Leinster Football Final Preview

[Lone Shark]

Dust down the flares and get your hair a-growin’, the seventies are back! Well okay, maybe not quite, but it’s an easy mistake to make nowadays. Look at some of the biggest gigs in this country over the last and next twelve months – The Eagles, Motorhead, Status Quo, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart and Bob Dylan to name a few. But while it’s tempting to enter into a little rant about worn out old men assembling for one last pay cheque at extortionate prices, this is the sports section of an Offaly Paper after all, so if we’re going to reminisce about the disco years, lets focus on the topical issue – a Leinster Final between Offaly and Dublin. Much like Status Quo being popular, it’s hard to conceive now, but there once was a time when this was the key battle in Leinster Football. Between 1971 and 1985 these two counties shared all fifteen Leinster Football titles. For the last eight years of that spell, the dominance reached almost absurd proportions - eight years, sixteen Leinster campaigns between both sides and only one defeat to any of the other ten counties in Leinster, that when Dublin fell to Laois in 1981.

Of course this is 21 years later and none of that should really matter – except that in one very real and meaningful way, it does. When Offaly football teams were competing throughout that era, they left a considerable legacy to future generations – that Offaly football teams were a tough match for any team in the country, but more importantly that they were never beaten till the final whistle. Countless Offaly football teams at all grades have taken the field in the last twenty years with a self belief and a confidence based on the spirit of that era, always believing that Offaly belonged on the big stage. Even after the low years of the early and mid 1990’s, when our incredible self belief was matched only by our appalling underachievement, when our big days finally did arrive, in the form of Leinster and National League finals in 1997 and 1998, Offaly weren’t gatecrashers or upstarts to be at that level – we played like it was our natural stage, and got the appropriate results.

In recent years there was a real concern that this legacy was being squandered – successive narrow and unlucky defeats to beatable opposition meant that Offaly were transforming from a competitive team that played hard to the last whistle into a competitive team that played hard but invariably failed to close matters out. Countless draws and narrow defeats were being accumulated, while wins were getting increasingly hard to come by – and that’s why this year has been so encouraging. This year we’ve won all those narrow games, and so all roads lead to Sunday.

However Sunday is another matter. Naturally the standard of opponent has got more difficult as the competition has gone on, but if one were to use a children’s nursery rhyme to illustrate this campaign, the progression has been “one potato, two potato, three potato, eight”. This is a huge jump from the level we’ve been at thus far, and no amount of hype changes that. The cold hard facts are that Dublin’s demolition of Laois has been the single most impressive performance of the football championship this year in any of the four provinces. Granted many teams, Kerry and Mayo in particular, have yet to be tested, but even those counties have more in their lockers, you have to ask – do Offaly?

To take on this current Dublin team, there are a lot of boxes that have to be ticked. Firstly, and most importantly, you have to defend from the full forward line back. These are the cosmopolitans, the flair players, the swagger boys. Bacon and Cabbage style defenders don’t get picked on Dublin teams, these guys are fillet of pork with mint sauce all the way – just as much nutritional value, but a lot more flair. O’Shaughnessy, Cahill, even Cluxton in goals – all footballers. They will play accurate passes out of defence, they will run and support the man in possession and most importantly they will exploit any slack marking – if players are not picked up around midfield, they will find them.

The second key step is to stop their key playmaker – the once-upon-a-time darling of the Hill, Jayo. Jason Sherlock has been much maligned in recent years, but those who write him off as nothing but a flash goalscorer who failed at soccer haven’t seen him play recently. He drops deep, he takes up good positions and his vision and distribution up to thirty metres is nothing short of wonderful. He won’t score 2-2 or the like, but he’ll set up that much and more if he’s let. In Parnell Park in March we stood off him, looking instead to “hold” the centre back position. It was a serious tactical error at the time and one that can’t be repeated. If you don’t want to delegate your centre back to pick him up, someone else has to.

The third and final step to stopping the Dubs is to make sure that the tyres are blown out of the bandwagon at every opportunity. The boys in blue are a confidence team, it’s imperative that they aren’t let develop momentum. With Hill 16 in full flow, the Dubs are one of the best teams in Ireland for winning a game in ten minutes – they can easily get on a roll, put 1-6 on the board and leave you chasing the game for the remainder. That kind of burst can’t be allowed. Needless to say this writer is completely opposed to the idea of tactical fouling. For the sake of Gaelic Football it would be better if Offaly chose not to employ it on Sunday, so effective could it be at stopping the Dubs from gaining any flow. Equally there’s nothing more deflating than waiting for two minutes while a player is treated in the centre of the pitch for one of those serious injuries that can only be cured by the most miraculous of modern inventions – spray. To see such a thing happen after Dublin secure a goal and a point in succession would be very hard on the viewer, even if there are dark forces out there who would suggest that it could be to Offaly’s advantage.

That’s the sad thing about modern football – stop your opponents from playing, and you’ve gone 75% of the way towards winning the game. However having said that, for Offaly to win this game, we need to win a huge amount of breaking ball at midfield to compensate for our lack of fielding, we need to defend like tigers from the full forward line back, and we need our twin terrors up front to both find space and wreak havoc close to goals again. I suspect that Offaly will do reasonably well at the first two, but that our cards are on the table with regard to the third and that the return of Bryan Cullen to the back line will see Dublin reading a lot of our forward deliveries very well and result in the two lads living off scraps. With the character we’ve seen from this team so far this championship I would expect nothing short of a committed and wholehearted display – one that will probably bring us to within three or four points of Dublin, but sadly no closer.

[azoffaly]

Loathe as I am to disagree with you LS ( ) I think you may be falling for the Dublin hype, and disregarding our own strengths.

1) Dublin are a collection of half backs and half forwards playing out the field. They will win a pile of ball, run for Ireland and keep going to the end. The thing is, if you are a back, and hassle hassle hassle (without fouling) Dublin are a team liable to kick 13-18 wides. They are not Gooch Cooper, Mattie Forde, Steven O'Neill or anything like it. If the Offaly backs are tigerish, and I expect nothing less, then Dublin will be very much put to the pin of their collars to run up scores.

2) The quality of ball we have been putting into the inside line in this championship has been excellent (apart from the Westmeath game). Bryan Cullen will not, unless Offaly are extremely rushed or off their game, intercept a lot of these passes. Intercepted passes tend to be those that are played with the head down, and under pressure. Our hand pass, hand pass, hand pass : Kick game will hopefully give the likes of Mac, Slattery, Alan Mc, Neville etc, the time needed to pick a proper pass. Then the battle is between the Dublin inside line, and our inside forwards. I would expect Dublin lads to win a lot of ball in there, but equally I hope, and expect our lads to win enough ball to do damage.

The rest of your article I broadly agree with, and I think the point about Sherlock is well made. Part of the 'tigerish' defending I mention includes not allowing their playmaker oceans of space to pick a pass.

I also agree about the Dublin confidence thing. That's why I think a pressure defence, man on man, forcing wide after wide would decimate them if it happens early enough. If they get their tails up, they are, In my view, the hardest team in the country to beat. To beat Dublin, you need to make sure they don't get their tails up.

In essence I agree with you in principle about how to beat the dubs, but I have more optimism about our ability to pressure them. After all, you don't have to be a great player to burst your gut, and I'd take an Offaly lad into battle with me every time on that score. I think the Dublin psyche is essentially weak, due to the intense pressure heaped up them, and if they start to go off the rails, they will come apart like a cheap suit. (excuse my mixed metaphors).

I also agree that Dublin will win primary possession a lot, so we have to be economical with the ball, and tenacious without it.

I'm not going for a prediction yet, I'll wait for an inspired dream or something, but if Offaly allow Dublin to kick uncontested, then Dublin will win by 6 or 7 points. If however Offaly force the pace, get in the Dubs faces and cause errors and self doubt, Offaly can win by 3 or 4.

I'm getting nervous already

[True Red]

I also agree that Dublin will win primary possession a lot, so we have to be economical with the ball, and tenacious without it

I dont necessarily agree with this point.Lets take a look at Dublin's midfield.Shane Ryan is a Half back/half forward playing at centre field.he did well in the last outing against Laois because Cluxton repeatedly found him with 30 yard kick outs to the wings and Laois did feck all to counteract this.I think McNamee will do well on Ryan.

Now lets dissect the big Raheny athlete.His foot passing can be good.His high fielding can be moderate.His shot selection and conversion can be erratic but when he nails it he does it well.If we can get McManus back to his all action,buzzing around the field for seventy minutes style I think Mcmanus will shade this battle.All he has to do is break the ball away from "Whelo" and you watch the big lug drift out of the game.

(The last time Offaly played Dublin in 2001 Sean Grennan watched Whelan go up for the ball,let him come down with and then promptly knocked him clean out.Whelan was gone after 20 mins sitting up against an advertising hoarding not knowing where he was.I have the tape at home and its a favoured moment)

[turk]

(The last time Offaly played Dublin in 2001 Sean Grennan watched Whelan go up for the ball,let him come down with and then promptly knocked him clean out.Whelan was gone after 20 mins sitting up against an advertising hoarding not knowing where he was.I have the tape at home and its a favoured moment)

This was one of my all time favourite Offaly moments. I also enjoyed Whelan pointing at Grennan after. I was discussing it recently with AZ. Is there any chance we can get this off True Red's video tape and into "cyberspace"?!!

[An Bearcán Bearaigh]

It is a sad thing indeed to see a brain as sharp and analytical as the Lone Shark's blunted by the smoke and mirrors of Dublin's defeat of Laois. I can understand how an innocent could be fooled, reading in his or her "paper of record" that "the All-Ireland football championship is ready to move from the sideshow in our sporting summer to the headline act. Thanks again to the boys in blue," but the mighty Lone Shark? Say it ain't so, Joe!

Football men know that there is always less to Dublin than meets the eye. Especially football men in the Kingdom and bearpits of Ulster, I shouldn't wonder. What the nation saw on that miserable Sunday was this Laois generation grinding to the end of their road against the one team that enjoys nothing more than kicking teams when they're down. Once young Clancy went off Micko should have thrown in the towel to stop further punishment - there was no saving Laois that day.

There is saving, and saving aplenty, on Offaly. There is no reason why Offaly should be one iota intimidated in the Leinster Final. Whelo will go missing in midfield, Offaly seize the opportunity to feed their inside line, the inside line feasts in front the Hill, who quickly go silent as the game is not going as the Herald informed them it would, and after seventy minutes it's bye-bye blues, hello Biffalicious. Dílis go deo.

Offaly fight to the last man, God bless them. I was lucky enough to be at the Kildare game and I watched your game against Wexford on the telly. Offaly stand their ground and do their best, with honest endeavor and commitment, and you can ask no more from any man. It is possible that Dublin will win, with all the forces that are behind them, what with it being so "neccessary for the good of the game that Dublin win an All-Ireland" (I wonder who's reffing on Sunday?), but if you get four points plus on Offaly I would advise any betting men among you to fill your boots.

[azoffaly]

I think Dublin are a team of 'Ball winners'. Shane Ryan, Ciaran Whelan, Brogan, Cullen, Casey, etc. etc. etc. I don't mean that they will soar to the clouds and pluck balls from 18 feet in the air. I mean they will win a lot of breaks, and possession from passes.

[azoffaly]

That was a great moment alright True Red, and Turk Not that we'd be condoning blah blah blah

I was chatting Clocker (Was a man ever so aptly named) on the Tuesday evening afterwards. I said, 'Well Clocker, what happened?'. He said (I'm paraphrasing) 'The hoor came down out of the clouds and I dough-barred him'.

Whelan was crying that day

We should have beaten them too, only for misguided attempts to shoot for goal, Padriag Kelly's brain fart, and that eejit Vinny Murphy coming on and hopping off the small lads. He didn't try and hop off Clocker.

[Lone Shark]

Firstly I'd say it'll be Ryan/McManus and McNamee/Whelan. Secondly Dublin will expect to win the high fielding battle with those two, and even if they don't, they'll send on someone like Magee (who should be starting anyway in my book) to turn the tables.

Dublin teams have been overhyped for a long time - but much like the bluffer in poker who regularly does his stack bluffing, some day he will hit his pocket aces, and like the boy who cried wolf, nobody will believe the truth until it's too late.

I'm not saying that this Dublin team is suddenly nailed on for the All Ireland - far from it. I am saying that they've done all that could be asked of them and more so far. I think that in Ryan, Cullen, and Sherlock they will have three excellent players operating around the middle, and Whelan on a hot day is good too. Cullen to my mind is one of the best footballers in Ireland - and centre back gives him a lot of scope to control a game. Laois may have folded in a fashion that was ill-befitting of any county team, but you don't score 3-17 on any modern inter county side without having something about you.


I'm very proud of our team so far, not because we proved we were hugely superior to the mid-table style teams we've beaten, but that we were marginally superior and made it tell on the scoreboard. I have no delusions about our place in the overall pecking order, and sadly I think the Dubs ability wise have four points on us, as they do on every other team in the province. I also suspect that time will tell that a two point win in Pearse Park is not the woeful formline that everyone marked it out to be.

I can promise you now also, four points will in all likelihood be available - it'll be a toss up between most bookies as to whether they go three or four - you'll get your shot, and by God do I hope you collect!

[azoffaly]

LS, yourself and myself could have racked up a decent tally versus Laois in the second half. They imploded completely.

I guarantee you that if the Offaly backs pressurise the Dublin forwards, they will kick wides like they are going out of fashion. If they do that, we have a great chance, becuase they will start doubting themselves.

This could be one instance where defence is the best form of attack.

[Ron]

We should have beaten them too, only for misguided attempts to shoot for goal, Padriag Kelly's brain fart, and that eejit Vinny Murphy coming on and hopping off the small lads. He didn't try and hop off Clocker.

Don't forget the bloody streaker who came on after Murphy did!
We were actually making a bit of a comback before all that nonsense.

[True Red]

Firstly I'd say it'll be Ryan/McManus and McNamee/Whelan.

This definitely wont happen.McNamee will be on Ryan and our human atom will be on Whelan.

I cant understand how you are blowing the trumpet for Jason Sherlock.Football wise he is a good player but when it comes down to the nitty gritty and there is a fifty yard pass to be won and there is an Offaly man ateing his fist to get a box at ye I can envisage "Jayo" leaving a brown stain on the underpants.

(as for the video i'll have to have a root at home)

[arbarg]

UP THE BAWN!!!!!!

[Lone Shark]

This definitely wont happen.McNamee will be on Ryan and our human atom will be on Whelan.

I cant understand how you are blowing the trumpet for Jason Sherlock.Football wise he is a good player but when it comes down to the nitty gritty and there is a fifty yard pass to be won and there is an Offaly man ateing his fist to get a box at ye I can envisage "Jayo" leaving a brown stain on the underpants.

(as for the video i'll have to have a root at home)

That pairing would suit Offaly down to the ground, but I can't see it happening - Whelan does not bomb forward in recent years nearly as much, and in fact Ryan does a lot of the up and down stuff - Whelan holds his ground. There's no way Dublin would leave McManus unmarked, and neither will they delegate their main fielder to do it.

I think you're judging the 1990's Jayo. Remember his point in the Leinster Final against Laois last year - went up against Byron and one of the Laois backs, got hit but got his fist on it to deflect it over the bar. He ain't yellow any more, definitely not.

[arbarg]

Come on the Bawn.

Offaly Fans should watch out for Brian next sunday at the final. Rumour has it the great man hinself will be making a personal appearance at the game. Our latest info is that he has a ticket for the Nally Stand, courtesy of Clara GAA (well done lads)

[arbarg]

Yes lads its true,

The Great one himself Sir Brian Boland O.B.E. ,M.B.E. ,Bsc, Phd will be attending the Final against the dubs.
No doubt this can only encourage our team to greater heights than those already achieved so far in this years championship. It should also prove a timely boost for morale in the stands among disheartened Offaly fans who might feel beating the dubs is a bridge too far( well we'll just see about that then won't we)

Allez les Faithful!!!!