Offaly vs Westmeath 2011 Leinster U21 football championship

[clubman]

ye very bad nite for offayl ,the big players didnt do well except for brian connor, dont know why paddy rigney was taken off ,thought he was one of the best forwards in first half

[joesoap]

I for one am very disappointed with tonight's performance. This team, I presume, has been training for maybe 3 or 4 months now minimum and when I saw the team in the tribune today i said to myself there is a good base there, a few good seniors like Moloney, Geraghty, Connor and the other obvious names Allen and Guilfoyle. Other than them i honestly thought the team was weak. The backline as a whole was weak. In fairness to Moloney and Ledwith they tried hard but the others were below par. The Westmeath center forward scored 5 points against the gale in the first half which led to McDonald being taken off who im sure will be disappointed with his performance. The game was virtually over at that stage. Connor played well but Geraghty wasnt in the game at all. The forwards again were poor and struggled bigtime with Westmeath's defending in numbers and counter-attacking style. Im not here to slate anyone but I really do think the management got it totally wrong. There is no doubting that the McPadden twins are talented footballers, but i thought the two of them were out of their depth today. I would also question the subs who were brought in today, most of them looked clueless!

It really is disappointing, especially after hearing Longford overcame the royals in extra time. That would have been a nice semi-final draw. Its the same old story though with Offaly football. Offaly have the players but i just don't think they are under the right guidance at Senior or u21 level. Pat Flannagan had his lads fit, sharp, tuned in and ready. They had a gameplan and it worked to perfection as Offaly had no answer. They dropped back a spare man in front of Offaly's full forward line when they were playin against the wind which led to Offaly only scoring 3 points in the first half with the aid of the breeze. They did much the same in the second half and as Offaly pushed forward looking for socres Westmeath broke on the counter. Simple but effective stuff. One would wonder why Offaly cant play like this.

[wazzaman]

Was at the match 2night lads Westmeath won easy anofe it might have been a different story if we had decent forwards.. we had nothing up front are forwards looked weak and small its a pity i suppose i think if anton sullivan was playing it would be a different game altogether due to the large possession of the ball in the second half.

For me are best player was Brian Connor never seen him av a bad game I reckon he lives for the sport we could do with more like him!!

Another player definitely worth mentioning for me is Micheal Brazil, I think he could play on the senior team no problem as he is a strong lad, good in the tackle and will develop for the better.

Is it just me or is that Offaly pass the ball too much and then lose the ball near the opposition goal, we always seem to be going sideways with the ball or backwards!! with no end product were like barcalona but cant score.

[High School Musical]

It really is disappointing, especially after hearing Longford overcame the royals in extra time. That would have been a nice semi-final draw.

Longford have been doing quite well at underage recently or have you forgotten that?
2 Leinster minor titles in the last few years.

Typical, we lose and are still looking ahead to what might have been. The u-21 grade can be used as a stepping stone into senior for those just not ready for it yet after minor. We haven't been doing this successfully for a number of years now hence we've struggled at senior.

[townman]

Was at the match 2night lads Westmeath won easy anofe it might have been a different story if we had decent forwards.. we had nothing up front are forwards looked weak and small its a pity i suppose i think if anton sullivan was playing it would be a different game altogether due to the large possession of the ball in the second half.

For me are best player was Brian Connor never seen him av a bad game I reckon he lives for the sport we could do with more like him!!

Another player definitely worth mentioning for me is Micheal Brazil, I think he could play on the senior team no problem as he is a strong lad, good in the tackle and will develop for the better.

Is it just me or is that Offaly pass the ball too much and then lose the ball near the opposition goal, we always seem to be going sideways with the ball or backwards!! with no end product were like barcalona but cant score.

Brian Connor is a fine player pity Tom Cribbin doesn't think the same and play him from the start for the senior team
way ahead of Richie Dalton and John Coughlan if you ask me.

[dj poolo]

ye very bad nite for offayl ,the big players didnt do well except for brian connor, dont know why paddy rigney was taken off ,thought he was one of the best forwards in first half

i agree with club man why was paddy rigney taken off it was very harsh.

[Lone Shark]

It's obviously hugely disappointing to lose to Westmeath at any level, and I really hate the fact that they're getting a little bit used to beating us. That's a very worrying trend and one I hope to God that our seniors put to bed in Mullingar next month. I wasn't confident travelling down to Athlone last night and while this wasn't really a case of one thrown away in the sense that I think they were just better footballers than us, I have to say that we lost the game in the first twenty minutes and we did so because we were getting cleaned at centre back and centre forward. This really highlighted the issue of Sullivan and Ryan being unfit to play because McDonald and Ruairí Allen had absolutely terrible games. However it also highlighted the fact that you have to put strong, on form players into those positions - they're not the kind of spots where you can try and carry weak links.

I'm not trying to pick on the management here for the same reasons as we went into above - this is under 21 football and a lot of these players don't get seen too much by anyone not at every training session. However you are sticking your neck out putting a guy who has only played Junior B football as your centre back, and Conor Lynam absolutely went to town through there. The fact that Stephen Guing at least shored matters up a little bit made it clear that it was that position which was the big problem.

Equally, while I don't think Paddy Rigney did anything wrong per se, it was clear from the first time Offaly got possession that Westmeath were going to drop at least one if not two lads back in front of the full back line when playing against the wind. Our half forward line was pulling back, ostensibly to create space, but all they did was ensure that it was three on five with every ball that went in - and since we had a really small full forward line, high ball was not an option. That needed an early change too, and why Ruairi Allen wasn't given a go in there I don't know. In a game like last night's I think Paddy suffered for the fact that he wasn't really able to bring anything different to the table and while he gamely showed for ball and won most of what went his way, he didn't have the strength to get turned and create anything inside him. That said they could just as easily have taken off Paul McPadden, who was struggling to do anything either.

I don't blame Offaly for a lot of sideways football in the second half in the sense that there was little alternative, but I thought that Graham Guilfoyle is capable of a lot more than he showed last night as he let Westmeath force him wide a lot of the time. While he was going out towards the wings, Westmeath were dropping lads back and really restricting Offaly's options. He's got to do better at stopping the man he's marking too - Dolan is a fine wing back but there is a trend emerging of Guilfoyle conceding scores in games.

I was really impressed with Michael Brazil who was probably our best player out there, he looks like a guy with a good future ahead of him. The benefits of playing with UCD were obvious. John Moloney did a good job on a strong opponent, Cian Donoghue got stuck in really well and was unlucky not to make a good few more turnovers and after that you had Gavin Sheil, John Ledwith, Adrian Murphy, the two midfielders and Bernard Allen who all at least broke even with their direct opponents, or in Sheil's case made the save he had to make and narrowed the angle well for another chance to force Dolan to shoot over the bar. After that I think we were a bit light.

[faithfullad]

Westmeath just had a game plan which was far superior to Offaly's, their forward play was more fluid and as a whole, they probably had the better footballers. For example, Westmeath played a sweeper in front of Bernard Allen all night so essentially he had two men marking him all night , making it hard to get him in a 1 on 1 situation. The rest of the forward line wasn't good enough to capitalize on this. Brian Connor, I thought, was Offaly's lone bright spark all game.

[clubman]

Equally, while I don't think Paddy Rigney did anything wrong per se, it was clear from the first time Offaly got possession that Westmeath were going to drop at least one if not two lads back in front of the full back line when playing against the wind. Our half forward line was pulling back, ostensibly to create space, but all they did was ensure that it was three on five with every ball that went in - and since we had a really small full forward line, high ball was not an option. That needed an early change too, and why Ruairi Allen wasn't given a go in there I don't know. In a game like last night's I think Paddy suffered for the fact that he wasn't really able to bring anything different to the table and while he gamely showed for ball and won most of what went his way, he didn't have the strength to get turned and create anything inside him. That said they ould just as easily have taken off Paul McPadden, who was struggling to do anything either.... why is it that managment always take the do the easy things and take off the lesser known players.thats my point about rigney,might not be the best player but was the best of the inside forwards,mcpadden was poor ,probaly to youngas well,allen on the other side was very poor too,considering hes on our senior team you would expect better.

[Lone Shark]

I would have said Allen was the best of them myself, but yeah, I'd probably have taken off McPadden before Rigney too. Having said that neither man was making any impression on the Westmeath backs really.

[brian fantana]

Is that Chris McDonald of brosna Gaels hurling? I knew the chap as a young lad- I never realised he was such a good footballer.

hes not

[Sharp Eye]

It was no surprise that Offaly had a poor run in this year's Under 21 football championship, despite having 3 very good minor sides to pick from. Under 21 Football Championship in Offaly is treated as the poor relation. Games played under lights in poor weather conditions. Teams defeated in the FIRST ROUND dont even get a second chance. I heard that Shannon Gaels had to play a county under 21 semi final less than 24 hours after 10 of their team hurled an All Ireland Schools Semi-Final which went to extra time. The final, I hear is fixed for next weekend, just one week after the semi-finals. The competition presents little benefit to development of our vital 19 to 21 year old footballers. It would make much more sense to have the Under 21 Championship commence in September with an Under 20 squad formed after the championship for development squad type training sessions in November/Early December in preparation for the following year's Leinster Under 21 Championship. Give our players and management a CHANCE.

[Lone Shark]

Longford vs Wexford in the final it is then. It just shows the difference in getting a minor team over the line in Croke Park instead of near misses - that Longford crew simply don't know when they're beaten, they were on the rack with Meath coming back at them too.

Just to come back to Sharp Eye's point, I couldn't agree more. It's hard to escape the idea that the county board would be happier if they could run off the under 21 championship in a blitz format so as to ensure it gets out of the way as quick as possible. There is so much wrong about the way things are done now it's not funny. Playing it in late September and October makes so much more sense because students aren't under as much pressure from college, they can carry on the training they were doing all year for minor/adult, and as was stated, if it's played at U-20, it makes an excellent trial stage for the county team the following year.

The only issue would be with the teams who reach county finals, but there is crossover at all times and surely it makes most sense to play it when that crossover is limited. Even if players don't get to train with their under 21 teams too much, if they're busy in a senior panel they'll still be fit. Chances are most clubs would train together anyway.

[townman]

well shows you how poor leinster was this year a longford wexford final is a first fair play to them
other results in Munster Kerry 3-15 limerick 2-5, Cork 0-21 tipp (the holders) 2-3 i think who ever
wins the munster will take the title. Galway will take beating as they were minor winners two years ago
and alot of them are the under 21 panel now.

[townman]

wexford win their first under 21 leinster tonight

wexford 1-9 longford 0-11

as for the munster final it was a turkey shoot for Cork
Cork 2-24 Kerry 0-8

some unreal talent coming up in cork they will be top dogs in ireland for a while.