Louth vs Offaly analysis
Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 6:14 pm
A Typical Championship Sunday – Except for the Game.
You wait all year for the little things that make Championship Sunday what it is. That sense of tension in the pit of your stomach that no league game - no matter how important – can create. The sun splitting the stones and warming your skin, even if the females of the group still feel the need for a woolly jumper. The prime location in the heart of a packed terrace, with the aforementioned sun shining in on one side of your face and thus creating that beautiful two tone sunburn for your work colleagues to snigger at on Monday morning. They all weave together to form a wonderful tapestry, and become the type of day that defines your summer.
Sunday in Navan had all these elements, but lacked that final crucial ingredient – a great game. The dull fare served up to us by the two counties unfortunately ensured that this particular Sunday will be one of those that will be barely memorable in 50 days, let alone in 50 years when Lone Shark has every intention of boring his grandchildren to death with how much better footballers were in the old days. (Do unto others after all!)
But with all due respect to any Louth exiles or relations reading these pages, this supporter is most concerned with how Offaly performed, and as such it’s hard to be too critical. The opposition was very poor by intercounty standards, and as such it’s unfair to criticise Offaly for playing most of the second half at less than full intensity, when realistically they would not be human if they were not feeling completely in control. At no stage in the game did Louth look like they had the wherewithal to really run up a sequence of scores, or even dominate possession for a spell, and from the moment John Reynolds palmed the loose ball into the net on the half hour, Offaly were nailed on certainties to close this game out.
Rather than look on the game as a whole, because it had all the vigour of a good challenge match, Kevin Kilmurray and his selectors, as well as the bar stool pundits across the county, will be looking at individual aspects to the game to see what can be gleaned with an infinitely more difficult assignment against Laois looming. From that perspective, and with a view to finishing on a high note – we’ll start with the negatives.
Previously in this column, Lone Shark has bemoaned the litany of wides accumulated by this particular Offaly team, and questioned some of the tactical approaches employed by management with respect to this. 18 wides in Páirc Tailteann leaves one in no doubt as to the continued existence of the problem, but in reality it was hard to blame it on anything other than poor shooting. Despite scoring more points than the entire Louth team between them, neither Niall mcNamee nor James Coughlan will be happy with their own score taking. However these two boys have proved before that they are consistent scorers, and to assume that this was anything other than an off day when playing in a tricky wind would be unfair. Other players had some unfortunate misses as well, but as a rule the shots were from good positions, so all that’s to be done is hope that a few drills in training will clear out the bugs.
From another scoring perspective, there will also be concern at the fact that only one goal was scored – indeed only one goalscoring chance was created – despite so much of the game being played in the Louth end of the field. However again this can be put down to one off day – a team that scored 8 goals in NFL division 1A against the cream of the country does not suddenly forget how to hit the net.
From a more positive perspective, one of the most pleasing aspects to Sunday was the fine fielding display by the Offaly team. This is an aspect of play that has greatly troubled Offaly sides in recent years, and Alan McNamee in particular laid to rest any doubts about who should take the second midfield slot with a commanding display. Neville Coughlan, Colm Quinn and Scott Brady all made fine overhead catches on occasion also, and going into a game against the towering duo of Padraig Clancy and Noel Garvan this will have caused immense satisfaction.
Above all though, credit must go the overall link play and teamwork that was shown. 18 wides and four balls dropped into the keepers hands may look profligate, but allied to 16 scores it meant that 38 scoring chances were created, which is a fantastic statistic. Players like Shane Sullivan, Barry Mooney, both midfielders and debutante Damien Hunt were integral to the fast passing style on display, and if this level of performance can be maintained, Offaly have every chance of at the very least engaging our neighbours to the south in the kind of close encounter that has been a hall mark of this rivalry down the years. Headquarters in three weeks awaits.
You wait all year for the little things that make Championship Sunday what it is. That sense of tension in the pit of your stomach that no league game - no matter how important – can create. The sun splitting the stones and warming your skin, even if the females of the group still feel the need for a woolly jumper. The prime location in the heart of a packed terrace, with the aforementioned sun shining in on one side of your face and thus creating that beautiful two tone sunburn for your work colleagues to snigger at on Monday morning. They all weave together to form a wonderful tapestry, and become the type of day that defines your summer.
Sunday in Navan had all these elements, but lacked that final crucial ingredient – a great game. The dull fare served up to us by the two counties unfortunately ensured that this particular Sunday will be one of those that will be barely memorable in 50 days, let alone in 50 years when Lone Shark has every intention of boring his grandchildren to death with how much better footballers were in the old days. (Do unto others after all!)
But with all due respect to any Louth exiles or relations reading these pages, this supporter is most concerned with how Offaly performed, and as such it’s hard to be too critical. The opposition was very poor by intercounty standards, and as such it’s unfair to criticise Offaly for playing most of the second half at less than full intensity, when realistically they would not be human if they were not feeling completely in control. At no stage in the game did Louth look like they had the wherewithal to really run up a sequence of scores, or even dominate possession for a spell, and from the moment John Reynolds palmed the loose ball into the net on the half hour, Offaly were nailed on certainties to close this game out.
Rather than look on the game as a whole, because it had all the vigour of a good challenge match, Kevin Kilmurray and his selectors, as well as the bar stool pundits across the county, will be looking at individual aspects to the game to see what can be gleaned with an infinitely more difficult assignment against Laois looming. From that perspective, and with a view to finishing on a high note – we’ll start with the negatives.
Previously in this column, Lone Shark has bemoaned the litany of wides accumulated by this particular Offaly team, and questioned some of the tactical approaches employed by management with respect to this. 18 wides in Páirc Tailteann leaves one in no doubt as to the continued existence of the problem, but in reality it was hard to blame it on anything other than poor shooting. Despite scoring more points than the entire Louth team between them, neither Niall mcNamee nor James Coughlan will be happy with their own score taking. However these two boys have proved before that they are consistent scorers, and to assume that this was anything other than an off day when playing in a tricky wind would be unfair. Other players had some unfortunate misses as well, but as a rule the shots were from good positions, so all that’s to be done is hope that a few drills in training will clear out the bugs.
From another scoring perspective, there will also be concern at the fact that only one goal was scored – indeed only one goalscoring chance was created – despite so much of the game being played in the Louth end of the field. However again this can be put down to one off day – a team that scored 8 goals in NFL division 1A against the cream of the country does not suddenly forget how to hit the net.
From a more positive perspective, one of the most pleasing aspects to Sunday was the fine fielding display by the Offaly team. This is an aspect of play that has greatly troubled Offaly sides in recent years, and Alan McNamee in particular laid to rest any doubts about who should take the second midfield slot with a commanding display. Neville Coughlan, Colm Quinn and Scott Brady all made fine overhead catches on occasion also, and going into a game against the towering duo of Padraig Clancy and Noel Garvan this will have caused immense satisfaction.
Above all though, credit must go the overall link play and teamwork that was shown. 18 wides and four balls dropped into the keepers hands may look profligate, but allied to 16 scores it meant that 38 scoring chances were created, which is a fantastic statistic. Players like Shane Sullivan, Barry Mooney, both midfielders and debutante Damien Hunt were integral to the fast passing style on display, and if this level of performance can be maintained, Offaly have every chance of at the very least engaging our neighbours to the south in the kind of close encounter that has been a hall mark of this rivalry down the years. Headquarters in three weeks awaits.