OFFALY V CAVAN.

[black and red exile]

Without doubt our most important game for a long time. With the dreaded Newry trip coming up on Saturday week it is an absolute must that we come away with 2 points on Sunday against the Tommy Carr's Cavan. After their opening two defeats ,beating Down in Newry seems to have kick started their year even though by all accounts they were quite lucky to get over Limerick last Sunday in Breffini Park. We just don't know what Offaly team will turn up next Sunday, the team that gave us all a lift with a very energetic and battling display against Louth or that leaderless headless chicken performance we witnessed in Semple stadium last Sunday. If we are to be victorious next Sunday we are going to have to put on our best show of the year to date. Over the years all Tom Carr's teams have been supremely fit and no doubt Cavan will be in good shape physically which will probably mean Offaly will possibly be found wanting coming into the last quarter of the game if recent games are anything to go by.
The bottom line is that if we lose on Sunday it's hard to see anything but division 4 football next year, our last game will be at home to Limerick and with the treaty men more than likely in desperate need for points to stay up as well as ourselves it will be a game that we would not be any way confident of taking both points from. LS will probably list the star men in greater detail for Cavan, their most notable player is of course Seanie Johnson who is a class act, this guy can play in any forward position and is without doubt their biggest threat, as far as I know centre forward or full forward are his most popular positions and if he is wearing no 14 and left on his own up front then I would imagine our management would have the cop on not to repeat the tactic of leaving a marker one on one with him like we did leaving slatts on his own with Barry Grogan in Thurles last Sunday.

[Superted]

Any word on team selection been picked? Anyone know why Rory Guinan didnt come on the last day?

[Lone Shark]

It's actually a quite new look Cavan team so there would be a lot of guys on there that I wouldn't be too familiar with, plus they continue using the usual form of camouflage as is traditional among Cavan teams (i.e. around a half dozen of them are called either Reilly or O'Reilly so you get confused as to which is which all the time).

Seanie Johnston is of course a threat and he'll probably line out top of the left, but not unlike with Tipperary, Cavan will do their best to isolate him - so let's hope we don't play into their hands to the same extent as we did with Barry Grogan.

Cavan also score a reasonable amount from the wings with Cian Mackey and Martin Reilly each chipping in with a fair bit of scoring from wing forward. Martin Reilly is a pure confidence player - I've seen him struggle to put a thirty yard free over the bar from in front of the posts and I've seen him bang over scores effortlessly from out on the wing, all depending on how he's feeling. Gerry Grehan would know him very well from playing and training with him in DIT this past three or four years so I hope to God someone on the panel or from the management has the cop on to pick up the phone and to get a few tips on how to play him, however I've given up on presuming that such basic prep would be done with Offaly teams, that seems to be something that we leave to other counties.

If I'm not mistaken (and I may very well be) I think that their full back line mightn't be the biggest in the world either - now so far we've picked McManus or Smith at full forward but declined to put anything in on top of either of them - perhaps now is the week to actually horse that ball in and see how we do - anything beats the side to side garbage that we got treated to last week. However as I've said, I may be wrong on that bit.

[Georgio1]

This is going to be a hell of test for us. The one week turn around will leave it difficult to address all the weaknesses that showed up last Sunday.
Few points: Can McManus, Alan Mc, Sean Ryan, Evans, Carroll, Mitchell all be as bad again. I hope not!
We have to protect our backline, and a harder working forward unit was the key against Louth. Although in fairness, looking back, the wind probably helped disrupt that game to our favour. We need to take our chances, we missed some good chances, especially in the first half.
We need our forwards to put themselves in with the risk of a yellow, rather than lose a Smith or a Slatts to a last ditch foul.
Bottom line is I feel we are playing for our safety, and for us to go back to Div 4 would be a huge kick in the tail end. We wont have the bottle to go to Down on the back of a defeat and get anything, and Limerick will be no pushover either.Deehan needs to start too. I know I have criticised our full back line, but I dont know. Slatts is not comfortable there, neither is Sullivan, Evans was roasted last week. Hate to criticise without offering a solution, but on this occasion, sorry! Hard to see a fix.

[Lone Shark]

The truth is that we're always likely to be making do when it comes to the full back line since we simply don't have that kind of man marker in the county at the moment (there is one in Clare, but that's another story). That's fair enough, any smaller size county will always have a weakness or two, but it makes it imperative that we don't expose that weakness. Certainly I wouldn't like to see a repeat of the one man full back line policy that we played last week, that's for sure.

[Bord na Mona man]

I presume we are playing Karol Slattery at corner back to make up for a lack of pace there?
Which obviously removes one of the best attacking options.

Also, as mentioned the "side to side" football is a big problem for Offaly. A feature of Offaly's worst performances over the last few years has been players giving sideways passes to static players, and eventually giving away possession after a flurry of these.

This happened a few times in the Kilmurray era, but it became a feature of the Roe (Laz Molloy) tenure when this actually became part of the tactics.

Offaly players tend to panic in congested areas and take the wrong options. Players draw the opposition on top of them start to give hospital balls to each other. The amount of turnovers Offaly give away in their own half is serious.

If I was an opposition manager, I'd tell my team to kick everything they have inside the Offaly '45 and pin Offaly back in there. Even if the Offaly defenders get possession, if you put enough bodies in the way you stand a great chance of pressurising them off it again.

The Offaly management really need to get players to kick the ball away at a certain point instead of embarking on a spiral of ever worsening pressure handpasses.

[bracknaghboy]

You cant beat the following setup.
3 in the full back line
3 in the half back line
2 midfielders
3 half forwards
3 in the full forward line who all stay inside the 21 at all times.
No handpassing.
No bringing forwards back behind the ball.
Long ball after long ball.
Its simple and basic Gaelic football how it should be played. Performed correctly it would win us a Leinster. Think 1997.

[Georgio1]

3,3,2,3,3! How come we never thought of that. No doubt with Frank Weir at Full forward ably flanked by Davie on one side and Tom Fitzpayrick on the other, with Paschal Dempsey doin the "lorryin"!! God be with the days!

[GOOFY]

Bracknaghboy - one word comes to mind - annihiliation evry time we take the pitch.

[bracknaghboy]

In responce

Bracknaghboy - one word comes to mind - annihiliation evry time we take the pitch.

Annilhilation....and how exactly does that differ from whats happening at the moment.

3,3,2,3,3! How come we never thought of that.

The thing is nobody seems to think of this anymore....thats the problem. All teams are trying to be clever and outsmart each other and all that is happening is teams getting tied up in knots and going nowhere with ball. Forget the sweepers, handpassing and crowding etc just go out and play football. Remember its called FOOTball not HANDball.

with Paschal Dempsey doin the "lorryin"!!

[bula bula]

For what its worth Bracknaghboy I would also like to see us playing the more traditional formation but its hard to get away from the fact that with the way the game is now this would more than likely give an advantage to our opponents. The fact of the matter is we just do not have the footballers to play this way. Even Kerry, the most gifted natural footballing team around IMO, have had to adapt their game and formations to suit as they were getting beaten playing this way. I would not like to see us go down the Westmeath route of anti-football but just to see some sort of system that we can adapt to each game would be a way forward.

As for this weekends game a win would be good but on form we have it all to do and as others have said curtailing Seanie Johnston will be the key. This is easier said than done however and a tough afternoon is in store for the backline.

A player told me last week that Cribben is working hard on the fitness and they were after putting in a savage week of training leading up to the Tipp game. We will not see the fruits of this until probably the championship and relegation might come because of it , but at least we know the players should be raring fit to go against the lilywhites.

[bracknaghboy]

I still think we should give it a try.....whens the last time we tried to play proper football??
On a more long term note I agree we need to be well prepared for Kildare but staying in division 3 has to be our goal. Its actually a very competitive division and if properly prepared next year we could have a right crack at it getting good games along the way. I think the whole Richie affair has soured our 2009 league but a drop to divion 4 gives us very little platform for 2010.......going to Nolan Park to beat Kilkenny by 73 points will be of little use. The drop must be avoided.

[Lone Shark]

I would question that any particular style or formation is entitled to be called "proper" football - traditional football perhaps, but proper football is very subjective to say the least.

Regarding the idea itself, you'd barely ever see the ball. The opposition would pull a corner and a wing forward back for the kickouts and you'd be two men short under every break - and thus you'd usually lose possession. Then when one of their guys would win it, they'd lay it off to a wing back bombing forward, who would go untracked since no forwards are to go back behind the ball. Then the opposition would just use the overlap and pick you off.

That's before you factor in aspects like how we're not greatly endowed with natural full back line players right now and there is a real case for saying that our full back line needs more help, not to be all the more isolated.

[Silken Thomas]

Staying in Division 3 is more important than beating Kildare in the Championship.
Division 4 is a graveyard for any ambition.

Realistically as well if we are relegated, how could we even make a stab at Leinster

[Bord na Mona man]

Whatever about formations, Offaly need to play more direct football.
The short passing lark in your own half is dangerous.
The more times you pass across your own goal, pass to a someone facing the Offaly goal and pass to someone not moving, the greater chance of conceding cheap scores.

I was watching Kildare last Sunday and they played the running game how it should be done. Overlapping support on every ball carrier's shoulder, working the ball from the inside outwards. Players running onto every pass.

They were going forwards fast, too often Offaly go sideways slowly!