Offaly Senior Footballers 2025

[Bord na Mona man]

Championship meetings in Navan
2025 Offaly 0-21 Meath 1-25 Lost by 7
2019 Offaly 0-14 Meath 1-13 Lost by 2
1995 Offaly 1-5 Meath 1-15 Lost by 10
1931 Offaly 0-3 Meath 0-8 Lost by 5
1931 Offaly 1-1 Meath 2-1 (Match Abandoned)

League meetings
1993 14/02/1993 Offaly 1-9 Meath 1-7 Won by 2
1984 19/02/1984 Offaly 1-3 Meath 1-5 Lost by 2
1978 05/11/1978 Offaly 3-11 Meath 0-6 Won by 14

[Superhans75]

I agree with a lot of the points being made
But the modern game dictates a 25 playing squad sometimes you have to change
The system .
Mind you with the latest news coming out of Australia with the changing of visa Ireland will have to come in the line with the EU not as it was gentleman's agreement with the UK
We could see a massive drain of players before the change .
Not many young people are going to have
30 k sitting around.
Funny how the media have kept that quiet.
Have a good Easter

[Lone Shark]

Broadly agree with everything here except the comment about the TC and the qualifers.
I agree with the Taitleann cup in the same way and for the same reasons as every county agrees with a Senior/Senior b/Intermediate/Junior club championship.

The qualifiers were tokenistic gesture for lower ranked counties (take your game or two, lose and let the rest of us enjoy the summer playing football). And do that every year. I hated them and the meek, servile attitude they engendered in the lower ranked counties - desperately hoping for one 'day in the sun', one 'big win' every few years. The qualifiers did nothing to serve football and only entrenched inequality.

Club and county aren't comparable - first of all, you give me a club team with more talented players taking on another club team with a slightly weaker panel but with better organisation and more money behind them, and it's a competitive game usually. But put a county team with slightly better players up against another county team that has much better funding and structure backing them up, and the richer county wins that game every time. By the time players turn 25, the greater level of coaching, physical training, and also the fact that in a richer county, you'll lose fewer players who need to emigrate, all of that means that money wins.

And when you segregate your championships to set it up that if you're a team in that mezzanine tier (Roscommon/Monaghan/Cavan) then you're guaranteed three glamour games in the All-Ireland series while an Offaly or a Laois has to play their matches in front of tiny crowds with no media coverage, then you make it almost impossible to climb the ladder.

Moreover, the National Leagues and the lower tier hurling competitions have proven beyond doubt that once you box teams off so that they only play teams at their own level, it becomes almost impossible to break into a higher level for any sustained amount of time. The first time we moved to the new 1/2/3/4 league system in intercounty football back in 2008, the six teams that played Division One football and didn't get relegated ALL played division one football this year, 17 years later. Six of the eight teams that will make up next year's Division Four were Division Four in 2008, and the other two (Leitrim and Longford) finished in the bottom half of Division Three.

That's what you call entrenched inequality. Not the qualifiers, where if we start from the same year:
2008: Wexford go all the way to a AI semi-final, beating Armagh
2009: Wicklow beat Fermanagh, Cavan and Down
2010: All four provincial winners are beaten at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage, Down reach the final.
2011: Longford beat Mayo, Limerick get to an All-Ireland quarter-final.
2012: Laois win four games and get to the quarters.

Needless to say that as time passed and the effect of changing the league made it less likely that upsets happen, the fairytale occasions became a lot less frequent. But that's not an argument to get rid of the qualifiers, that's an argument to look at why the qualifiers weren't as exciting any more, and what was happening that meant the strong teams were getting stronger and stronger, leaving the rest behind.

Barring someone like London or Waterford win the TC this year, there is absolutely nothing that could happen in the competition that would be nearly as good for a county lower down the pecking order like the kind of things that happened every year in the qualifiers. And more importantly, it's a lot easier for lads to go into training in November and December to believe that great things might happen when a Wexford or Down type team has done it the year before, as opposed to now when you just can't beat population and money.


I should say here that if all championship revenue was centralised and shared out equally, then I'd have no issue with the TC. But I think we all know the chances of that happening.

[frankthetank]

LS,

That’s a great post to be fair.

Jeopardy is gone from the championship. The group stage provides numerous back doors for the stronger teams.

The last exciting championship was Covid. Remember the excitement when Cork scored the last minute goal to beat Kerry knowing that Kerry were eliminated. Then Tipp went on to shock Cork.

Cavan won Ulster.

Now it’s just a pile of matches for the sake of having matches. IC football is a nonsense at this stage.

[Lone Shark]

LS,

That’s a great post to be fair.

Jeopardy is gone from the championship. The group stage provides numerous back doors for the stronger teams.

The last exciting championship was Covid. Remember the excitement when Cork scored the last minute goal to beat Kerry knowing that Kerry were eliminated. Then Tipp went on to shock Cork.

Cavan won Ulster.

Now it’s just a pile of matches for the sake of having matches. IC football is a nonsense at this stage.

It's not even that there are loads of backdoors, it's that they never need them. If you're not in the top 8-10 counties by the league, you don't win a provincial title any more, never mind an All-Ireland.

The Covid championship for me only cemented the idea that there isn't a world apart when it comes to players, but it's the preparation that pulls the bigger teams away from the pack. Strip away years of collective training, months of exposure to monstrous backroom teams, and a training regime that is only feasible for lads who are either teaching, studying or working part time (not a problem in Kerry or Dublin where you can still earn good money on the back of corporate PR gigs and sponsored instagram posts) and suddenly you have a championship where different teams can win, all over again.

The problem, in gaelic football as in life, is always, always, inequality of wealth. But you can't say that on RTE, so they always just have more debates about structures and rules.

[SearingDrive]

LS,

That’s a great post to be fair.

Jeopardy is gone from the championship. The group stage provides numerous back doors for the stronger teams.

The last exciting championship was Covid. Remember the excitement when Cork scored the last minute goal to beat Kerry knowing that Kerry were eliminated. Then Tipp went on to shock Cork.

Cavan won Ulster.

Now it’s just a pile of matches for the sake of having matches. IC football is a nonsense at this stage.

It's not even that there are loads of backdoors, it's that they never need them. If you're not in the top 8-10 counties by the league, you don't win a provincial title any more, never mind an All-Ireland.

The Covid championship for me only cemented the idea that there isn't a world apart when it comes to players, but it's the preparation that pulls the bigger teams away from the pack. Strip away years of collective training, months of exposure to monstrous backroom teams, and a training regime that is only feasible for lads who are either teaching, studying or working part time (not a problem in Kerry or Dublin where you can still earn good money on the back of corporate PR gigs and sponsored instagram posts) and suddenly you have a championship where different teams can win, all over again.

The problem, in gaelic football as in life, is always, always, inequality of wealth. But you can't say that on RTE, so they always just have more debates about structures and rules.

I think Sponsorship has a lot to do with developing a county’s potential.
Limerick hurlers, Dublin and a Kerry in football. Offaly are now getting sponsors on board, like Glenisk, Galvin for men, and Condron Concrete who are involved in the underage development program. There is the valuable contribution from Shane Lowry. Sponsors like to be associated with successful counties who receive plenty of media exposure. The smaller counties do not attract the same degree of sponsorship.

[Lone Shark]

I think Sponsorship has a lot to do with developing a county’s potential.
Limerick hurlers, Dublin and a Kerry in football. Offaly are now getting sponsors on board, like Glenisk, Galvin for men, and Condron Concrete who are involved in the underage development program. There is the valuable contribution from Shane Lowry. Sponsors like to be associated with successful counties who receive plenty of media exposure. The smaller counties do not attract the same degree of sponsorship.

It's massive, and there are people involved within Offaly GAA that deserve immense credit for the way we're punching way above our weight on that front. Moreover, people like Shane Lowry, John Condron and Vincent Cleary themselves (I don't know the actual people involved in Galvin's, but them too!) are a huge part of why we are going as well as we are, and I hope Offaly people are giving it back in terms of loyalty.

But once again here, this is where the new Tailteann Cup structure has only served to deepen inequality.

Compare the qualifier structure to that which we have now, and ask yourself this - who has a lot more to offer their sponsors now than they did a few years ago? Is it a team like Cork, or Tyrone, or Armagh, who now gets three high profile qualifier games guaranteed and a lot more time on TV, a lot more pics in the paper etc? Or a team like Leitrim or Longford, for whom their provincial championship games are now being derided as a nuisance and a relic, and where unless you get into a Tailteann Cup semi-final, you will not get on TV from one end of the year to the next?

I always thought it suited Dublin down to the ground that when people talked about their financial advantages, the discussion always seemed to centre around the number of subsidised coaches they had, and while that was an advantage, it was also one that could be debated. After all, of course Dublin GAA needs more Games Promotion Officers than we do, so then it becomes a mathematical argument about numbers, and that's where you lose people.

Dublin's real advantage was in terms of commercial income. They had the pulling power of a glamour team, selling to a huge population, and every team that they put on the field, Offaly had to put out a team to match them, so it's not like they even had higher unavoidable costs. In fact, they didn't have to cover much mileage for their players, so they had a lower cost base. THAT was and is the huge edge, that is the fundamental unfairness in the GAA, and that's the bit that needs to be addressed, and that's the bit that never gets talked about. How could you possibly have a fair competition when one team (Dublin) has a list of "commercial partners" and their chief jersey sponsor by a group that had an annual turnover of €230 million in 2023 (I can't find 2024 numbers) and Leitrim are sponsored by a pub?

[Superhans75]

Money is an issue with all counties
But numbers will always prevail
The way modern life has changed everything
From club to county.
Sought of depressing Easter is here yet realistically if we don't put the effort into the taliteann cup no inter county football till Next
January.was at the down. Fermanagh game
Yesterday a stag do in Enniskillen
Two poor teams mind you nice people and a good laugh

[SearingDrive]

Money is an issue with all counties
But numbers will always prevail
The way modern life has changed everything
From club to county.
Sought of depressing Easter is here yet realistically if we don't put the effort into the taliteann cup no inter county football till Next
January.was at the down. Fermanagh game
Yesterday a stag do in Enniskillen
Two poor teams mind you nice people and a good laugh

Stag nights and the Ulster championship, a heady mix Superhans, a real raver.

[jimbob17]

I wouldn't agree it is about money or sponsorship solely. For me, It is about spending money correctly and wisely and generally maximising resources from people, coaching and financial perspective.

Offaly have done this extra well in certain ways and badly in others over the years. Faithful Fields is prime example of doing it well. The land was acquired for a euro off KDA to my knowledge and there was about 1.5 -2m spent on bringing it to fruition. That is exceptional value. That gave us a great base and all recent success has happened since.

Another factor is the games programme and access to dev opportunity for young players. Our games programme was revamped a couple of years ago and as a result, our minors in a couple of years will have played a lot more games and have more experience than what we had previous to that. That is another building block.

Supplementing that with good coach education that'll increase level of club players is another part - and I think we need to prioritise this. I don't see same level of coach education courses running in Offaly as might happen in other counties. To improve out coaches is to improve our player base and that needs work.

We have lots more gpos now than we had 10 years ago and that is probably as result of more income from sponsorship. It means better work is done low down food chain to attract players from primary school into our clubs. That will play major role long term. That is about good strategic spend of money. But, from what I know, half this spend comes from Leinster Council, so it is about more than sponsorship, it is about strategically accessing other financial resources that gives us these outcomes.

Beyond that, success will occur if we are about getting really good coaches into our dev squads so that good talent gets optimised. These people need to be strategically identified and brought in as a panel of people and managed and treated well so we hold on to our best coaches. Within this we need to strategically include GAA oriented primary and second level teachers who have knowledge and access to kids across the counties schools. They will often have good skills around communication and interaction with parents and are sometimes familiar with trends and issues around backgrounds etc that can add value to coaching teams. Selecting the best club coaches to go with best schools coaches in our underage set ups is a no brainer and is what is happening in most of all the successful counties. There are probably some within these cohorts that are coaching and doing things in other neighbouring counties now that we could do with re-integrating into our system.

Beyond that it is about equipping our competitive teams well. We need to spend money wisely and efficiently around the sport science supports, s&c, physio, nutrition, performance analysis etc. Part of this needs to drop down into age grade dev squads etc so there is knowledge and understanding and fitness built to compete at minor and beyond. I think this is happening but not fully certain as am not involved.

All round, it isn't about money fully. We all saw what happened when Parnells in Dublin wasted their money.

It is about attracting in good people with acumen around business management, accounting, sponsorship and fundraising etc on that side of things, but It is as much about spending money you have wisely and strategically and I'd hope we are now doing that in Offaly.

[Superhans75]

Just been looking at the seeding for the taliteann cup.
We could be on for a trip to London
For the second round of games
17/18 may .

[oneshot]

Royals beat the Dubs no 15 in a row for Dublin, hope the jasus louth beat them .

[Cheddar]

Royals beat the Dubs no 15 in a row for Dublin, hope the jasus louth beat them .

I do wonder what we could’ve done against the Dubs ourselves had we beaten Meath. They are definitely not the team they were and playing away form Croker definitely helped. Let’s hope this is the end of Leinster football dominance and we have a competitive championship.

Dubs are still the cream of the crop. On the next level would be Louth, and then ourselves, Meath, Westmeath and Kildare are probably all at similar standards.

Would love to see some levelling of the playing field.

Provincials are dying…BUT, you saw how much it meant to Meath today. You remember the outpouring of joy when we beat Meath in 2023. Louth themselves (after the wise development from our own Mickey Harte) have now been established in provincial finals and are living life.

It still does matter.

[Cheddar]

Also on the Tailteann Cup.

I see the models Kildare as favourites, followed by Westmeath, Sligo and then ourselves.

We’ve seen enough of Kildare this year to know they are beatable and don’t offer a huge amount. Their season started off so well, but since early March they have lost 4 out of 6 games.

I don’t think things are rosy in the garden, and I don’t expect them to have the right attitude to the TC. Wheels are coming off.

Westmeath seem to be good scorers but yet they’ve only got 1 draw all year.

Sligo are the dark horses I think. We beat them well early in the year and we adapted to the new rules quicker than them. They’ve come good. Opposite of Kildare in that since early March, they have only lost 1 out of 5. Even at that, it was only a 3 point defeat to Mayo.

Think we are a good e/w bet. We have the football and the form. Do we have the right attitude unlike previous years is the big question.

Looking forward to the draw this week. We are the top seeds. The TC matters and it has to be treated as such. We want success and we want Sam Maguire. Let’s go all out.

[classof81]

Agree we need ti give it a good shot. We'll capable of it when you see results tiday