Gerry cooney

[red exile]

Is officially ratified as new Offaly manager

[townman]

sorry but who is he and as lads say here whats his CV

[townman]

anyword of his backroom team.

[OffalyDub]

Ah that's great news. An appointment at last.

Now when does the intercounty training ban come into effect for the winter.......?

[kinnittyman]

James Stewart and Paddy Carr who has been involved with Kilmacud Crokes are the selectors.

[red exile]

Well I think cooney and Stewart already had their chance with Offaly in 2006 , that wasn't a very successful management team so I find it hard to imagine any real progress in the near future , although Carr has a fairly decent c.v and commands a bit of respect,training ban in place till January , then o Byrne cup 2 weeks later , time is already against them !!

[Bord na Mona man]

Training ban me bolleeks, every county with serious ambitions walks all over that rule. Offaly are the odd ones out when they they line out in the O'Byrne Cup 2 or 3 months behind every other county in their preparations.

Best of luck to Gerry Cooney btw.

[the bare biffo]

Jaze, I remember staying up all night watching The Deerhunter first followed by Cooney's clash with Larry Holmes. It was a sad end for The Great White Hope, but I am delighted to see he has reinvented himself in the world of GAA. A strange appointment indeed but like anyone else the minimum he deserves is to be judged on results. So best of luck to the big man and lets hope that glass chin has hardened up a bit over the years.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

2006 not successful? Twas the last time we were in a Leinster final? Fair enough that regime had its ups and downs but i think if he deserves his chance.

I wish him all the best, Carr seems like a good appointment to work alongside and Ginger has done well with Tubber and has the best interests of Offaly football at heart. Come on and get behind them lads, we wanted this sorted, it is, move on!

[Lone Shark]

My thoughts on the 2006 management team were well known, but I see a couple of causes for optimism here.

(1) Back then, when Kilmurry was sent to the stand and Cooney took charge, our performances improved immensely.
(2) Our teams in 2006 usually took the field in good shape, well prepared and with a clear game plan. The big issue was the inability to do anything about problems as games unfolded, which meant that we often fell away late on. That said, that is a glass half full statement.

Gerry Cooney is universally popular and respected among the players from back then as far as I'm aware, and that's a great start. He's reputedly an excellent man manager, and if Paddy Carr can provide the tactical and game management expertise while Stewart supplies the local knowledge, then there is the look of a decent overall package here. County management is less and less about the main man and much more about the package as a whole, and this looks like a good effort at putting together a good overall structure. I remain to be convinced in some aspects, but we could have done a lot worse in my view.

[jimbob17]

My thoughts on the 2006 management team were well known, but I see a couple of causes for optimism here.

(1) Back then, when Kilmurry was sent to the stand and Cooney took charge, our performances improved immensely.
(2) Our teams in 2006 usually took the field in good shape, well prepared and with a clear game plan. The big issue was the inability to do anything about problems as games unfolded, which meant that we often fell away late on. That said, that is a glass half full statement.

Gerry Cooney is universally popular and respected among the players from back then as far as I'm aware, and that's a great start. He's reputedly an excellent man manager, and if Paddy Carr can provide the tactical and game management expertise while Stewart supplies the local knowledge, then there is the look of a decent overall package here. County management is less and less about the main man and much more about the package as a whole, and this looks like a good effort at putting together a good overall structure. I remain to be convinced in some aspects, but we could have done a lot worse in my view.

Agree Lone shark on this issue to a certain extent. We might both have different views overall on the 05/06 regime as has been thrashed out previously on other treads but in hindsight it could largely be looked upon as a lot more positive than what has gone on since 06 in my opinion. I too think Cooney's appointment has a lot of positive aspects to it and he appears to have brought in selectors that would add something positive to the mix. It would widely be considered a popular decision with the players that were involved previously under kevin kilmurray which is no harm and will strengthen his influence on the younger party animals. Nevertheless, it is a results driven business, and they will dictate how well he does overall. It is a tough job with a lot of home truths to be delivered to a lot of the players imo, but as the YAZZ song once said "The only way is up, baby"

[faithfullad]

Training ban me bolleeks, every county with serious ambitions walks all over that rule. Offaly are the odd ones out when they they line out in the O'Byrne Cup 2 or 3 months behind every other county in their preparations.

Best of luck to Gerry Cooney btw.

Offaly started training today.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Started training Saturday! Shite, Gerry mustn't have me number, ah well tis early yet!

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Gerry Cooney aka Ronan Scully, (check out the picture on the HS Offaly page!!).
He has his own Operation Transformation ahead of him here!

[llkj]

Speaking of 2006, I had a look at the highlights of the 2006 Leinster Final on youtube. While we were well beaten in the end, it was a credible performance from Offaly. Having a man sent off with 20 mins to go did not help matters, but the game was already slipping from us at that stage.

Anyway, the point that stood out to me from that game, was that a lot of the players on view were not that old and were only really coming into their prime. It should have been the launching pad for a lot of their careers in the 5 years that have followed; however loads of them slipped off the inter county map completely. Without having looked at the teamsheets, from memory, I would say that Grennan, Mc Conway, Alan Mc Namee, Shane Sullivan, Neville Coughlan, Deehan are all players from that starting 15 that you would have expected to drive Offaly forward between 07-11, but for one reason or another actually took a step or two backwards since then, and 06 ended up being the highlight of their career. Compare that to Dublin and the success they have with the guys that were in the same position within their team in the years between then and now - Cluxon, Cullen, Alan Brogan, etc....

Coming from a county with a pick like ours, we can not afford to let players like this slip from the radar or not fulfill their potential.