Offaly senior football team 2012

[DAF]

1 Alan Mulhall
2 Brian Darby
3 AN Other
4 Sean Pender
4 Karol Slattery
6 Ruari Allen
7 Stephen Lonergan
8 Scott Brady
9 Niall Smith
10 Anton Sullivan
11 Brian Connor
12 Graham Guilfoyle
13 Bernard Allen
14 Richie Dalton
15 Niall McNamee

As you can guess I woudld favour a route one style of football.We havent got a great bunch of players but the one way we can compensate for this is to play a tall man on the edge of the square and the let the ball in long.Dalton and McNamee would win a bucket load of possession if we kicked it in long to them.

Its way too early to pick a team as we dont know who will be called ionto the panel for teh league and how they will adjust to intercounty football.The main thing I want to see next year is improved fitness levels (the fitness levels were appalling last year) and a cutting put of all the ridiculous fluting around we do (hopefully with cribben gone these things should occur) and a realization that Niall McNamee is a great fielder of the ball and the ball should be kicked in to him as much as possible.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

I agree about kicking the ball in direct, but in fairness the one thing that differentiates the top teams from the mediocre is the ability to get clean , fast, direct ball into your forward line. This is the main aim of the congestion in football, to try and cut off the supply. Ball is worked to midfield through 5 handpasses, man looks up and all that is seen is opposing jersey's, hence the fluting around that goes on. There is not a team in Ireland that goes out with the intention of carrying the ball right through the opposing defence, but that ends up being the reality for a lot of the teams outside the top 5.!

[kingscounty]

richie dalton full forward your having a griaffe!! he got a roasting against a young lad from athy. reynolds, casey, would make a bit of sense as both are capable of getting a score and making a score.

[townman]

richie dalton full forward your having a griaffe!! he got a roasting against a young lad from athy. reynolds, casey, would make a bit of sense as both are capable of getting a score and making a score.

your spot on about Dalton at full forward, he is also lost in midfield at inter county level half back would be his best area.

as for Johnny Reynolds and Ken Casey at full forward its time for a change they have had 100's of chances in there lets start fresh with some new players in 2012.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Ken Casey not up to Intercounty, has not developed physical strength to win hard ball, and does not seem to be able to turn defenders like I expected he would when coming through from minor. Lads are being hard on Dalton, he had a great year this year and I think he will develop into a handy enough midfielder. He does not have the mobility for full forward as far as I can see.

As I said earlier, I think we could have a very strong u21 team and expect a few lads to step up from this onto the Senior Champ team.

[DAF]

I'd like to see Richie Dalton being tried at full forward.He could basically do it as a marking the goalie exercise so I woudlnt be expecting any great deal of movement or mobility out of him.Basically he could be there to break the ball and McNamee and Allen to pounce on the breaks, I had McManus for that role next year until he retired.He improved a good bit this year and I think with Edenderry winning the county final he will have even more confidence and he shuld push on in the coing years for Offaly

The truth of the matter is we do not a great selction of players to pick from and in the league this year we need to experiment.The quicker the ball goes into our full forward line the more chance we have in my opinion.Offaly are not good enough to play through teams like Dublin or Kerrry are so I think the long ball option would bypass alot of problems and create more scoring chances.

Anybody know if Richie Dalton will be given the free taking duties or was the county final a one off, I cant remember him kicking frees before.Free taking is a massive weakness for Offaly atthe moment

[wingback]

Too be fair to Dalton he had a fine yer but d man wouldn't catch a cold!! How in gods name do ye think he is a target man on d edge of d square??

[townman]

Too be fair to Dalton he had a fine yer but d man wouldn't catch a cold!! How in gods name do ye think he is a target man on d edge of d square??

let me get this he had a fine year but yet would't catch a cold, how can you have a good year in football without been able to catch the ball ?

[DAF]

Too be fair to Dalton he had a fine yer but d man wouldn't catch a cold!! How in gods name do ye think he is a target man on d edge of d square??

let me get this he had a fine year but yet would't catch a cold, how can you have a good year in football without been able to catch the ball ?

He was excellent in the county final and I thought he had a great game against Monaghan.I'd give him a go there anyway.Nothing to lose and by trying him at ful forward

[bracknaghboy]

Richie Dalton shouldn't be anywhere near the county panel. People point to the good game he had against Monaghan and thats fair enough. But lets not forget his 6 or 7 other championship appearances where he was at nothing. He was a disgrace againat Wexford and should have been dropped after it for his lack of effort around mid field. If this chap is the new poster boy of Offaly football then God help us all

[darknight]

(Daf) surely ferbanes Colin Egan would be on your team as he was one of the best players in this years championship...also I think your team is a little bit like the last year or 2 wher this team have been unsuccessful and played poorly , I think it's time to put in a few new players and see what happens.. They can't be much worse than what's there..now that's just my opinion maybe I'm totally wrong

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Jayz Bracknaghboy, thats a bit harsh on Dalton? I actually thought he did ok during the league, and he was poor v Wexford. But in fairness overall he should have gained a lot of confidence from this year. Also I think he was travelling from Wexford all this year, and now that he is based more local it will help him in his preparation for this year. Colin Egan could be a contender for full forward, his father KP was a fair lump of a man at full forward for Belmont many years ago!

[DAF]

(Daf) surely ferbanes Colin Egan would be on your team as he was one of the best players in this years championship...also I think your team is a little bit like the last year or 2 wher this team have been unsuccessful and played poorly , I think it's time to put in a few new players and see what happens.. They can't be much worse than what's there..now that's just my opinion maybe I'm totally wrong

I didnt get to see the early rounds of this years senior championsip so I havent seen Egan play football.Is he the same fella who hurls with Offaly?

Whatever we do next year there needs to be more intensity and more discipline.The standards of fitness last year were appalling and it woudlnt matter how good some of our players were last year if the manager was accepting those fitness and intensity levels as good enough then they were bound to do badly.I think we need to have a big man on the edge of the square it is an underutilised tactic in modern football and most full backs these days are not that dominant in the air and are fit to be exposed by a big man.Look at how gwell Tomas Connor did last year for Kildare, he isnt a hugely talented footballer but he was very effective and he barely kicked the ball at all last year just laid off handpasses.

[darknight]

Ye he hurls with offaly .. I'm nearly sure he was captain of an Offaly minor football team a few year ago

[Bord na Mona man]

Yes, Niall McNamee can catch 'Hail Marys' and win 40-60 balls, but it would be a tactical mistake to make him the primary target for high balls.

It makes it easier for the opposition defence if the main high ball target and the main scoring threat are the same person.
Someone else should be the target and let Niall feed off them.