Offaly Senior Footballers 2024

[pigeon house biffo]

Solid win last night, only caught the second half

Laois had a massive physicality advantage. They’re probably nothing spectacular in respect to whats out their nationally but it was striking how much bigger a lot of their men were. How much that will be a factor I don’t know but if the league is around the corner we’re surely at a disadvantage playing in heavy conditions playing such a lite 15.

Fitness levels look good, looked like we had more legs than laois coming down the stretch.

Big fan of this influx of youth. One lad id like to see involved is Rigney the full back from Rhode, he was arguably the stand out full back in the country at the time we won promotion from div 3 to 2 under Maughan. Promising to hear that keenan martin is involved also.

Maybe due to our lack of size, we seemed to get turned over a lot. Conversely we also seemed well able to hold up laois lads and force them to over carry as well.

[Anonymous1]

What would be your starting 15 for the championship opener vs Laois? I’d go something like this:

1. Ian Duffy
2. David Dempsey
3. Declan Hogan
4. Lee Pearson
5. Rory Egan
6. John Furlong
7. Jordan Hayes
8. Peter Cunningham
9. Eoin Carroll
10. Cathal Flynn
11. Ruairí McNamee
12. Anton Sullivan
13. Keith O’Neill
14. Cian Farrell
15. Dylan Hyland

What would you change and why?

[Tmacmahon]

1 Ian Duffy
2 Declan Hogan
3 David Dempsey
4 Lee Pearson
5 Rory Egan
6 John Furlong
7 Cormac Egan
8 Jordan Hayes
9 Eoin Carroll
10 Peter Cunningham
11 Cathal Flynn
12 Dylan Hyland
13 Keith O Neill
14 Nigel Dunne
15 Jack Bryant

[Anonymous1]

1 Ian Duffy
2 Declan Hogan
3 David Dempsey
4 Lee Pearson
5 Rory Egan
6 John Furlong
7 Cormac Egan
8 Jordan Hayes
9 Eoin Carroll
10 Peter Cunningham
11 Cathal Flynn
12 Dylan Hyland
13 Keith O Neill
14 Nigel Dunne
15 Jack Bryant

13/15 the same as me but no Anton?

[Anonymous1]

Looking at both teams for tomorrow, I’d expect Offaly to win by a couple of points.

The Dublin 15 is completely experimental with no established names whereas Offaly have 9/10 players who’ll start in the championship opener against Laois.

The ground, physicality and potential fatigue having only played Wednesday could all go against us tomorrow but based on the quality of players on both teams, this should be a comfortable win or we might be in a bit of trouble in division 3…

[faithfulfanatic]

Offaly were 2/1 yesterday evening with Paddy Power before teams were named.
Once I seen the Dublin team I planned a trip into town this morning for a wager on our lads.
Checked again later on and we are now 8/15, no bet there.

Supposedly, the actual Dublin panel has a challenge match against Armagh today.
Looks to be good depth in our panel, good luck lads.

[Anonymous1]

Offaly were 2/1 yesterday evening with Paddy Power before teams were named.
Once I seen the Dublin team I planned a trip into town this morning for a wager on our lads.
Checked again later on and we are now 8/15, no bet there.

Supposedly, the actual Dublin panel has a challenge match against Armagh today.
Looks to be good depth in our panel, good luck lads.

Noticed that myself, the trick there is to place the wager online as soon as you see the teams before the odds move.

[JimBwobb]

63 minutes in, 8 points a piece.

Was their no Cows in Gracefield available during the week to graze the grass?

Hogan and Pearson gone off injured.

[faithfulfanatic]

Delighted to not have placed that bet now.

Great first half.

Took foot off pedal in second half.

Kickouts need to be worked on.

[pigeon house biffo]

Not sure what their is to say about that

Seems hard to believe we could lose to a 3rd string dublin team

[JimBwobb]

It's January, wouldn't lose sleep over it but disappointing.

[jimbob17]

Futile enough to be suggesting championship teams at this stage given changes thatll occur through league and injuries etc but for what it's worth, id go along lines of following with competition also named. May have left out some due to just forgetting or not knowing they are on panel etc.

1. Duffy - Cunningham
2 David Dempsey - Jack O Brien
3 Declan Hogan - David Dempsey, Diarmuid Finneran
4 Lee Pearson - Jack O Brien, Adam Bolger
5 John Furlong - David Dempsey, Rory Egan Jordan Quinn
6 Peter Cunningham - John Furlong
7 Rory Egan - Jack O Brien, Jordan Hayes Daire McDaid
8 Eoin Carroll - Morgan Tynan Peter Cunningham
9 Jack McEvoy - Jordan Hayes Cathal Donoghue
10 Anton Sullivan - Cormac Egan, Kevin McDermott
11 Cathal Flynn / Ruairi McNamee - Peter Cunningham Morgan Tynan
12 Jordan Hayes - Dylan Hyland Cathal Donoghue
13 Cian Farrell - Ruairi McNamee, Nathan Poland
14 Nigel Dunne - Jack Bryant, Cian Farrell
15 Dylan Hyland - Cormac Egan, Kevin McDermott

Personally, would love to see likes of Bernard Allen and Eoin Rigney also contending for places but appears they are not involved. Would also love to see Peter Cunningham at 11 but not sure if we have another 6 strong enough to hold there at moment. Declan Hogan could play 6 if we had cover in full back line.

On today, Taking out the bit of experience at half time weakened us somewhat and its a game we probably should have won, given early dominance. That said, this is the time of year to try out lads and its no big deal that we lost out for this reason.

Other Observations - Thought pitch looked fairly poor on the streaming for inter county senior game. Also thought it was bizarre at end to take Ruairi Mc a right foot kicker off a free to give to Cian Farrell to hit a left foot from left sideline with outside of boot at the end. Thats a hard kick for a right footer let alone a leftie. Couple of injuries appeared in second half. Hopefully not too serious but looked somewhat like hamstring strains to the 2 defenders involved.

I assume we are done now with O Byrne Cup and if so its no harm. Lots of lads will have Sigerson Cup in next couple of weeks and then the league starts at end of Jan so lots of work to get done for that. Having the time will allow for this in a way that may not occur if we got more games in O Byrne Cup.

[del]

Was at the game today . Make no mistake here lads that’s a shocking bad result dress it up what way you like but to lose to an at best 3rd sting Dublin team is not good enough

The physical size of the Dublin players is streets ahead of Offaly
It looks to me that some of the Offaly players have lost the bulk they had obviously thru this training regime that has been undertaken No collective gym sessions which in this day and age is crazy
There are players playing for Offaly senior footballers that wouldn’t make the Ferbane Rhode Tullamore Edenderry senior teams . Anybody with half a knowledge of Players can see that I’m not singling out anybody as that would be unfair on them as they are trying their best
Offalys work rate is really good and the effort from the players is decent that cannot be faulted
Best for Offaly today were
Hogan Dempsey Furlong Pearson McDaid impressed again but is too slight still
Midfield tried hard
Cian Farrell and Cathal flynn were decent in second half
But as I’ve said that’s a very poor result

[Anonymous1]

Well where do I begin to start with that performance?

If Wednesday night was Jekyll in the first half and Hyde in the second, today was the reverse.

Very good opening half, defence tackled hard and closed down the Dublin attack at speed but we also moved the ball at pace into the full forward line.

The second half was as if I was watching a completely different team, everything was slowed down. The defence still held up relatively well but every time we turned the ball over we’d move it quickly towards the half forward line and then stop and go backwards and sidewards until we’d lose it again. That is something that needs to be corrected immediately, we have quick inside forwards but they can’t do anything without service.

Another thing that needs immediate correction are the kickouts, whether that means a change of personnel or not. They were fairly poor on Wednesday but they totally went to pot today.

Overall it was an incredibly disappointing display to be 6-2 up at halftime and have the wind at their sails in the second half but somehow end up losing to a 3rd string Dublin side… One would be extremely worried about facing Dublin in the Leinster Championship should we get over Laois and on today’s evidence we’re in deep trouble in division 3.

9/10 of todays 15 and 3 of the subs introduced would be considered our first choice. The only two who are missing are Peter Cunningham and Jordan Hayes so while I agree it’s still early days and the ground doesn’t suit us, it’s not a good look to be so poor against Dublin’s third team.

Also, can anyone explain why Kevin McDermott and subsequently Daire McDaid were constantly stood on the sideline? I get they were trying to draw players out to create space for our runners through the middle but it was clear early on it wasn’t working, Dublin weren’t fooled by it and yet we persisted, neither ever occupied any position other than the sideline even when it was clear there were runs to be inside…

Rory Egan, David Dempsey, Kevin McDermott, Ruairí McNamee, Dylan Hyland all had good first halves but it was hard to pick out any decent performers in the second. The subs seemed to destabilise the team and I’d question the wisdom of making halftime changes when the 15 on the pitch had done nothing wrong, did Kelly think the game was already won and thus wanted to get a look at some other players?

The midfield in the first half was an improvement on Wednesday night but really struggled in the second and that remains the weakest area on the pitch for us.

Cormac Egan struggled on Wednesday and it was similar today, do we need to try him out at halfback because I’m no longer convinced he’s a forward. Both Bolger today and Finneran on Wednesday struggled with the pace of the game and it’s unlikely either will see much time come the league but they’re both young so have time on their side. Anton didn’t make much of an impact off the bench. Both Cathal Flynn and Nathan Poland were out of position when subbed on at halftime and Cathal made more of an impact when moved into the half forward line.

On a more general point, our fitness levels were on show once again and we tackled hard meanwhile our defence continues to be our strength but it looks like our struggles breaking teams down and getting scores will continue unless there’s a change of tactics. More direct football is needed, we’re on a hiding to nothing by going backwards and sidewards.

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly could have seen it out comfortably. The game turned in that second half lull where Offaly had lots of ball but showed less urgency.

But remember, if winning was that important, we wouldn't have seen so many subs. It's pre-season where it's important to give lots of players game time.

The positives still outweigh the negatives. The panel is stronger and deeper than we've had in a good few years. The new joiners and returning players look comfortable. When Offaly played their better football, it looked tasty.

The negatives. Some very preventable scores were coughed up to get Dublin back in. Kick out mix ups, handling errors, an over-carry, a foul just as Offaly won the turnover. These need to be cut down on for the league.

Offaly's attacking play was very pedestrian at times. Work it down the wing, run out of road, reverse it back out to the '45, try going down the other wing.
We have a shortage of bigger, stronger ball carriers who can go direct and break tackles. When you're unable to bash down the centre, or kango towards goal from the wing, you're much easier for a defence to marshal.

Lighter players have to keep turning back out of tackles and recycling the ball. It's not a terminal problem, but you just have to came up with more elaborate attacking patterns - 2 or 3 man drives off the shoulder, decoy runners, reverse passes. When the evenings brighten and the panel settles, these plays can all be worked on in Faithful Fields.

Gracefield won't be getting many Michelin stars from today. The pitch in poor condition, no PA system, no running water in the jacks. Shoulda played it in Birr!