Pat Roe steps down

[Lone Shark]

Statement from the county board:

Offaly Football Manager Pat Roe this morning (21st July) informed County Board Chairman Pat Teehan of his intention, in the best interest of Offaly football, not to seek a further year as manager of the Offaly Senior Football Team. Offaly County Board wish to thank Pat Roe for his commitment to the Offaly Senior Football team over the past two years.

The succession race begins I suppose.

[Bord na Mona man]

Statement from the county board:
The succession race begins I suppose.

A race for several candidates to rule themselves out as quick as possible you mean!

[athlumneyboy]

no one wants the job. Who would want to work with a bunch of big headed egos. They think they are world beaters we would be better off putting out yesterdays Minors they would have more pride and heart i think players like Kelly,Rafferty and McManus called it a day.

[Rynaghs Biffo]

Can't see anyone putting themselves forward promptly anyway.
Reckon Luke Dempsey could be the man??

[Bord na Mona man]

Reckon Luke Dempsey could be the man??

Fair play to him if he wants to take on the job.

[azoffaly]

The priority, the ABSOLUTE priority now must be to appoint a manager, any manager, in time for him to have a decent look at the club championship. Pat bowing out has done us a favour there, because at least now there is a chance that a new man can be put in place in time to actually see lads playing, and to pick on that basis, rather than looking at the program from last year and calling in everyone from that, plus a few token trial games. Bollox to the trial games, see lads playing and then invite in the best to training.

What can't be allowed happen is another committee being set up, arsing around and appointing someone in October.

[athlumneyboy]

The County board should approach the follwoing list in looking for a new Manager

1. Stephen Darby
2. Colm Coyle
3. John Maughan
4.Brendan Lowry
5.Luke Dempsey
6.Paul Bealin
7.Joe Kernan
8.Peter Canavan.
9.Charlie Redmond.
10. Declan McGovern.
12. Glen Ryan
13 Peter Forde.
14 Tommy Carr

There is loads of lads that could be appraoched when looking at right person, the county board are going to have to spend money and get a proper trainer who won't take any crap from players.

[DD]

Hang on now lads. It's only two minutes ago that Roe was totally responsible for our footballing woes and indeed everything bad in the world.. now a lot of you are almost absolving him and blaming the players completely.
Yeah, we all know Saturday was a disgrace but this is a culmination of various factors dating all the way back to maybe Kelly's ousting but more likely to the time around the sacking of Gerry Fahy. It all unfortunately came to a horrible crescendo the other night.
Of course these lads are big headed fuckers but county footballers always have been and always will, thats never going to change. A good few lads have been there too long but mainly because of the lack of talent in the county more than any other factor.
Roe had lost the players a long time ago (probably all the way back to last year) and once that happens, it could never be retrieved and this was a result waiting to happen.

[Bord na Mona man]

The County board should approach the follwoing list in looking for a new Manager

1. Stephen Darby
2. Colm Coyle
3. John Maughan
4.Brendan Lowry
5.Luke Dempsey
6.Paul Bealin
7.Joe Kernan
8.Peter Canavan.
9.Charlie Redmond.
10. Declan McGovern.
12. Glen Ryan
13 Peter Forde.
14 Tommy Carr

There is loads of lads that could be appraoched when looking at right person, the county board are going to have to spend money and get a proper trainer who won't take any crap from players.

I'd strike Coyle, Bealin and Redmond from that list for starters.

[Lone Shark]

the county board are going to have to spend money and get a proper trainer who won't take any crap from players.

I'm not sure that those two have to be so intertwined. Surely you can be a straight shooting manager who expects honourable behavious without necessarily pulling in a huge wedge under the table?

I don't want to pull this thread into another debate on paid managers and the rights and wrongs of it, but I'd hate to see us falling into the trap of presuming that paid=better.

Without being too specific for obvious reasons, I would suggest that "recent events" should have taught us that the two don't always equate.

[azoffaly]

I don't absolve him, or Kilmurray, or anyone else I've criticised in the past, but I am not giving the players a free pass either. You can't tell me that the players have given their all, especially in the Qualifiers, since Paul O'Kelly left.

Pat Roe was poor, no doubt about it, but the players are still supposed to play for the jersey and for each other, and they have failed in that, miserably. Roe thinks tactics come in two flavours, mint and orange and apple, but he is not the one who lay down on Saturday, or in Wicklow last year, or in Dublin last year, or in Wexford Park, or in Limerick or etc etc etc. This has been building for several years, as you say, but the only constant among all the managerial changes is that the players have not prepared themselves, mentally or physically correctly.

IT has nothing to do with being big-headed. You need to be confident to play inter county football. But it has everything to do with committment, application and honesty. The players have not been honest with themselves, with each other, with their manager or with us for quite a while.

Again, I'm saying 'the players' because I don't want to go down the path of naming lads, so I'm placing a collective blame on them. I'm well aware there are lads who should be absolved from this, and fair play to them.

So in short, I'm not absolving the various managers, far from it, but my faith in the integrity of the Offaly players as a unit has been badly shaken, and it's up to them whether they come back or not, no matter who is training them. A bad manager can cost you matches, but he can't take away your personal pride, or willingness to work hard. You can only do that yourself.

[faithful till I die]

The County board should approach the follwoing list in looking for a new Manager

9.Charlie Redmond.

????????? Is that a joke ?

It does not matter if we get twenty top managers, unless the players want to train hard & go about the business in a dedicated & committed manner we are on a hiding to nothing. Whoever the new man is (& the sooner the better) he will have his work cut out for him shaking off the apathy & bad habits that many of the current squad have developed.

[Sydthebeat]

good riddance, let the rebuilding begin as quickly as possible.

How about Mc Manus for manager??????

(just throwing it out there....)

[Bord na Mona man]

The priority, the ABSOLUTE priority now must be to appoint a manager, any manager, in time for him to have a decent look at the club championship. Pat bowing out has done us a favour there, because at least now there is a chance that a new man can be put in place in time to actually see lads playing, and to pick on that basis, rather than looking at the program from last year and calling in everyone from that, plus a few token trial games. Bollox to the trial games, see lads playing and then invite in the best to training.

What can't be allowed happen is another committee being set up, arsing around and appointing someone in October.

This is vital.
Offaly have messed up badly in hurling and football in the past.
The constant replacement of managers, but never giving them proper time to evaluate the merits of the panel.

Especially when you are getting outside managers, who don't know the club scene.

[athlumneyboy]

its no joke Charlie doing very well up here in Meath training teams and is respected.

if we bring in a manager with a bit of back bone the like of Brendan Lowry or Joe Kernan some one who players look up to and respect they might cut out all the crap that was going on.