National Foothall league Div 2 predictions

[Fairplayalways]

we can discuss the goal until the cows come home, ship has sailed, when ahead we shoth a few wides to put the dsitance betwneen us and Meath, teams are either going to learn that now or not, this is a few years these "failings" have been ghosting us, and to be honest, its as much players and mangement alike to blame...and the that happens at end...

Our refixture with Galway this weekend, can we get anoher draw even?? I am most certain we wont, our goal keeper will be our hero again but we will lose 2-16 to 0-10 or there abouts with an average display...any less of a display and it will be worse...as usual hope Ime wrong..

[Tmacmahon]

by Anonymous1 » Tue Mar 01, 2022 5:23 am

So here is what I think our best 15 is:

Paddy Dunican
Declan Hogan
Eoin Rigney
Niall Darby
David Dempsey
Johnny Moloney
Eoin Carroll
Jordan Hayes
Peter Cunningham
Ruairi Mcnamee
Anton Sullivan
Cian Farrell
Cian Johnson
Niall Macnamee
Bernard Allen

Here’s the subs we currently have:

Ian Duffy
James Lalor
Rory Egan
Lee Pearson
Ciaran Donnelly
Colm Doyle
Cian Donohoe
Kieran Dolan
Mark Abbott
Cathal Mangan
Aaron Leavy
Dylan Hyland
Bill Carroll
Jack Bryant
Cathal Donoghue
Cathal Flynn
Cormac Egan
Morgan Tynan
Jack Darcy
Keith O’Neill

And here’s a list of players that could/should be involved:

Carl Stewart
Shane Horan
Joe Maher
Joseph O’Connor
Michael Brazil
Conor Mcnamee
Oisin Kelly
Leon Fox
Sean Pender
Paul McConway
Shane Tierney
Sean Doyle
Jack Quinn

Takeaway: Our best 15 is without a doubt good enough to be a mainstay in Division 2 and make Leinster Finals, the difficulty is I’m not sure we’ll ever actually see our best 15 players all on the field at the same time.

Thoughts?


I’ve often been guilty of this but it’s irrelevant. We have who we have forget the rest, nigal Dunne is better than all on list not on panel that you have assembled but again it’s irrelevant. Let’s support who we have. I will stress I was once of the view of getting all our so called best players playing. Let’s support who we have. Offaly abu

[pigeon house biffo]

Thats a decent collection of players but mainstays in div 2 and leinster finals? Im pretty sure the guts of that team played together more than once and didn’t get near those heights

[Bord na Mona man]

Just checked square ball rules (below). I guess the ref/umpires thought exception 1 applied or didn't know the rule. But it seems conclusive from the video that the player was not legally in the square when the ball arrived:

RULE 4 - TECHNICAL FOULS:
4.10 For an attacking player to enter opponents’ small rectangle before the ball enters it during the play.
Exceptions:
(i) If an attacking player legally enters the small rectangle, and the ball is played from that area but is returned before the attacking player has time to leave the area, provided that he does not play the ball or interfere with the defence, a foul is not committed.
(ii) When a point is scored from outside the small rectangle and the ball is sufficiently high to be out of reach of all players, the score shall be allowed even though an attacking player may have been within the small rectangle before the ball - provided that the player in question does not interfere with the defence

Yes, that would be my understanding of the rule.
I expect the ref and umpires weren't fully watching Wallace's movements and couldn't say definitively that he had stayed in the square.
In goal scoring situations the attacking team get the benefit of the doubt to a huge extent. Like, it's a rare ref that disallows a goal where someone has taken a dozen steps in the process of scoring.

[Bord na Mona man]

Round 4
5 March 2022 Galway v Offaly

Round 5
12 March 2022 Down v Offaly
13 March 2022 Meath v Cork

Round 6
20 March 2022 Cork v Down
20 March 2022 Clare v Meath
20 March 2022 Offaly v Roscommon

Round 7
27 March 2022 Down v Clare
27 March 2022 Meath v Derry
27 March 2022 Offaly v Cork

Looking at the table and fixtures, if Offaly lose by > 4 against Galway it'll be back to the bottom. That's academic right now.

My feeling is that Offaly's easiest route to survival is:
- Offaly beat Down in Newry.
- Cork pull up their socks and beat both Meath and Down,
- Clare beat both Down and Meath (likely but not certain)
- Derry beat Meath (strongly likely)

Offaly survive with just 3 league points. Down and Meath go Down.

[bracknaghboy]

Offaly 1-10 Meath 1-10

This was an improvement albeit against as poor a Meath side as I can remember.
With a strong wind in the 1st half Offaly only manged 6 points. It was only 5 points with the wind against Derry and Clare. Now to be fair Saturday the wind was blowing somewhat at an angle Saturday so it wasn't straightforward.

There was a lot more commitment in attack in this week and what did I did I say last week about Niall doing damage if left near the goal? He was brilliant and the goal is as good as you'll see, super vision, hands and finish and so many of the lads on the wavelength.
I could watch this all day. Nialler is a genius. Offaly had 8 lads committed to that attack.

https://t.co/KGWnjx7dkS

It's funny because Offaly are in 6th place with a game in hand but that game in hand is likely to hurt the scoring difference in a bad way.
As I see it now they have to beat Cork and Down. Both look poor outfits so stranger things have happened.
I haven't the time to get into the under 20 debate tonight but it's an interesting topic.

[bracknaghboy]

My feeling is that Offaly's easiest route to survival is:
- Offaly beat Down in Newry.
- Cork pull up their socks and beat both Meath and Down,
- Clare beat both Down and Meath (likely but not certain)
- Derry beat Meath (strongly likely)

Offaly survive with just 3 league points. Down and Meath go Down.

Good synopsis of it BNM man.
It's Clare I don't trust.
Beat Down and it'll be in Offalys hands at a minimum come the last day out against Cork.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Thing is, Joe Armchair, that walking contradiction, likes to see all the young lads getting on the team, but also wants to see the strongest team possible lining out. He wants to see six scoring forwards and wants to see the half-forward line lining out 30 metres from the opposition goal.

I mean, I know what you're trying to say, but surely you see how irrelevant that is? Not alone that, it's damaging to the players that are there now.

Absolutely, if we could pick from everyone, of course Cunningham, Farrell, Brazil, Eoin Carroll, Rigney would get included, all day and every day. You could also make a case for (for example) Cian Johnson if fully fit, for Oisín Kelly if he wasn't hurling, for Seán Pender if he wanted to commit to it, but NONE OF THAT MATTERS. Now if these guys were fit and making themselves available for selection and management was choosing to look elsewhere, that's a different debate, but that's not the case.

There are a variety of different reasons why they're all not there right now, and it's an insult to those that are available for selection and that are putting the hard work in, that they're being measured up against guys that aren't. They're effectively being asked to compete with ghosts, with an idea. It's like marrying a woman whose first husband, a fire officer, died trying to pull orphans from a burning building. You're always going to struggle to live up to that.

You might as well ask would Ciarán McManus, Vinny Claffey and Peter Brady at their peak improve the team. I mean, yeah, they would, but that's not how life works.

[Plain of the Herbs]

I hear what you're saying. But if Declan Kelly's forté is youth development, I wonder should he be left to manage the U20s and oversee their development over the one or two or three years a lad will spend at that grade. Apart from skills development, there are factors such as the fostering of a positive spirit and also the development of character at an important stage of a lad's youth.

Ditto for Cork who arguably should have left Keith Ricken to manage and develop their U20s.

I think after winning the 20s we needed to protect everything we had in the county. Maugham has ran his course this no disrespect and I am not sure if anyone else would do much better but what we need is all the best footballers within the county playing with the seniors and blending in the u20s very very slowly.

Would Declan kelly not be the best man for the job on a 5 year building basis ?

[kingscounty]

Galway 2-17 Offaly 3-10 ! Bit of fight from the lads, I was expecting a big beaten, not to bad on our score difference

[Fairplayalways]

apparently our third goal was virtually end of injury time penalty, but as you say scoring difference it all counts....at least we are beginning to reach the 10 point mark with at least one or two goals so from that point of view those type of returns may just be enough to be just a little hopeful of getting a good result against Down which is getting more important of a game every week of results..

[Bord na Mona man]

3-10, 19 points if you're being positive, or 13 scores if you're not so positive. It's still a decent tally, away, against a team that are in the frame for promotion to Div 1.

It also suggests that Offaly were more attack oriented. In my view this is crucial for survival. We need to go at teams like Down and Cork, test their defences, expose any weaknesses. Sitting back, soaking up pressure and scoring 5 points per half is not how you are going to beat your relegation rivals.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Just a point above in relation to Declan Kelly....

"If his forte is Youth development, should he be left to nurture etc" and bring on more young players?

Think about that statement for a minute, in the context of a relatively young man but also in mid forties?

I think it is about what he wants to do, I'm not sure if he's in his 4th or 5th year, but if Maughan goes at the end of this season, then he has earned the right to be considered for the senior job if it becomes vacant. And also at the very least, test himself at the highest level of senior management if he so wishes.
He's not done to bad along the way, and not too worried about breaking a few eggs either.

But back to the game yesterday, it was heartening to see Offaly have a bit of a go at Galway by all reports, and we were going nicely at different times only for Galway to push on, 2 things appear to have happened, 1) We pushed up on the short kick out, and denied them handy primary posession and 2) We transitioned to attack better. Dylan hyland has come in and made an impact, Shane Tierney could be another guy to make an impact if given an opportunity, particularly maybe off the bench. Any word as to why Joe Maher is not involved,is he injured?

[bracknaghboy]

Lovely spring afternoon in Salthill yesterday. First time I've been there when the wind was so calm which made for an interesting encounter.
The pitch looked heavy but didn't deteriorate much as the game went on and was in good shape.
One thing to say is that this Offaly side has pace and buckets of it.
Numerous times David Dempsey (who played brilliant until his injury), Declan Hogan, Rory Egan, Lee Pearson (when he came on) skinned Galway players and this suggests the harder ground will only improve things.
Midfield was where I expected a struggle to compete but Offaly broke even and Hayes had a really good game throughout......he has some engine.
Mark Abbott was energetic as always and always seems to be available to receive the ball.
Anton had a great 20 minutes kicking 3 good scores and dispatching the retaken penalty. I wonder does this suit him coming in with 20 to go? It lessons his time to bogged down in the funny business with opponents and he is concentrating on making the most of his time on the pitch.

Now some of the not so good stuff. Scoring remains hard work. As BNM man said this craic of kicking 5 points a half is just going to get you relegated!
This was the most adventurous they've been all year but the fact that there wasn't a gale force wind for the first time this year influenced that.
Nialler caused Galway real trouble early on and they were forced to take him down twice but he also made numerous runs making himself available throughout the match that were not spotted by the lads so forwards need to be tuned into that next day. He gave a lovely handoff to Panda for a beautifully finished goal. On the 15 minute mark Niall went rambling and Offaly got the ball back but it was booted in on top of Panda who hadn't a hope in there.....Nialler shouldn't be leaving the edge of that square...we are tired saying it.
Dylan Hyland was lively if still a bit raw but he'll improve and is mad for work.
A few too many times the default seems to be to put the brakes on and go for a bout of cross field handpassing whilst the opposition get set.....feck that in the next 3 games.....the pace is there....use it and run at them. Oh yeah and again yesterday the Offaly defence was it its shakiest when ran it......sort that out lads.

Yesterday was actually winnable. An Offaly free to reduce it to 3 points came off the post with 15 to go and within seconds Galway had it in the net the other end from the rebound after Offaly were caught flat footed. Also Niall gathered a ball into the box mid second half and I didn't see was it taken off him or was he blinded by the sun but nothing came of it and it looked like it was destination for the net.
They left everything on the pitch yesterday which was great to see because the towel would have been thrown in in the past......keep in mind Galway were 1-2 after 6 or 7 minutes so Offaly won the last 64 minutes by a point
Any word on Dempseys injury? He will be needed badly next week.......this Down game is winnable and simply has to won.

[Bord na Mona man]

Anton had a great 20 minutes kicking 3 good scores and dispatching the retaken penalty. I wonder does this suit him coming in with 20 to go? It lessons his time to bogged down in the funny business with opponents and he is concentrating on making the most of his time on the pitch.

Interesting point. There is argument that Anton can have a big impact coming on and running past tired players.

When he starts matches, by the time we're into the 2nd half refs have decided Anton is a messer and give him nothing.
I've seen him literally being dragged back by the neck in front of the referee and no free awarded.

In general Offaly players are more comfortable playing more direct attacking and quick counter attacking football. It's harder to develop a system of grind down football and patient build up play unless it's being done in the clubs and at underage.