National Foothall league Div 2 predictions

[bracknaghboy]

Playing with the wind in the first half poses its own challenges.
If you've picked a team a few days beforehand and set up with a certain game plan in mind.

You lose the toss and immediately have to have a set up to go all out attack and build scores. There is no settling in period to the game. Unless you make instant subs, you have to do this with the players who are lining out.

Serious questions need to be asked then if management hadn't considered this possibility. 2 minutes on Met.ie mid last week would have told them the outlook was 'shite to possibly very shite' conditions for Sunday in Clare.

I'd love it the sports journalists actually asked real questions of managers.

-Ask why Offaly played so defensively with a gale. Were they caught on the hop with the conditions?
-Why was Niall Mc back defending numerous times in the first half and was not up in the forwards instead? Was this part of the plan?
-Was the plan by taking Niall and Anton off at half time to be replaced with defenders an attempt to protect the 1 pt lead or just keep the score down.

It would be more informative than:

-"Tough aul conditions John"
-"Missing a few players John"
-"Ye struggled with conditions"

Hoping for a big improvement Sunday. OCP always seems to be worth a few points so there is hope but the attack strategy will need to be upped significantly. There are enough lads there in the camp to know this so I'd be confident we'll see a very different approach.

[BiffoInThurso]

Many more displays like that and there’ll be questions about what it is O’Se is doing to earn his corn

[private joker]

Hopefully the younger lads aren’t going to get bogged down with yesterday. Lot of them made their name playing a swashbuckling brand of football and it seems that this isn’t quite being embraced at senior level. Crazy low scoring considering the wind they had in the first half

T'was sub optimal conditions for swashbuckling yesterday in Ennis to be fair

One thing to play like that at u20 and another to do it at senior. A seasoned senior team ain't going to let anyone play that way.

[biffinbanner]

i was at the game. i was surprised and disapointed by many things. offaly had a gale in the first half. they seemed to be tactically very naive. passing the ball diagonally over and back repeatedly wasting time instead of trying to build up a lead for the second half siege that was bound to happen?clare just clicked up a gear after half time for 10 min and put the game to bed.strangely the one man that might or was most likely to score a goal in that first half, niall mcnamee back on his half back line running hard covering? i seen no sign of tomas o se at any stage. i doubt he was there at all? after the exhilerating freeflowing u 20s of last summer it was back to reality with a bang. a depressing performance in many aspects and its hard see us getting many points out of this division judging by sunday last.

[greenairfield]

guys let's be realistic here just cos we won an u20 all Ireland doesnt mean all these guys are gonna make a sudden difference at senior level..from what I can see many of the posters are not taking into account alot of these lads are only 19/20 years of age.

how many teams have won all ireland u 20s over the last few years and might only got one or two players who are nailed on starters at senior level.

we have to be realistic.

[private joker]

It's not like years before at u21 and most were of the age. At u20 you have 18 years lds playing so the step up to senior takes at least 4 or 5 years. Be lucky if 3 or 4 come through. That's the reality. I know of at least one member of the starting 15 is already out of the picture. Need a multiple of talents other than just physical temperament is crucial and ability to deal with success.

[biffinbanner]

im not critisising them at all. and im realistic and agree if we get 4 or 5 off the u20s of last year it will be a good return. its just the way we played tactically.?

[ah lethimoutwithit]

To be fair, we are likely candidates for relegation. But the concern for me is that there was such a conservative approach to the game on Sunday.
The analysis of the challenges that you face playing with or against the wind is fair but that would be apparent to a club coach at any level.

The challenge for Offaly is to bed in some new players and perform to our best and hope that we can get enough points to stay up but we are building for the future.
But if we go out and take such a negative approach it will be a demoralising experience for all involved. My own fear is that John Maughan has brought them so far and does not trust his backs, and is struggling when a team figures us out in terms of our attacking plan and our kick out plan.

We need to try and build a balance of reasonable attack and start to get a game plan/s to suit our panel and get some experience into the younger players.
Sunday was tough and next Sunday and the Sunday after won't be any easier but we want to be at this level so we got to meet it head on.
Least we can do is go and support them.

[Fairplayalways]

the conservative approach appears to be what bothered most who seen the game (I didnt) on top of that, not all our U20's were playing so its not as if 15 novices took the field against Clare (not Dublin, Tyrone, Mayo or Kerry or anyone like that) worryingly already I am hearing 4 to 5 years to bed in...whats so unique about Offaly needing so much time to "bed in"..these lads arent going to hang around 4/5 years to see if they are first 15 or there abouts...I said it before and will say it again, look at Clifford for Kerry, Oisim Mullin for Mayo and that other young fellah (Conroy is it) plays corner forward, other counties have the same approach, being hailed on our TV screens as class acts and playing senior within a year or two (if not straight away) in some cases..we are riverting back to "protect" them and "let them bed in"...fair enough some will need a bit of time of course, but your mainstay talents, if available, should be dipped in now and sink or swim...from years back Karol Slattery is an example of stright up and in, the cautious negative approach is what really worries me with such talent and finally a winning under age team to feed into the senior we appear to be retreating to the trecnches as opposed to going out fighting our corner...hopefully it will be more fresh and positive from here on..many players supposedly "being minded" seem to have disapeared completely off the scene as far as I can see...other couties are parading them, we are minding them, for what I dont know, its divison 2 or 3 we play in not Dublin, Tyrone and Mayo week in week out during the league etc..let them off...see where we go with them..

[kingscounty]

I was on duty elsewhere today so I haven't had a chance to see any of the highlights of the game, but I will say this - you could play well in a place like Ennis, and still not get anything from the game. Clare are a solid, consistent Division Two team for basically a decade now and while I'd certainly give a full strength Offaly team a decent chance of taking something from Ennis, even if we had Rigney, Cunningham, Farrell and a few others, it would still be a splendid result if we did. I said at the start of the league that Down and Meath are the big games. We're a bit unlucky in that we'll play Down with Kilcoo players, others won't, and having been in the Hyde today, Cork will get better as the year goes on too. They're in disarray now, but I'd still be surprised if they don't pick up at least six points over the campaign, particularly when they get the Barrs lads back in. Obviously if they get drawn into the relegation mire, so best, but for me, today was no different to the games against Galway, Roscommon and Derry - you go in hoping for things to go well, but realistically those teams are a good bit ahead of where we are.

My fear with Meath is that Andy McEntee walks before we play them. I suspect he's doing them no favours at all, and the longer he stays there, the better chance Offaly have of turning them over.

More of a worry for me would be that if management are focusing on Meath after one game then we are doomed already! Yes there are better teams than us in the division and they will be all looking at us for the win but should we not just focus on Derry next.
Conditions could be more or less the same for all our remaining games, what if we have the wind in the second half next week or in the first half surely we can learn from the mistakes made against Clare and be more prepared. We know what Derry will bring especially after how they handled us in the league final, what have management in store for them this time, that’s their job. I’d be disappointed if we just roll over against them. Let Meath worry about Meath.

[Fairplayalways]

Round 2 predictions:
Allianz Football League Division 2 round 2
Down v Galway, Pairc Esler, (Sat)5pm - Galway by 7 - Galway 2-12 Down 0-10
Cork v Clare, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, (Sat)7pm - a draw - Cork 1-10 Clare 0-13
Meath v Roscommon, Pairc Tailteann, ( Sun)2pm (Roscommon by 3 - Roscommon 0-14 Meath 0-11
Offaly v Derry, Bord na Mona O'Connor Park (Sun), 2pm - Derry by 8 Derry 0-18 Offaly 0-10 (hope Ime wrong)

[ah lethimoutwithit]

I don't think it's "we mind them approach in Offaly", I think it's John Maughan who refuses to give newer lads a chance.
I asked the question a few months ago of lads I thought might be in the know as to where Tomas O Se hopes to make his mark on Offaly football, I got no answer then , and still none the wiser after this.

I was hoping to see some sort of a different approach from an attacking perspective, but look, lets be honest about it, we are not blessed with marquee forwards. But I can't see how some guys are playing game after game without troubling the scoreboard.

Theres a lot of talk about Meath also at the moment, they were missing their 2 midfielders on Sunday, and games like that can happen, but before Sunday had anyone them down as relegation candidates. And Down????? Look at what they have done to us the last few times they came to Tullamore! We put up a better show up there recently.

Look, I think it's better to go down trying something different but don't lets continue with the ground hog days over and over. Yes we are down a few first choices with Cian Farrell being a huge loss, but lets give it a rattle, Bill Carroll, Hayes, Cathal Mangan should all be pushing on now and making an impact, Ruari Mc and Anton as well. Cathal Donaoghue (injury permitting) or Cormac...with Jack Bryant thrown into the mix, we should be more threatening.

Looking forward to Sunday already!

PS Any word from the Green fields brigade about Cian J or is he in the mix for inter county this year at all?

[BiffoInThurso]

We don’t have physically big men in our panel, less so the ones who are coming through from last years u20s. As such I’m not against giving lads a chance to work up to this level.

Listened to a podcast today and seemingly lee pearson was our standout player, maybe someone there can confirm.

When the ground hardens up I’d expect to see a bit more from our lads. I would describe maughans style as negative though, despite the fact he seems to believe otherwise.

Be interesting to see who could be coming down the line in terms of new management. Pat Flanagan possible?

[SearingDrive]

We don’t have physically big men in our panel, less so the ones who are coming through from last years u20s. As such I’m not against giving lads a chance to work up to this level.

Listened to a podcast today and seemingly lee pearson was our standout player, maybe someone there can confirm.

When the ground hardens up I’d expect to see a bit more from our lads. I would describe maughans style as negative though, despite the fact he seems to believe otherwise.

Be interesting to see who could be coming down the line in terms of new management. Pat Flanagan possible?

Pat Flanagan is defensive minded. No change there.

[Fairplayalways]

we can wait until the ground hardens up (championship?) and probably get over Wexford, and more than likely lose the next round (were we ever going to get to a Leinster Final, let alone win one) OR we can give Division 2 a shot as most on here think we should big or small plyers we have who we have, (how are other counties producing big players and we are not?) that said we have who we have, as someone above said lets go down fighting and who knows we may uncover something to maybe give us the extra step to go a bit further in the Championship...hatching all our eggs watching next summer is not going to reallistically happen...the league is our "championship" this year, win a round (or tww) in Leinster (I cant think of next game after Wexford)....lets chart the current course and see where we go...