new football manager

[clubman]

Anyone know if there is something else going on here that we dont know about? I would hardly call a 2 week period between interview and decision as a reason for pulling out of the race. In fairness, I am sure the selection committee are going through their own internal process which may involve several meetings, which take time.
There is no way that he said - "right, it has been 2 weeks already, I'm out!"...

Surely it is Darby's now?

interviews for hurling manager took place a week after football and they have got there new manager,football was to be annonced a week ago but the kept putting it off. seems like the are waiting for an outsider to make up his mind.dont blame tom coffey for pulling out ,more bull from offaly county board,probablyend up with another pat roe or cribbin while passing on one off our own

[kingscounty]

i heard a rumour 3 weeks ago that sheedy was going to take over but i didnt believe it,wait and see now if what i was told comes true.

[RhodeRunner]

McNamee threatens to quit Faithful

Offaly's marquee forward Niall McNamee could withdraw his playing services in 2012 over the manner in which the county board has set about finding a replacement for Tom Cribbin.

An angry McNamee, one of the top forwards in Leinster, has hit out at the delay in finding a new Offaly football manager just a day after Tom Coffey pulled out of the race.

Coffey has been McNamee's Rhode manager for the last four years, but the player is adamant that Coffey's withdrawal and their obvious link has not influenced his frustration.

"Naturally, I'd love to have seen Tom Coffey as the next Offaly manager, but I'd have been happy too if Stephen Darby, another former Rhode manager, was appointed or even Jack Sheedy," he said.

"These were the three men who showed interest and were part of the process, so surely one of them should have been appointed by now.

"But it has dragged on and on and I can understand Tom Coffey's frustration at it, because I feel the same and I know a few other players do too. There's a feeling that Offaly is just being left behind."

possibility

The seven-man appointments committee set up to find a successor for Cribbin was due to meet last night, with the possibility of a name being recommended.

There is speculation that two of the original three candidates who remain in the race may be bypassed for a third candidate who has entered the race late in the day.

County board officials are not disclosing who that third candidate is but Peter Brady, who played for Offaly in the 1990s and only last weekend managed Edenderry to the Offaly title, may now be in the reckoning.

For McNamee, the whole process has been far too slow and has left him weighing up his options for 2012.

"Right now I honestly don't feel like I will be playing for Offaly with the county board the way it is. It's been a most unprofessional process that has dragged on far too long.

"I know a few Kildare players and they are already up and running doing gym work and looking ahead to 2012. The Donegal players started the same training last September when Jim McGuinness came in. He was appointed in July.

"Tom Cribbin stepped down in late July. By then this committee had already been set up to find a manager. And three months later, up to yesterday afternoon, they still hadn't found one. I wouldn't be surprised if they went ahead and put a name forward (last night) because the pressure is on. But why so late?" asked McNamee.

"We've been out of the championship more than three months now. They've had candidates with brilliant CVs.

"Tom Coffey has got Offaly teams to five Leinster finals in recent years and he had put a really good team together; Stephen Darby won three Offaly titles with Rhode. Jack Sheedy had success with Moorefield. Kildare appointed Kieran McGeeney on a lot less."

Coffey cited the delay in the process as the main reason for his withdrawal and claimed, like McNamee, that the process had become far too "unprofessional".

He stepped down as Rhode manager last month after they had lost an Offaly semi-final. He had made it known to the county board from an early stage that he was an interested candidate if a vacancy was to arise.

"Meetings have been called off because fellas have been away. I know they are volunteers, but why go on a committee if you are not prepared to commit to it?" said McNamee.

"Then they apparently wanted to wait until the Offaly semi-finals were completed before making any announcement because of Tom's involvement with Rhode.

"Stephen Darby's involvement with Carbury in the Kildare final held it up further apparently. But Pat Flanagan was confirmed as Westmeath manager weeks before Clara played in last year's Offaly final and there wasn't a problem.

"Look at the situation in Cork this year. Denis Walsh announced he wasn't going forward on a Monday and Jimmy Barry-Murphy was appointed on a Thursday. We can't complete it in three months."

Roscommon and Fermanagh are the only other football counties who have yet to fill a vacancy as Fergal O'Donnell and John O'Neill both only stepped down in the past week.

Pat Gilroy's future with Dublin is still not cleared up but a decision is expected soon.

- Colm Keys

Irish Independent



Seriously its time the whole county board should just step down! Niall Mc is dead right this whole thing is a joke! How long more as supporters are we going to put up with this shite? Can we organise a protest ta fu*k! to weed out these useless eejits!

[greengiant]

It

[townman]

have to agree with all what Niall McNamee said on midlands radio 3 today the county board are a disgrace and have been this few years
not just on the football side of things in both codes.

i know theres no man bigger than the team but if he does pull out of the offaly scene it will leave offaly with no forwards going into the new season
maybe it takes something like this to get the muppets that are the county board to pull their finger out.

as i posted here a few weeks ago i was in a pub after the Birr Tullamore game and a member of the county board was in the same pub
and he was asked who else was left in the offaly championship after that evenings games you know something he hadn't a clue who was
left in the hurling some county board member.

[azoffaly]

It's an absolute joke, and you can hear the frustration in Niall McNamee's voice. I'm sure Niall would love one of Tom Coffey or Stephen Darby in there, and that might be contributing to his angst, but his point is valid. It's pathetic.

[townman]

It's an absolute joke, and you can hear the frustration in Niall McNamee's voice. I'm sure Niall would love one of Tom Coffey or Stephen Darby in there, and that might be contributing to his angst, but his point is valid. It's pathetic.

i'd say he wouldn't mind if it was Dana he just wants a trainer in and get working with offaly football like most counties are doing at the moment
how long is it since Tom Cribbin left a few months, fcuk sake its not as if we are the best football county or best talent in the country and there is a long list
of men want to do it or its the best number in the country

[Lone Shark]

I'd be interested to hear where the breakdown is in the system. As was mentioned already, the vacancy has been there for three months, and everyone knew that Darby and Coffey were likely to be front runners for the job. Of course there are some managers who won't be able to commit in July when they have teams to look after at club and county level, but by early September there should be a lot more clarity. Sound people out, conduct interviews and choose the best man. By all means if there are reservations over a particular selector or any element of the package, then voice those reservations and veto on that basis if it's deemed serious enough (That's not meant as a shot at Laz, but if hypothetically he was a stumbling block, they should just ask the manager in question to replace him. If the manager disagrees, then make the decision on that basis.)


At the risk of raising another thorny topic here, I wonder how much of this is down to the fact that our county board is overwhelmingly dominated by public servants, as opposed to business people who understand that three months of stagnation is essentially conceding ground to rivals?


I don't think Niall will pull out, I think he's too interested in his football to do that, and one way or another he should be working on addressing long term injury issues now that he has a break for the first time in ages. However there is no question but that we are starting way behind other teams when it comes to strength and conditioning - and of course the traditionalists will say that these things don't help you kick a ball over the bar from forty yards out, but if you spend the winter dawdling, then you don't get the same amount of time to work on skills and ball work when championship is looming.


There is the possibility here also that for whatever reason, the county board conducted interviews and hold reservations over all the candidates - however I'm not really sure what the best way is to deal with that. Like it or not, managing our footballers is not an attractive proposition right now. There is a perception outside the county that when push comes to shove, hurling will always get first priority. (Hurling people may argue that, but when you have spent three years with a hurling manager doing extremely well and a football manager having to subsidise protein for the players, that view will exist - I'm not saying it is or isn't justified). As a hurling first county with no big benefactors and a tradition of underachieving and ill-discipline, there isn't a lot to offer. Maybe we need to be realistic and accept that we won't get the complete package in a manager.

[townman]

I'd be interested to hear where the breakdown is in the system. As was mentioned already, the vacancy has been there for three months, and everyone knew that Darby and Coffey were likely to be front runners for the job. Of course there are some managers who won't be able to commit in July when they have teams to look after at club and county level, but by early September there should be a lot more clarity. Sound people out, conduct interviews and choose the best man. By all means if there are reservations over a particular selector or any element of the package, then voice those reservations and veto on that basis if it's deemed serious enough (That's not meant as a shot at Laz, but if hypothetically he was a stumbling block, they should just ask the manager in question to replace him. If the manager disagrees, then make the decision on that basis.)


At the risk of raising another thorny topic here, I wonder how much of this is down to the fact that our county board is overwhelmingly dominated by public servants, as opposed to business people who understand that three months of stagnation is essentially conceding ground to rivals?


I don't think Niall will pull out, I think he's too interested in his football to do that, and one way or another he should be working on addressing long term injury issues now that he has a break for the first time in ages. However there is no question but that we are starting way behind other teams when it comes to strength and conditioning - and of course the traditionalists will say that these things don't help you kick a ball over the bar from forty yards out, but if you spend the winter dawdling, then you don't get the same amount of time to work on skills and ball work when championship is looming.


There is the possibility here also that for whatever reason, the county board conducted interviews and hold reservations over all the candidates - however I'm not really sure what the best way is to deal with that. Like it or not, managing our footballers is not an attractive proposition right now. There is a perception outside the county that when push comes to shove, hurling will always get first priority. (Hurling people may argue that, but when you have spent three years with a hurling manager doing extremely well and a football manager having to subsidise protein for the players, that view will exist - I'm not saying it is or isn't justified). As a hurling first county with no big benefactors and a tradition of underachieving and ill-discipline, there isn't a lot to offer. Maybe we need to be realistic and accept that we won't get the complete package in a manager.

the way the county hurlers were not let train in tullamore this year or hurling county games and club finals not in Birr anymore don't think hurling is first Priority in offaly.

[Lone Shark]

the way the county hurlers were not let train in tullamore this year or hurling county games and club finals not in Birr anymore don't think hurling is first Priority in offaly.

We've had that debate over and over. Of course people have different views, both in terms of what the county board were thinking and what happened on that particular day, but whatever about money being considered more important than football or hurling, neither of those two decisions suggest anything about which is more important between the two sports.

Anyway, my point was not about what the management committee actually think - it's about what people outside the county think, and I've heard this from a couple of places now - anecdotal of course, but still relevant.

[llkj]

I listened to the interview with Niall Mc Namee on Radio 3 and he stated very clearly that as long as the county board people 'at the top' are still in place that he is not going to play with Offaly anymore.

In that case, where to from here? Do the players join their captain and not play until the county board resign? Is Niall just speaking out of frustration and does not really mean what he says? Is he out of order, and should let the committee finish their job of selecting the best manager they can find, even if it takes longer than what is needed.

Whatever the situation, we find ourselves making the newspapers at the wrong time of the year for the wrong reasons yet again.

[RhodeRunner]

At the risk of raising another thorny topic here, I wonder how much of this is down to the fact that our county board is overwhelmingly dominated by public servants, as opposed to business people who understand that three months of stagnation is essentially conceding ground to rivals?

That's what you call hitting the nail right smack bang on the middle of the head! Well said Ls

Do the players join their captain and not play until the county board resign?

YES

Is Niall just speaking out of frustration and does not really mean what he says? Is he out of order,

Frustrated! YES. Out of Order. NO.

and should let the committee finish their job of selecting the best manager they can find, even if it takes longer than what is needed.

They had their chance. Like seriously how long do they need? I cant see how a decision like this can't be decided in a matter of hours when you have interviews done.

Whatever the situation, we find ourselves making the newspapers at the wrong time of the year for the wrong reasons yet again.

County board are to blame again and again for this!

Enough is enough! Its well overdue for a major overhaul

[kingscounty]

its a pity one of the players on the hurling team didnt speak out last week and get someone half decent to.the county board should hand their heads in shame,everyone said that a manager for both teams should have been appointed ages ago but instead they left it on the long finger and winners like niall get pissed off waiting around.if teams are already in training for next year offaly are lagging behind,we dont even have a man in charge yet.one thing we in offaly have is the worst county board in ireland.

[puzzled]

Stephen Darby has withdrawn his name as well!

This is an awful bloody mess!

[RhodeRunner]

No seriously are we going to stand by and write about this shit or as supporters do something about it?

suggestions anyone?