Offaly Senior Footballers - Planning for 2025, Mickey Harte onboard

[Superhans75]

A strange throw of the dice Harte is brilliant manager when things click and players
Put there hands up to play for him
Hard to know how much damage this last 12 months has had on core of the team
Young lads forget quickly the older ones
don't (father time comes calling.)
Someone has got out the butter vouchers
For this appointment.
Something had to be done let's hope for the sake of Offaly football we can go forward
And not turn it into a media circus
Role on January

[greenairfield]

The best appointment that has ever happened into Offaly and some lads seem to be sitting on the fence but pushing towards negativity.

A top class inter county manager anyone who can play football at that level will play, he will get the best out of his team.

Well done to all involved let's push forward.

[kingscounty]

Isn’t it great that we have brought in a manager who knows success, turned Tyrone into multiple all Ireland champions, brought Louth out of division 4 and made them very competitive, division 1 league champions with Derry!
His experience and knowledge even for 1-2 years surely has to be hugely beneficial to Offaly football from underage upwards.

[Lone Shark]

i dont think the club delegates should be asked anything about this(even tho i dont agree with it). they are the ones who presided over the current foorball structures and a while back got rid of 2 decent capable men in paul o kelly and gerry fahy. for no other reason only they thought it was a good idea.

If you pay your membership, you're entitled to a say as part of a democratic association, and your club is the channel through which your voice gets heard. And as is often said about democracy, it's a schyte system, except when you compare it to any of the possible alternatives.

[Lone Shark]

On the main topic of the thread, I'm excited by this.

Of course it's fraught with risk; there's always potential for discord when you don't have a clearly established desk where the buck stops, and there's no doubt that Gavin Devlin was a big part of most of the success that Harte enjoyed as a manager in the past. I've no doubt there will be a fair amount of diesel burned with regular trips from Ballygawley to Kilcormac as well. There are downsides, absolutely.

That being said, the biggest and most imminent threat to the success of the Offaly senior footballers was the prospect of a raft of players making themselves unavailable for selection in 2025, and that concern has been completely eliminated in one fell swoop now. Any player who doesn't put his hand up to be part of the panel now, is someone who quite simply cannot do so for whatever reason. There won't be a single player opting out because they just don't fancy it.

And while I didn't and don't consider the 2025 Leinster SFC to be winnable from an Offaly perspective, I believe that there is a small but non-zero chance that we win it in 2026, and a decent chance that we do in 2027 and 2028. But all of that depends on making consistent forward progress in the meantime, and relegation to D4 would have completely derailed that. Now I can say with confidence that this is off the table.

I have no concerns over "defensive football", since I don't believe that Harte is any more defensive than any other decent modern coach. Derry won the National League this year playing sensational football, and while of course much of the work behind that was done prior to Mickey's arrival, if he was as determined to 'park the bus' as all that, there's no way they would have played like that in the league, or been castigated for their naivety in the Ulster championship against Donegal.

There are absolutely no guarantees that this will work, but it was a decisive, brave call that was made by an executive and a chairperson that could easily have would down the clock on their tenure and still sailed off into the sunset with well-deserved acclaim ringing in their ears. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how it goes.

[ruletheroost]

Kevin I read a lot of your writings and I value your opinion. Your articles are never too far off the mark.
We have a lot of things in place to make what you have said acheivable, but there is still some concern as far as I can see.

Will Mickey go to games and have a look at players for himself or will he take DKs word on what players he thinks should be there or not? That is my biggest concern. Our panel quality outside of 17 or 18 players last year was concerning at times. There are some huge question marks over some players that were brought in last year.

DK has fallen out with a lot of players over the years for whatever reason, and in some cases players parents. Holding grudges against a player or their parents isn't healthy for Offaly football. Any player that's out there and is good enough and wants to play should be considered. Bill Carroll being the prime example. He has excelled this year so far at club level and should be straight in when training starts, regardless of his and DKs history. The pettiness needs to end if this is going to work.

I'm not as confident as you about us winning Leinster in the next 4 or 5 years but I hope i'm completety wrong.

[Lone Shark]

Without looking to turn this into another conversation about Declan Kelly, I think regardless of whether you rate him as a manager or not, his knowledge with regard to the club footballers in Offaly is second to none, due to a combination of his club/underage experience, and his role with the development squads etc. Without having ever been in a dressing room with him, I would probably so far as to say this would be one of his strongest points, and perhaps the most important thing he'll bring to the table in 2025.

For Mickey Harte to spend the amount of time it would take to go to enough club games and watch enough video to get up to speed on the 100-120 footballers that might be considered as potential county panelists next year is not a good use of his time.

Absolutely, you'd be concerned at the number of instances of players and management falling out in the last 12 months or so, and hopefully that will be ironed out. That would be another area where it really should fall on the executive to insist on a blank slate, barring anything really egregious.

[greenairfield]

Have we list of players who didn't play last year who would make a significant difference to the set up retired the works...anyone if they all make themselves available and still playing club?

[Gobbler]

I am sure Harte is experienced enough that he will get to know his group of players and the best style of play to suit them. The approach he has used with some teams clearly wont work with Offaly as we dont have the physical players to implement that type of gameplan. we dont have a huge number of lads around 6 foot who are mobile and athletic. But Harte is experienced enough to know that.

1 point that hasnt been mentioned is that Harte has a decent familiarity with Offaly from his spell with Louth. I think Offaly beat louth by 9 points in the championship after extra time in his first year with louth. And then in 2023 louth beat offaly after extra time. Truth be told louth looked stronger all through but were very nearly caught in normal time but blew offaly away in extra time. Interesting how louth progressed in the two years. Or was it offaly regressing a bit too. Bottom line, Harte has good knowledge of the current offaly footballers. I wonder did this play a part in him taking the job. Does he see potential????

Two final points;

1. Well done to Duignan on this. Again he has shown that he will give everything his best to help Offaly GAA. It might not work out but its certainly a big appointment that Im sure Duignan did excellent work to achieve. He has looked for nothing only the best for Offaly and well done to him.

2. Huge amount of criticism of management team from last year on this thread. And yes the book might stop with them. But I'd like to see the players being made accountable too. In the last couple of years there has been far too much whinging and sulking from players. If you are unhappy with what your management team has to say, then go out and prove them wrong by putting in a brilliant performance in training and games. The players have their own questions to answer over their attitude and application to Tailteann cup over the last two years. Two of the worst performances the county has ever seen against wexford and london respectively and thats down to the players. Time to man up a bit and perform.

[private joker]

I think offaly have a slim chance chance of getting to a leinster final I'm the next 4-5 years. Winning one? I can't see Dublin been bet in leinster for next 5 years.

[Lone Shark]

I think offaly have a slim chance chance of getting to a leinster final I'm the next 4-5 years. Winning one? I can't see Dublin been bet in leinster for next 5 years.

I dunno. I don't foresee a situation where Dublin aren't the clear favourites to win the Leinster SFC each year, but I don't expect that they will be anything like as untouchable when they're not togging out with Cluxton, McCarthy, Fitzsimons, McCaffrey, and when the likes of Mannion, Kilkenny, Fenton, Small etc all get closer to 35 than 30.

1. Well done to Duignan on this. Again he has shown that he will give everything his best to help Offaly GAA. It might not work out but its certainly a big appointment that Im sure Duignan did excellent work to achieve. He has looked for nothing only the best for Offaly and well done to him.

Yep. Completely agreed.

2. Huge amount of criticism of management team from last year on this thread. And yes the book might stop with them. But I'd like to see the players being made accountable too. In the last couple of years there has been far too much whinging and sulking from players. If you are unhappy with what your management team has to say, then go out and prove them wrong by putting in a brilliant performance in training and games. The players have their own questions to answer over their attitude and application to Tailteann cup over the last two years. Two of the worst performances the county has ever seen against wexford and london respectively and thats down to the players. Time to man up a bit and perform.

I don't think anyone could disagree with this, but the problem is that if we turned around to Declan Kelly and told him thank you but your time is done, you can go to Tyrone to find a new manager. If we say the same to any players, it's not like we have the option of recruiting Darragh Canavan or Pádraig Hampsey.

Also, I'm not sure I buy into this idea that if you perceive that you've been mistreated or disrespected, that the natural reaction is to raise your game out of spite. This is where man management comes into it. Are there some who respond to negative stimulation in that way? Absolutely. But is everyone like that? Absolutely not.

If I was told I wasn't up to much by a manager in a football dressing room, then I'd probably agree, while speculating as to why on earth he expected otherwise from a lifetime Junior B. But if I heard it in my professional life, my honest reaction would be that under no circumstances am I going to play into your hands by giving extra effort to someone who doesn't show me basic respect. Like anyone, I have my own professional standards, and in work and in life, I will move mountains for those who have my back. But if you don't, then I've no interest of being part of that type of operation. I'm out. It's the responsibility of the manager to understand what he's dealing with.


Again, without getting into any specifics or without saying anything about this particular instance, if a manager comes in and he either refuses to engage or else cuts ties with one or two players because they don't meet his standards in a certain area, I'm quite okay with that, and in the majority of cases, it's because the player(s) aren't willing to do everything that it takes. But if a manager comes in and after a year, the list of players that he has fallen out with or who have said they won't play for him is six, seven or eight names long, and it's not because of any obvious breaches of discipline, then it's usually time for the manager themselves to take a look at how they operate.

[Lone Shark]

I feel we're all glossing over one very important aspect here too. Westmeath wanted him as well, so at least we know his decision-making process is rock solid.

[Anonymous1]

On the main topic of the thread, I'm excited by this.

Of course it's fraught with risk; there's always potential for discord when you don't have a clearly established desk where the buck stops, and there's no doubt that Gavin Devlin was a big part of most of the success that Harte enjoyed as a manager in the past. I've no doubt there will be a fair amount of diesel burned with regular trips from Ballygawley to Kilcormac as well. There are downsides, absolutely.

That being said, the biggest and most imminent threat to the success of the Offaly senior footballers was the prospect of a raft of players making themselves unavailable for selection in 2025, and that concern has been completely eliminated in one fell swoop now. Any player who doesn't put his hand up to be part of the panel now, is someone who quite simply cannot do so for whatever reason. There won't be a single player opting out because they just don't fancy it.

Has that totally subsided though? The reason those players would've made themselves unavailable is still there.

And while I didn't and don't consider the 2025 Leinster SFC to be winnable from an Offaly perspective, I believe that there is a small but non-zero chance that we win it in 2026, and a decent chance that we do in 2027 and 2028. But all of that depends on making consistent forward progress in the meantime, and relegation to D4 would have completely derailed that. Now I can say with confidence that this is off the table.

That assumes that Mickey sticks around for 3-4 years when it's just as likely he has one good year with Offaly and then jumps to a bigger county.

I have no concerns over "defensive football", since I don't believe that Harte is any more defensive than any other decent modern coach. Derry won the National League this year playing sensational football, and while of course much of the work behind that was done prior to Mickey's arrival, if he was as determined to 'park the bus' as all that, there's no way they would have played like that in the league, or been castigated for their naivety in the Ulster championship against Donegal.

There are absolutely no guarantees that this will work, but it was a decisive, brave call that was made by an executive and a chairperson that could easily have would down the clock on their tenure and still sailed off into the sunset with well-deserved acclaim ringing in their ears. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how it goes.

The properly brave call would've been to part with DK but they balked at the opportunity. This appears to be an attempt at a compromise.

[Superhans75]

Harte has a 3 year deal be interesting if he brings someone who could be his replacement or will Kelly sit cuckold
And wait his time or look for pastures new if they were to have a promotional season
Next year basically what we have to go for .
Move over the American election
Offaly football will have the true drama
Let's enjoy i

[Tmacmahon]

Harte can not be but a good thing.
Kelly will learn some amount off him aswell I'd imagine ,
What the management team in whole does anyone know?