U20 footballers 2024

[jk1022]

For me a couple of things,

Certain players were going to play regardless of whether they brought their football boots with them. This type of stuff has started to creep into the underage set ups.
Secondly, how they were set up to play, and you can go on what way you like about us beating Kildare, a one off freak result. Kildare were woeful that evening. We were shocking against Longford and Louth (last 10 mins against Louth decided to go at them), same last year against Louth and didnt take chances against Wicklow.
How we were set up to play has been brutal and Brian Darby has added nothing to the set up. Ken will have his eye on the Tullamore job and I hope he gets it eventually.

To be fair, as I sad already, we have a big issue with coaching and quality coaches in the county. There are some but not enough and not enough who are willing to take on the less lucrative and high demands of underage teams. I commend those that do it and Ken is a good bloke , no doubt with a strong committment. But there are gaps in the skillset and an over allegiance to certain players who have not delivered.
There is now the issue to deal with that players are now emerging that could play for either football or hurling and picking hurling. More look to them but this has tied his hands to a certain degree.

It was a disappointing year for these lads no doubt. Some harsh enough talk going around both here and off site that may or may not be merited. I know very little about the coaching / organisation that went on but to be fair, I think the BD comment is unfair. He is a lad that gave his 20's and lot of his 30s to the county team and was one of our most committed through that. He has a young family and took on a selector role giving huge volume of time to that team over last 6 months or more. Last thing he deserves is singling out when there was likely many more factors at play. If having a pop at management, it should be as a collective. There are others there involved with background in nutrition, S&C physio etc that should have ensured the fitness etc would be right. KF is a very decent guy, hugely committed and nobody will be more disappointed. He has done great things in Tullamore helping to revitalise the underage there - and maybe there was a gap in skillsets across the management team. There were other people involved also with strong reputations. If there were gaps, that is hugely disappointing given they have been involved for last 5 years between minor and U20.

The bigger question is the coaching and who the best fellas are and how do we get them in with the championship underage teams. BD is only starting on his journey in coaching so maybe we need to have markers of experience for coaches of inter county teams. You could really see the experience and level of knowledge of the Longford management in our game by how they engaged with players on the line. The best coaches are not always former inter county senior players.

There has been talk of favouritism towards certain players and I won't lie because I heard it myself. It has been said among players within the squad also. I dont know how fair or unfair that was as I didnt see them train to be fair. All I do know is that within the 4 games, there were some of the forwards who barely got a shot at the posts, let alone score and we conceded way too much and too easily. Maybe the tactical set up was reason for this but I felt there were some lads on the bench or not even on panel that could have offered more than some who played. Where was Conor Grennan from Ferbane? Where was Cameron Egan from Brigids during the championship games? Ben Kennedy surely offers more than the time he was given - or maybe not. Only those that selected the teams know - and maybe there were reasons some players were not involved or not played.

Beyond that the hurling is definitely a factor here with this group. Conor Doyle, Patrick Taeffe, Alex Kavanagh, Ter Guinan, Donal Shirley and a few more hurlers would definitely have added to the team and squad. It would have allowed maybe Geordi O Meara to push out to midfield or half forward line where he could exert more influence going forwards. For me the most disappointing thing was we played like we didnt really have a proper go - at Louth, at Longford, at Carlow and came out with poor results. These are not world beaters. For all the 'positive vibes' coming out of Faithful Fields in recent years, outside of the 21 under 20's, I've yet to see a football team that inspires a whole lot of confidence that we are doing anything much better than we did over the last 15/20 years.

Lots of great points there JB. You left out the best footballer from the hurling panel though. Dan Bourke. Also where was Ryan Kenny. He scored 8 points in the Senior B drawn final against Clonbulogue if I remember correctly. Like you said some lads were handed positions in the forward line and no matter they did they never were replaced. I singled out one earlier and got a lot of stick for it but I stand by it. He will do well to play for his clubs second team this year. As for BD I agree with you. A huge servant to Offaly football and a gentleman. How he stood by and watched some of that though is questionable. Anyway there’s a good few of them underage next year. Especially in the forwards. 4 of the starting forwards against Carlow and 4 subs that came on in the forwards “eventually” are all underage next year. 3 defenders that started plus Cillian Bourke and Conor Melia so it’s not all doom and gloom.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

I don't think that anything I said will impact on Brian Darby's legacy as a player for both Rhode and Offaly.
However as another poster said, how he watched some of the stuff unfold in particular in relation to our forwards is the question.

Look, I've coached teams myself and the bottom line is all guys will get criticism, I only want to see them do well, and the players benefit from the effort that is put in by them and their coaches.

If they had failed but be seen to address some of the issues (particularly player selection if performance based), then I could only commend them, but JImbobb has backed my point that they tried the same solution (players) again and again. And in mitigation the players unavailable to them is a fair point which I referenced.

I also take the point that KF has revitalised Tullamore underage, but also starting from a strong base in fairness.
It will be interesting to see with all the talent where they can progress to at Senior as Offaly seems sown up for a while.

But I direct the challenge around coaching towards Edenderry, Clara and Ferbane in particular plus some of the journeymen doing the rounds with some of the clubs. Cappincurs appointment last year of a man not regarded by Ballinagar (a unique instance of a club , rightly moving on a championship winning manager before the following year), smacks of desperation to get someone in.
Declan Kelly obviously, Padraig Egan, Adrian Farrell, Keith Higgins, Benny O'Brien, Roger Ryan (starting out), David Connolly are some of better managers out there, Ger Rafferty, Gordon Kerrigan are another couple , with Eoin Carroll starting out with Cappincur. But a serious lack of successful county players involved from what I can see and maybe the demands are such from playing that you just have enough and concentrate on career and family when you finish playing.

My final point on this is that I hope that KF can learn and develop from this and sure that he will, as will all his backroom team who have given the time and effort and hopefully BD the same, but for now there is no hiding from some of the issues highlighted.

Also, Offaly should have pulled out of that secondary competition, waste of time for all involved and not fair on management at that point as the horse had cleary bolted. Players just want to focus on college and leaving exams and club when they were eliminated from the championship. GAA need to cop on and run a league at the start and finish with the championship. Minor is a bit different in that games will help them and the junior cert is not the be all and end all.

[jk1022]

Anyone get to any league games at the weekend?

[joey1001]

Our result against Louth put into context last night in Parnell park. I believe Dublin were looking to reach their 11th consecutive final

[Superhans75]

Carlow got well beaten by Westmeath
Last night.
Is the other side of the equation.
Let's concentrate on Sunday.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Our result against Louth put into context last night in Parnell park. I believe Dublin were looking to reach their 11th consecutive final

What remains clear is we gave ourselves no chance to beat Louth. Galeforce wind and offered zero attacking threat.
i didn't doubt that Louth would give a good account of themselves against Dublin.

Superhans, carlow game was irrelevant, as are your bleetings