Offaly u20 Footballers 2025

[Faithfully]

Disappointing game. Tough to know what to say as players, mentors etc will be demoralised.

We seemed to struggle against the wind in the first half with a lot of lateral play, which seemed fair enough. But I was still hopeful given that we had a monopoly on possession for the first 5 minutes, and could have been a couple of points further ahead but for some wayward shooting.

After this point though, Westmeath took over. They absolutely blitzed us on the break at every possible opportunity and managed to fashion opportunities relatively easily. They also began to dominate us at midfield. In a parallel world, we have Donal Shirley, Cillian Bourke and Shane Rigney out battling in the middle third but that's life (I realise Bourke is the only legitimate loss listed here being the only one on the panel).

I thought after a few minutes of the second half that we may be battling our way back given the 2 early scores but that was absolutely not the case. Westmeath looked far more comfortable playing against the wind than we did. Fair enough, it's easier in the second half when you have a lead and don't have to force things. But their passing was also much more crisp and their patterns of play opened us up on a few occasions.

The remarkable thing is that if we showed a bit more composure in the second half, it could have ended up being a tremendously close game. Lots of missed opportunities, 2 pointers included.

Westmeath deserving victors and nobody could have complained it it were 10 points. Tough games ahead against Dublin and Meath. If nothing else, they battled hard in the second half. Hopefully they can regroup and put in creditable displays in the 2 remaining Leinster championship games.

[Bord na Mona man]

There's some good individuals there, but just not enough depth to make it a strong team.

Just like when people are quick to announce that Offaly have 'solved' our underage production when a strong crop comes along, neither does a result like last night mean it's in trouble.

Or maybe I have that wrong. Tom Parlon out!

[ruletheroost]

Was the co-commentator on Clubber watching a different game or something? Said the one shining light for Offaly was the centre back. His man scored 9 points and got man of the match. The one shining light was Jake Maher from Ferbane. First year up and looked very good.

Cillian Bourke was undoubtedly a huge loss. I'm not sure where Ross Keeleghan and Ryan Kenny were last night. They both played in a few recent friendlies. Kenny scored 6 or 7 points against Weford, apparently. Killian Lowry another one that should have been there.

Donal Shirley and Shane Rigney would add huge strength to the team, too, but I can't blame them for sticking to the hurling.

It's going to be a long two weeks for the whole group.

[Superhans75]

I missed the first 20 mins due to running late
Westmeath were deserved winners
We looked a bit disjointed to be honest
Definitely going to be a long and demoralising competition.
But as long as the players put in the effort
We can't do know. More

[substandard]

Between 2 and 5 from any u20 team will play some senior county. An exceptional crop might see 5 become established, long-term senior players. In any given year, if you get one or two good enough to be an effective senior, the group will have done its job. There are a few lads I know there, that if they can commit and stick the path, they'll be OK.
Ye can't be winning All-Irelands every year, leave the odd one for us poor folk!!

[Anonymous1]

Between 2 and 5 from any u20 team will play some senior county. An exceptional crop might see 5 become established, long-term senior players. In any given year, if you get one or two good enough to be an effective senior, the group will have done its job. There are a few lads I know there, that if they can commit and stick the path, they'll be OK.
Ye can't be winning All-Irelands every year, leave the odd one for us poor folk!!

7 from the 2021 U20’s have consistently started this year.

Pearson, Egan x2, Furlong, Flynn, O’Neill and Bryant

[ruletheroost]

The 20s championship needs a review too in some way. Guys start trialing in November. Start training mid December or before. Train for 3 months 3 times a week, and your championship could be over in the space of 7 days.

If you get a slight injury leading up to the championship you miss it all too. It has been extremely devalued over the years.

[faithfulfanatic]

The 20s championship needs a review too in some way. Guys start trialing in November. Start training mid December or before. Train for 3 months 3 times a week, and your championship could be over in the space of 7 days.

If you get a slight injury leading up to the championship you miss it all too. It has been extremely devalued over the years.

Up until 2017 the u21 was straight knockout, and your season was over in 60 minutes never mind a week.
I don’t see how it has been extremely devalued?
Should group games be spread out over the course of the summer just incase some lads are missing games?
Injuries are an unfortunate part of sport.

[ruletheroost]

The 20s championship needs a review too in some way. Guys start trialing in November. Start training mid December or before. Train for 3 months 3 times a week, and your championship could be over in the space of 7 days.

If you get a slight injury leading up to the championship you miss it all too. It has been extremely devalued over the years.

Up until 2017 the u21 was straight knockout, and your season was over in 60 minutes never mind a week.
I don’t see how it has been extremely devalued?
Should group games be spread out over the course of the summer just incase some lads are missing games?
Injuries are an unfortunate part of sport.

So you think there is value in training for 3 and a half months with no league to play 3 championship games of which if you lose your 1st 2 you're gone?

[faithfulfanatic]

The 20s championship needs a review too in some way. Guys start trialing in November. Start training mid December or before. Train for 3 months 3 times a week, and your championship could be over in the space of 7 days.

If you get a slight injury leading up to the championship you miss it all too. It has been extremely devalued over the years.

Up until 2017 the u21 was straight knockout, and your season was over in 60 minutes never mind a week.
I don’t see how it has been extremely devalued?
Should group games be spread out over the course of the summer just incase some lads are missing games?
Injuries are an unfortunate part of sport.

So you think there is value in training for 3 and a half months with no league to play 3 championship games of which if you lose your 1st 2 you're gone?

How has the competition been devalued?
Was there a league played before this devaluation?

If you can’t win either of your first 2 games, then I don’t think you have much hope of winning anything.

[ruletheroost]

There was a league up to 2023. They just try to run it off as quickly as possible and get it out of the way. Maybe I'm just getting cranky as I get older

[faithfulfanatic]

There was a league up to 2023. They just try to run it off as quickly as possible and get it out of the way. Maybe I'm just getting cranky as I get older

Fair point.

I think it’s hard to get the balance, when you run a league then we complain that it’s pointless, that they’re playing schools/colleges/senior and have enough games going on and counties should be left to organise challenge games when suit.

[Lone Shark]

The 20s championship needs a review too in some way. Guys start trialing in November. Start training mid December or before. Train for 3 months 3 times a week, and your championship could be over in the space of 7 days.

If you get a slight injury leading up to the championship you miss it all too. It has been extremely devalued over the years.

It probably does need a review, and if it were up to me, the bit in bold is what I'd review. It's one of those things where it's very hard to go backwards, but these are guys who are usually playing either schools or freshers ball somewhere, and as a general rule, they tend to be a group that are heavily overloaded.

I would argue we don't need a bigger U-20 championship, we need a smaller U-20 season. But how you go about enforcing that is another matter.

[ruletheroost]

There are four changes to the starting team and eight or more positional changes, a sign that this management team has no clue about their team. Wednesday might be a long night. I hope I'm wrong.

[True Red]

I wont lump in on players or management as it is an amateur sport.

However, criticism is warranted based on last weeks outing. Keeping in mind that Westmeath wont win the Leinster i felt that the Offaly team as prepared and selected were poorly served.

There are things that you can do tactically that will prevent a team being as defensively exposed as this Offaly team was last week. I didn't see any evidence of that. The level of tight defensive tackling from Offaly was just not present. Indeed there was a level of passiveness that is always concerning particularly in a championship match. These are all basic fundamentals that can be worked on and implemented quite easily.

Particularly unfathomable considering this outfit were holding 'trials' in November and started training in December.

Beggars the question what they were working on.