainly not role models..Sorry not to be able to be all positively positive, life isn't like that always.. Good night.

[Doon Exile]

Just into bed after a long day with mixed emotions. Would it have been a robbery if we won - most definitely not. Were Louth the better team - probably yes.

The kick outs were a huge factor. Tommy Durnin and Ciaran Downey especially, were immense for them. Midfield was a losing battle for us all day. we couldn’t get a handle on Downey at all. With the modern game of everyone playing everywhere, it’s difficult to know who exactly was marking him.

But still very proud of the team overall. Some really good performances - Pearson, Dempsey, Donnelly all did well at rhe back and mention to Hogan’s inspirational block in the first half. Anton tried his heart out. Made a few mistakes but so what. I’ve often been a little critical of him at times but his heart and desire to win are to be hugely admired. Hyland did very well too - 4 points from play I think.

Anyways, we’re seed two for the Tailteann. U20 hurling semi final and minor football to look forward. Maybe even a Joe McDonagh final and a belt at someone in the Leinster championship. Not all glum. I’d have loved a day out in the Leinster final but alas not to be today. I stayed for the second game and I think that Louth will take great heart from Kildare’s performance.

In case we get too despondent, a Clare supporter died at yesterday’s game wirh Limerick. Condolences to his family.

[Superhans75]

Great effort from the team yesterday .
I think physically we are still not up to playing in the super 8 s (or what ever they call it )
Lots of awful wides by both teams did the referee show any cards ?
We are about 4 players short of division 2 side but
Hope springs eternal.
Mentally it's been a hard time for the team and maybe
They need time to clear there heads. Not more games
And concentrate on getting into division 2 next year'

[Anonymous1]

I can’t hide the fact I’m disappointed we didn’t come away with the win but by god am I proud. It’s a very long time since I’ve seen an Offaly football team display the passion, heart and desire that those boys have in our three championship games.

They dug deep when they had to against Longford to come away with a hard earned result that we wouldn’t have gotten 12 months ago. Played the best half of football I’ve seen from Offaly in at least 20 years in that first half against Meath and held their nerve in the second half to get over the line and as for the Louth game, where do I start…

My feeling coming into this was that we’d hang with Louth until around the 50-55 minute mark and then run out of steam as we’ve done many times this year and Louth would pull away. We did run out of steam and allow Louth to pull away but somehow got a second lease of life to claw it back to a draw and to be honest should’ve won it at the end. Jack Bryant missed a very scorable mark and then Cian Farrell had a chance at the death.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be but they deserve enormous credit for not throwing the towel in when Louth reeled off 6 points on the spin to go 4 clear with 10 minutes left and had massive cojones to push up on Louth’s kickout after equalising in injury time.

Extra time was a runaway train, our lads were out on their feet and our squad depth finally caught up with us, Rory Egan and Panda were both huge losses and then to be without Pearson, Ruairi Mac, Donohoe and Anton for extra time with both Hyland and Cunningham needing to be subbed in extra time also, we never stood a chance. It’s no slight on the subs we have because I think a couple of them made an impact in normal time to help get us back level but we were throwing on lads who haven’t kicked a ball for us all year into the white heat of a Leinster semi final.

I thought Hyland, Anton, Cunningham and Hogan were our standout performers along with David Dempsey who put in an unbelievable shift to deny Mulroy a score from play in normal time, no blame can be attributed to him for Mulroy’s scores in extra time because we were a mess at that stage.

Questions must be asked though of what the plan was in relation to Ciaran Downey, does anybody know who was actually supposed to be marking him and why nobody seemed to be?

Duffy made two outstanding saves to keep us in the game in normal time and he’s been nothing short of excellent between the sticks for Offaly this year but his kickouts in that period where Louth rattled of 6 unanswered points was the winning and losing of the game, it was footballing suicide to keep lumping high balls into midfield where we weren’t even competing, what was wrong with chipping it short to Hogan and building from the back? It also must be said that Duffy was clotheslined while in mid air by a Louth man in the second half yet Mcquillan awarded Louth a free in and in a game of the finest margins, it could be said that his decision cost us a place in the Leinster final.

In truth it may well be better for this team’s development to get a run in the Tailteann Cup and potentially make the final depending on how the draw goes but this one still stings and feels like one that got away.

We’re capable of beating every team in the Tailteann with the exceptions of Cavan and Down. However, we should relish the opportunity to avenge our league defeats to those two.

If you’d have said to most Offaly supporters at the start of the year that we’d win our two O’Byrne Cup games, win four league games and have a shot at promotion on the final day and then win two Leinster championship games and draw with the 3rd best team in Division 2 in normal time in a Leinster semi final… First of all they wouldn’t have believed you and secondly they would’ve bitten your arm off for it…

All of this too while losing their manager in the middle of it, there’s no doubt Liam would’ve been proud of his team yesterday and to think they came on this far in 4 months with him, one would’ve only loved to have seen what he could’ve done in 4 years with them.

What makes the year even more impressive is thinking of the list of players who we’ve lost from the last year or so for whatever reason such as Johnny Moloney, Jordan Hayes, Eoin Carroll, Carl Stewart, Eoin Rigney, James Lalor, Niall Darby, Niall Mac, Cathal Mangan, Colm Doyle, Kieran Dolan and Mark Abbott and the list of younger players hopefully to come back into the fold next year such as Cormac Egan, John Furlong, Cathal Donoghue, Keith O’Neill, Oisin Keenan-Martin, Aaron Kellaghan and Cathal Flynn.

If we can get just a couple of these players back in next year to bolster the panel we’ve assembled this year particularly in the midfield and forward areas as I think our defensive unit is already more than capable, there’s no reason we can’t become a solid division 2 team and the second best team in Leinster. That should be the aim going forward under the stewardship of Martin Murphy I have no doubt who has more than earned the job on a permanent basis.

The future is bright to say the least!

[G91]

Another hard luck story, could have won it should have lost it , 2 points up a the keeper starts kicking straight to louth , made work hard for scores and I'm return let louth kick easy scores , don't seem to be able to kick long range scores

[Superhans75]

Two topics that need sorting out.
1 exra time in the first half we have the ball in scoring position and start playing pass the hot potato across the field .
We should have been leading at half time.
2 Bryant his kicking has gone to pot he needs someone to talk to him as he has great talent but something is not right ..
We need a strong captain figure but this team doesn't
Seem to have one Yet .
Darby is definitely missed in that respect
Great motivator

[offalyman]

First off Great occasion and great to be back in Croker on a big Match day. I went up more in hope than in confidence. The final result didn't go our way but we gave everything and we had our chances to win it at the end of normal time but unfortunately we didn't take them.
The few points that we can improve on the next day
I thought the backs tried hard and i couldn't fault them even though we did concede 0-27 points in the end, i thought Demspey, Hogan and Peter Cunningham were stand outs. Cunningham is a serious footballer besides the 1-1 he scored, I thought his overall game was excellent and he won a great ball at the death, when he rose highest to win the final kick out in normal time and gave it to jack Bryant (Who probably should have shot himself as he had plenty of space) but gave it to Farrell who mishit his shot at goal. Rory Egan was missed and hopefully he'll be back for the next day.
Stevie wonder can see we need a ball winner midfield we've needed one for a good few years now, but we currently don't have one so we just have keep working on them short kick outs and perfecting it,i thought on the louth kick out we performed fairly well it was our own kick outs that killed us. it was the one area of the field were louth were far superior.
In the forwards, Ruari had his moments in the game, came into it well in the 2nd half.
I thought Cian Farrell showed well and won plenty of ball just need more of an end product out of him. Anton tried his best, made good burst for the offaly goal and kicked a good point to level it, but he also wasted a lot of ball took the wrong option numerous times.
Dylan Hyland had a great game and ran himself into the ground, He has established himself this year as one of main men on this current offaly team, he kicked 4 points from play yesterday but we used him as a sweeper for 3 quarters of the game which baffles me (we've done this all year) when he moved in closer to goals with 10 mins to go he kicked 2 savage points, he's one of our main score getters and has to play top of right.
Looking forward to watching the boys play a few more times this year, Hopefully we can give the Tailteann cup a good rattle now were good enough to win it and these group of lads deserve to win something for the effort they've put in.
On the Tailteann cup we will have a home game first against one of ( Leitrim,carlow, waterford or london) on the weekend of 13/14 of May then an away game a week later against one of (Laois, longford, wexford or Tipp) and then finally neutral venue for ( Meath, Fermanagh, Cavan or Limerick) game on the weekend 3rd/4th of june. Finally off topic the sunday game highlights coverage of the game was a total joke

[Fear Uibh]

Group 1: Cavan, Offaly, Laois, London
what do we think of the draw lads ?

[Anonymous1]

Tailteann Cup Group Stage Draw:

Group 1: Cavan, Offaly, Laois, London

Group 2: Meath, Down, Tipperary, Waterford

Group 3: Limerick, Wicklow, Longford, Carlow

Group 4: Fermanagh, Antrim, Wexford, Leitrim

We’ll play London in Tullamore on May 13/14

Then Laois in Portlaoise on May 20/21

And finally Cavan in a neutral venue on June 3/4

I think we’ve gotten the toughest group of the four but that’s probably a good thing in terms of the development of the team, one would expect us to beat London relatively comfortably and lose to Cavan. The game against Laois is a potential banana skin especially in Portlaoise but it’s one to look forward to all the same.

Top in the group goes directly into the QF
2nd goes into a preliminary QF
The top 3 3rd placed teams also go into the prelims plus New York
4th are out