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Have we any word on who’s involved in the panel this year.

OFFALY senior footballers will take a giant step into the unknown when they begin their 2023 season with a home game against Wicklow in the O'Byrne Cup on Saturday afternoon.

New manager Liam Kearns will be without some of his most experienced players. Long serving defender Johnny Moloney has opted out for the year – the Tullamore man is now a father and living and working in Galway and news of his decision is not a surprise.

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https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/gaa/1 ... areer.html

I read Johnny Moloney is opting out of Offaly team. Niall Mac very likely to retire. The O’Byrne Cup starts at home to Wicklow on Sat. 2pm.

Be very surprising if we don't slip back into Division 4 all things considered.

frankthetank wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 12:45 am Be very surprising if we don't slip back into Division 4 all things considered.

Staying in Division 3 will be an achievement. Dropping to Div. 4 would be a disaster for Offaly football.

Every year I can convince myself that our county has a team well capable of holding their own in division 2 and then inevitably come January we hear about this lad retired, these lads injured, this lad on a tour of duty, that lad going travelling and on and on and before you know it you are wondering can relegation to division 4 be avoided! And like clockwork we have a list of fella's as long as my schlong that won't be involved in all of or part of 2023.

P.S. C'mon Nialler lad give us one last year.

Think we struggle to stay up this year. New broom and all that but lot of central guys missing. Dunican, Maloney Hayes, Rigney and E Carroll would all be central to
the team and key lads. The depth isn't huge and I think lots of the young lads are not yet ready. Who are the leaders in that group of players now?

Who are the lads to play 6,8,9 and 11?

If we are weak in them spots, we are in bother.

Yes, we're missing players next year - but it's easy to look at Offaly and say that we'll miss John Moloney, and we'll miss Jordan Hayes, and Eoghan Rigney, and possibly a few more too, including (it seems) the most talented footballer the county has known for a generation. But that's the reality of life in Division Three and Division Four.

I'd say if you went through most of the counties at this level, there are lads not available for the same reasons.

Obviously on paper, Westmeath and Cavan look pretty strong, but you could throw a blanket over the other six sides and there's not a lot between them. Even at that, Cavan have to come to Tullamore, and while the Westmeath game is away, the nature of games against Westmeath and Laois in particular is that home advantage means little or nothing in those fixtures. Certainly I'll be damned if I'm going to be intimidated about playing any game against Westmeath, ever - and while Liam Kearns isn't the type of managerial figure that will get supporters' pulses racing, he's a consistently impressive steward with a decent track record over a long period of time, and one who has stayed involved in the game throughout, so he won't have lost touch or anything like that. I'll take that over Dessie Dolan, seven days of the week, 365 days of the year.

So do I think we'll get promoted? No, but I don't think we'll be relegated either, and I'd say we'll be a better team when this league is done. My prediction is seven points from seven games, with wins over Down, Fermanagh, and one out of the two games against Westmeath and Cavan. And a draw with Longford, because we always draw with Longford.

I honestly dont see Offaly being a banker for any game, looking at them not one game you could put your money on us winning, hopefully we will play good attacking football and give ourselves our best chance...

Yet again I find myself agreeing with Lone Shark here.

Liam Kearns is a steady hand , and unfortunatley, there is going to be a turn over and each player that decides to opt out is entitled to given the crazy workload that exists whilst trying to work full time unlike the gym bots in many of the top tier of counties.
U20s have a solid outfit this year again and there should be a couple of them to come in after they complete their rehabilitation and see throught the season at that age to the end of March.

Regards Saturday, there was much to admire from the defensive side of things and any new manager worth his salt will work to get this end of things working right. A couple of lapses of concentration and focus led to Wicklow getting a couple of scores handily towards the end of the first half.
Midfield and attack are a work in progress and we will struggle in these aras in the heavy ground.

We should have been out of sight really but many poor misses cost us. 1-09 against Wicklow is worrying but not overly so at this stage of the year.
Great to see Cian Farrell back and he kicked a few nice scores, but there are others there who havea bit to do, but as I said its the 7th of January.

I think we could well struggle in the league and a lot of games will result in us losing by tight margins unless we can pack more of a punch up front, but we will improve in this aspect.

Best of luck to the lads and management and look forward to a tough league but one that will stand us in good stead hopefully.

just wondering is cian johnson available? like the other cian he has that bit of class and div3 backs might get it hard to contain the 2 of them?

biffinbanner wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 9:28 am just wondering is cian johnson available? like the other cian he has that bit of class and div3 backs might get it hard to contain the 2 of them?

Yes he’s on the panel and named on the bench for tomorrow’s game against Dublin.

Anonymous1 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:50 pm

biffinbanner wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 9:28 am just wondering is cian johnson available? like the other cian he has that bit of class and div3 backs might get it hard to contain the 2 of them?

Yes he’s on the panel and named on the bench for tomorrow’s game against Dublin.

This is nice to hear. He must have had to work hard to overcome his injury. Hopefully that is behind him and he can help move us forward. Best of luck to him (and the team of course).

Are cathal flynn or cathal donoghue involved in the panel this year?

pigeon house biffo wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 8:54 pm Are cathal flynn or cathal donoghue involved in the panel this year?

Cathal Flynn has opted out of the panel this year, I believe Cathal Donoghue is on the panel but like a lot of them will be playing Sigerson first.