Offaly Senior Footballers 2025

[Wingbackassassin]

Is Bill Carroll involved with the inter county set up this year?

Doesn't appear that he is. Big loss as he's good enough to be on the starting team imo.

[Anonymous1]

So, in the space of 8 months with some of our best players no longer involved we have gone from a 14 point defeat against London to a 6 point win over Sligo.

That tells me all I needed to know about the management we had in 2024 and I just can’t understand why we didn’t give Mickey Harte the job on his own?

[ruletheroost]

So, in the space of 8 months with some of our best players no longer involved we have gone from a 14 point defeat against London to a 6 point win over Sligo.

That tells me all I needed to know about the management we had in 2024 and I just can’t understand why we didn’t give Mickey Harte the job on his own?

Those are my thoughts exactly. Listening to Harte's interview, the man oozes positivity, which was reflected in the players' performance on Sunday. Declan Kelly is the opposite, in that he berates players, thinking it gets the best out of them when it actually has the opposite effect.

Like I said earlier in the week, that was a strong forward line. Add Aaaron Keelaghan, Cian Farrell and a few more that should be in there and there is a real chance of building a strong team.

Also where are all the players that played u20 for Offaly in the last 4 or 5 years that didn't go on to play senior. Surely there are enough players to have a good development squad. Offaly are doing huge work in the underage development squads. It surely has to continue once they finish with the u20s? Kildare have a development squad of 26.

[Superhans75]

Remember Declan Kelly is used to working with younger people
Bit like PE teachers at school.
They tend to end up as referees we have had
A few manage the county the outcome
Was poor to say at least.
Harte knows his onions .
Hopefully he can peel away with this squad

[Tmacmahon]

Laois next Sunday will be a different kettle of fish, looking for revenge for last years championship defeat, where they lost a man early and indeed knew the reward for victory was a date with the dubs, still would have wanted to win no doubt.
Dk and MH will most likely stick with the same team , its not perfect but probably makes more sense to finish with a stronger team .

[Bord na Mona man]

Laois next Sunday will be a different kettle of fish, looking for revenge for last years championship defeat, where they lost a man early and indeed knew the reward for victory was a date with the dubs, still would have wanted to win no doubt.
Dk and MH will most likely stick with the same team , its not perfect but probably makes more sense to finish with a stronger team .

It's a slight help to Offaly that Leix had both their games called off at the weekend.
Leix have some prominent players unavailable also. It's the new normal for smaller resourced counties outside of Division 1.
https://x.com/SmallerFishGAA/status/1882376484876124615

Last year, Offaly beat Leix in all 3 hurling grades, senior & minor football - 5/6, almost the full house. Some houses in Portarlington haven't opened the curtains in months now!

[Payperview1]

Could you just explain to me bord na Mona man, why everytime you mention Laois in a thread, you refer to them as Leix. Is this an attempt at humour or what?

[faithfulfanatic]

Could you just explain to me bord na Mona man, why everytime you mention Laois in a thread, you refer to them as Leix. Is this an attempt at humour or what?

He correctly referred to Leix by their proper title of Leix.
I don’t see what the issue is?

[Bord na Mona man]

I will continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico, regardless of Trump's actions.

[oneshot]

Could you just explain to me bord na Mona man, why everytime you mention Laois in a thread, you refer to them as Leix. Is this an attempt at humour or what?

they always went by the name Leix down the year's.

[Payperview1]

Ok, didn't know that.

[SearingDrive]

Ok, didn't know that.

Think Abbeyleix, not Abbeylaois.

[ruletheroost]

If Offaly perform like they did for most of the second half against Sligo, they will beat Laois with a few points to spare.
I'd start Cillian Bourke midfield and move Jordan Hayes to centre back. He was excellent there in the second half on Sunday.

Would love to have seen an inside line of Hyland Farrell and Bryant last week. I think Cian Farrell would have thrived.

A win on Sunday would set them up nicely. Kildare Offaly and Antrim I think fighting for the promotion places. Kildare look very strong and seem to have responded well to new management.

[biffinbanner]

kildare are flaky. antrim wont win another game!

[Lone Shark]

Add me to the "very pleasantly surprised" camp, when it comes to last Sunday. I think we got a bit lucky in the sense that Sligo had a dismal day in front of the posts, but we played with a clear plan and structure, the way that Cormac Egan and Cathal Flynn worked through the middle was very effective, and for the first time in a long time, we look like we have a good number of players on the field who are comfortable taking a score.

I expect Kildare to be a bit ahead of the pack. The mental gremlins are there in their DNA absolutely, but if you're putting Fermanagh to the sword like that, I don't expect there are enough teams in the Division who can push them to the level that will give those gremlins a chance to pull out the wires in their brains and have them short circuit.

Also, while I respect the quality of a lot of the individuals in the Antrim team, I'm not at all writing off Clare on the back on one bad result, and they're the team we need to target as our most likely rivals for promotion IMHO. Eoin Cleary and Keelan Sexton are excellent footballers who will have a lot of dirty diesel to get out of the system after stepping away from the county scene for a while, but the longer the league goes on and the more minutes they get, the more effective they will be. For neither of them to score (Sexton played the full game, Cleary went off in 2nd half injury time) is a fairly remarkable statistic, and not one I think we'll see again in 2025. If I was having a bet on the division, then Clare at 4/1 to go up is my selection every day of the week.

That being said, Offaly have put themselves in the mix with that win, and there's a great chance to build on it next Sunday in Portlaoise. The big name players that aren't available to Justin McNulty are a factor - up front in particular it's a very inexperienced side that was picked for the Leitrim game that never was - but I think getting a game under our belts is huge as well. I'm not writing off Sawyer either but he has ground to make up, I'd be surprised if he gets a start this week. 100%, Cillian Bourke is capable of stepping up to this level. There'll be a confidence boost overall, I've no doubt the kickouts will be worked on a lot during the week and there should be improvement there against a decent Laois midfield, and honestly, having a game played should be worth a two or three point head start, which I think will make a big difference. Maybe the main difference.