azoffaly wrote:Lads, am I missing something here. I don't see the massive deal. He's a gossun, and if we need him to beat Wicklow, we are in trouble. Look at it this way, unless I am completely off base, he will be allowed play with the seniors when the U20s are knocked out. So either he'll be available for a Leinster semi final, or qualifiers, OR Offaly U20s will be on a good run. I don't see a major issue here.
Also, just in case there's confusion, the rule is that if you are named on a Senior Panel, you are ineligible for U20 subsequent to that point. So what the Offaly county board are saying is 'don't use him for Senior, and let him play U20'.
I bet if the U20s are knocked out, he'll be allowed play Senior.
My view would be pretty much along these lines, with the addendum that it is disappointing that Cian seems to be surprised by this rule now, so he clearly wasn't informed properly of what was going to happen. I've no problem with him training with the Seniors during the league campaign since he was always going to be used by them at that stage, but it should have been done on the understanding that he was going to go back to the Under-20's afterwards.
Also, in terms of Cian's development, and Offaly's success, I would suggest the Under-20 squad is the place to be. Realistically, as AZ said, if we can't beat the team that finished 32nd out of 32 team in the National League without him, we're wasting our time. And moreover, if Cian was the greatest 18 year old ever to play the game, he still wouldn't be enough to get us a result against Dublin. On the other hand, the Under-20 is a competitive championship, where one might expect that Offaly wouldn't be too bad. Offaly should have beaten Louth at minor last year, and this is a chance to set that to rights. And if that doesn't happen, all the senior footballers need to do is to win one qualifier game and he's back on board.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.