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I've been doing some thinking on this recently and given the promise that the minors have shown this year in football it is encouraging but long term down the line with the lack of a proper structure in place having one good minor team just isn't going to be enough to get us out of the mire we are in.

As you all know players tend to fall away as they get older, emigrate, lose interest whatever so whatever success we have with this team, its what's coming after that that i'm concerned about and with the lack of effort (bar the work Alan Mulhall is putting in) being put into underage football in the county, I'm not so sure things are going to improve any time soon

Truth as i see it wrote:I've been doing some thinking on this recently and given the promise that the minors have shown this year in football it is encouraging but long term down the line with the lack of a proper structure in place having one good minor team just isn't going to be enough to get us out of the mire we are in.

As you all know players tend to fall away as they get older, emigrate, lose interest whatever so whatever success we have with this team, its what's coming after that that i'm concerned about and with the lack of effort (bar the work Alan Mulhall is putting in) being put into underage football in the county, I'm not so sure things are going to improve any time soon

Offaly won an All Ireland SF title in 1971 with the nucleus of the 1964 AI champions.
2 SH titles were won in the'90's with the players from the AI winning teams from 1986-1989

Lao-Tzu say: Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

SearingDrive wrote:

Truth as i see it wrote:I've been doing some thinking on this recently and given the promise that the minors have shown this year in football it is encouraging but long term down the line with the lack of a proper structure in place having one good minor team just isn't going to be enough to get us out of the mire we are in.

As you all know players tend to fall away as they get older, emigrate, lose interest whatever so whatever success we have with this team, its what's coming after that that i'm concerned about and with the lack of effort (bar the work Alan Mulhall is putting in) being put into underage football in the county, I'm not so sure things are going to improve any time soon

Offaly won an All Ireland SF title in 1971 with the nucleus of the 1964 AI champions.
2 SH titles were won in the'90's with the players from the AI winning teams from 1986-1989

Yeah fair point but neither side was starting from division 4 and i think we should be looking for sustained success at under age much like Roscommon are doing at the moment before we can start thinking about becoming competitive again

Football that is and don't forget the hurlers only stayed in Division 1B via a relegation promotion playoff and its not like there is an abundance of talent coming from the minor ranks in hurling is there?

Unless the county board decide to sit down and come up with a workable step by step development plan and time table for the county we will sadly see little progress

Truth as i see it wrote:I've been doing some thinking on this recently and given the promise that the minors have shown this year in football it is encouraging but long term down the line with the lack of a proper structure in place having one good minor team just isn't going to be enough to get us out of the mire we are in.

As you all know players tend to fall away as they get older, emigrate, lose interest whatever so whatever success we have with this team, its what's coming after that that i'm concerned about and with the lack of effort (bar the work Alan Mulhall is putting in) being put into underage football in the county, I'm not so sure things are going to improve any time soon

Hi Truth,

You have a reasonable point and anyone who thinks that having one good minor team will solve the issues is delusional.

At the moment, the only thing that should matter for this group is that they are in a Leinster Semi-Final against Dublin.

I too must turn to the East along with Dubbiff:

dubbiff wrote:Lao-Tzu say: Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Dubbiff, was it not Confusious who said that!!!

A common mistake Hyper however it was definitely the father of Taoism who said it and not Confucius. Another one of his quotes I can relate to as an Offaly supporter is: "If you don't change direction you will probably end up where you are going."
This minor squad seem to be very confident in their own ability and yet very grounded. Beating Dublin at any level in GAA is a huge ask. This is not a vintage year for them however and there is very real hope for optimism. I know Pascal will have our lads well prepared for the physicality every Dublin team seems to bring to the table now. Without heaping too much pressure on their young shoulders I would be of the opinion that a Leinster final win would at last be the turning of the corner so fingers crossed! Let's face it - things cannot get much worse.

dubbiff wrote: Beating Dublin at any level in GAA is a huge ask. This is not a vintage year for them however and there is very real hope for optimism. I know Pascal will have our lads well prepared for the physicality every Dublin team seems to bring to the table now. Without heaping too much pressure on their young shoulders I would be of the opinion that a Leinster final win would at last be the turning of the corner so fingers crossed! Let's face it - things cannot get much worse.

Pascal is doing great stuff with these lads. Hearing nothing but positives from people close to this team. He seems to have earned huge respect with all involved and I was impressed with the manner which he took the minor job despite being shafted for the U21's. I'd like to see us produce 3 or 4 solid players from the minor set up over the next couple of years rather than say 1 exceptional player. If this worked out well then Pascal would be primed for the senior job in 3 or 4 years time and could have a handful of these lads with him. However theres a lot of water to pass under the bridge between now and then.

Yet again, lads able to turn a positive into a negative, Well done Truth!! You are a true modern Offalyman!

Ahlethimoutwithit wrote:Yet again, lads able to turn a positive into a negative, Well done Truth!! You are a true modern Offalyman!

Not trying to be negative believe me, i hate it too when people use cop out excuses like no talent, bad crop, what can you do, that mindset drives me up the wall quite frankly but i'm just being realistic here

I think its fantastic that we have a good crop at this level but its been proven in the past that one good crop isn't enough.

Like i said before Roscommon has had excellent underage success in the past number of years, won a All Ireland minor title in '06, won countless Connacht minor titles and have gotten to two under 21 finals in the space of two years yet all they have to show for their efforts is one Connacht senior title in 2010 and relegation and promotion to division 3

I honestly hope that the minors win a Leinster this year and challenge in the latter stages of the All Ireland series but in order for us to progress properly and with purpose over the next few years a progress plan must be developed and implemented by the county board thatimproves both training facilities and player development otherwise this is a failed project from the start for everyone involved including supporters

Fully agree Truth..... Any of the successful counties (Tyrone, Dublin, Clare and now Cavan etc) who have devloped good teams have systems in place to bring lads through..... we dont have this at all and the present minors of this year and again next year will be primarily down to a few lads from outside the county who brought them through from U14 to U16 without hardly losing a game. These are lads that deserve a lot of credit having put huge work in to implementing strength and conditioning programmes and good coaching that resulted in winning that U16 cup last year..... My point is that we tend to ignore these people who do good work and these are no longer involved in Offaly GAA after all of their good work..... A nephew of mine who was involved in these teams and all of the U16 lads from last year have huge regard for these lads and the way they were treated by them but when lads like these are badly treated and walk away, no wonder we are in the sad state of affairs we are currently in......The minor team now is not a result of good planning but more by default that the county struck lucky in getting a few good lads to do huge work for a few years for nothing.....only to be told they were no longer of any use once the minor job came up.

We have see this before at least twice in the last 7 or 8 years and the planning is gone out the window and the pieces have to be picked up thereafter.....