I will politely disagree with many of your assertions above re what lads have to offer. Can pick holes in lots of lads including many of the u20s but that would be very unfair and counter productive. If the time / life balance is right, then things can change for lads and you might get more from lads than we have only seen bits of to date. Lads in college often make certain life choices as they sometimes want to do something different. Often however, more maturity at 24 / 25 changes things for lads in a way that they do want to give it a good go. I specifically stayed away from u20s as they will all likely get opportunities.Behindthegoal wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 8:10 pm Not to be disrespectful to anyone but a lot of the lads you named are either nowhere near good enough for senior inter county football or have been on the panel at some stage and never got a look in. Cunningham couldn’t get onto the u20 team so hard to see how he’d make any impact at senior, Kevin O’Brien is lucky to be on the tullamore team. Conor dunne hardly stood out in the intermediate championship and plays rugby. Kyle Higgins has gone to America. Joe Maher has been messing around with county setups for the last 10 years wouldn’t be surprised if kearns doesn’t even bother calling him in because he will leave himself at some stage. Oisin Kelly is a hurler he will never play county football for Offaly as will always be in with the hurlers his name should stop being mentioned. Ronan Mcevoy was in under Maughan for about six weeks and left it’s easy to say call these lads up but will they commit and do the training? You don’t want lads who are guaranteed to drop out and leave you in a situation mid season looking for new players. Shane O’toole good club player yes would he make any impact at county? I’m not sure. Chip O’toole left the u20 squad this year two weeks before championship and had to be persuaded back we are looking for a new goalkeeper at the moment but again if he’s not willing to commit he shouldn’t be called in. I’m not sure who the young forwards in Erin rovers are? Seen them a couple of times this year and nobody stood out at a very poor level. Cathal Donoghue has been in the squad but picked up a nasty injury so you’d imagine he will be back. Joey O’Connor dropped himself last year so no need to be calling him again? And Nigel dunne again all the above points apply to him.
Instead of calling older lads who haven’t much of a shelf life left at county standard and who have been dipping in and out over the years I’d like to see us invest in the younger lads and give them game time in division 3 and tailteann cup expose them to a high level of training and S&C along with the experience of playing the games in 3 years time they should be at their peaks and be the back bone of a really strong team. I’ll put a list below of who I’m talking about.
Lee Pearson
Chillie Donnelly
Rory Egan
Cathal Donoghue
Bill Carroll
Jack Bryant
Cian Johnson
Cian Farrell
Keith O’Neill
Aaron Kellaghan
Cormac Egan
All these players are 23 or under. If they were to put 3 solid years in now there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be winning a tailteann cup and competitive in division 2 like Westmeath are now. It’s a big if I know but this is what our county board and senior management should be aiming for.
Pearson is already in and will be important over coming years. Donnelly was in and got plenty of game time without setting the world alight and left the squad to head off this year of his own volition I believe. Egan Donoghue, Carroll Bryant Johnson Farrell, O Neill and Egan have all been in and some for a few years. Some have contributed more than others but there is a huge jump for younger lads here just yet. Many of the younger lads have struggled with injury and I believe the lads who are u20 will be left alone for the u20s this year, until they are out and rightly so. On that front, we should really be asking about the volume of games and training them best u18s-U20s had to contend with and the huge volume of serious injuries and in some cases career threatening injuries that have happened to likes of Egan, Furlong, Keith O'Neill, Tom Hyland, Kieran Dolan and Oisin Keenan Martin and possibly more. Learnings need to be taken on that front from everyone involved right down to club level.
Kellaghan is one with potential but has a lot to do physically to get to pitch of senior inter county. Bryant was a star turn of u20's but has struggled at club level to make an impact to date, given the expectation. Nigel Dunne has shown himself to be contributing a lot more than Bryant for his club and I suppose it is on that basis, that he should be reconsidered. If Niall Mac can do it at 37, why can't Dunne do it at 32 or 33? We need some senior guys in dressing room to bring young lads through