Offaly Football Team Versus Wexford

[Overview]

Make no bones about it-this is not just a qualifier- it is the most important game Offaly is involved in since they lost to Dublin in the Leinster semi-final in 2007, by the score of 1-12 to 0-10. The Offaly team had arrived at the stage of the Championship in a mindset that, as in the previous decade, they could turn up, turn it on and win!! Whereas, the reality was that Dublin and teams who genuinely wanted to ACHIEVE were at a different level of mental and physical preparation. The outcome of the game was that the Dublin players went on to win Leinster medals and the Offaly players went out on the "piss" foolishly consoling themselves with the mantra that they had "put it up to Dublin" and completely missing the point that- THEY HAD LOST!! A couple of weeks later, they dutifully "turned up" for the qualifiers and were beaten out of sight! 2008 was a similar scene...only worse... firstly losing to Westmeath in Tullamore and then annihilated by Down.

2009.... has anything changed?? I believe that we are at last seeing "Green Shoots" in the fortunes of Offaly football. Players showed loyalty to one another in their united stance on the removal of Richie Connor, and respect when they made no comment on the matter bourne out of regard for the contribution the Connor family has made to Offaly football. Then under the knowledgeable duo of Tom Coffey and Phil O' Reilly, they then got their first point in the league and bearing in mind the awful start to the year and the negative press they received, Offaly finished a creditable second in the group under the competent stewardship of new manager Tom Cribben.

Now that the championship was imminent, the management was fully aware that the players would not reach the mental or physical level required in time, and they had no option but to try and find a balance in training between putting up a respectable performance against Kildare and building for the future. I believe they have achieved this balance, visibly borne out by the physical transformation of Alan Mc Namee and Shane Sullivan in particular and to a lesser extent, the "nearly there" Neville Coughlan over the last seven weeks. In addition, the leadership qualities shown by the "newcomers", Brian Darby, Stephen Lonergan, Niall Smith and Sean Ryan, combined with the freshness of Ken Casey and Niall Darby (unfortunately now injured) and the return to form of the incredibly talented Niall Mc Namee .....the trip to Wexford is one to be relished.

Tom Cribben has a couple of tough calls to make, namely in goals, full back and wing forward positions....but for what it's worth, here is my guess at the starting lineup.
1. P. Kelly/ A. Mullhall
2. S. Lonergan
3. G. Rafferty/ C. Evans
4. B. Darby
5. N. Coughlan
6. S. Sullivan
7. K. Slattery
8. A. Mc Namee
9. C. Mc Manus (in the absence of Niall Smith)
10. P.J. Ward/ J. Renolds
11. S. Ryan
12. K. Casey
13. T. Deehan
14. J. Reynolds/ P.J Ward
15. Niall Mc Namee

N.B. Tom Cribben has set an example of "giving rather then getting" and I hope that the "giver gets"next Saturday in Wexford Park, GOOD LUCK to all involved.

[Hyper]

Niall Smith is back in,whether he gets to start or not is another thing!

[Colin H]

Yeah smith is back in! So this is the team i would put out:
1.A.Mulhall

2.S.Lonergan
3.C.Evans
4.B.Darby

5.G.Rafferty
6.R.Dalton
7.K.Slattery

8.B.Connor
9.N.Smith

10.S.Ryan
11.C.Mcmanus
12.K.Casey

13.T.Deehan
14.A.Mcnamee
15.N.Mcnamee

Then ya have the likes of john reynolds,neville coughlan nd willie mulhall to bring in

[naasmanxrhode]

would'nt have Evans on the Rhode Junior E team.

[fatlad]

Can someone please clear this up for difinite - Is Smith back in with panel - conflicting stories all over the place.

[lovelyhurling]

If smith is back, i'm very confident of beating Wexford though more down to their lack of effort than our talent and attitude. Hopefully Saturday brings us at least one victory anyway. Some good teams posted up here... how is Brian Connor going in training at the moment, if he starts it will be a huge step up for him.

[Colin H]

yes smith is definetely back,im from gracefield and offaly were trainin in gracefield last night and smith was there trainin!!

[Hocker]

Jason Kelly and Aidan Keeneghan are also back!! Paul Deeley from Shannonbridge has also been added to the panel as of last weekend.

This is the time I'd be putting out:

1.A.Mulhall

2.S.Lonergan
3.C.Evans
4.B.Darby

5.A.Keeneghan
6.G.Rafferty
7.K.Slattery

8.J.Kelly
9.N.Smith

10.S.Ryan
11.C.Mcmanus
12.K.Casey

13.T.Deehan
14.P.Deeley
15.N.Mcnamee

[Bord na Mona man]

Jason Kelly back!!

When the hard training is already done of course!

[MF35]

How many times is that in the last few years that Jason Kelly has been drafted in for the qualifiers?

Crazy stuff altogether!!

[Bord na Mona man]

How many times is that in the last few years that Jason Kelly has been drafted in for the qualifiers?

Crazy stuff altogether!!

I make it three years in a row, if you count the 2007 Tommy Murphy Cup.

[Lone Shark]

I truly hope that the players are looking at this game the same way that Overview did in his first post. The fact of the matter is that Wexford are without Adrian Morrissey, who is a fantastic wing back and the source of a lot of their attacks, and also without Matty Forde, who has been responsible for 60% of all Wexford scores since 2004. Our challenge match form might be useless, but theirs is no better - they drew with Waterford a little over a week ago and appear to be just as lifeless as we are.

If our lads can grasp just how energised they and everyone involved in Offaly football would be from getting a win, they might begin to see the opportunity that lies in front of them. On the one hand we are in the first round of the qualifiers with Croke Park a mile away, but on the other hand if we beat Wexford, there is a 75% chance that we'll have another very beatable team in round 2. Round three would probably be a tough fixture, but the trade off for that is that if we got to Round four, two of the four teams we could draw will probably be Limerick and Antrim. The potential in this season is huge as of yet, particularly if players like Coughlan, Sullivan and indeed Alan McNamee are getting their fitness and their form back.

Subsequent results suggest that a six point loss to Kildare is not actually that bad form, and when one allows for getting caught on the hop at the start, there is a lot to be said for keeping the head up. Hopefully that's how our players are seeing it this week anyway.

[Bomberman]

would'nt have Evans on the Rhode Junior E team.

I second that!!

Walsh Island have a good corner back any one know who he is? Played very well against Gracefield, nearly won the game for them at the death.

Paul Deely was called in?? Is the maor uisce sick or what ??

[naasmanxrhode]

on the teams picked above how could you pick Evans and raffert on the same team, it would be suicide, both useless. imagine if you were a forward and were to be marked by one of these, happy days.

[Lone Shark]

on the teams picked above how could you pick Evans and raffert on the same team, it would be suicide, both useless. imagine if you were a forward and were to be marked by one of these, happy days.

So just out of curiosity, who would you pick in these positions? We're not exactly over-endowed with good candidates for central defensive positions. You could maybe certainly make a case for Shane Sullivan, who else?