Offaly Senior Football Club Championship 2011

[brian mcmanus]

i feel i should explain my act of madness last night. I know when i go on the pitch i give 100% but sometimes that does mean my mind goes into overdrive.. and things are not thought out fully. But last night was tough to take. not so much the result but certain supporters behaviour towards ciaran. Why was there a need to jeer him when he missed frees? why was there a need to get abuse coming of the pitch?.. why in the name of god does he deserve that treatment. 1964 get your facts right.. i did not go for an old guy in the stand.... there was a couple of very brave young men on the terrace shouting down abuse at ciaran.. It very easy for you to come on this site with your name hidden and judge me...have you had abuse thrown at you like he has??? if you only realised a tiny fraction what he does to play football!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was wrong.. completely!! but if in the emotions of a game i had enough.. it was pathetic behaviour.
As for suspension.. go on.. i've enough of football played at this stage in my life.and to be honest if my son was abused like that i'd encourage him to play another sport.. but i wont. i love the game and will continue to support offaly gaa both in attendance and financial
best of luck to all teams left in the championship

Brian McManus

[townman]

Fair play to you McManus if that is you

teams for semil final Rhode,Gracefield, Clara, Edenderry.

[1964]

Brilliant your trying to defend and justify your actions over jeering of frees and a bit of abuse.come out of it if in fact it is Brian mcmanus. There were a few tubber supporters with plenty of choice words too.happy retirement LMFAO

[toughtackler]

Fair play Brian,not many have the nads to come on here and explain moments of madness!!!It's a common thing for people to kick you when things aren't going right for certain individuals.At the end of the day no one deserves abuse over missing a free here or there!At the end of the day your brother has given enough towards Offaly football,people have short memories,manys a day he kicked crucial frees for Offaly!!!Fook the begrudgers!!!

[faithfullad]

Brilliant your trying to defend and justify your actions over jeering of frees and a bit of abuse.come out of it if in fact it is Brian mcmanus. There were a few tubber supporters with plenty of choice words too.happy retirement LMFAO

Oh just shut up 1964.

[1964]

No problem

[Lone Shark]

i feel i should explain my act of madness last night. I know when i go on the pitch i give 100% but sometimes that does mean my mind goes into overdrive.. and things are not thought out fully. But last night was tough to take. not so much the result but certain supporters behaviour towards ciaran. Why was there a need to jeer him when he missed frees? why was there a need to get abuse coming of the pitch?.. why in the name of god does he deserve that treatment. 1964 get your facts right.. i did not go for an old guy in the stand.... there was a couple of very brave young men on the terrace shouting down abuse at ciaran.. It very easy for you to come on this site with your name hidden and judge me...have you had abuse thrown at you like he has??? if you only realised a tiny fraction what he does to play football!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was wrong.. completely!! but if in the emotions of a game i had enough.. it was pathetic behaviour.
As for suspension.. go on.. i've enough of football played at this stage in my life.and to be honest if my son was abused like that i'd encourage him to play another sport.. but i wont. i love the game and will continue to support offaly gaa both in attendance and financial
best of luck to all teams left in the championship

Brian McManus

Assuming that is yourself, and I have no reason to doubt it, then well done for taking responsibility first and foremost. Gaelic games are passionate arenas and it's only natural that the passion can spill over occasionally, all the more so when you are playing alongside close friends and family. Of course there have to be lines drawn somewhere and it's fair to say that going into the crowd is well beyond what's acceptable, but in taking responsibility and accepting a fair punishment then reparation has been made, so to speak.

As for the bit I've highlighted in bold, I feel safe in saying that I speak for the vast, vast majority of Offaly GAA people when I say that he doesn't deserve it, he deserves nothing only appreciation for his efforts down the years. Don't think for a minute that any cheap shots from the terraces mean anything or diminish the incredible playing CV of a great footballer.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Brian,

Without condoning your actions last night, I'd like to echo Lone Sharks comments and say that Ciaran is held in the highest esteem by 99.9% of Offaly GAA supporters and by many many more outside the county not only for his on the field endeavours over such a long period of time but also for his extraordinary dedication off the pitch to Offaly GAA - the majority of which you correctly point out we know little about. Personally, I could never speak highly enough of him as a footballer.

The idiots at that game over the weekend jeering Ciaran are the same cretins that would be cheering him in a Leinster Final if they got the premium ticket. Personally there are few things I hate more than club supporters/players/management subjecting county players from other clubs to 'special treatment' for no other reason than small minded vindictiveness. It's a part of the club game I really, really hate.

[llkj]

Cheers for Clarifying that True Red... it did seem like a low scoreline, but the person updating the website probably just made an error and repeated the scoreline from the ER/Ferbane game. Edenderry have made big strides this year, which is great to see.

[offalyguy]

Sure if Mac got the red card he deserved instead of the yellow he got for elbowing the Tullamore player in front of the ref this might of never happened

[offalyman08]

Any reports from the ferbane rovers match? Seems very low scoring.

[jimbob17]

fair play brian mac for saying what you said, many wouldnt have the ba**s to admit to errors of judgement on a forum like this. What happened was wrong, but more importantly what was said was wrong. Ciaran macmanus has given his adult life to playing for offaly and is highly respected for it by 99% of people.

regarding the jeering, opposing supporters will always jeer him or any other free takers for that matter in crucial games like that. its part of the game, maybe not a nice part of it, but part of it nonetheless and one shouldnt take it personally, though some players including ciaran mac probably does. he probably needs to learn to deal with it better and not let it affect him as it will always be there. its part of the tribal nature of our games. If Tullamore were struggling towards the end like tubber were, tubber supporters would jeer missed frees from the tullamore free taker, it happens all the time in football and hurling championship games between all teams. Maybe it happens often with ciaran because he is such an influential player and is probably THE player that makes Tubber tick. He likes to play to the crowd aswell at times and i have seen plenty of gestures from him over the years to the crowd when things are going his way in games so it kind of works both ways.

That said the cheap shot abuse at the end was disgraceful and no county player who has given what ciaran has given should be sujected to it. it was probably given by a fella who was never good enough to make a team as real football people would not carry on like that. Ciaran Macmanus name will always be held in the highest regard in OY GAA circles and beyond given his committment and effort over the last 15 years.

with regard to the football, Tullamore won comfortably really and could have won by a lot more. They seemed to have better players around the field. They looked in bother early on and were 5 points down at one stage, but they were playing well generally and had any amount of wides. Had erin rovers won, tullamore probably would have got through on points difference. the game they will rue is the edenderry game which they should have won, but missed chances here cost them a place in the quarters.

its probably rhodes to lose really at the moment, but any team who gets themselves organised and has a bit of belief could take them easily as they are way off where they were 2/3 years ago. expect Erin Rovers to cause an upset or two along the way, especially if they play outside o connor park as they play a very negative way frustrating opponents but it works very well for them. If Clara can get going at all, i think they should win it out and have the capacity to take rhode out despite scott bradys absence. will be a tight championship from here on with very little between a lot of the teams left...

[Lone Shark]

Any reports from the ferbane rovers match? Seems very low scoring.

Aye, defences definitely on top. Erin Rovers pulled Ger Lynam back into sweeper, as they usually do, but I don't think it worked for them. That works fine when you have players coming at you from deep, but of their four main runners from the middle sector (1) Declan Kelly was marked out of it by Colin Egan, who had a great game (2) Alan Lynam had a hamstring injury and didn't start (3) Tom Spain and Aidan Keenaghan both worked hard keeping up with each other and cancelled each other out but neither really had a huge say in an attacking sense and (4) Jason Devery never really got on a lot of ball and was very peripheral. Again Liam Browne marked him well.

The upshot was that Erin Rovers didn't get to carry the ball in, and when they played it in long, they were outnumbered and one of the Ferbane half back line was usually in place to pick up the loose stuff. In contrast at the other end, Jimmy Grennan was able to win or spoil ball even when outnumbered, and that was a huge help in terms of at least making sure that ball in didn't just come straight back out. Joe Maher also had a fine game and continues to show great improvement, though I couldn't imagine any of the other forwards would be delighted with their day, even though they all worked hard.

I don't know if there were any Gracefield/Clara people in the crowd, but if there were, I'm sure they would have been happy enough. The game was very broken, lots of stoppages, particularly in the first half, and three scores from play in total says a lot about the match.

Erin Rovers will be a lot better when Lynam is fully fit, but they are missing Richie Fox in a big way as an anchor at the centre of the defence from what I can tell. What's his story this year, has he played at all, is he even around?

[faithfullad]

Think Fox is badly fecked up with his knee.

[offalyman08]

Think Fox is badly fecked up with his knee.

He has definitely played this year anyway. Tubber surely have enough for Shamrocks? Any predictions for the quarter finals?