structures and offaly football in general

[mrbinman]

the picture at the moment looks bleak enough for offaly football. the seniors ranking officially in the high twenties, a big come down to my mind from a leinster final appearance a short while back. while people gave out about kilmurray, and maybe he had his faults as everyone does, he had a well organised backroom team who knew what they were about and what was involved in preparing a team. competitive in div one football with league wins over donegal, cork (win and draw), westmeath, Fermanagh and monaghan (draw) and narrow defeats to kerry tyrone and dubs (mac missed a penalty to draw), o beirne cup final appearance, leinster final appearance, things were never as bad as people made out. all this while training on a farmers field full of cow paths out in croghan. it seems a far cry from where we have gone in the last few years under pat roe and now i suggest richie connor with all the same players available with maybe a few past their best but plenty coming into their prime. how many from the 06 team have retired? exact same players available and look at the results since. it is appalling to see a lot of hard work wasted to the point of offaly now being considered down with the carlows and kilkennys of leinster. a current player said of recent results "results dont lie" implying that there is a lot wrong still with lads walking away incl committed lads like scott brady and others with bundles of talent such as james keane declining to go in, one must fear for the immediate future. there is now no pride or sense of achievement in making a senior panel as lads have nothin to strive for. even some of the new lads in would consider their club teams more proffessional in their approach to training

we are looking at the state of OY senior football for a while now and giving out about it but what is being done to right the wrongs of the last ten years. what have we learned and what are we doing to address the problems. who is making important decisions. is it smart savvy educated people who know what they are doing or is it people who want to be seen in a badged waistcoat talkin pub talk of the past who know nothin of what is required. everyone knows what is wrong but nobody has made the points to the co board and grabbed the thing by the scruff of the neck and set higher standards.

barring the leinster run three yrs ago, the past 9 yrs or so have been generally unproductive. a decent underage system has been put in place now and we have made the last few minor finals which is progress to my mind. the schools also seem to be doing well enough in their competitions so there is talent there, Marys Edenderry, Killina, Tullamore College, CBS Tullamore, Moate, but my problem is what happens after this. what kind of structures are there to develop lads physically for senior football from minor up. unless they are shunted up to senior level straight away, they are missing out on a few years of strength and development work. other successful counties provide back up and support in terms of diet and strength programmes to players in development over this time, yet offaly totally ignore this crucial area consistently leaving it to a senior manager that is passing through. young fellas need to be given these programmes and support on a regular basis or we end up in a situation where we are now of throwing young guys in to senior action who cant take or give the hits required. it is time that the co. board see this ill and right it before all counties pass us out. the dubs, armaghs and tyrones all have their best young lads on these progs from the age of 16, yet our lads are totally oblivious to it. sure a 3rd string dubs team came down and pushed a first string offaly around at their ease a few weeks ago. a perfect example of this is niall smith who has been involved for the past 4 years where kilmurray had him in as a raw 19 year old for strength and conditioning work but has only come to light last year. it takes a few years for this strength and condition to develop so why not act now and at least ensure that the minors of last year and now can come on in 2/3/4 years and compete with the best. the co board should be pro active not reactive. a small investment now will ensure a rich future, and we wont have to be throwin massive money at another pat roe in a few years wondering where it all went wrong. time to open our eyes and keep up with the rest. time for a bit of savvy and educated thinking on the part of the county board!!!!

[Silken Thomas]

Solid post. Needs an editing but I would definitly agree with a lot of your points.
However without being overtly pessimistic I do believe that the 'achievement' in reaching that Leinster final of 2006 is somewhat tainted. Beating poor Wexford and Kildare sides hardly constitutes Offaly's arrival to the big time. Though our stock has fallen somewhat we were and remain no world beaters.

[mrbinman]

so richie has gone and what has changed. fair play to richie for not doin a cork on it but some of these players need to have a right look at themselves and see where they stand in the whole scheme of things.

they have been in the way of getting rid of the past four managers finding fault with everyone except themselves. can all these managers be wrong. it is more than managerial and co board inefficiencies that has offaly where it is.

kilmurray was shoved out despite offalys most successful period since 98 after being more than competitive in div 1. pat roe was always up against it after the previous year and struggled to get a grip on lads where he had only 1 selector and none from inside the co for a long time. fahey only got the support of the players after he got shafted by the co board. richie has come and gone without bein given a chance.

players meanwhile complain about this that and the other, often about training facilities which is more than legitimate but have they bein doin there part in the whole thing?

for some time many of these players have not been conducting themselves as any co player should and still find fault for their failings with various managers and co board.

some of the main players in this recent coo have their own history of unprofessionalism in their approach and it is a bit rich to be striking on richie coming from them.

some consider themselves too good to train with their clubs even when offaly are beaten in the championship.

some (starters) were caught knacker drinking like 14 yr olds in a wood outside an offaly village on the wed before we played dublin in leinster 1st round in 2007.

some are known to be regulars on the pub scene in mullingar after every league game.

some were on an all night bender till the thurs morning before the qualifier v laois on a sat evenin in 2006 where victory would have left us in all ireland q final.

some have been known to bury cars and other vehicles in ditches around the county drunk as lords and under the influence. rumours about substance abuse is rife.

some have missed training and matches in recent times whileclaiming to be sick while on benders in european cities.

some are known to gardai for their late night behaviour acting like toe rags as recently as the past few weeks, far from the behaviour of a club footballer, let alone inter county.

some of these are the lads that are striking again on offaly football. what has gone on is a disgrace coming from a bunch of fellas who cant conduct themselves off the field. some really need to look at their part in the demise of offaly football.

while richie may have had flaws and has stepped aside, his heart was surely in the right place. as for the players, some use offaly football to parade on the social scene as something special. these lads need to grow up fast as they are as much the reason why offaly is on its knees as the co board or managements or anyone. they need to stand up and earn the respect of the offaly people again because fans are sick to the teeth of their carry on. sometimes the truth hurts... just calling a spade a spade

[Lone Shark]

Mr Binman, you won't get any gold stars for punctuation but you've got some very valid points in your two posts here. Having been one of Kevin Kilmurray's most vocal critics on this board, I suppose I should weigh in here.

KK was certainly not the all out disaster that he may have been made out to be at the time, however I do think that we are now judging him with respect to what happened since rather than with respect to what was happening at the time. Yes, we reached a Leinster final, however he also presided over a championship loss to Carlow and let slip countless games that we could have won. Basically my overall impression of the KK regime was this - his teams were fit, well drilled, well prepared and generally took the field with the best possible chance of success - but once the referee threw the ball in, it all went horribly wrong. He was tactically inept, he failed to spot problem areas or to take any steps to address them - indeed more often than not his substitutions made things worse rather than better. Anecdotes are what they are, but I can't get away from this in 2005 - we went to Carlow and at half time the score was 8-4 to the home side. As the ref threw in the ball for the second half, all fifteen Offaly footballers were lined out in exactly the same positions that they started in. Now I don't mean to be disrespectful to any Carlow lurkers we may have here, but if you're playing Carlow in a qualifier and you're four points down, then SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE on the field is not doing their job and needs either a new role or a replacement. It was no coincidence in my mind either that the two best wins under his regime - Kildare and Wexford - were when he was up in the stand barred from the sideline.

However as another man I respect said to me since, if you had a company that was doing 70% of things right and 30% wrong, even if the results were not great because of it, you don't throw the whole lot out and start from scratch - you add in the necessary ingredients to fix the 30%. That was our mistake then.

Of course that's a separate debate, this is now - and without doubt we are in danger of going down the road that Roscommon did in the early part of this decade, with our players developing a reputation as an unruly bunch of party animals. (obviously not all, but you get the idea). The big difference is that in Rockfords five years ago, being a Roscommon footballer was something to boast about. Right now, being an Offaly footballer is not. That's no disrespect to the lads who have done their best every time they've pulled on the jersey, but it's a simple statement of fact - I can't see a young lad breaking into the county team fighting of young women with a stick on account of it.

The players have now created a situation where the focus will be on them, and we're about to see what they're really made of. Like Silken Thomas, I think that 2006 was the product of a lot of luck, but it also proved that there is some talent in there. I don't think anyone on this board doubts this - but now the players have to prove it. Interesting times ahead.

[Oceans 15]

the schools also seem to be doing well enough in their competitions so there is talent there, Marys Edenderry, Killina, Tullamore College, CBS Tullamore, Moate,

I doin't agree with this point thay are all playing in the 'B' Competitions...

[True Red]

My old alma mater are playing in the Leinster Senior "A" football championship and are more than holding their own.If the ball hops right for them this year they could come away with the cup.

[Lone Shark]

The schools thing is a bit of a misnomer in that Moate are playing in A with heavy Offaly involvement, as are Portarlington I believe. There may even be one or two Offaly lads with Rochfortbridge who are A also, however I'm not certain if there are. It just so happens that a lot of young Offaly players go to schools just across the border - I'd have no problem with that.

Having said that the situation was a lot bleaker only a few years ago, when Edenderry and Portarlington were both playing in B.

[Heshs Umpire]

Colaiste Iosagain, Portarlington is in Offaly. It's on the Gracefield side of the bridge.

[Heshs Umpire]

I see a very good win for Edenderry in the "A" championship yesterday.
Unfortunately for ye, their top scorer wasa Kildare man Paul Cribbin. Still good to see that result.

[Efan]

It’s a shame you did not make a separate post about Kilmurray Mr. Binman as that’s the one everybody has run with but the really important point you have made about the physical condition of lads from the age of 16 – c22. The modern day Gaelic footballer cannon compete in a 70 min game without having this work done and that’s the sad reality. It would be great if you could go back to the old days of something as simple as a Neutron Diet in the pre and post Christmas months sorting your conditioning out for a season!!

We are physically not able to compete with other teams and until we are whatever skill level we have developed at underage level over the last 5 years will not bear fruit. Sad reality but reality none the less. It’s hard to ask guys to put this time in without any short term prospect of success but that’s the chicken and egg scenario.

[True Red]

Unfortunately for ye, their top scorer wasa Kildare man Paul Cribbin.

I dont see how this would be "unfortunate" for the Edenderry school?? Young Cribbin is a key cog in the St Mary's wheel alright but the team is heavily backboned by 8/9 Edenderry players.

Being exposed to such a high level of colleges football will certainly do them no harm and hopefully will augur well for the future of football in Edenderry.

[ubon3fate]

im outside of the county and country but i follow the hurlers and the footballers
the footballers are in a big mess
we had 20 great years from 1970 -1990 we had great men who sacrificed everything for the county -- i could mention everyone of them --they know who they are they must feel let down now -- richie must feel let down but he held his dignity eugene mcgee said in an interview in 2007 that the one thing that seperated offaly players from everybody else was (never say die )where has it gone although i still think the hurlers have not relenquished it the foootballers and ive heard many rumours have succumbed to easy living and the fruits of easy living is not borne in success
this is not the prime factor in our inadequacy in recent years - its also down to no underage development in the 70s we had john dowling as our leader he was instrumental in bringing in eugene mcgee and dermot healy-- who in the county board has done anything in the past 10 years to instill confidence ? answer nobody
joe dooley is doing a good job under the circumstances nobody is going to crack kilkenny tomorrow this is why we are having to endure a has been cork outfit who could not even manage to beat waterford in the past 3 championships trying to say that if they could remove gerald mcartthy they would sudenly start claiming liam mcarthys to beat the band tis allowing for the fact they couldd not even conquer the deise for past 3 years and we seen this year what the cats done to them in the final
richie connor would not have won an all ireland with this present bunch of so called offaly footballers but no one else will eithyer but richie connor proved himself on the football fielde both for walsh island and for offaly and remember the kings of september -- who stood up to a kerry five in a row oufit the best foot ball machine ever and beat them at their own game kerry had a centre back called tim kennelly who had won the four previous all irelands for kerry -- richie conner had played most of his football for club and county from the centre half back position --on that fateful day in 82 richie switched to the centre forward position an controled kenelly for the entire match how many guys from the present offaly panel ,would be capable of doing this in an all ireland final sadly most of them will never even experience the occasion but like a spoiled child they cried w olf this is what the modern male is made off and boh cork and offaly can look forward to more whinging from their open mouthed adolescents who will never realize what it is to stand up and represent your county for nothing more than the honour that it brings and the reward can never be measured in euros or dollers but i think richie summed it up when he said these players are more interested in the kit bag than actually performing on the field martin furlong must be sick i seen that man loose 2 pints of blood in the leinster in 1980 from the boot of john caffrey and still stand up in the gaa centre in tullamore martin had to immigrate to new york in 84 he never got a penny for the blood sweat amd tears he shed for the county the greatest goalkeeper that ever stood in croke park remember the minor final in 64 remember 71 against galway remenber 82 saving sheehys penalty how much does this county owe martin these litle guys who had the cowardly nature to oust richie where do they stanmd in th annals of offaly foot\ball ? saddly nowhere

[True Red]

My old alma mater are playing in the Leinster Senior "A" football championship and are more than holding their own.If the ball hops right for them this year they could come away with the cup.

Jays i should have put money on this one

Anyways, heartiest congrats to the boys from St Mary's. A stunning achievement really when you consider that they only won the All Ireland "B" two years ago. And if i am not mistaken, the first Leinster Colleges A football for a school from Offaly.

[TheManFromFerbane]

Fair play to all involved over there. That is a great result.

[Phoenix]

This was a great tonic to read about in the National press on Monday.

Who would have predicted 3 years ago that an Offaly school would win a Leinster Schools "A" title?

Fair play to Mark Young, Anton Sullivan and all the others.

Michael Duignan was talking on RTE Sunday Sport about Birr and Banagher schools results maybe heralding a new crop of Offaly hurlers. The success of Edenderry, Portarlington last year and even the good showing of Moate this year in schools football must show that there is Offaly talent bubbling under on the way up.