U20 footballers 2024

[Bord na Mona man]

Who knows why management settles on a certain style or game plan, but they usually factor in the group's strengths and weaknesses and build around that.
Going back to 2021 at minor, Offaly were quite comprehensively beaten by Dublin that year. Also, the players on this panel, who are tipped for a bright future, are mainly wearing single-digit jersey numbers.

[Bord na Mona man]

Anyway, it could be worse.
Imagine if Offaly had grabbed a win against Longford only to find out that Kildare had very helpfully let Louth come back from 9 points behind to lose by 2 points...

[joey1001]

I see the old "at least go out and give it a go" brigade are out.. coaching a team and getting game plans right is very difficult at this age level because of the short time frame with these lads, completely different than doing it over a number of years with seniors.. this is a Group of u-20s in a notoriously unpredictable championship (Leitrim beat Mayo the other night). And they've got plenty going on. Some of the comments above would suggest there's no good footballer in it at all. The fact they beat the reigning all Ireland champions would say different. Anyway will be interesting to see how Louth and Kildare go after this. A point about the goalie being our best player and not playing out the field, being a completely free man and having the run of the field is completely different dynamic than playing out field and be responsible for a man and having someone Mark you. Given what we've seen for him I'd suggest he was used in the best way possible and wouldn't have been any better as an outfield player and probably no one else could play the role he does as the number 1.

[jimbob17]

Think the 'give it a go brigade' comment is a bit unfair. People are allowed to say what they think here and to be honest, from watching this evening, I think it is a very fair point. We didnt really go at them when we could have. Countless times in the first half I saw us move the ball out through half backline and inside their half only to stop, turn around and 5 seconds later the ball was back inside our own 45 with us still in possession. We showed very little ambition, bite or penetration or attacking aggression, in the way Longford did to us in first half. It was most frustrating that we never really went at them. I fully agree with other posters here, in that we played like we were never really having a go.

Longford didnt play like this and In the first half alone they created at least 4 goal scoring chances and only for Melia in goal, it could have been over at half time to be fair. He was excellent and while I havent seen much of him before in goals, the way the modern game is going, he could be one for the senior team in future.

When Longford had the ball, we mostly never engaged with them at all and we had 15 inside our own half mostly when they had posession. There is a fundamental flaw to this tactic. It means when we want to transition when we win it back, we had no out ball to go forwards quickly. We had to run it through the hands, with opposition getting back or already being back without having to mark players. As a result, our transition speed was ridiculously slow and this is why they are struggling to score 10 or 11 points in the games. You will be competitive with this style and play in close games (as has proven to be the case) by keeping opposition score down and not conceding much but you wont beat too many decent teams as the required penetration is just not there. This is now an old style of football that was there 5-10 yrs ago in county and club game and is now widely recognised as fundamentally flawed and outdated if you look at what good teams are doing at both club and county level nowadays. Longford didnt play like this and turned us over regularly in our own half back line / midfield in first half by applying pressure and that is where most of their early goal chances came from, albeit they didnt convert them.

Another frustration was the Longford kickout. What is wrong with old style concept of marking your man for the kickout and pressing up - they did it to us and got change out of it. We had forwards splitting and Longford were afforded possession easier than they should and they had attacks we had to then defend that we may not have had if just simply marked up and force them into 50/50 ball. Id prefer if we were more attack minded and played off front foot more. If we did we might not have finished bottom of the group. It was a tight enough group and the small margins matter at this level.

The prep time and game plans etc opportunity was certainly there with this group as they have been training together since last October and most of the management team have had these players since minor level with an extra year starting 4 years ago. There has been plenty of time to adopt and refine game plans - maybe good execution of a flawed game plan was part of the issue, I just dont know.

It is disappointing for all concerned and hard luck to all involved as they've certainly given huge time and endeavour to it. A couple of bright lights from what I saw include Melia in goals, Marcus Dalton and Chris McKeon who is still elegible for another 2 years at this grade, while Dylan Byrne had a very decent second half.

[Superhans75]

I all 3 games we looked like a team with no shape or direction.
Maybe the ammunition is not there..in this team but it definitely hasn't played to it's abilities.
To be honest if was not for the goalkeeper
We would have been in a right mess in all the the games .
Definitely a man who with a furure..
At least the swallows are here .

[joey1001]

Think the 'give it a go brigade' comment is a bit unfair. People are allowed to say what they think here and to be honest, from watching this evening, I think it is a very fair point. We didnt really go at them when we could have. Countless times in the first half I saw us move the ball out through half backline and inside their half only to stop, turn around and 5 seconds later the ball was back inside our own 45 with us still in possession. We showed very little ambition, bite or penetration or attacking aggression, in the way Longford did to us in first half. It was most frustrating that we never really went at them. I fully agree with other posters here, in that we played like we were never really having a go.

Longford didnt play like this and In the first half alone they created at least 4 goal scoring chances and only for Melia in goal, it could have been over at half time to be fair. He was excellent and while I havent seen much of him before in goals, the way the modern game is going, he could be one for the senior team in future.

When Longford had the ball, we mostly never engaged with them at all and we had 15 inside our own half mostly when they had posession. There is a fundamental flaw to this tactic. It means when we want to transition when we win it back, we had no out ball to go forwards quickly. We had to run it through the hands, with opposition getting back or already being back without having to mark players. As a result, our transition speed was ridiculously slow and this is why they are struggling to score 10 or 11 points in the games. You will be competitive with this style and play in close games (as has proven to be the case) by keeping opposition score down and not conceding much but you wont beat too many decent teams as the required penetration is just not there. This is now an old style of football that was there 5-10 yrs ago in county and club game and is now widely recognised as fundamentally flawed and outdated if you look at what good teams are doing at both club and county level nowadays. Longford didnt play like this and turned us over regularly in our own half back line / midfield in first half by applying pressure and that is where most of their early goal chances came from, albeit they didnt convert them.

Another frustration was the Longford kickout. What is wrong with old style concept of marking your man for the kickout and pressing up - they did it to us and got change out of it. We had forwards splitting and Longford were afforded possession easier than they should and they had attacks we had to then defend that we may not have had if just simply marked up and force them into 50/50 ball. Id prefer if we were more attack minded and played off front foot more. If we did we might not have finished bottom of the group. It was a tight enough group and the small margins matter at this level.

The prep time and game plans etc opportunity was certainly there with this group as they have been training together since last October and most of the management team have had these players since minor level with an extra year starting 4 years ago. There has been plenty of time to adopt and refine game plans - maybe good execution of a flawed game plan was part of the issue, I just dont know.

It is disappointing for all concerned and hard luck to all involved as they've certainly given huge time and endeavour to it. A couple of bright lights from what I saw include Melia in goals, Marcus Dalton and Chris McKeon who is still elegible for another 2 years at this grade, while Dylan Byrne had a very decent second half.

My point about the "having a go" is being missed a bit.. you simply can't just have a go and give away the ball.. you have to have a structure and plan, management probably had a game plan in mind based on the players they have and the teams they were playing. Leitrim beat Laois in the league game and then went to Croke park and "gave it a go" and got blown away, like school kids chasing the ball. There are plenty of talented footballers from this bunch and the important thing at this age is that these lads are learning. I wouldn't read too much into the defeat. We beat the reigning champions and as I said be interesting to see how Louth and Kildare go.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

No Joey,

You tend to completely speak down to anyone who critiques any aspect of any teams performance and classify us as catch and kick merchants.

Bottom line is the performance against Louth each of the last two years was embarrassing, we got 2 lucky goals in both games in both years to steal a point last year and keep us in the game this year. We didnt give ourseklves a chance last night,. Our forwards have been starangled by the gameplan.
For last night, Stick Dunican in goals at halftime, move young Melia into a roving role to cause some mayhem and push a couple of our backs into the forwards and replace these backs with backs!
What had we to lose? We are now in a backdoor competition, and we have no interest in it with players having leaving and college exams around the corner, never mind panel members who have looked at the same guys being picked regardless of impact.

[joey1001]

No Joey,

You tend to completely speak down to anyone who critiques any aspect of any teams performance and classify us as catch and kick merchants.

Bottom line is the performance against Louth each of the last two years was embarrassing, we got 2 lucky goals in both games in both years to steal a point last year and keep us in the game this year. We didnt give ourseklves a chance last night,. Our forwards have been starangled by the gameplan.
For last night, Stick Dunican in goals at halftime, move young Melia into a roving role to cause some mayhem and push a couple of our backs into the forwards and replace these backs with backs!
What had we to lose? We are now in a backdoor competition, and we have no interest in it with players having leaving and college exams around the corner, never mind panel members who have looked at the same guys being picked regardless of impact.

You know what you're right, let's take them out and flog them in public!

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Not saying that with any disrespect to you Joey and there is commentary here that frustrates, but my point is, we had come ofthe back of beating Kildare, and had some forwards who clearly are not up to the mark.
Tweak it a bit and if we have ambition to progress we know most likely we need to beat Longford by a few points.

However, all of us here knew when we saw pretty much the same forward line we were going to struggle to kick the scores to win the game.
Bottom line is that there was a number of players picked and introduced over the 3 games that have contributed very little and this is inexcusable by the management and this was similar last year. It is very questionable as to what is offered by the new members to the mgt.

I also know that these guys put in an effort and it is not easy to get people to do the job, I understand all that. But it is a major issue in Offaly now.

[Superhans75]

Look its not the most talented team but it has been like watching Offaly of 7/10 years ago
Lads are trying but the system doesn't suit
Them ..
That is the management job to rectify.
There young men they need guidance.
But when a bit of flak appears the management seem to be like a turtle
Hide in there shell
Anyone know the format of the b championship?

[jk1022]

Performances nowhere near good enough.
There was a lot of talent there this year as there was last year but for some reason they seemed to be held back. Extremely frustrating to watch. Hope they go out next week against Carlow and take the shackles off a little. Talk is that there isn't much interest from the players... not sure if it's to do with the style of football or because of exams etc but would be nice to finish out the year with some positive play in this competition.

[private joker]

There will be little interest because they are out and the remaining matches are of little value.

[del]

Very disappointing result and performance last night . Realistically and with no offence to the players this has to be the weakest playing group we have had at u 20 level in some time . Particularly in the forward division. They worked their socks but unfortunately the talent just wasn’t there . The mgt team will take the blame for the style off football we played and it was very defensive but I really do believe their hands were tied . Ken Furlong wouldn’t be known as a conservative manager he has won a lot of underage championships and u 20 championships with Tullamore recently racking big scores in these games . There is a few players on the U 20 hurling that would have made a big difference but unfortunately the dual player is no more
I think we are in for a few lean yrs at u 20 football looking at the talent around at the moment .
A previous poster has singled out one player by naming him I don’t think that's fair on the young man. He has gone thru a lot to be even playing with various knee injuries he sustained the last few yrs .

[Doon Exile]

Was at each of the three games. I think the tone was clearly set in the first game when we had a very strong breeze in the first half but yet spent large portions of the game with 15 behind the ball. Apart from a fortunate goal, we only scored 2 points with a storm on our backs.

Similarly last 10 minutes of last nights game when 2-3 points down and all men behind the ball. Surely in that instance, you have to take some risks (if leaving in a couple of forwards is perceived to be a risk!!)

I don’t think it’s fair to criticise the forwards on this basis.

On a side note, was disappointed that no medical person went in to Luke kelly when he got injured. He had his hand up signalling to the line and no response. They eventually just put on the sub without physio going in to him.

[jk1022]

Don’t reporters single out players all the time. Questions have to be asked. They aren’t u12.