Offaly Team to face Wexford in Leinster Football Championshi

[townman]

best of luck to sean ryan and stephen lonergan again wexford and Hanniffy,Verney, and the rover Hayden on sunday lets make this
a good double weekend for offaly GAA god knows we need a win in both codes.. keep the faith lads......

[True Red]

from Tullamore Tribune


Cribbin Raises The Bar And Sets Sights On Leinster Final Berth
Thursday, 26 May 2011


Offaly manager, Tom Cribbin. TT12276.
STILL reeling from the bombshell news that two of his brightest young talents are heading to the USA for the summer, Offaly manager, Tom Cribbin made no bones about raising the bar ahead of Saturday's crunch Leinster Senior Football Championship opener against Wexford in O'Connor Park.
A huge window of opportunity opened up for Offaly when the draw was made late last year - Wexford at home in the first round, an away quarter-final against Westmeath if successful there with Carlow or Louth awaiting in the Leinster semi-final.
It provides a huge opportunity for Offaly to advance and Cribbin admitted as much when speaking to the Tribune last week.
'There is a major opportunity there. With the way the team is going at the minute, we have to look at getting to a Leinster final. As long as there is no injuries, I give us a big chance. Our target is to get to a Leinster final. It is 50/50 between us and Wexford and us and Westmeath. Louth would be 50/50 again if we get there. I know Westmeath and Wexford are looking at the draw in the same frame of mind but we have a great opportunity,' he remarked.
Yet Cribbin's optimism has been undermined by the fact that two of the brightest young prospects in the county are heading to the USA for the summer. Brian Connor dropped the bombshell news to him last week and headed to Boston on Thursday while Graham Guilfoyle is heading to San Francisco on June 2, which means that he is available for the Wexford game.
It is devastating to lose two young players of such ability - Guilfoyle is in contention for a place in the attack but Connor would definitely have started against Wexford, most likely at centre half forward and at this junction, it is his loss that is most acutely felt.
While bitterly disappointed to be losing two young players with the championship up on them, Cribbin does not blame Connor or Guilfoyle for heading across the Atlantic.
'They are two major losses. They are two young lads and they have no prospects of work for the summer. At some stage, all young lads want to go to the USA for the summer. It is a sign of the times we are in. I hold nothing against the long lads.'
He did, however, wistfully discuss the loss of Brian Connor. 'Brian was only just back to his best form. He would have been in contention for midfield or centre half forward. Brian has natural pace as well as strength. He is a very good kicker of the ball and he can score. He is very much an all rounder. He can play as a defensive midfielder or an attacking midfielder. He would have given us a lot of options.'
Cribbin, however, has come to terms with the loss and is stressing the positives in the build up to the big game.
In recent weeks, Offaly have drawn with Down and beaten Mayo and Carlow in challenge games. The Kildare man was particularly encouraged by the displays against Down and Mayo, pointing out that they couldn't read anything into the Carlow game.
'That was a poor match but the lads went very well in the other two games. I was very impressed with their work rate and honesty. We do need to stay injury free. Especially with the two lads going, we could struggle if we have injuries. If we are injury free, I would be very hopeful.'
Offaly gave a poor performance when losing to Wexford in the second round of the National Football League last February but Cribbin pointed out that they were injury hit at the time.
'It was a poor performance,' he acknowledged. 'At the time, I had plans for Ross Brady to be centre back and Niall Darby to be wing back but both were out. Joe Quinn was injured, Karol Slattery was out. It meant we didn't have a settled defence. We have a very settled defence at the moment. Our goalkeeper (Alan Mulhall) and full back line (Brian Darby, Scott Brady and Sean Pender) are playing very well and that is because they are the only four who have played in their positions consistently for the last year.
'Niall Smith was injured at the time and even though he came on against Westmeath, he was only at 65% of what he is capable of.'.
It ended up being a disappointing league campaign for Offaly as they failed to get promotion from Division 3 and asked about his opinion of the league, Cribbin said:
'I look at it in different ways. I would have liked promotion in one respect. In an other respect, there are some very strong teams in the divisions and some players have to settle. The backbone of our team are 22-24 years of age. Apart from Scott (Brady), Ciaran (McManus) and Karol (Slattery), we have a very young squad. It takes them two years to build up strength and get used to the training and commitment involved, like driving etc. Division 3 is not a bad place to do that learning from.'
Cribbin did stress: 'We should have got promotion. We won our tough games and lost a couple of the easier ones. We played poorly in those. We tried very hard in every game, that was a big difference this year. The lads tried very hard in every game.'
He acknowledged that it is an advantage that the game is in O'Connor Park.
'It is an advantage. It is also an advantage that we lost to them in the league in Tullamore. We are far happier with where we are now. We have a far more settled team. Stephen Lonergan and Sean Pender have come on an awful lot since then. The Rhode lads had never stopped at that stage. They are revitalised now.'
He did agree that his captain and ace forward, Niall McNamee has struggled for his best form and ominously, he warned that the Rhode man may have to take u to six months out of action at some stage to get a groin injury right.
'Niall got no break at all. He has a groin injury that will need a six month break at some stage to get right. Niall is only 25 and at some time he is going to have to take four to six months off in the next year to deal with that injury. If he doesn't, he will not be playing football in two or three years time. It needs to be rested and it needs a small operation.'
In the league, Offaly played McNamee at centre half forward which removed him from the area where he could inflict most damage.
Cribbin revealed that McNamee will be playing in more familiar territory at left corner forward against Wexford and he explained: 'We wanted to try him in a different role at centre half forward. It is a work rate type role where you create scores. He is used to being a finisher, now he was being asked to be a creator. We did it to rest his groin so he would not be turning as sharply to shoot. It was too far away from goal with the way football is played now. In the modern game, a centre half forward has to play very deep. We have been playing him inside for the last four or five weeks and he will be number fifteen against Wexford.'

[darknight]

best of luck to both the offaly hurlers and footballers this weeend..no bother to yez

[cromabu]

Heres team. What do ye think?
A Mulhall; B Darby, S Brady, S Pender; S Lonergan, R Brady, K Slattery; R Dalton, N Smith; C McManus, S Ryan, A Sullivan; B Allen, N Dunne, N McNamee (C).

[faithfullad]

Team was already posted.

[Offaly2010]

Wexford team:

Anthony Masterson
Joey Wadding
Graeme Molloy
Brian Malone
Adrian Flynn
David Murphy
Aindreas Doyle
Daithi Waters
Rory Quinlivan
Shane Roche
Ciaran Lyng
Ben Brosnan
Colm Morris
Eric Bradley
Redmond Barry

[Long John]

I doubt it very much Redmond Barry will stay in the corner. Lyng and Brosnan are more suited to the inside line and Id expect them to feature there at some stage. Aindreas Doyle will try get forward alot, he's not the best defensively and will leave gaping holes at the back that can be exploited if our lads work hard to break up their attacks and move it swiftly into that space.

Time for our lads to get their act together and get the win.

[townman]

the man to watch is Ben Brosnan he went to town on offaly in the league game not a bad footballer.

[DAF]

the man to watch is Ben Brosnan he went to town on offaly in the league game not a bad footballer.

Seeing as you seem to be a Birr man any idea who the last Birr player to play for offaly in football was before Ryan and Lonergan?

Have Birr ever had 2 players on an Offaly football team in the championship?

[wazzaman]

''Townman'' and his pal ''South Offaly'' should stick too hurling.. sure his from south Offaly, what would they know about Football...

[Bord na Mona man]

We'd definitely win this game if it was played in Birr!

[walshisland]

i got a feeling we could be going to wexford park next weekend.

its got a draw written all over it!

[Lone Shark]

i got a feeling we could be going to wexford park next weekend.

its got a draw written all over it!

You'd have to draw extra time as well. Not impossible, but at least a 40/1 shot in total.

[Plain of the Herbs]

I would say the last Birrman is Stephen Gavin who lined out for the footballers in 1946 and 1947. Also played hurling during the same period. Is his name on the list of dual players that appears in this year's Offaly v Galway NHL programme?

Seeing as you seem to be a Birr man any idea who the last Birr player to play for offaly in football was before Ryan and Lonergan?

Have Birr ever had 2 players on an Offaly football team in the championship?

[Superted]

A disgrace! Management must go! And no before you say it, its not a rush of blood to the head!