I feel the decline of the big boarding schools is to Offaly's advantage. Our own school teams have a more level playing field to compete on.
For years Offaly schools tended to get whupped in these competitions.
Great to see St Mary's doing the business.
structures and offaly football in general
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Bord na Mona man
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Re: structures and offaly football in general
great to see edenderry do so well and best of luck in the all ireland series. they had to work hard to overcome moate in the semi who also had plenty of clara and tubber lads and snuck over the line by a point. rochfortbridge did well in this competition also getting to a semi final with a few offaly boys. tullamore college were beaten in the leinster senior voc schools final and would also have a few potential co minors and ferbane did very well to get to a junior A final, so there is some talent there across the county.
its a pity however that this success is not being tapped into by the co board with good support structures to progress these good minor players thro to U 21 and senior as i have discussed in other posts. how can 3 successive minor teams with a considerable degree of success end up at 21 giving such a tame performance against westmeath. granted there was a considerable change in personnell, but something must be wrong when currams, mahon gorman etc are not interested in playing for their county at U 21 considering their success in the not too distant past.
the organisation and foresight does not seem to be there, eg no team was entered into the voc schools competition this year where offaly would have a reasonable chance of success, but more importantly give lads a higher standard of football.
seems to be the same in the hurling with no U 21 managemnt put in place yet in mid march, and the club championship started with the team out in a first rd in 2 months time. some preparation that is. also to reappoint johnny p over the minors with his track record and what was done last year with the bunch when good trainers and managers with proven track records are idle such as john leahy and johnny dooley and even padraic horan.
accountability stands with the co board as they choose the people over the co teams. why are they not able to see and recognise the qualities one would need to possess to fill these roles and give people with some know how and track records their shot. smells purely of jobs for the boys. who are the development officers putting these people in place and making calls that will have a serious impact on the counties chances of success in the future. said it before but the county needs to raise the standards drastically at underage level to bring to fruition a crop of players in 6/7 years time that will be confident in their ability, tactically aware, strong and skillful to cope with top class co football. otherwise we will be visiting the thurles carlow waterford and such places playing the lesser teams in div 3 and 4 only hoping we might win a game.
its a pity however that this success is not being tapped into by the co board with good support structures to progress these good minor players thro to U 21 and senior as i have discussed in other posts. how can 3 successive minor teams with a considerable degree of success end up at 21 giving such a tame performance against westmeath. granted there was a considerable change in personnell, but something must be wrong when currams, mahon gorman etc are not interested in playing for their county at U 21 considering their success in the not too distant past.
the organisation and foresight does not seem to be there, eg no team was entered into the voc schools competition this year where offaly would have a reasonable chance of success, but more importantly give lads a higher standard of football.
seems to be the same in the hurling with no U 21 managemnt put in place yet in mid march, and the club championship started with the team out in a first rd in 2 months time. some preparation that is. also to reappoint johnny p over the minors with his track record and what was done last year with the bunch when good trainers and managers with proven track records are idle such as john leahy and johnny dooley and even padraic horan.
accountability stands with the co board as they choose the people over the co teams. why are they not able to see and recognise the qualities one would need to possess to fill these roles and give people with some know how and track records their shot. smells purely of jobs for the boys. who are the development officers putting these people in place and making calls that will have a serious impact on the counties chances of success in the future. said it before but the county needs to raise the standards drastically at underage level to bring to fruition a crop of players in 6/7 years time that will be confident in their ability, tactically aware, strong and skillful to cope with top class co football. otherwise we will be visiting the thurles carlow waterford and such places playing the lesser teams in div 3 and 4 only hoping we might win a game.