Offaly Senior Footballers 2024

[Bord na Mona man]

Happy New Year, and will chat more serious GAA matters at that time, probably end of Jan after OB cup.

The O'Byrne Cup is a serious GAA matter!

[Fairplayalways]

Sorry to hear Bernard Allen has left, didnt get a fair crack of it under previous managers I and many will concur but then we are on outside looking in as they say and all that..Reading above some seem to think we are going to win certain games, correctly put by one poster those same opposing teams certainly will be looking at getting points against us...I have a hunch we will draw 2 or 3 games and win 2 or 3 and we will be all bemoaning those dropped points then at end of league..hopefully our U20s are now fit and ready to go and not being 'minded'...this doesnt happen in other counties..how nany of pur potential division 3 opponents have won provincial and All Irekand at U20 or indeed any level, we surely have that advantage over our Div 3 opponents..this is 3rd tier football not divisoion 1 and top top teams we are playing...hope its a good league for us though..

[Offalyblueboy]

I am honestly amazed and cannot understand when I heard over the Xmas that Shane Tierney of Daingean wasn’t called into the Offaly football panel this year.

He was outstanding this year for his club and it was the best I had seen him play in years he looked back to his best and seemed to enjoy his football.

Intermediate player of the year this year. According to reports Kelly views him as trouble but without the current manager giving young tierney his chance how can he judge him.

With all respects to Daingean the level of coaching and football he will receive will not be a fraction of what he could be getting with Offaly.

Him and panda gone. Funny set up

[pigeon house biffo]

Shane Tierney moved to Australia a couple months ago, don’t know what the timeline would have been like but he could possibly have left the country by the time the squad was being pulled together.

[jimbob17]

Tbh, It is surprising to me how Panda and Tierney would not be considered to be in the best 5 or 6 inside forwards in county. Daingean were convincing winners in inter and will threaten in Senior B and Tierney was by far the best player for them. He is still young enough and more than good enough to be on panel in my opinion. If he was from Tullamore or Rhode, would he have had a better chance? Its a Surprising judgement call to leave him out given Tierneys outstanding exploits in three u21 st vincents championships was one of the main reasons Kelly would have got u20 job in first place.

Only the league performances will be the judge of whether these calls are correct. I hope they are and we get good run in league. Lads appear to have trained very hard by all accounts and if the right bums are on the bus we should be aiming for Div 3 promotion.

[faithfulfanatic]

Tbh, It is surprising to me how Panda and Tierney would not be considered to be in the best 5 or 6 inside forwards in county. Daingean were convincing winners in inter and will threaten in Senior B and Tierney was by far the best player for them. He is still young enough and more than good enough to be on panel in my opinion. If he was from Tullamore or Rhode, would he have had a better chance? Its a Surprising judgement call to leave him out given Tierneys outstanding exploits in three u21 st vincents championships was one of the main reasons Kelly would have got u20 job in first place.

Only the league performances will be the judge of whether these calls are correct. I hope they are and we get good run in league. Lads appear to have trained very hard by all accounts and if the right bums are on the bus we should be aiming for Div 3 promotion.

You might want to re-read the above post where Pigeon House Biffo states that Tierney moved to Australia months ago.
I also remember another poster saying that a while back.

It always amazes me when lads come on here and argue incessantly that X or Y is the best player in the county and NEEDS to play.

There are a hundred different factors at play in any decision, from a management and players’ point of view.

Ultimately it is a results driven process.
Offaly’s goals this year will be 1. To challenge for Div.3 promotion. 2. To win your first Leinster championship game (unsure of the draw after that). 3. To win the Tailteann Cup. 4. To blood that u20 panel of 2021.

If the above can be achieved or at least close to it, decisions to exclude certain players will be seen as a stroke of genius. If targets aren’t met, then management got every decision wrong and the whole world is collapsing.

Ultimately, the reaction must be somewhere in the middle. We have plenty of young talent who know how to win. Give them and management time, and if results are going well, don’t get ahead of ourselves.

[jimbob17]

You may want to check facts before making false statements online. Fact is that Tierney moved to Australia after Offaly started back training. He wasn't selected for training panel of approx 50 players as is within managements right not to select him.

Beyond that, of course there are many reasons and hair splitting decisions that could be argued either way. It's management decision to do that and wish them very best in doing so.

Unlike you, I wouldn't agree at all that target is to bed in the young u20 players at all. The target is to pick your best team and win matches irrespective of age of players. Its senior football. The job is to get results immediately. That can include the best of u20s in that with best u33s and best u25s etc. Look at what Stephen Kenny did with Ireland soccer team - similar scenario where he just discarded lads in late 20s. How did that work out? 3 years later, Ireland are no further on and slipped down world rankings. Seamus Darby at 33 was not excluded in 82 and look at how that turned out.

You pick your strongest panel at senior level irrespective of age. It is about performance NOW, not development for future. That's where managers failed in the past. The job is to get results today or you may not be in a job tomorrow.

Lots of our current best players were not on that u20 team. In fact I'd argue lots of that u20 team are not good enough for Senior inter county football YET, and the ones that are have featured in last year or two. I'd only maybe add John Furlong and the goalie to that group. That's a very reasonable contribution off one team to a senior panel where you'd normally only get 4 or 5 off an u20 team for a senior panel. That contribution would include goalkeeper, Pearson, Egan, Furlong, Tynan, Donoghue Cormac Egan, Jack Bryant, Keith O Neill and Cathal Flynn. That is return of 10 players with one or two more on edge of it also possibly. Most of these were there over last two years and many were deemed to not be good enough YET.

Maughan and Kearns at least were of that opinion and they had their teams fairly competitive and contesting Div 3. Yes they can get there, but lots of them have a lot to do to become good county seniors just yet.
They are all getting to 23 22 and 21 now so they are not kids anymore.

But there are lots of others that have been our best players over last few years. I'm thinking likes of Dunican / Duffy, Hogan, Rigney, Dempsey, Cunningham, Sullivan, Hyland, Hayes, Ruairi McNamee, Panda, Nigel Dunne among one or two more. More in the 23 - 25 bracket (McEvoy, Bill Carroll, Donnelly etc) that have broken through from being best players in their respective u20 teams. Good management is selecting the right blend from ALL of these so we can be competing NOW and not in 2 or 3 years time. You cant just ignore the development work that was done over the last 10-15 years because the players concerned did not win an All Ireland and doing so is naive at best.

If Cork or Tipp or Kilkenny hurlers don't throw out likes of Patrick Horgan, TJ Reid, McGraths and Mahers etc and the other good 25 - 33 year olds after their u20 teams win an All Ireland, then why would we. If you are good enough you are young enough. The time to get results is NOW.

I'd be very positive that we are going in right direction but I'd just be wary that if we exclude the older lads that are strong senior players, we don't have depth in terms of Co senior standard players that some people seem to think we have.

[Superhans75]

Stradbally on a Wednesday night another season starts .
Hard to Know what to expect but league only 3 weeks away a competitive performance is at least expected.
Hopefully the weather holds.

[Kevin]

Eh no Kevin, yes it’s a joke, relax.

But they may have had the temerity to wear hats and like the trillick goalie, maybe a snood which may be seen as a disguise and used in other circumstances (both north and south), but strangely enough is seen as an acceptable item of clothing for the moden male or indeed Gael in this setting.
These items could unwittingly lead some people to be less identifable but would keep people warm at this time of year.

Happy New Year, and will chat more serious GAA matters at that time, probably end of Jan after OB cup.

[jimbob17]

Team v Laois is named.

Might be considered experimental given some names in it and some left out but its certainly got lots of legs and mobility in it. Would not be one bit surprised if this becomes close to a starting team further down the line.

Ian Duffy
David Dempsey
Diarmuid Finneran Ballinagar
Lee Pearson
Rory Egan
John Furlong
Jack O Brien
Jordan Hayes
Morgan Tynan Ballinagar
Eoin Carroll
Cathal Flynn
Dylan Hyland
Cormac Egan
Jack Bryant
Anton Sullivan

Good to see some new names among subs also incl Jordan Quinn KK and Nathan Poland Erin Rovers. McDaid from Tullamore also in subs. 11 from senior clubs but Lots also from non dominant clubs incl two from Ballinagar for probably first time ever. Shows the county and lower football tiers has been trawled for new talent.

[Anonymous1]

Team v Laois is named.

Might be considered experimental given some names in it and some left out but its certainly got lots of legs and mobility in it. Would not be one bit surprised if this becomes close to a starting team further down the line.

Ian Duffy
David Dempsey
Diarmuid Finneran Ballinagar
Lee Pearson
Rory Egan
John Furlong
Jack O Brien
Jordan Hayes
Morgan Tynan Ballinagar
Eoin Carroll
Cathal Flynn
Dylan Hyland
Cormac Egan
Jack Bryant
Anton Sullivan

Good to see some new names among subs also incl Jordan Quinn KK and Nathan Poland Erin Rovers. McDaid from Tullamore also in subs. 11 from senior clubs but Lots also from non dominant clubs incl two from Ballinagar for probably first time ever. Shows the county and lower football tiers has been trawled for new talent.

Yeah good to see a number of new and some returning players, as I’ve said on here before the only way we’ll know whether some of these U20’s are good enough or not is to throw them straight into the thick of the action.

I also note Lee Pearson has been named captain for 2024 which is some achievement for a 21/22 year old and hopefully a sign of things to come re our younger players being trusted to start games regularly.

This might be the deepest panel of players we’ve had in a long number of years.

There’s more than enough talent named in that 15 to win the game tomorrow night and then it’d be the Dubs in OCP.

[Anonymous1]

A good win tonight to start the season.

Really poor first half as we struggled to break down Laois’ blanket defence but the subs made a big impact in the second half and they did just enough to get over the line.

Hard to make too much of a judgement given the time of year, the soft ground and not knowing what stage Laois are at in their preparations but more generally the fitness levels seemed good and a couple of the debutants didn’t look at all out of place.

So it’s Dublin in OCP on Saturday, hopefully be a decent crowd despite the predicted weather and another chance to try out players as there’ll inevitably be rotation with Sigerson games next week.

EDIT: Apparently the Dublin game on Saturday is in Gracefield!

[jimbob17]

Good game in tough conditions, very breezy and slippy. Offaly much better in 2nd half. Struggled early on with Laois physicality. Laois made 9 changes at half time to Offaly's 2 or 3. We also played without John Furlong for 10 mins in second half as he was black carded before HT.

Observations
- midfield struggled in first half to win kickouts, stronger in second half with Carroll and McEvoy there though Laois still probably won battle in the air due to superior physicality all round. Carroll still has bit of work to do to get back to where he was 3 years ago but he will get there by time league comes around and we will need him in middle of the field I think.

Lots of newer young lads got to taste competitive action so to win was a real bonus even if Laois were in similar position to ourselves with debutantes.

-Nigel Dunne made difference when introduced and got good scores and showed good presence on inside line which was probably light physically in first half, outside of Anton. Other subs too popped up with key scores in Poland and Hogan and they will be happy with that. Anton worked socks off again as is always the way.

-Dylan Hyland, Pearson and Jordan Hayes probably Offaly's best in a game that could easily have swung either way. We gifted Laois at least two and possibly 3 tap-over points due to indiscipline when ref moved ball forward for dissent. In game of small margins this cant happen.

Given all that and given conditions etc, good to get a positive result down there. We turned over good bit of ball due to mismatch in physicality especially in first half. When ground gets harder and game gets faster, it'll suit us more than Laois so lots to be positive about.

Dublin Saturday in OCP is a great test to get and will stand to us going forward.

[Doon Exile]

Thanks Jim and anonymous for the reports.

[Superhans75]

Good second half performance conditions awful a win is a win
Gracefields on Saturday 1.30 I was told .
I could be wrong.