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Offaly football manager Emmet McDonnell has dropped Ross Brady, Richie Dalton and Sean Pender from his squad.

The Irish Daily Star reports that the trio missed a training session earlier this month and were removed from the Faithful County squad for failing to inform management of their reasons for being absent.

Westmeath native McDonnell isn't, however, ruling out the prospect of Brady, Dalton and Pender wearing the county jersey again in the future.

He explained: "If players are showing the commitment to play for the county I won't close the door."

Offaly are expected to name their panel for their Leinster SFC campaign today ahead of their quarter-final clash with Kildare at Croke Park on June 1.

This is why we are where we are.

They missed a training session and you don't need to be a genius to work out why. It's a real pity after all the hard work and commitment they had shown to get this far but discipline is discipline. If McDonnell doesnt have that, he has nothing.

"This is why we are where we are."

Because he is trying to enforce some discipline that was lacking over previous years?
None of us know the full reasons why, but would seem harsh over missing one session, given the year they would have put in.

All the same, Mcdonnell is in the position of strength given that he has achieved promotion, he has the chance to test the committment of his players.

Who will move into midfield though, if Dalton is out, Alan Mc not going to last in the heat of championship.

When the word came out you could guess who was involved. Usual suspects who have withdrawn from panels before when things didn't suit them.Sometimes you just have to wonder what goes on in fellows heads.

From what I heard, the whole panel was in galway for the weekend and that they were told to back for training. The three in question turned up late and were worse for wear and were told they were dropped. Now this is only what I have heard obviously so don't shoot the messenger. In fairness McDonnell wouldn't drop them three for nothing, he would of trained all three through the schools and would have a good relationship with them. I feel if they dropped there discipline then he was right to cut them, because where do you draw the line?

fair play to mcdonnell if they are not toeing the line get rid.

First I've heard of this, and it's very disappointing news - however in the general case, since I've no knowledge of the facts of what happened here, if a manager lays down rules, then he has to enforce them. By giving second chances for wilfully ignoring instructions he's essentially giving every player a get out of jail free card to use when they like.

So disappointing to hear this .This really has almost certainly dented any chance we have of upsetting the odds against Kildare.

I wonder if it is written in stone that they are gone , according to hoganstand the panel was due to be named the other day can anyone confirm if it was named?

If the three lads are defiantly gone I wonder who will fill the three central roles . Midfield would be my biggest concern as Richie was good throughout the league Alan who is playing well but may not last the full 70 minutes of championship pace, It would be a pity to have to drag Brian Conner out of center forward to play there as he was doing well but it seems the most obvious choice right now .

Is it possible that other personal will be called upon to fill the gaps? It would be demoralsing to see this at this stage as the lads have a gathered little bit of momentum coming off what can be considered a good league campaign .

I reckon the most likely 15 to start in crocker now if the lads are gone will be :


A Mulhall;
P McConway,S Sullivan, B Darby;
E Carroll, , J Malooney ,M brazil;
B Connor, A McNamee;
G Guilfoyle, P Cunningham, A Sullivan ;
N McNamee, K Casey,N Darby

If a player ( or players) did not arrive in good time for training without having informed Management in advance then action has to be taken.

The suggestion of "arriving late worse for wear" is horrendous and were it true the culprit (or culprits) should never be allowed wear The Jersey ever again.

Fairly hard on the lads, but surely they are entitled to the odd bit of socialising. Players need a life outside of training, after all its not a professional sport. Commitment to county level is savage so the odd slip up is inevitable.

Will they be back for the Kildare match?

I think the issue isn't that they missed training, it's for "failing to inform management of their reasons for being absent". A bit of a difference. Anyhoo, how is McDonnell (or anyone else) to operate an inter-county panel, or any other kind of panel, for that matter, when they don't know who's going to turn up to any particular session?

Fellas who let the side down a mere three weeks away from the Championship are no good to anyone. In an amateur sport, anyone can have another commitment, like having to visit their granny on a particular date, but no-one in any serious set-up would do so at such short notice without informing management. Looks to me from quite some distance away that they called McDonnell's bluff, only he wasn't.

Which is quite different to the way the hurlers operate, as we saw in another thread, where 90% of them apparently don't be kept in the loop as to what's going to happen next.

Fargo Boyle wrote:Fairly hard on the lads, but surely they are entitled to the odd bit of socialising. Players need a life outside of training, after all its not a professional sport. Commitment to county level is savage so the odd slip up is inevitable.

Will they be back for the Kildare match?