www.uibhfhaili.com

Down and Westmeath to go up, Wicklow and Clare to go down.

Down and Sligo to go up for me. Limerick and Wicklow to drop.

Sligo have real buzz in football in recent years. Their seniors have improved hugely under Tony McEntee and think Offaly are small bit off their level now. They were also extremely close to winning U20 All Ireland last year and were really competitive in that grade over last couple of years. Connaught will see Sligo coming close to Roscommon in years ahead for 3rd spot if they keep going the way they are. In young Cawley lad, they have one of best young players in the country.

Clare have lost 11 of last years team so they'll find it hard to get back to Div 2 and I think Westmeath have slipped a bit from where they were, even if they competed well in Sam Maguire in 2023. Think it'll see Offaly finish 4th 5th or 6th in Div 3.

Will be very interested to see how it pans out.

pigeon house biffo wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 9:33 pm

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 9:25 pm Down and Sligo to go up, Wicklow and Clare to go down for me. Clare have lost far too many good players to be able to keep things on an even keel.

Interested to hear the rationale behind Sligo??

Some serious individuals on that U-20 team last year, and guys that are ready to make an impact straight away. That injection will make the world of difference to a group that always had five or six very good footballers, but lack of depth meant that by the time they got down to the last few names on the teamsheet, things got very bleak very quickly.

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Fri Jan 12, 2024 10:47 am

pigeon house biffo wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 9:33 pm

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 9:25 pm Down and Sligo to go up, Wicklow and Clare to go down for me. Clare have lost far too many good players to be able to keep things on an even keel.

Interested to hear the rationale behind Sligo??

hem

Doesn't sound like an altogether dissimilar scenario to the one Offaly found themselves in after they won their u20 all ireland a few years ago?

Slightly different. I would say that Sligo's very best footballers are at a higher level than our very best lads are - as in, if Kerry went to Sligo and could pick three or four players, I think they'd happily use the services of Niall Murphy, Darragh Cummins, and maybe Seán Carrabine and Luke Towey as well. How many Offaly players would be picked? Declan Hogan and Peter Cunningham I'd say, probably no-one else right now.

In addition, their U-20s aren't all hurling as well, they aren't all playing a Covid-caused backlog of games, so there isn't the same injury concern, and they are all very football focused. I'd be stunned if the likes of Luke Marren and Canice Mulligan don't make a big impact this year. Our U-20s were more like a balanced panel, there wasn't one or two players that were carrying the rest.

I'd agree and I'd add Keelan Cawley to that list.

I've watched lots of that U20 team in adult club championship over last 2-3 years and none of them have stood out in any way at club level, bar perhaps Lee Pearson, Keith O Neill and possibly Harry Plunkett who isn't even on the senior panel. For whatever reasons, some have even struggled to point where you'd question if they were good enough to be on their club senior team and with lots playing at inter and senior B or lower again, they are a long time past Co u20 now. It's old news and it was great while it happened. You don't hear Kildare crowing about all their underage success in recent years and they've had way more than us. Lads need to put things in perspective. Co u20 is a long way off county senior football and one swallow doesn't make a summer. We need to have competitive u20 teams every year across 10 years to get good Co senior team while picking 2 or 3 off each year group going through. We've very few in 26-32 age bracket in comparison with most county teams and experience and know how counts at this level.

After two visits to the dome ( thunderdome )
Lol
It's a great facility why can't we have one in the Midlands.
Brilliant parking weather is not an issue
Bar the obvious .
Great performance's from London
Surely Leinster gaa or private company should look into the possibility of having something similar.
What are other people's opinions.

Longford showing up just how inexperienced this Dublin side is (despite the inclusion of Niall Scully and Colm Basquel today). I’m at a loss to explain how exactly we managed to lose to them in Gracefield, it doesn’t bode well for the season ahead.

The more I look into the squad of players we have the more fearful I am
We seem a little bit one dimensional.
I just hope Kelly thinks outside his own success because teams are going to try and bully us .
That is a certainty.
Hope springs eternal and bring on the Westmeath boys .

I wouldn't read much into the O'Byrne Cup. Dublin beat Wexford 5-17 to 1-11 last weekend sure.

Longford only made 2 substitutions in normal time yesterday, which shows they were putting a big emphasis on winning instead of trying lads out.
If Offaly had taken the same approach as Longford did, they would have beaten Dublin.

Bord na Mona man wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 11:43 am I wouldn't read much into the O'Byrne Cup. Dublin beat Wexford 5-17 to 1-11 last weekend sure.

Longford only made 2 substitutions in normal time yesterday, which shows they were putting a big emphasis on winning instead of trying lads out.
If Offaly had taken the same approach as Longford did, they would have beaten Dublin.

It was pretty close to a full strength offaly team though. If you’re arguing that we need our strongest 15 and not capable of beating that kind of dublin team with 75% of our starters then we really are in trouble.

I wouldn't put too much emphasis on O Byrne Cup even if that Dublin result was a poor one. There is and was lots going on for lads with Sigerson etc at time and hard to manage that with different loads on various players who had other things going on with college football.

The league will tell us exactly where we are and if we have improved or not.

pigeon house biffo wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 1:06 pm

Bord na Mona man wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 11:43 am I wouldn't read much into the O'Byrne Cup. Dublin beat Wexford 5-17 to 1-11 last weekend sure.

Longford only made 2 substitutions in normal time yesterday, which shows they were putting a big emphasis on winning instead of trying lads out.
If Offaly had taken the same approach as Longford did, they would have beaten Dublin.

It was pretty close to a full strength offaly team though. If you’re arguing that we need our strongest 15 and not capable of beating that kind of dublin team with 75% of our starters then we really are in trouble.

If you make 8 substitutions in a game, you are prioritising giving players game time over the final result.

Superhans75 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 9:16 am The more I look into the squad of players we have the more fearful I am
We seem a little bit one dimensional.
I just hope Kelly thinks outside his own success because teams are going to try and bully us .
That is a certainty.
Hope springs eternal and bring on the Westmeath boys .

I agree re us being one dimensional. In terms of small pacy skilful players, we probably rank near the top but when it comes to our size and physicality we come stone last and unfortunately for Declan Kelly, the majority of Offaly’s games are played in cold, wet conditions with heavy ground underfoot where size and physicality trumps any skill level and I expect this to be on show next week against Westmeath, they’ll look to bully us around the pitch and I fear we don’t have many if any players to stand up to them.

Hopefully I’m wrong this time next Sunday but I struggle to see any way we can win this game.

Bord na Mona man wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 11:43 am I wouldn't read much into the O'Byrne Cup. Dublin beat Wexford 5-17 to 1-11 last weekend sure.

Longford only made 2 substitutions in normal time yesterday, which shows they were putting a big emphasis on winning instead of trying lads out.
If Offaly had taken the same approach as Longford did, they would have beaten Dublin.

I’m not so sure about that, Declan Kelly started the strongest team he had available to him against Dublin. The only players missing from our best 15 were Peter Cunningham and Jordan Hayes, neither were in the squad.