Offaly Senior Footballers 2025

[Superhans75]

Just collected my winnings from backing us to get promoted
Pay for next two weekends
Had a few quid on us to win taliteann cup
Stranger things have happened maybe its
Mickey Harte plan many a true word said in jest .

[joe123]

Just collected my winnings from backing us to get promoted
Pay for next two weekends
Had a few quid on us to win taliteann cup
Stranger things have happened maybe its
Mickey Harte plan many a true word said in jest .

Nice one, would have been a nice double hurlers and footballers both to get promoted.. in the region of 100/1, shoulda would coulda.. well done. We must be a lot shorter price to win the TC now.

[Cheddar]

Is there no hype for the final this weekend. GAA don’t help themselves with the nature of the calendar and structures. Game should be seen as huge for both counties. Kildare have won FA in years and Offaly haven’t won anything since the 2015 D4 final.

Hoping for a big Offaly crowd

[Doon Exile]

Is there no hype for the final this weekend. GAA don’t help themselves with the nature of the calendar and structures. Game should be seen as huge for both counties. Kildare have won FA in years and Offaly haven’t won anything since the 2015 D4 final.

Hoping for a big Offaly crowd

I’m going anyways

[Anonymous1]

Is there no hype for the final this weekend. GAA don’t help themselves with the nature of the calendar and structures. Game should be seen as huge for both counties. Kildare have won FA in years and Offaly haven’t won anything since the 2015 D4 final.

Hoping for a big Offaly crowd

The condensed nature of the season doesn’t give much time for hype.

By the time you’ve finished discussing last week’s game, next week’s is almost upon us.

But I’d expect a decent Offaly crowd albeit anybody wanting to travel by train has to leave Tullamore at 10am.

[Cheddar]

Same team that started in Ennis named for Sunday. I imagine there could be a change or two. Would like to see Ruarí start if he’s fit. We need that experience and himself and Flynn would be a brilliant combination in and around the 45 and Arc.

[Anonymous1]

Same team that started in Ennis named for Sunday. I imagine there could be a change or two. Would like to see Ruarí start if he’s fit. We need that experience and himself and Flynn would be a brilliant combination in and around the 45 and Arc.

Where would you play Ruairí though?

Flynn has been so good at 11 that it makes it hard to find a spot for Ruairí.

[Cheddar]

Ok game day.

Thankfully less stressful than the last 2 weeks. The game is bonus territory. I still want to win and it would be amazing, but still promotion is promotion.

I expect Ruairi to start instead of Dalton. The wide open spaces of Croker should suit us and like Tullamore two weeks ago, allow us to run against Kildare. I can’t imagine they will be as poor as two weeks ago though.

Head says Kildare by 5. Heart days Offaly by 2.

[Anonymous1]

Ok game day.

Thankfully less stressful than the last 2 weeks. The game is bonus territory. I still want to win and it would be amazing, but still promotion is promotion.

I expect Ruairi to start instead of Dalton. The wide open spaces of Croker should suit us and like Tullamore two weeks ago, allow us to run against Kildare. I can’t imagine they will be as poor as two weeks ago though.

Head says Kildare by 5. Heart days Offaly by 2.

I’m surprised with Kildare being 1/6 but time shall tell.

[jimbob17]

HUGE! MASSIVE!

I was one of the people who was a bit iffy about Mickey Harte coming in. Not because of who he was, but because of the dynamics it may have formulated between what was there last year in management and what is there this year. The mood was shocking after last year and by all accounts, it wasnt great before the league this year. But here I say it gladly, this has worked out really well. I was WRONG.

Today was huge for this group. It is one thing to beat Kildare in a partisan Tullamore in a league game. Its another level to back it up in Croke Park in a final Kildare were absolutely gunning for. Kildare were massive odds on which was a bit of a joke. This is a very decent Offaly team - as good as we have had in last 10 years or more. We deserved that today because we were better than Kildare football wise even if they probably had better athletes. They had old failings and unwillingness or inability to score that cost them. We worked very hard and pressured their shooting massively and that was the difference. We had clever mobile forwards. They had one or two robots too many.

Our lines of running in forward division was superb. Movement creates space and in Hyland, Bryant and Tierney inside and O'Neill, Flynn Higgins and Hayes, Furlong and Egan coming from behind in support, we had their measure. I was really impressed with the support play and unselfish runs made by the forwards in general and they always gave it to best man. Bryant gave exhibition in first half and im delighted for him as he has had plenty average days in senior jersey. Tierney is a nightmare to mark and tied it together well and chipped in with 2 pointer when it was on. Hyland too is a real threat and while he tired towards end, he was excellent again. O'Neill gave an exhibition too scoring off left and right and got MOM.

In truth we could have had 3 or 4 guys as MOM. Hagney was taken off after 25 mins because Cormac Egan was doing wreck. He did even more wreck on the subtitute and is a serious operator and was my MOM. Flynn too has such a turn of pace and super balance and understanding of space and was another contender for MOM. The interaction of all the forwards as we moved the ball was most pleasing and they played as a team on and off the ball. Bracken was very solid in defense too and McDaid gave a lot going forward.

Higgins gave us that extra bit of physicality under kick outs that we need but we probably need to work a bit on kickouts as we struggled towards last 20 mins on own kickout. McEvoy was solid even if beaten by a very impressive Bolton for few kick outs. Hayes travelled well and linked efficiently and chipped in with score. He has grown big time as a player this year. If I was to pick any holes in it at all, we probably couldve added Leavy and Mcnamee 10 mins earlier for bit more energy I thought but other than that, it was a tremendous team effort. Offaly were very fresh after a full week off so kudos too to S&C and management team for making that call.

Mickey Harte did super interview afterwards I thought, talking about staying humble and giving the kudos to players, S&C lads ond others in backroom team. Maybe that is part of what he has added to the management team.

Great year so far by this team I am more than happy to say and I wouldnt be changing that team overly much for the championship. We are very mobile with what we have currently and the new rules really suits us as we have very good footballers.

Well done to all involved (Declan, Mickey, backroom team and players) and roll on the championship.

[Superhans75]

Up Offaly
Enough said
Enjoy folks

[Wing Back]

Massive congrats to all involved today.

Enjoy the celebrations.

[Offaly Hero]

Today was a truly fantastic performance, a fantastic result.
Congratulations to all involved.

Let it serve as reminder to all who spoke with such certainty over the past 12 months various versions of 'Offaly football is going nowhere/players are useless/ U-20 All Ireland players aren't up to it/management is useless' that it is possible to be wrong. Hopelessly wrong.
Perhaps next time those same people will remember that 'It is It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.' I wouldn't hold my breath however, empty vessels etc.

Anybody with sense could see there was potential there to improve on Offaly's standard of recent years. It just needed a spark. Well done to all the players and management for blocking out the noise. Onwards to championship now.

[biffinbanner]

2026 sees offaly in div 1 a hurling and div2 football. not bad for a small county. jarlath burns has presented 3 national cups to 3 offaly men in 2 years. not bad either.

[Offaly Hero]

2026 sees offaly in div 1 a hurling and div2 football. not bad for a small county. jarlath burns has presented 3 national cups to 3 offaly men in 2 years. not bad either.

Unbelievable. By a mile the best 'pound for pound' GAA county in the country.