Offaly Senior Footballers 2024

[SearingDrive]

I wouldnt be getting too carried away with the league scorers.

Attendance at the latter stages of the championship will tell a lot.
Time for cheap shots at management to stop here lads. Get into a meeting room with your club executive and seek clarity on the points you are raising.

Keyboard shite and rumours mean nothing to anyone involved.
This will only be resolved face to face and time to leave off a little.

A time for cool heads, as you say dialogue is always better than hasty reactions.

[jimbob17]

I wouldnt be getting too carried away with the league scorers.

Attendance at the latter stages of the championship will tell a lot.
Time for cheap shots at management to stop here lads. Get into a meeting room with your club executive and seek clarity on the points you are raising.

Keyboard shite and rumours mean nothing to anyone involved.
This will only be resolved face to face and time to leave off a little.

Agree with this sentiment, even if this is a discussion board on Offaly GAA.

Those involved, (players co board and management) should be meeting to resolve any issues. Rumour mills don't help, even if aspects of truth exist within some of them.

The most we can ask is that these discussions happen, and the outcome of such will be determined by those involved.

Either way, I think some inter-county gaa managerial experience would be an addition to current management, if its a case that status quo remains and issues are resolvable.

If status quo remaining in place isn't the case, the players should be involved in process of appointing a new manager through a representation on selection committee in the future, (let it be whenever manager leaves), so that they cannot be apportioning blame on managements moving forward. Same should happen in senior hurling as it holds players accountable too!

To be fair, it is a joint effort between players and management and players are also responsible for poor recent performances.

[ruletheroost]

Went to the Leinster minor football final Monday night. A great game and a great win for Longford.

We won a Leinster minor title in ‘89 and an u21 in ‘95.

Minor titles since then:
Offaly, Louth, Wexford and Wicklow 0
Dublin 11
Laois 6
Meath 8
Kildare 5
Westmeath 2
Longford 3

U21/20 titles since then:
Offaly 1
Carlow, Wicklow and Longford 0
Dublin 12
Kildare 8
Meath 4
Laois 3
Westmeath 2
Wexford 1

Two underage football title in 35 years. Maybe we need to realise that this is where we are.

[Superhans75]

I see the powers that be have sent us to cavan the day after an Ireland played late in the evening.
Madness
They will be soon trying to get the league and the championship played in a weekend
So they can play meaningless club games with nobody there.

[private joker]

Only in offaly are the game meaningless

[ruletheroost]

Daire McDaid and Diarmuid Finneran starting tomorrow. Hard to tell how this game will go or what kind of team Down will put out. Looks like it’s much the same Offaly team that beat Longford last week apart from one change in the forward line. Longford beaten by Waterford today.

[ruletheroost]

Will be a small crowd in Breffni Park today..

A couple of things have stood out for me this year as an Offaly GAA fan.

The U20 hurlers.. just wow!! Every so often a group comes along whether it be football or hurling that is just exceptional. This is that group now. Talented, skillful, honest and an unbelievable mindset. And the way they were managed was just top drawer. Hats off to Leo O Connor on creating as he put it “ a family”. When you do that players will go to places for you that you can’t even imagine.


Looking at the 20 footballers and senior footballers then just saddens me. The 20 footballers played the worst brand of football I’ve ever witnessed. Told not to kick the ball inside. The inside forward line clocking up most distance covered in games. Utter madness.

Then the chaos that is the senior footballers. A really good bunch of lads that have been very poorly managed, in the opposite style of Leo O Connor. Declan Kelly has created a place that a lot of the players don’t want to be. 2 players have walked in the last few weeks. Ruairi McNamee gone back to his club to get an injury sorted. Talk of players not going back in if next year if the manger stays. It’s just an utter mess.

The senior hurlers had a great league campaign then stuttered a bit at the start of the championship and then really got going again. It Looks like they will reap their rewards next weekend.

So Micheal Duignans tenure will be up soon and he’s done a marvelous job in some aspects but a lot of questions will need to be asked as to how football will be at its possibly lowest ever once he leaves.

Anyway I’ll be up in Breffni Park later supporting those players as always.

[pigeon house biffo]

Not sure what the perception out there is, and wouldn’t begrudge him a day in the sun, but part of me felt the chairman should have been in Cavan today. There was one group of players who needed support today and it wasn’t the ones who’d just won an all-Ireland. Surely there’s enough time for celebration when the season ends (hopefully successfully) next weekend.

Just my 2 cents.

[Behindthegoal]

Absolutely agree. Why is he sitting beside the subs during matches? Why is he the first one on the field at the final whistle? Why did he position himself directly behind the trophy lift? Why is he doing interviews on television? It’s all for the cameras and his own ego because he’s on the way out this year. The minor and u20 footballers were told they couldn’t train for 2nd tier competitions due to expenses and were subsequently beating by Waterford and Carlow by double figures. The seniors lost every tailteann cup game by an average of 22 points and the club championship has a structure where every team qualifies and teams have nothing to train for but yeah hats off to Michael great work at least he made himself seem anyway that’s for sure

[jimbob17]

Yea, could interpret that in diff ways. Possibly a lot of work too in getting homecoming run off successfully. I'm sure there was lot of work involved in that. The footballers have their team secretary and volume of work needed there would be less than in Tullamore today.

That said, point taken and senior football team is flagship team that needs support too. If he was in Cavan, would some say he should be in Tullamore. Really, should we give two flying shites where he went given what happened yesterday and today being a nothing game and significant event in Tullamore today.

Really should be getting congratulations for yesterdays success rather than picking holes needlessly imo. I think current administration have really done an excellent job. If you were told before they went in that Offaly would win an u20 football and hurling all ireland, win 2 other leinsters and get to two other all ireland finals, would you take it. And that is before next weekend where we can get back into Liam McCarthy.

Games programme is streets ahead of where it was (excl senior football which was voted in by delegates - and not chairmans decision). That is nature of democracy.

Finance and sponsorship has improved significantly and supports around team with respect to S&C nutrition etc has improved significantly as result I am told. There are way more gpos than there were and this investment will hopefully bare fruit in future.

One could make negative argument re state of football but to be fair to committee, majority of football people wanted DK to get senior football job before he started and there'd have been bigger questions if he wasn't given it last Autumn. May not have worked out fully to date with poor Tailteann Cup showing but it is what it is.

All round, think Duignans reign will reflect very favourably on him to be fair. He has brought a lot of able people to the table and Offaly are in much healthier state now for all that change from what went before him.

[Superhans75]

On the way home strange day but following Offaly is mad enjoy the summer

[Anonymous1]

Yea, could interpret that in diff ways. Possibly a lot of work too in getting homecoming run off successfully. I'm sure there was lot of work involved in that. The footballers have their team secretary and volume of work needed there would be less than in Tullamore today.

That said, point taken and senior football team is flagship team that needs support too. If he was in Cavan, would some say he should be in Tullamore. Really, should we give two flying shites where he went given what happened yesterday and today being a nothing game and significant event in Tullamore today.

Really should be getting congratulations for yesterdays success rather than picking holes needlessly imo. I think current administration have really done an excellent job. If you were told before they went in that Offaly would win an u20 football and hurling all ireland, win 2 other leinsters and get to two other all ireland finals, would you take it. And that is before next weekend where we can get back into Liam McCarthy.

Games programme is streets ahead of where it was (excl senior football which was voted in by delegates - and not chairmans decision). That is nature of democracy.

Finance and sponsorship has improved significantly and supports around team with respect to S&C nutrition etc has improved significantly as result I am told. There are way more gpos than there were and this investment will hopefully bare fruit in future.

One could make negative argument re state of football but to be fair to committee, majority of football people wanted DK to get senior football job before he started and there'd have been bigger questions if he wasn't given it last Autumn. May not have worked out fully to date with poor Tailteann Cup showing but it is what it is.

All round, think Duignans reign will reflect very favourably on him to be fair. He has brought a lot of able people to the table and Offaly are in much healthier state now for all that change from what went before him.

I think the point he’s trying to make is that he’s claiming all of the credit for the U20 hurlers, going out of his way to do multiple interviews to talk his role up (To put a positive spin on his reign before a tilt at the GAA Presidency?) meanwhile the footballers are in total disarray and he seems to have totally washed his hands of them.

If you want credit for one team, own the others that aren’t going so well.

[ruletheroost]

Was listening to the interviews coming back from Cavan. Micheal Duignan spent most of the interview talking about himself… Leo O Connor spoke about everyone except himself.

The Down game was as expected. A second string Down team scoring 2-22 against us didn’t look good.

Dyland Hyland didn’t show up.

The aftermath on the pitch was like a funeral. Very little acknowledgment from some of the players towards DK. Anton and DK totally ignored each other after it. A lot of goodbyes to Nigel Dunne who looks to have played his last game for Offaly today. A great servant over the years.


Hopefully DK does the right thing and steps away. The whole thing looks toxic.

[Glendassaun]

Have we truly asked the question as to whether the talent needed to compete is actually there at present? If the answer to that is yes, then it’s clearly a psychological issue or a question of a poor attitude amongst the players?

It’s multi factorial, but having watched the club championships in Offaly I really question whether the talent is there and whether theirs an appetite to develop what talent exists. Add to that a management team that clearly lacks man management skills and you’ve got a near perfect storm.

There’s also the added issue, albeit a national issue, of the state of play in Gaelic football in general. It’s not a game that’s enjoyable to play anymore, and even less so to watch. In a county where there’s a strong hurling scene and which has real prospects of once again becoming a force, then it’s natural to a assume a fall off in interest in football amongst clubs and players which have options in both codes.

[jimbob17]

We won u20 All Ireland 3 years ago. Our minors and u20s would be very competitive if the best players were available or included. Its not all bad and certainly not unfixable.

There is definitely a management issue currently. Way too many fall outs with players for whatever reasons but a new management with a positive dynamic around it and we could be back to where we were last year with that u20 talent adding more as they mature.

Remember, we challenged to get promoted in recent years and last year were only kick of ball from a Leinster Final appearance. It wouldn't take a lot to fix things if an experienced management team with enough local knowledge got hold of it.