Offaly Senior Football Team - Championship 2023

[del]

Re U 20s coming onto the senior team let’s go thru the team
1 Chip O Toole (injured cruciate )
2 Lee Pearson playing senior
3 Tom Hyland injury problems still u 20 this year
4 Aaron Brazil played last Saturday Vs Wexford
5 Rory Egan established senior player
6 John Furlong injury issues still u 20 this year
7 Fionn Dempsey gone off the radar had a few injuries
8 Ed Cullen on the senior panel prob needs to be given a go
9 Morgan Tynan played last Sunday hopefully we see more of him
10 Cathal donoghue 2 bad enough knee injuries still out
11 Cathal Flynn has played senior stepped away this year
12 Oisín Keenan Martin just back from cruciate injury
13 Aaron kellaghan was on senior panel has had injuries the last few months
14 Jack Bryant been on senior panel needs to nail down his spot
15 Cormac Egan another one with a bad injury but looks to have turned the corner now
16 Kieran dolan badly injured last year
17 Keith o Neill another with long term injuries

There is a lot of reasons why players haven’t pushed on to senior in time they will. Hopefully they all get healthy over the next year and we will see alot of them playing senior.

[jimbob17]

Most have been in or around it if available or not injured. It's a big jump but best will make it and that'll be maybe 7 or 8 of them.

Egan and Pearson are regulars now.

Furlong and O Neill will be too once injury free I think and they are still very young.

Tynan, Cormac Egan, Bryant, O Donoghue, Cullen, Brazil, Dolan, Hyland, Cullen, Flynn and couple more will all be given more chances next year I'd imagine and most have got chances already. It's a big step up physically at a young age and we have seen already, some preferred to prioritise other things for now.

I don't think they have been held back at all. Maybe some are not as good as people thought they might be. Personally, I don't think they'd have got near winning that All Ireland, but for impact of the younger players who only joined at start of championship, ie Furlong, O Neill, Egan and Hyland.

An u20 All Ireland needs to be kept in perspective and its not fair to heap expectations on these lads. Kildare have been in 3 of last 5 finals, winning 2 if not 3 and look at shape of their senior team.

[Superhans75]

I do agree with the huge step in development but
The problem I always see is the step up from 60 to
70 minutes which is going to suite the more natural stronger person .
Gaa must be the only sport in the world were you play
A shorter duration game at 19 and then be expected to step up .
It's actually a flaw in the system .
Maybe we should make our own internal U20 club games
70 mins on a trial basis ?
It's worth a punt

[Fairplayalways]

Re U 20s coming onto the senior team let’s go thru the team
1 Chip O Toole (injured cruciate )
2 Lee Pearson playing senior
3 Tom Hyland injury problems still u 20 this year
4 Aaron Brazil played last Saturday Vs Wexford
5 Rory Egan established senior player
6 John Furlong injury issues still u 20 this year
7 Fionn Dempsey gone off the radar had a few injuries
8 Ed Cullen on the senior panel prob needs to be given a go
9 Morgan Tynan played last Sunday hopefully we see more of him
10 Cathal donoghue 2 bad enough knee injuries still out
11 Cathal Flynn has played senior stepped away this year
12 Oisín Keenan Martin just back from cruciate injury
13 Aaron kellaghan was on senior panel has had injuries the last few months
14 Jack Bryant been on senior panel needs to nail down his spot
15 Cormac Egan another one with a bad injury but looks to have turned the corner now
16 Kieran dolan badly injured last year
17 Keith o Neill another with long term injuries

There is a lot of reasons why players haven’t pushed on to senior in time they will. Hopefully they all get healthy over the next year and we will see alot of them playing senior.

10 out of 17 names and senntences above contain the word "injured"..a few big names up there "on panel" but not playing regular..

[Fairplayalways]

look, no one iis wrong here, just even the amount of U20's on the panel that arent featuring is fairly high, lets hope they get the game time during the next Division 3 campaign, big calls need to be made ahead of a new campaign, otherwise alot of these lads will drift, we cannot afford that to happen in as much as we can retain them if possible, they wont hang around in their early 20's sitting on a bench for 2 or 3 seasons after traininng all year..

[Kevin]

I do agree with the huge step in development but
The problem I always see is the step up from 60 to
70 minutes which is going to suite the more natural stronger person .
Gaa must be the only sport in the world were you play
A shorter duration game at 19 and then be expected to step up .
It's actually a flaw in the system .
Maybe we should make our own internal U20 club games
70 mins on a trial basis ?
It's worth a punt

This is interesting and worthy of consideration.

[faithfulfanatic]

I do agree with the huge step in development but
The problem I always see is the step up from 60 to
70 minutes which is going to suite the more natural stronger person .
Gaa must be the only sport in the world were you play
A shorter duration game at 19 and then be expected to step up .
It's actually a flaw in the system .
Maybe we should make our own internal U20 club games
70 mins on a trial basis ?
It's worth a punt

This is interesting and worthy of consideration.

Making all u20 club players play 70 minute championship games when 95% of them will never play a 70 minute game at senior level? No chance

[Kevin]

[quote=Kevin post_id=67853 time=<a href="tel:1687267195">1687267195</a> user_id=28]
[quote=Superhans75 post_id=67848 time=<a href="tel:1687237926">1687237926</a> user_id=12626]
I do agree with the huge step in development but
The problem I always see is the step up from 60 to
70 minutes which is going to suite the more natural stronger person .
Gaa must be the only sport in the world were you play
A shorter duration game at 19 and then be expected to step up .
It's actually a flaw in the system .
Maybe we should make our own internal U20 club games
70 mins on a trial basis ?
It's worth a punt

This is interesting and worthy of consideration.
[/quote]

Making all u20 club players play 70 minute championship games when 95% of them will never play a 70 minute game at senior level? No chance
[/quote]

Good point.

This issue remains.

Other outfits must have a remedy I assume. Would be interested to know how to bridge this gap (assuming it is a key issue).

[hamstrings]

Interesting stat below from Twitter. Would love to see where we stand in conceding points

The top-scoring senior football teams so far this decade are:

Dublin 485pts
Kerry 361
Mayo 360
Cavan 315
Offaly 300
Armagh 288
Meath 285
Galway 277
Donegal 269
Kildare 260
Derry 255
Westmeath 251
Monaghan 250

[Superhans75]

Nice statistics but we are stuck in division 3 the majority of the teams are on an upward curve or in a higher
Division.
Love to see the other side of the coin teams conceeding the most scores ..

[GreatDayForTheParish]

I'm still here in OCP and it's a strange paradox - I've never seen an Offaly performance that was so lethargic, and yet been so sympathetic to the players afterwards. Simply put, these lads just ran through too many big emotional and physical hurdles all year, and trying to get up for the Tailteann Cup was just a bridge too far. Wexford were like a team that were at their peak, finally finding their rhythm after a bad league and a nothing Leinster championship. Offaly looked wreck, bereft of energy, and bereft of depth.

So I'm okay with it. Better to bow out here and let the players get a bit of rest, than to accidentally stumble on into the next round and get rightly filleted in Navan or Belfast. The players showed their worth in the Leinster championship, and call me a dinosaur if you like, but that's still a genuine championship, that's real currency for me. Tailteann Cup? No harm as a development competition, but given the choice between winning the Tailteann Cup, or just winning the one game against Meath, I know which one I'd pick.

I’d pick the Taitleann Cup every single time.

The win against a division 2 average Meath side ultimately counts for nothing in the long run. What did it do for Longford a few years ago? Or Carlow ‘Rising’ or any other of the selection of division 3/4 teams that have had their ‘shock’ result over the past few years. One off shocks against a perceived ‘big team’ were the carrot that the GAA at large used to keep their boot on the neck of smaller counties with regards championship structures until secondary competitions were brought in.
We’re still in division 3 and odds on to be in the Taitleann Cup again next year. The year finishes in disarray and disappointment. Today was tough viewing at the end of what was a tough year for the players. Why the performances of late were so poor needs to be analysed by the powers that be.


A Taitleann Cup win on the other hand would mean winning most if not all of 7/8 matches at the height of summer, winning a final in Croke park and promotion to the Sam Maguire next year. All tangible, real progress. The atmosphere in the county and among the players would be positive.


When will we show ambition? Every year the same refrain from supporters of ‘maybe another year in Division 3 would be no harm’, no ambitions for the Qualifiers in years past and now happy to be out of the Taitleann Cup. Is it any wonder we ultimately seem to be showing no progress over the past what, 20 years?! When will we get real that there are now competitions with rewards for us to win and let’s go and at least try our best to win them.

Until supporters treat the Taitleann Cup the same as a club would treat a ‘Senior B/Intermediate’ championship ultimately we’ll go nowhere. But shur we beat Meath so isn’t it grand. ‘Back to the clubs’ comes the cry.

My thanks, as always, to the players for their exceptional effort and commitment this year.

Just to come back to this.

Meath Taitleann Cup winners this year and thus in the Sam Maguire competition next year. Six games played at the height of summer, winning a final in Croke Park with the team improving all year. They’re also in Division 2 next year.

Their loss to us in the now meaningless provincial championship is a distant memory and I know which team is better placed for next year.

[Doon Exile]

I'm still here in OCP and it's a strange paradox - I've never seen an Offaly performance that was so lethargic, and yet been so sympathetic to the players afterwards. Simply put, these lads just ran through too many big emotional and physical hurdles all year, and trying to get up for the Tailteann Cup was just a bridge too far. Wexford were like a team that were at their peak, finally finding their rhythm after a bad league and a nothing Leinster championship. Offaly looked wreck, bereft of energy, and bereft of depth.

So I'm okay with it. Better to bow out here and let the players get a bit of rest, than to accidentally stumble on into the next round and get rightly filleted in Navan or Belfast. The players showed their worth in the Leinster championship, and call me a dinosaur if you like, but that's still a genuine championship, that's real currency for me. Tailteann Cup? No harm as a development competition, but given the choice between winning the Tailteann Cup, or just winning the one game against Meath, I know which one I'd pick.

I’d pick the Taitleann Cup every single time.

The win against a division 2 average Meath side ultimately counts for nothing in the long run. What did it do for Longford a few years ago? Or Carlow ‘Rising’ or any other of the selection of division 3/4 teams that have had their ‘shock’ result over the past few years. One off shocks against a perceived ‘big team’ were the carrot that the GAA at large used to keep their boot on the neck of smaller counties with regards championship structures until secondary competitions were brought in.
We’re still in division 3 and odds on to be in the Taitleann Cup again next year. The year finishes in disarray and disappointment. Today was tough viewing at the end of what was a tough year for the players. Why the performances of late were so poor needs to be analysed by the powers that be.


A Taitleann Cup win on the other hand would mean winning most if not all of 7/8 matches at the height of summer, winning a final in Croke park and promotion to the Sam Maguire next year. All tangible, real progress. The atmosphere in the county and among the players would be positive.


When will we show ambition? Every year the same refrain from supporters of ‘maybe another year in Division 3 would be no harm’, no ambitions for the Qualifiers in years past and now happy to be out of the Taitleann Cup. Is it any wonder we ultimately seem to be showing no progress over the past what, 20 years?! When will we get real that there are now competitions with rewards for us to win and let’s go and at least try our best to win them.

Until supporters treat the Taitleann Cup the same as a club would treat a ‘Senior B/Intermediate’ championship ultimately we’ll go nowhere. But shur we beat Meath so isn’t it grand. ‘Back to the clubs’ comes the cry.

My thanks, as always, to the players for their exceptional effort and commitment this year.

Just to come back to this.

Meath Taitleann Cup winners this year and thus in the Sam Maguire competition next year. Six games played at the height of summer, winning a final in Croke Park with the team improving all year. They’re also in Division 2 next year.

Their loss to us in the now meaningless provincial championship is a distant memory and I know which team is better placed for next year.

100% agree

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Good observation regarding Meath and their progress. But there is a difference for us this year in that we were damn close to eraching a Leinster final, and it appears that the overall toll of losing Liam Kearns was a factor also in the fall off after the Louth defeat. But Meath on the other hand with a new mgt team and building off a reasonably strong, (stronger than ours) underage base, would have regrouped after the defeat to Offaly and had no choice as a mgt team and group of players to have a proper go and would have recharged the batteries.

This change in structure has thrown up many strange results. Our main priority would appear to be for 2024, progression in the league and give this competition a right good go.
Meath also benefitted from a decent draw to reach the final as Wexford and Antrim were not the toughest opposition but fair play to them, they did well to win against a talented, but overhyped and inconsistent Down team. Remember Down were carved open on 3 occasions against Longford and could have been dumped out of this in the Q final.

Onwards to 24 now, and will need a serious influx of players to compliment the dedicated core that are there. A plan must be put in place to ensure that the players that are on the panel are able to committ for the season as the cost is too significant per player to have them drop out for the Summer.

[jimbob17]

Should there be a motion for Congress restricting inter county senior panelists from going abroad to play until their county team is out of Tailteann or Sam Maguire cups.

Too much expense and money spent on these lads for them to just F off to the states for a few quid when it suits them. With rate of expenses as high as it is, and excluding grant and food allowance, any lad living in Dublin were getting guts of 100 quid a session just for being on the Offaly senior panel - which is not insignificant.

Some lads want best of both worlds. Not against them going at all and good luck to them, but no player claiming expenses during league and Leinster championship should be allowed leave their panel to play in states while their team is still in All Ireland championship.

No issue with them leaving once their team is out by the way.

[private joker]

It's an amateur sport, no contracts are signed. They can come and go as they please.