Interview with Paul O'Kelly

[True Red]

http://www.gaelsport.com/html/club/newf ... =24859&p=n

Another interview on the Edenderry Gaa website.

[naasmanxrhode]

Another man who got a raw deal with Offaly, a true gent, any County in Ireland would be glad of his services.

[offalyman08]

He appears to hold no grudges with the county board. Fair play to him for getting on with it

[red exile]

on his appointment as manager and having sampled his tactics ,work ethic and discipline through schools football in edenderry ,i honestly believed he would bring an all ireland to offaly but he was never given enough time and it was very honourable of him to difuse an all out player strike after the way he was treated.

[offalyman08]

Makes the men in charge realise what a professional they got rid of

[Archangel]

I think it's also printed in full in this weeks Offaly Topic.

[Bord na Mona man]

Another good interview.
A man like O'Kelly is a huge asset to have in the county, but sadly his talents are now being utilised elsewhere.
You do have to wonder what was going through the minds of the cranks and crackpots on the committee who sacked him though.

[LondonBiffo]

The Johnny Mooney interview in the topic told the story of how O'Kelly worked with Rhode to get the timing of bringing Niall McNamee on to the Offaly team. Johnny backed O'Kelly 100%. Mooney and O'Kelly with some other true Offaly men would make a good team to bring Offaly back to the top.

[offalyman08]

The Johnny Mooney interview in the topic told the story of how O'Kelly worked with Rhode to get the timing of bringing Niall McNamee on to the Offaly team. Johnny backed O'Kelly 100%. Mooney and O'Kelly with some other true Offaly men would make a good team to bring Offaly back to the top.

I think most people(supporters) backed O'Kelly. He was bringing in some great underage talent to the senior fold but not just throwing them into the deep end. We can only wonder what might have been had he been retained, a Leinster was a possibility back then

[the Untouchable]

I never really understand how Paul O'Kelly is rated so highly...the year he was in charge, we were no better than any other year under any other manager!!!

He played almost the entire league with the young players, lost to Antrim in O'Connor park in the league, didn't get us league promotion...2 weeks before the Laois match in Portlaois he drafts back in alot of the retired players like Claffey, Cullen, James Grennan, john Ryan, etc...we threw away a great start against Laois to draw, then lost the replay to Laois in Tullamore when he named Finbar at center forward, but he spent all the match at center back along side Ger Raff who was also center back!!

We then got a very favourable draw in the qualifiers with London in O'Connor park, then scraped over Clare in Ennis, then it was off to Mullingar to play the Rossies....we played terrible that night, Roscommon completely dominated at Midfield and ran Offaly ragged...yet with an injury time goal we took the game to extra time...where Roscommon's greater fitness showed and ran out winners!!!

A few weeks later O'Kelly came out saying we'd win an All Ireland in 3 years...clever comment having made no progress under him in the year he had in charge, so what was he really basing that on?

Fahy got a much tougher deal...He won us a league title, was unlucky to lose to Westmeath when Mac and the forwards kicked some horrendous wides that day yet got fired for spending too much money on gear for the players.

[Bord na Mona man]

2 weeks before the Laois match in Portlaois he drafts back in alot of the retired players like Claffey, Cullen, James Grennan, john Ryan, etc

I think those players made it clear they wanted a rest during the league and come back later on.

[bracknaghboy]

I totally agree with Untouchable here. I don't know where this great affection for O'Kelly came from either. People speak of him as if he was going to bring all sorts of great success to the county. I don't think he was. Also he made the fatal mistake of announcing he'd bring an All-Ireland to the county in 3 years. Thats always the rubbish that comes from mangers that know the team is going nowhere fast but is trying to buy time so after a couple of years of failure he can always say they are working towards the next year.

[black and red exile]

O'Kelly was not given any sufficent time to stamp his mark which was a great shame, Gerry Fahey was treated the very same, his crime and this is true was to be the first manager to lose to Westmeath in 55 years in 2004, I got this information from a very reliable scource, ya just couldn't make it up

[bracknaghboy]

Gerry Fahey was treated the very same, his crime and this is true was to be the first manager to lose to Westmeath in 55 years in 2004

A lot of people in Offaly would consider that a very serious offence.