Offaly Team to face Wexford in Leinster Football Championshi

[Slieve Bloom Man]

I was disgusted leaving O Connor Park yesterday evening. I drove down from Dublin expecting Offaly to win or at least be in a tight match. It was a great Leinster draw but last night was a nightmare and we fell badly at the first hurdle. For me Mulhall, Scott Brady, Niall Smith and Niall McNamee were best for Ofally. That said all 4 players still made mistakes during the game. I think Cribben should be allowed see out the year, I don''t see the point of changing manager now. We've had enough of that. THey should all sink or swim together. We are not as bad as last night but it it is an extremely worrying situation.

[Bord na Mona man]

I don't see the point in rounding on Ross Brady, when collectively the performance wasn't good enough.
The team workrate was way off what is required. Wexford were able to work the ball from end of the field to the other with relative ease.
Supporters scapegoat the fella who makes the basic error, but generally don't notice the players who aren't moving the extra yard to possibly close down a channel or limit the opposition's options.

[cromabu]

What was the sub list from yesterday. See who we have in the qualifiers?

[Slieve Bloom Man]

Meant to say. I flicked to Armagh - DOWN GAME DURING HALF-TIME OF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE and the difference between that and Offaly game was huge. Different class1

[faithfullad]

I don't see the point in rounding on Ross Brady, when collectively the performance wasn't good enough.
The team workrate was way off what is required. Wexford were able to work the ball from end of the field to the other with relative ease.
Supporters scapegoat the fella who makes the basic error, but generally don't notice the players who aren't moving the extra yard to possibly close down a channel or limit the opposition's options.

You're defending your clubman and all that which is fine and all but surely at this stage, no one can vindicate having Ross Brady start on this team. Nobody is saying that the defeat is down to him, far from it, and we're not rounding on him. The majority of the Offaly team had bad days on Saturday but Brady has been having them for a long time. Surely you knowthat he is a poor county player and not up to the standard? Nobody is attacking him personally or his integrity , but we have a right to express opinion on these matters and it is clear that Ross Brady, among others, is just not good enough.

[Lone Shark]

For me the really sad thing about that performance was how there was a collective switching off from most of the team after Wexford got their second goal, and even the subs weren't immune from this.

I don't accept for a minute that there is a gulf in class between us and Wexford - we got five goal chances and didn't take one of them - they got three and took two. On another day that game could have finished very differently. However that doesn't excuse the way that once Red Barry flicked that ball into the net for Wexford to go nine points up, the vast majority of our team switched off on the basis that winning the game was no longer possible. The full back line attempted to shore up the gaps and I would say that they can largely be absolved from blame here, but outside of that it was a horror show.

There's countless people in Offaly who were never given the gifts to allow them play county football or hurling, but they still do their best for club or county in whatever way they can. That performance was an affront to all that, and I agree wholeheartedly with Bord na Mona man - the guy who makes the technical error gets rounded upon, but we ignore the lad who's not putting it in the whole way through the game. For Wexford's second goal, an unmarked corner back passed to an unmarked midfielder INSIDE OUR 20M LINE and Quinlivan had time to get his shot away. A lot of questions have to be answered about stuff like that.

[wazzaman]

We can argue all we like lads, about that defeat. But it summed Offaly gaa up for me when i seen at least 4 players puffing on fags in tullamore saturday night. im not even going to mention them on here either and their not from the town either.. They didn't seem to have any care in the world either, that they were hammered by wex. When i see things like that i often wonder why do i bodher supporting these lads at all..

[SearingDrive]

Saturday's game hinged on 2 first half incidents. Offaly's missed penalty, and just what Offaly didn't need, Wexford get a goal. They went in 6 up at the break. Offaly only got 2 points in the second half,with the wind!. Wexford got 1-7 against the wind. Wexford had a plan, and other than giving it to Niall McNamee, Offaly didn't have a strategy.
Tom Cribbin's comments on The Sunday Game were a bit strange to say the least. He appeared to have given up on the qualifiers.
Eugene McGee's coments in today's independent are an apt comment on Offaly today.
The ULSTER SFC game was light years ahead of the O'Connor Park fiasco.

[True Red]

From Todays Indo

Drastic action needed to stop Faithful fading away

The latest humiliation of Offaly footballers, by Wexford on Saturday, is heartbreaking for supporters who were reared on success in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

All those great teams who took part in seven All-Ireland finals (winning three) and won 14 Leinster titles all in the space of about 25 years had definite attributes which were the Offaly trademark.

Their players were fiercely competitive with a record of nearly always winning the tight championship games. That has disappeared now. Offaly then played hard physical football when it was required and always had enough players capable of doing that. That has gone.

Above all, Offaly teams played direct football with the ball moved quickly into the forward line usually by sound, well-directed kicking. That has long since disappeared. But above all, Offaly teams were renowned and respected for their intense dedication to how they prepared and played the game. Not any more, sadly.

The sight of the famous tricolour jersey being beaten off the pitch in Tullamore by teams like Wexford and Westmeath in recent times shows how far Offaly have sunk and also how far these other two counties have changed their ways to make their county teams so much better.

Drastic action is needed immediately if the present malaise is not to become permanent and the name of Offaly football becomes just a faded memory among the also-rans of Gaelic football.

- Eugene McGee

[townman]

''Townman'' and his pal ''South Offaly'' should stick too hurling.. sure his from south Offaly, what would they know about Football...

whos the thick now Brosnan done what he liked again to offaly

[townman]

We'd definitely win this game if it was played in Birr!

well i could have picked a team from pubs in Birr who would have put up a better show than the senior intercounty team did

[townman]

The 2nd half meltdown is hard to explain and hard to stomach as well.
There is no use naming names, but across the team too many players gave up the ghost entirely around the time of the 2nd Wexford goal.
Wexford were able to rack the scores up far too easily after that. They looked likely winners from early on, but there is no way the scoreboard should have ended up the way it did.
When the Wexford goalie takes the mick by hanging around the 45 for a while, giving and receiving passes, you know you've been beaten up a stick.

The biggest problem with the Offaly football is a lack of onfield leadership and too many players who seem mentally brittle when it comes to the crunch.
Deep down you know that there aren't many players on the team who are really capable of pulling a tight championship game of out the fire.
Instead of bringing the best out of them, the mistakes and howlers multiply once the squeeze comes on.

An example of Offaly not being clear headed - Within the first 60 seconds when he already blown for 3 fouls, it was clear that the ref was going to penalise anything resembling a hand on the player in possession.
Yet Offaly seem to make no adjustment to how they shadowed or tackled Wexford players. All too often a Wexford player who had run into trouble was bailed out by an Offaly player needlessly touching him on the back. Wexford lead by 1-9 to 6 at the break having only scored maybe 2 of those points from anything resembling a cohesive attack. Most of rest of their scores came with significant assistance from Offaly players.

Unless Offaly pull off some sort of miracle run in the qualifiers, Tom Cribben will be moving on. Blaming him might be convenient, but realistically there is only so much management can do in this situation. You can train, drill and set out tactics all you want. but its far harder to invade a player's head to instil the ability to do the right thing at the right time.

should have played it in Birr

[wazzaman]

TOWNMAN.. you really are a proper clown. Lay off that smack will ya.. Jesus i didn't think Birr was that bad.

[How ya now]

TOWNMAN.. you really are a proper clown. Lay off that smack will ya.. Jesus i didn't think Birr was that bad.

Here here

[fiesta flyer]

TOWNMAN.. you really are a proper clown. Lay off that smack will ya.. Jesus i didn't think Birr was that bad.

i agree 100% with wazzaman