www.uibhfhaili.com

Any postmortems on the match ? Couldnt make it myself. Was our defending as poor as it sounded on the radio ?

Well we just never got going really. the loss of Suillivan early on left a very inexperienced full-back line and Meath exploited this as any good team should. Our attack looked a bit toothless without Niall McNamee
An improved second half. No wonderful performances but young Rafferty and Ryan should be given credit for good solid comitted performances. The 2 late goals ended any possibility of a comeback.

I hope we can keep the heads up now and build up a good leage run, Cork will be no pushovers after beating Kerry at the weekend.

I read in the Indo that S Casey came on for Grennan after 7 minutes. Beforehand in the piece it stated that Nigel had an 'eye catching' game. So which is it? Was he injured too?

Any word on the injuries? What happened to Sullivan? Quinny's hamstrings are tightening up again. We don't want to see that. How are Brady and Coughlin?

Cheers.

Casey came on for Sullivan. He went over on his ankle,suspected ligament trouble, will be out for 4 to 6 weeks. I think Scott will be ok for the Cork game, was a precautionary measure not to play him on Sunday. Sure Neville is Neville but should be ok as well. Sean Ryan was impressive enough though inexperience led to him loosing a few balls but his workrate was top drawer and kicked a couple of nice points. PK was on the ball alot which is encouraging but kicked a few bad wides. and a few stray passes - on another day if things went right he would have had a brilliant day. Niall looked sharp with a spring in his step when introduced whilst Mcmanus liked Ryan covered acres of ground.

Once again it seems our backline is going to be the cause of much puzzlement.
In my view, the 4 definite starters for championship are:

Barry Mooney
Shane Sullivan
Karol Slattery
Scott Brady

The most likely to fill the other positions are 2 of:

Nigel Grennan
Sean Casey
James Keane
James Rafferty

The more outside contenders would be:

Paul McConway
Kevin Lynam
Tomas O'Connor


Very much outsiders:
Froggy Daly
Barry Malone
Mark Cassidy
Diarmuid Donoghue
etc.

The big problem is playing people in their best position.
We have loads of good wing backs, but not too many renowned corner backs or full backs.
The only player you know what position they'll be operating in is Slattery.
The other five positions will be like musical chairs.

What are other people's preferred defensive line ups?

Offaly's back line was a problem on sunday mainly due to a lack of experiance and inadequacy.

By the time Championship comes around it should read something like this;

Shane Sullivan (at full back)

(and a half back line that should read)

Karol Slattery Scott Brady Barry Mooney

I cant see who they will put in as corner backs.Maybe James Keane for one spot,but i can see Froggy getting a call before too long.

I wouldn't say it's set in stone that we'll see Slattery at wing back - I can still see him being used in the half forward line. I'd say Keane will definitely play, but probably at midfield, leaving Neville open to play wing back or centre back if needed.

I don't want to see Froggy called back if he's not fit enough - I respect his decision to pull out for a year, but we should definitely not go calling him back, it should be left up to those who are putting the hard work in now.

I think that Cassidy, McConway and Casey are the most likely corner back contenders, though I like the idea of putting Grennan in there purely for pace. They are the ones that should be getting the games over the coming weeks.

i agree with shark,

if a lad wants to call it quits there's no point bringing them back in that same year in any case.

we'll have learnt nothing come july if we're knocked out in the qualifiers

Forget about Froggy for this year, he was not great last year (that's my opinion). I think that Cassidy from Rhode deserves a run, he was excellent against Kilmacud in both matches and in all Rhode matches. he's had some tricky customers to mark and did well, also he is used to having Sullivan beside him, deffinately woth a try. If the u/21's get a run it might show up a few more lads. therefore just forget about Froggy at least for now.

think Nigel grennan is a bit light and possibly not dirty enough for the rough and tumble of corner back play.A good corner back needs to have a bit of ignorance about him.Which is why i'd like to see him possibly sighted on the half back line where he could use his pace to good effect.

In reply to naasmanxrhode froggie did a very good job on that young brennan lad from Laois last year in the wide expanse of Croke park so i wouldnt write his inter county career off yet.I agree with shark and i wouldnt put him in there if he wasnt fit.But if he came back training NOW and built from there he would be one of the best options we have.

Our own Ciaran Reilly scored 1-5(1-2 from play) off cassidy in the quarter final.While he is a good player he is not the answer.

in reply to True Red, just forget about Froggy. His day is gone. Against Edenderry i would say that it was just one of Rhode's poor display's in the Offaly Championship. Cassidy, fair enough did concede 1-05, but like the rest of the backs, they improved greatly as the year went on