Offaly Senior Footballers 2025

[classof81]

Hard luck today lads, excellent first half performance, meath came out with nothing to loose in the second half a few points early on got them right back in it and confidence was flowing. Maybe we should of tried slow it down abit or bring fresh legs on earlier. No matter, on to the taligan cup we go in a few weeks, win that along with promotion would leave this still a good year. We would of gladly settled for that at start of the year.

[G91]

I don’t care that simply wasn’t good enough

First half performance was excellent the wind had fuck all to do with Meaths scoreline Offaly never gave them a second , played nice fast attacking football , direct into the wing forward line no messing took the scores 2 or 1 when they’re was room to kick them

Second half
Running away from the player on the ball instead of actually putting some pressure on and the dog on the street knew meaths kicking ability from outside the arc

Made good progress in the league to go completely backwards and play like we did last year as soon as bit of pressure was on

Referee played the crowd , gave to many frees to Offaly in the first half so he had to please them

Changes were needed desperately
Left it until there was 30mins in the second half to make them

Navan is also a kip of a venue , had tickets for the stand had to sit in the open if the stewards bothered to put people in the right place would have been helpful
How can you get to. 2025 and have absolutely no development what are they doing with all the funding they get ?
Meath supporters are in a world of there own you’d think they were contenders for an all Ireland never mind Leinster

At least the parking was only 3 quid unlike the robbery of O Brien park et all

To summarise Meath did what they’re known for doing and we had no plan to deal with it , running around in circles instead of putting a bit of pressure on
There’s no hard look there you can’t be in hard luck when Meath dominated the way they did in that second half

[Behindthegoal]

Strange use of subs again today wait until the 60th minute when lads were clearly out of their feet even if the quality isn’t there surely fresh legs is as important than anything at that stage. We couldn’t win a Kickout to save our lives in the 2nd half Higgins us our only option in the air why was Cillian Bourke on the bench if he’s not worth 10 minutes when they were dominating around the middle? We didn’t score from play in the 2nd half simply won’t win anything with that. The next stage of this teams development is finding depth so subs can be used earlier and more often particularly around the middle and some inside forwards

[Anonymous1]

Disappointing result.

A very good first half performance but a lot of it can be put down to Meath sitting back and inviting pressure. I never felt 10 points was enough of a lead, not under these rules, in that wind, away from home.

Conceding 1-21 in a half is abysmal and eight 2-pointers in one half must surely be a record. We didn’t seem to do much on the sideline to change things when the direction of travel was clear. Meath’s physicality won out over our pace.

It’s been said on here many times that our bench isn’t strong enough and it finally showed up today. With a number of lads flagging relatively early in that second half, the management were reluctant to make any subs.

That has to be something that gets addressed before the start of next year’s league as we’ll be playing teams of Meath’s ilk week in week out.

Ultimately today’s loss doesn’t mean a whole pile other than the fact we’ll have to play a first round Leinster championship game next year.

We’d all have taken promotion from division 3 along with silverware at the start of the year.

The big question now is what happens in the Tailteann. Do we kick on and win it given we’ll be one of if not the favourites for it? Or could the wheels fall off again as they have the past few years?

Whichever of those two scenarios plays out will have a big impact on how this year is viewed as a whole and what changes need to be made for next year.

[Offaly Hero]

Today's match was the least important match in the least important competition this team will play this year so the result needs to be taken in that context. Meath are also the best team we have played this year by some distance.

It is worth remembering that at this time last year, we hammered Laois and patted ourselves on the back at the achievement. We, predictably, were beaten well by Dublin in the next round before the absolute unmitigated disaster that was the Taitleann Cup. Laois, meanwhile, got to the Taitleann cup final.

Now that the farce that is the Leinster Championship is out of the way - the team can now focus on their championship which is the Taitleann Cup. The goal has to be to win it, a tough but very achievable goal. Win that, get guaranteed Sam Maguire football next year along with Division 2 - now that would make 2025 an outstanding year.

[Cheddar]

Today's match was the least important match in the least important competition this team will play this year so the result needs to be taken in that context. Meath are also the best team we have played this year by some distance.

It is worth remembering that at this time last year, we hammered Laois and patted ourselves on the back at the achievement. We, predictably, were beaten well by Dublin in the next round before the absolute unmitigated disaster that was the Taitleann Cup. Laois, meanwhile, got to the Taitleann cup final.

Now that the farce that is the Leinster Championship is out of the way - the team can now focus on their championship which is the Taitleann Cup. The goal has to be to win it, a tough but very achievable goal. Win that, get guaranteed Sam Maguire football next year along with Division 2 - now that would make 2025 an outstanding year.

Actually a very good response. Completely agree with you. It’s actually put a really good spin on a difficult day.

Look I can go through the ins and outs of the performance. Grand scheme of things it is just a game we could have won, didn’t win, but certainly didn’t show that we are inept at that level. Had the goal chance at the end of the game gone our way, and not have them come up and score a goal seconds later, we would have been a point up. Would’ve been great, but the we’d have a pointless game against the Dubs. It would’ve been better than last year but still nothing much missed out on.

We definitely learned lessons today and let’s now bring them and go all out for the Tailteann. We absolutely have the ability to win it. Let’s have our month off and come back stronger for R1

[SearingDrive]

Today's match was the least important match in the least important competition this team will play this year so the result needs to be taken in that context. Meath are also the best team we have played this year by some distance.

It is worth remembering that at this time last year, we hammered Laois and patted ourselves on the back at the achievement. We, predictably, were beaten well by Dublin in the next round before the absolute unmitigated disaster that was the Taitleann Cup. Laois, meanwhile, got to the Taitleann cup final.

Now that the farce that is the Leinster Championship is out of the way - the team can now focus on their championship which is the Taitleann Cup. The goal has to be to win it, a tough but very achievable goal. Win that, get guaranteed Sam Maguire football next year along with Division 2 - now that would make 2025 an outstanding year.

Actually a very good response. Completely agree with you. It’s actually put a really good spin on a difficult day.

Look I can go through the ins and outs of the performance. Grand scheme of things it is just a game we could have won, didn’t win, but certainly didn’t show that we are inept at that level. Had the goal chance at the end of the game gone our way, and not have them come up and score a goal seconds later, we would have been a point up. Would’ve been great, but the we’d have a pointless game against the Dubs. It would’ve been better than last year but still nothing much missed out on.

We definitely learned lessons today and let’s now bring them and go all out for the Tailteann. We absolutely have the ability to win it. Let’s have our month off and come back stronger for R1

I agree with the comments, that Offaly should go all out for the Tailteann Cup.
Nobody wants the embarrassment of last year’s performance.

[first_touch]

Today's game showed the disproportionate effect the 2 point rule is having. Why are 8 successful long range kicks worth more than 15 attacks where, for example, the ball is worked 'through the lines' resulting in a team score or a long kicked pass is sent in to a corner forward who turns and scores?

Undoubtedly, scoring a long range point is a great skill but is it really twice as skillful as, say, scoring with the outside of the boot from out near the sideline on the 13 metre line? Is lobbing over a speculative long range effort with the aid of a strong wind twice as ingenious as beating four defenders and firing over the bar from 20 metres on the run?

What's even more ridiculous is that scoring a long range point is worth almost as much as scoring a goal. The art of goal scoring has effectively been devalued.

I know people will say that them's the rules and it's the same for both teams. And that closing down long range attempts will have to be done better than the way Offaly did it against Meath. But that's not the point (pardon the pun).

[JohnnyBoy24]

Good 9 minute interview with Declan k and Mickey h On Off the ball YouTube.

[ruletheroost]

A real Jekyll and Hyde performance yesterday.

Phenomenal first half and extremely poor second half.

A lot of lads scratching their heads today I imagine. None more so than David, Roo, Nigel and Bourke.

I could understand the management not going to the bench in a few previous games when the squad depth wasn't there. But it was there yesterday and wasn't used. Fresh legs were badly needed with 15 or 20 minutes to go. We didn't score from play in the second half, and the only forward introduced was Sawyer with 5 minutes to go who hadn't played since the first round of the league. That was mind boggling.

[jonsey]

management are to blame for this collaspe in the 2nd half, subs should have been introduced after 10 mins and then to see Sawyer being introduced ahead of Roo, like whats that all about, anyway well come back stronger i hope

[Faithfully]

Wind or no wind, really disappointing second half. We displayed a lot of the traits in the first half that have made us good to watch this year: Breaking with pace and quick ball into Bryant and Tierney who both showed well in the first half. We were a little wasteful with balls dropped short although it must be noted that Meath missed a lot more at the opposite end with terrible shot selection.

Even accounting for the wind, we were poor in the second half and the lads will know that themselves. 6 points scored in the second half - 5 from Dunican placed balls and a Hyland free from a 3 up violation by Meath.

We didn't play with the same decisiveness. There were a couple of occasions when we could/should have tapped over points but got a little greedy. There was one at an early stage in the 2nd half when Rory Egan slipped it to Tierney who tried to play in Hayes for a goal when it probably wasn't on. Unfortunately, we did not look like creating anything in the last 15 minutes or so. Remarkably we won the kickout in injury time when only 2 down but I think the long pass from Flynn to Bryant/Sawyer? was intercepted. Resulting goal down the other end was a very bad one to give away unfortunately.

Midfield a bit of a challenge although we did win a few clean catches...Higgins at WF still probably the best fielder. Was surprised to see Bourke remain on the bench given that he was fit enough to make the bench in the first place.

We can't really have any complaints. Ultimately, Meath earned it over the course of 70 minutes. Would have liked to have seen a couple of more changes as we were probably beginning to die a death after 50 minutes.

I'd assume the players will be given a well earned rest for a week or two now. It's been a good year so far, all things considered. It's really important that they give the Tailteann Cup a proper rattle now. No point in undoing the entire season's work at this point by putting in displays like last year. I'd be hopeful that's not going to happen again. There will be Westmeath, one of Kildare/Louth, Sligo and others in it who will be hard beat.

[Glendassaun]

Arguably one of the most important members of any backroom team nowadays in football is a team meteorologist. Given the disproportionate impact of the two point rule surely the weather is now playing a greater role than ever and as such tactics need to be tailored to the conditions at play.

When a team plays against the wind, set up with two extra defenders and simply hold on, then switch your two extra defenders for forwards in the second half when you’ve the advantage of the wind or visa versa.

Having the wind in the second half of any game in particular is far more advantageous now, when opposition legs and minds have tired, and any press is weaker.

I can see the “Fear Aimsir” bibs on lads backs already!

[Anonymous1]

Today's game showed the disproportionate effect the 2 point rule is having. Why are 8 successful long range kicks worth more than 15 attacks where, for example, the ball is worked 'through the lines' resulting in a team score or a long kicked pass is sent in to a corner forward who turns and scores?

Undoubtedly, scoring a long range point is a great skill but is it really twice as skillful as, say, scoring with the outside of the boot from out near the sideline on the 13 metre line? Is lobbing over a speculative long range effort with the aid of a strong wind twice as ingenious as beating four defenders and firing over the bar from 20 metres on the run?

What's even more ridiculous is that scoring a long range point is worth almost as much as scoring a goal. The art of goal scoring has effectively been devalued.

I know people will say that them's the rules and it's the same for both teams. And that closing down long range attempts will have to be done better than the way Offaly did it against Meath. But that's not the point (pardon the pun).

Agreed. The two point rule needs to go.

Football has become more like cricket.

One team has the first half to run up a lead and the other team has the second half to chase that lead.

This can’t have been the intention when the FRC were designing the rules.

[Bord na Mona man]

If Meath had the first half breeze, they wouldn’t have shot eight 2-pointers. Instead, like Offaly did, they would have built up a lead by kicking conventional points.
When ten points down, they had to go for broke and it worked for them. Some two pointer shots were Hail Marys that went over. Other days they go wide.

They got their tactics right too. The forwards pulled the Offaly backs into wide positions and created space for the shooters to come through and take pot shots.
Offaly needed to contain Meath early in the 2nd half but it didn’t happen. Offaly could have had 1-2 in the first five minutes, but butchered chances. Instead Meath counter attacked and got the scores.

Offaly having let the lead dwindle to 5, hit back with a 2-pointer free to get it back to 7. Immediately that counter punch was nullified by a body check on the Meath midfielder taking the mark from the kick out. It was moved up for two point Meath free and again Offaly were back into sinking mode. Small things tilt momentum.

For a spell in the second half, the ref ignored what looked like obvious fouls on Offaly forwards. The ref wasn’t the reason Offaly lost, but maybe a score or two here would have broken Meath’s momentum.

One of Offaly’s best weapons this year has been the quick tap after a foul. It was noticeable that some of the Meath fouls were emphatic enough to make sure the player was properly put to ground and the quick tap wasn’t on. That’s the step up from Division 3 football.

The result was no disaster. Offaly were always destined for the Tailteann and it will be useful to learn from.