Offaly Senior Footballers 2024

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Let's be clear: the blame cannot be pinned on the players who put their hearts on the line and sacrifice enough just to step onto the pitch. It's the responsibility of the manager to devise a game plan and adapt accordingly. Yet, with a 9-point lead and 20 minutes left, we witnessed a inexcusable collapse. Even an underage manager would know how to close up shop in such a situation. Why did the management not adjust his game plan to protect that lead in what was dubbed a Must Win game? Instead of a more reserved, defensive-minded approach to secure the points, we continued to commit heavy numbers to off the cuff attacks, leaving us vulnerable to counter-attacks, where we were outrun, We gifted Clare 50 yards of space and numerous one-on-one opportunities, hard to understand the thinking here when they had the wind at their backs. The second goal on the 71st minute was a glaring example of this negligence. Why was that space not clogged up? 9 points up, 20 minutes left, is not a players issue, they simply play the gameplan whoch they are put out to play unless told otherwise. The naivety of the sideline left me dumbfounded, and how no one could figure this out during the game. No point bringing things to the video analysis room week on week if we cannot see things while there happening mid game and implement changes in accordance.
Offaly Abú

Jaysus , its not the playstation?? Surely players have to take responsibility for that last goal in particular? We were overly defensive throughout in my opinion, but still Clare had at least 2 other goal opportunities to the one that was taken.
After 50mins despite scoring the first 2 points Clare had only 4 points on the board. What were the management screaming " attack , attack , attack " from the sideline?? A player should have taken a yellow or a black. Naivety alright but mainly down to the players. If thats the case what would you say about Clare ending up in a situation where they could have lost it by giving away a penalty when a yellow or black would have left us with a free 30m out.
I suppose its the beauty or otherwise of sport, thank God its not completely as predictable as people who comment think it should be or there would be no point, and hopefully the players will see video analysis, as the only way to learn is by repetition on the training ground.
Regards the Down game, Down hammered us last year in Tullamore and are comfortable in this Division so far, I don't think we can compare them to the turmoil they were in when we beat them up there a couple of years ago.
Another game to try to develop and get something by way of form into a few lads and maybe give Dan Wyer, Quinn and Adam Bolger a chance to see what they can bring to the table.

[Fairplayalways]

i was being polite, i was actually referring to the hammering we got last year, they were still in a bad place coming into last years league..

[Anonymous1]

Let's be clear: the blame cannot be pinned on the players who put their hearts on the line and sacrifice enough just to step onto the pitch. It's the responsibility of the manager to devise a game plan and adapt accordingly. Yet, with a 9-point lead and 20 minutes left, we witnessed a inexcusable collapse. Even an underage manager would know how to close up shop in such a situation. Why did the management not adjust his game plan to protect that lead in what was dubbed a Must Win game? Instead of a more reserved, defensive-minded approach to secure the points, we continued to commit heavy numbers to off the cuff attacks, leaving us vulnerable to counter-attacks, where we were outrun, We gifted Clare 50 yards of space and numerous one-on-one opportunities, hard to understand the thinking here when they had the wind at their backs. The second goal on the 71st minute was a glaring example of this negligence. Why was that space not clogged up? 9 points up, 20 minutes left, is not a players issue, they simply play the gameplan whoch they are put out to play unless told otherwise. The naivety of the sideline left me dumbfounded, and how no one could figure this out during the game. No point bringing things to the video analysis room week on week if we cannot see things while there happening mid game and implement changes in accordance.
Offaly Abú

Ultimately the buck stops with the manager but to totally absolve the players of any blame is ridiculous.

An U14 player would know a yellow or black card is more than worth it late in a game to break up an attack, not sure that’s on the manager.

[Anonymous1]

There's a lot of nonsense talk around the footballers.. let's analyse. We lost to Clare by 1 point ( I get the manner in how we lost was shocking) but it was none the less a 1 point defeat to a team who have been operating at a higher level (including those players that replaced the one that have left) Clare also had Westmeath nearly beaten in Mullingar and we were far better than Clare for most of the match and if the penalty is scored it's a different conversation this morning. We lost to Antrim up there by 1 point, much better teams have struggled there in ulster championship in recent years and were beaten by Westmeath who are and have been a cut above us for a while (should have made a quarter final last year lest we forget in a very strong group) we were missing our best defender and our best forward for first 2 games, new management and integrating new players.. at the same time a dose of reality is needed, a very small county and you cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear, we are lacking numbers and quality no matter how much you talk about development yet two 1 point defeats in games we should/could have won, there's very little in the difference. Down are and always were gonna beat us and I've no doubt we will get 3 wins in our last 3 games but the way the games have fallen has led to a lot of negativity, this was pointed out before a ball was kicked and from the start it would not have been a major surprise had we no points after 4. A year with Kelly of league, Leinster championship and tailteann cup will bring the team on and will settle a team and newer lads will be settled in.. priority this year was development and getting settled in, with a league campaign behind us, a win in Leinster and a good run in tailteann cup (anyone looking for anymore is simply being unrealistic) The aim here is to get Offaly operating and established at the next level where they should be.. operating in division 2 and competing in the groups in the top tier and within the next 3/4 years we can be established as that team, it won't happen over night. The expectations after the u-20 win were just silly.

You’ve put a severely positive spin on the results this year.

Let’s take a different look; Blew a 4 point lead with 20 minutes to go against a fourth string Dublin side in the O’Byrne Cup, were walked into the ground against Westmeath and could’ve been beaten by a lot more if they wanted to, had an extra man against Antrim for twenty minutes and still lost and blew a 9 point lead with twenty minutes left against Clare…

You’ve no doubt we’re gonna win our last 3 games, really? Based on what exactly?

Sligo will be favourites against us, Wicklow will be a dogfight and while we should beat Limerick it could be a relegation decider so won’t be simple.

I’m finding it hard to see how we’ll be operating in the top tier in the next 3-4 years when you consider the majority of our best players (Anton, Hogan, Carroll, Cunningham) etc will likely be gone by then and on the evidence so far the 2021 U20s don’t look any different to a normal years U20s. The more time goes on the more that All Ireland win seems like a flash in the pan.

[allstar2010]

Duignan is a clown. No need for him to comment, does no one any good. Everyone here knows players are putting in savage effort and are hurting more than anyone.

[Buttons]

Not going to focus on the negatives but the main one I had was not having a forward in the opposition half for a lot of the first half, Cian Farrell was on about the 30m line from his own goal and Dempsey going down the wing past the half way line.

Overall from about the 15th to the 50th we played well, defending was real good and put Clare under serious pressure, we won a lot of the breaking balls and overall kicked some great points, not many of the frees were easy and Dunne and Hyland I think kicked some great points.

I think cormac egan did well in the half back line and furlong beside him did well and controlled the game, thought he was lucky not to get black card for penalty but would need to see clearly it again. Talking of cards Hyland got an early yellow and had 2-3 fouls against him after and was sure he was going to walk in the second half but was fine.

There is a high turnover of players year on year, once we keep consistency and keep close the results will come. On another year we may have had 2 wins from 3 and be thinking of promotion, keeping the heads up and trying, results will come and once the ground dries up can see this team improving significantly.

[Fairplayalways]

fair points above, thing is Divsion 3 of league is "our championship"..are we really going to make let alone win a Leinster final???? Or a tailtean cup???the ground will surely get firmer and dry out for sure, but it will for the other teams too, and some having beaten us already won't lie awake worrying about us now..we are all on about our U20 win, there was a time when at least 2 or 3 Minors or U21s were needed fairly close together to get enough for a good senior team, we are picking the bones of one turkey, and it might be just one on reflection in a few years time..go back over all with wining underage teams and big names and stars will jump out that never made it at senior level for one reason or another..we have a few from our one most recent win and some are getting into it, some are not and probably wont at this stage now..Duignans comments?..I like him for all his work and promoting us etc. the odd time he just goes abit too far in ways..players generally ignore what people say on social media, they have to or they would not survive..they know that...i think Duignan is just jumping in where he is not required..if anything he is giving more oxygen to the Clare collapse, and I think the player's would rather just quietly move on and go again over the remaining games...Just my thoughts..

[Anonymous1]

fair points above, thing is Divsion 3 of league is "our championship"..are we really going to make let alone win a Leinster final???? Or a tailtean cup???the ground will surely get firmer and dry out for sure, but it will for the other teams too, and some having beaten us already won't lie awake worrying about us now..we are all on about our U20 win, there was a time when at least 2 or 3 Minors or U21s were needed fairly close together to get enough for a good senior team, we are picking the bones of one turkey, and it might be just one on reflection in a few years time..go back over all with wining underage teams and big names and stars will jump out that never made it at senior level for one reason or another..we have a few from our one most recent win and some are getting into it, some are not and probably wont at this stage now..Duignans comments?..I like him for all his work and promoting us etc. the odd time he just goes abit too far in ways..players generally ignore what people say on social media, they have to or they would not survive..they know that...i think Duignan is just jumping in where he is not required..if anything he is giving more oxygen to the Clare collapse, and I think the player's would rather just quietly move on and go again over the remaining games...Just my thoughts..

We were a kick of a ball away from the Leinster final last year… I keep seeing that we need to give the current manager three years to see what he can do but the same sentiment wasn’t expressed for Martin Murphy…

[Fairplayalways]

And the team that beat us were obliterated in Leinster final, we dodged a bullet there..ok, yes it would be nice to get to a Leinster final but when we do we need to be competitive at least in it..an anihalation would push us back more if that is actually possible..

[greenairfield]

What is going on in football country why are all these clubs not putting in go games teams ? For me it's disgraceful no wider we are struggling

[joey1001]

There's a lot of nonsense talk around the footballers.. let's analyse. We lost to Clare by 1 point ( I get the manner in how we lost was shocking) but it was none the less a 1 point defeat to a team who have been operating at a higher level (including those players that replaced the one that have left) Clare also had Westmeath nearly beaten in Mullingar and we were far better than Clare for most of the match and if the penalty is scored it's a different conversation this morning. We lost to Antrim up there by 1 point, much better teams have struggled there in ulster championship in recent years and were beaten by Westmeath who are and have been a cut above us for a while (should have made a quarter final last year lest we forget in a very strong group) we were missing our best defender and our best forward for first 2 games, new management and integrating new players.. at the same time a dose of reality is needed, a very small county and you cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear, we are lacking numbers and quality no matter how much you talk about development yet two 1 point defeats in games we should/could have won, there's very little in the difference. Down are and always were gonna beat us and I've no doubt we will get 3 wins in our last 3 games but the way the games have fallen has led to a lot of negativity, this was pointed out before a ball was kicked and from the start it would not have been a major surprise had we no points after 4. A year with Kelly of league, Leinster championship and tailteann cup will bring the team on and will settle a team and newer lads will be settled in.. priority this year was development and getting settled in, with a league campaign behind us, a win in Leinster and a good run in tailteann cup (anyone looking for anymore is simply being unrealistic) The aim here is to get Offaly operating and established at the next level where they should be.. operating in division 2 and competing in the groups in the top tier and within the next 3/4 years we can be established as that team, it won't happen over night. The expectations after the u-20 win were just silly.

You’ve put a severely positive spin on the results this year.

Let’s take a different look; Blew a 4 point lead with 20 minutes to go against a fourth string Dublin side in the O’Byrne Cup, were walked into the ground against Westmeath and could’ve been beaten by a lot more if they wanted to, had an extra man against Antrim for twenty minutes and still lost and blew a 9 point lead with twenty minutes left against Clare…

You’ve no doubt we’re gonna win our last 3 games, really? Based on what exactly?

Sligo will be favourites against us, Wicklow will be a dogfight and while we should beat Limerick it could be a relegation decider so won’t be simple.

I’m finding it hard to see how we’ll be operating in the top tier in the next 3-4 years when you consider the majority of our best players (Anton, Hogan, Carroll, Cunningham) etc will likely be gone by then and on the evidence so far the 2021 U20s don’t look any different to a normal years U20s. The more time goes on the more that All Ireland win seems like a flash in the pan.

I think you're just generally negative and living in the 90s. Let's look at our results from last year, comfortably beat Meath who are division 2 team and tailteann cup champions, won a second game in Leinster, kick of a ball away from a Leinster final, I wouldn't put too much emphasis on anything after that give the year the team had. Again Antrim away difficult for most teams to go to, Westmeath played in a group with Armagh, Tyrone and Galway and should have made a quarter final bar an unusual missed free kick by Heslin.. Clare have been in division 2 for years and it was a freak result really, Clare almost beat Westmeath in Mullingar.. I don't think this time of year suits the team we have but that will be improving in the coming weeks and frankly we're a better team than Sligo, Limerick and Wicklow, will have a full team hopefully by them games and the team and management and game plan etc will have developed and had time to settle in. I expect Antrim to beat Sligo and Offaly to put up a better than expected show against down and come the Sligo game we'll be slight favourites. When it comes to personnel, getting even a few from an U-20 is good no matter how well that team performed, remember all the team that are there now came through underage winning very little don't write off new players coming through, lee Pearson is captain and has been brilliant, same as Rory Egan, more will come through and lads coming behind also, a lot of injuries in that group also and you'll see more of them come through in the next year or 2, remember most of them were actually u-18 at the time.

[The big hill]

We have a decent team despite missing players. I think the best point anyone has made so far is that division 3 is our championship because realistically leinster final and tailteann cup glory are unlikely. Overall I thought Offaly played well for the first 45 minutes both teams were struggling in the early stage of the league so It was a great chance for us to pick up points before we play Down. Unfortunately we let it slip. It reminded me of that Louth game in the league 6 years ago where they had a red card and we allowed them to walk through last few minutes.

[Superhans75]

After the dust has settled
The realism is that was the worst performance since against Roscommon
In the league when another false prophet
Failed to deliver EMMET MCCONNELL
Our chairman talking as if we were 5
Year olds is embarrassing
We were actually at the games .I
More than he is .
The lack of urgency has been the most disappointing aspect.
Relegation is a certainty unless Jesus puts on the shirt.
At least a nice trip to Newry is a consolation
Nice scenery and a club bar .
Stay dry folks

[ah lethimoutwithit]

What is going on in football country why are all these clubs not putting in go games teams ? For me it's disgraceful no wider we are struggling

any kids in the areas that want to play are coached and trained with Independent team group, some run their own units on seperate evenings, loads going on in football country.

Unfortunately there is around 60% of kids that if you played in their back garden wouldn't wish to play and thats the crux of it.
More soundbites

[joey1001]

After the dust has settled
The realism is that was the worst performance since against Roscommon
In the league when another false prophet
Failed to deliver EMMET MCCONNELL
Our chairman talking as if we were 5
Year olds is embarrassing
We were actually at the games .I
More than he is .
The lack of urgency has been the most disappointing aspect.
Relegation is a certainty unless Jesus puts on the shirt.
At least a nice trip to Newry is a consolation
Nice scenery and a club bar .
Stay dry folks

You're just a clown to be honest, like I said come back the me after the last game when we've won the last 3. Clare almost beat Westmeath who should have got out of their group last year with Galway Tyrone and Armagh, Clare have also spent years in division 2 and are a cut above us whether you like it or not. The worst performance? Was good enough to put us 9 points up and play them off the field for a large chunk of the game, mistakes and naivety cost us in last 15 minutes and some bad luck with the penalty.. don't brag about going to games, when you just come on here and criticise, you know feck all about it to be honest!