WHERE NOW FOR JOE DOOLEY

[naasmanxrhode]

Have Offaly improved under Joe Dooley?, compare Joe with Anthony Daly in Dublin, Dublin have improved , they are very fit, they have a game plan and they don't get hidings from anybody, if we were paired with Dublin we would expect to win but if we were paired with Kilkenny we'd be beaten by 20+ points. I agree with alot of the posts on this site in that we are unfit, can't last 70+ minutes of any match. I think that Joe's time is up and we need someone like Anthony Daly. He has less talent than Joe to work with but is getting better results, why. I think that Cribben has a plan for the footballers, he knows that they need to be fitter and stronger and with a full year with them you'll see hugh improvements (i hope).

[Treasurer]

Have Offaly improved under Joe Dooley?,

Yes. But I'm not entirely convinced he can take them further.

He has less talent than Joe to work with

Not sure sure that's entirely accurate. There are some immensely talented players on that Dublin side that I can easily see becoming household names in the next couple of years.

[Phoenix]

I don't know about Dublin having less talent. The Dubs have been beating us consistently at underage for about 5 years now. I've been at some of those games and the likes of Alan McCrabbe, John McCaffrey and Tomas Brady always stood out as outstanding prospects. There is a wave of even younger players like Treacy who are outstanding also.

Dublin are clearly the 2nd best team in Leinster and that has been coming for a while!

[bluegoalie]

have to agree Dublin are really puttin in the work with the underage teams thats wats payin off for them, In fairness to Daly he's doing a good job but it was a case of being in the right job at the right time where as Joe Dooley is basically after building a team from scratch in the last few years, it was def. a lng term plan he had in mind. Does anyone know the average age of the team? (maybe leave out oakley when your calculating it!!! )

[Lone Shark]

I still say that as long as Offaly avoid relegation to the Christy Ring, this will have been a positive year, and Offaly will be in a position to improve further in 2010 for playing division one hurling. We definitely need more players to step up to the mark to bolster the squad, but you couldn't say that things have gone backwards - albeit a lot of the points on the match thread regarding our strength and fitness probably have merit.

[backofthenet]

I think if we stay in the championship its been an ok year, its hard to know whether it is positive or negative...last year we beat 1 division 1 team and came close to another, this year we lost to a division 2 team and got beat well enough by a division 1 team.

Then the promotion to Division 1 into account its been 50/50.

Some positions we saw as strenghts have now turned into weaknesses, with David Kennys poor performances this year. I know he was injured so maybe that was the deciding factor. But two of the four goals scored against him this year were simply as a result of bad positioning. Letting his man get goal side under a dropping ball is really elementary stuff and its shocking for a inter county full back to make these mistakes. He will need to cut them out to stamp his autority on this position.

Our half forward line showed promise against Cork, we at least competed and won ball there for 40 - 50 minutes in a game. A thing i dont think ive witnessed for about 5 - 6 years.

[athlumneyboy]

Joe need time he is beginning to build something positive its still a very young team, no one else in the county will do any better and the county board wont pay over the odds for someone like Loughnane or English.

[bazza]

I think we're in a positive enough position to be honest. Stay in the championship and then we can build for next year. Get the lads a lot fitter and stronger and work on basic stuff with the likes of Molloy and Mahon i.e. handpassing and shooting. I think Joe needs to forget about Joe Brady and Oakley aswell. Great tryers over the years but their just finished. He should try the likes of Colin Egan in the centre forward position for the whole league. And maybe Eanna Murphy or Diarmuid Horan at 6. Centre back and Centre forward are the most important positions and we have enough of other pllayers like Dooley, Bergin, Carroll, Hanniffy, Kenny, etc to build a team around them. But they have to be sorted.

[Plain of the Herbs]

I don't think there's anything to be gained by changing manager at this stage, at least for another year anyway.

I'd be reasonably positive after Saturday night, actually. I'd like the team to be competitive, but it's by degrees that this will be done. First of all I'd like them to be competitive with the teams in the lower half of the top nine like Clare, Limerick, Galway and Wexford. By that I mean that over a period of time we've got a fifty:fifty record against those. It will always be difficult to compete with the likes of Kilkenny and Cork over a long period of time anyway.

It's difficult to compare this year with last, given that we're comparing Cork with Limerick, who are poles apart not least in terms of leadership. Still, the more I think of it the more I realise what a chance was lost to beat Wexford down there. For the last five weeks, I've thought that ball-winning in the half forward line was a long term Achilles heel, but then they go and give probably their greatest ever display of ball-winning against Cork which puts the Wexford thing in perspective. To paraphrase George Hook, they gave a sucker an even break and paid a big price. I do think they'll be the better for the experience though.

I feel the worst thing they could do now is to make wholesale changes to the squad for next year. It's clear they're building by promoting a huge chunk of the under 21 team who beat kilkenny two years ago, with Bergin, Dooley, Mahon and Molloy all starting in attack. They'll probably have Diarmuid Horan from next year on. Anyway, it's not as if there a dozen or so hurlers not involved who should be, or anything like that..


As for the manager, by drawing Cork he was probably guaranteed another year anyway (unless they really feck up and get relegated). Unless keeping him on would cause unrest in the dressing room (and I'm not for a moment suggesting it would), then he should be kept on.

[naasmanxrhode]

Contrast Anthony Daly and Joe Dooley, After the Leinster final yesterday Daly wasn't interested in back slapping and moral victories. You could see the visible disappointment in his face with not winning that game yesterday whereas on the Sunday game last night Dooley comes out with the oul tosh of ''I'M PROUD OF THE PLAYERS'' after a 13 point hammering. I felt like throwing the tea cup at the blasted telly. HOW THE HELL COULD ANYONE WITH ANY SCRAP OF AMBITION POSSIBLY BE PROUD OF SUCH A BEATING. When players hear guff like this from their so called leader how the hell are they expected to push themselves harder and make themselves better. I bet my bottom dollar Anthony Daly will leave no stone unturned in making sure his Dublin side cut out the silly mistakes he was talking about yesterday to overcome the quarter final hurdle that awaits them. I guess the difference between a winner and a man that accepts what he is given was seen for all and sundry over the weekend.

I totally agree with the above.

[Loughers]

Agree totally with black & red exile. It was mentioned earlier that we can't afford a Loughnane or a English. In my opinion, we can't not afford them. If we keep going to way we are, there won't be anyone going to the matches. Of the 8k there on Saturday, were there 5k from Offaly? We need someone who can give us that bit of extra mettle. There's no guarantee that a high profile manager can do it, but Daly has done something with Dublin and no one is going to want to meet them.

As an aside, I was looking at the relegation situation last night. I presumed we were playing Antrim with the losers playing the winners of the Christy Ring to see who play's Liam next year. Unfortunately not. Us and Antrim play the two losers of the Clare v Galway and Limerick v Wexford games. The 2 losers of that play each other and so on and I mentioned earlier. Jaysus wept.

[Bord na Mona man]

Agree totally with black & red exile. It was mentioned earlier that we can't afford a Loughnane or a English. In my opinion, we can't not afford them.

No use spending big on these managers if the talent isn't there yet.
I doubt English will ever manage an inter county team again.
He escaped Tipp at the right time with his reputation enhanced, he'd hardly risk tarnishing his legacy like Loughnane did.

I'd rather concentrate on getting the production from underage improved before looking for the Rolls Royce option of a senior manager.