Offaly Senior Footballers 2025

[ruletheroost]

Declan Kelly having a right dig at Cian Farrell on Radio 3 by the sounds of it. No need for it.

[Behindthegoal]

What was said ?

[oneshot]

After a great day yesterday I think there is one thing non football we should talk about.
I brought some cousins to the game from the States and they couldn't believe how dirty,
Crumbling basically decaying in the area's around croke park . have become.
It looks bad on the national stadium and to be honest I agreed with them
What do others think.?

i take it you weren't up around croker in the early 80's it's way better now lovely hotel across from croker Lucas line to get you back to hueston station not like running down the quay's to get the last train home good days. my memories of croker in the 80's and early 90's walking by summerhill the auld dub's would always give offaly a cheer on all ireland final day.

[Faithfully]

An enjoyable a day as the senior footballers have had in Croke Park since beating Wexford in 2006. I was rolling my eyes a little during the week at the surety of some pundits on picking Kildare to win without hesitation. They are a county that always seems to get the benefit of the doubt based on some, as yet, unrealised potential. The contest in Tullamore showed that these teams were pretty evenly matched, with Offaly having greater skill in the forward line in my opinion.

I was relieved to see Kyle Higgins starting for his physical presence (is he the same 20s group as Cian Farrell etc? Around 25, maybe 26?). That said, midfield was still a bit of a challenge for us. Will be interesting to see if Bourke can be of help here later in the summer.

Our play was a joy to watch at times, so much direct running. Egan, Flynn and O'Neill were particularly impressive in this regard but you could have picked anyone. My one reservation is that we were possibly a bit wasteful with goal chances specifically, although Kildare made some admirable blocks (Egan, Furlong, Bryant) in the first half. We probably got a bit greedy at times late in the 2nd half too when Kildare were coming back into it and a point would have settled us.

Meath (and it will be Meath, with due respect to Carlow who appear to be in disarray) away will be the perfect test for this group. It is a pity that if they overcome that challenge, the Dubs await. Interesting to note that the semi finals are moved out of Croker (Offaly went from 66/1 to 40/1 later in the day after this announcement, perhaps someone more knowledgeable can shed some light on that).

Assuming that we do end up in Tailteann, we must give it a proper rattle and go all out to win it. It won't be easily won.

Re our capital city, I'm there a bit for work...it's not the prettiest, is filled with rubbish and has a problem with young lads loitering around the city centre...but it's not that bad. Those who would have you believe that it's a crime infested hellhole are the same people who never set foot in it and spend a little too much time in front of their computer screen.

[Anonymous1]

An enjoyable a day as the senior footballers have had in Croke Park since beating Wexford in 2006. I was rolling my eyes a little during the week at the surety of some pundits on picking Kildare to win without hesitation. They are a county that always seems to get the benefit of the doubt based on some, as yet, unrealised potential. The contest in Tullamore showed that these teams were pretty evenly matched, with Offaly having greater skill in the forward line in my opinion.

I was relieved to see Kyle Higgins starting for his physical presence (is he the same 20s group as Cian Farrell etc? Around 25, maybe 26?). That said, midfield was still a bit of a challenge for us. Will be interesting to see if Bourke can be of help here later in the summer.

Our play was a joy to watch at times, so much direct running. Egan, Flynn and O'Neill were particularly impressive in this regard but you could have picked anyone. My one reservation is that we were possibly a bit wasteful with goal chances specifically, although Kildare made some admirable blocks (Egan, Furlong, Bryant) in the first half. We probably got a bit greedy at times late in the 2nd half too when Kildare were coming back into it and a point would have settled us.

Meath (and it will be Meath, with due respect to Carlow who appear to be in disarray) away will be the perfect test for this group. It is a pity that if they overcome that challenge, the Dubs await. Interesting to note that the semi finals are moved out of Croker (Offaly went from 66/1 to 40/1 later in the day after this announcement, perhaps someone more knowledgeable can shed some light on that).

Assuming that we do end up in Tailteann, we must give it a proper rattle and go all out to win it. It won't be easily won.

Re our capital city, I'm there a bit for work...it's not the prettiest, is filled with rubbish and has a problem with young lads loitering around the city centre...but it's not that bad. Those who would have you believe that it's a crime infested hellhole are the same people who never set foot in it and spend a little too much time in front of their computer screen.

Higgins is about 26 yeah. Would've been on the same U20 team as Farrell in 2018 when they were beaten in Leinster by future All Ireland winners Kildare.

As for the odds shifting - it was probably more to do with the fact Offaly had beaten Kildare and moved up to 15th in the rankings giving them a slightly better but still unlikely chance of being in the All Ireland series.

Re the odds though - I would like to hear from LoneShark as to why he thinks Offaly were 7/2 on Sunday despite having beaten Kildare by 6 points a fortnight previous.

[biffinbanner]

i think the bookies odds compilers viewed kildare playing in croke park as a plus for them and they would beat offaly. added to that was the fact that offaly were a shorter price earlier in the week and all the betting was mostly on kldare specially on the handicap which was - 3 kildare. but on another day they might have been right with all the wides kildare kicked?

[Lone Shark]

Re the odds though - I would like to hear from LoneShark as to why he thinks Offaly were 7/2 on Sunday despite having beaten Kildare by 6 points a fortnight previous.

Honestly? The bookies didn't think that, the general public did. Bookies started around the 2/5 mark, which is used to mean favourites by around two and a quarter points, that's probably closer to three now under the new scoring system.

But on both handicap and match markets, the public backed Kildare, and the market moved with them, as is always the case when that happens.

[Anonymous1]

Re the odds though - I would like to hear from LoneShark as to why he thinks Offaly were 7/2 on Sunday despite having beaten Kildare by 6 points a fortnight previous.

Honestly? The bookies didn't think that, the general public did. Bookies started around the 2/5 mark, which is used to mean favourites by around two and a quarter points, that's probably closer to three now under the new scoring system.

But on both handicap and match markets, the public backed Kildare, and the market moved with them, as is always the case when that happens.

Even starting as 3 point favourites despite losing by 6 two weeks prior seems a bit mad.

Kildare had no players returning and Offaly had none injured in that period so were they really suggesting that a change of venue was worth 9 points?

[Anonymous1]

i think the bookies odds compilers viewed kildare playing in croke park as a plus for them and they would beat offaly. added to that was the fact that offaly were a shorter price earlier in the week and all the betting was mostly on kldare specially on the handicap which was - 3 kildare. but on another day they might have been right with all the wides kildare kicked?

Offaly were the better team on the day.

Yes - Kildare kicked 12 wides to Offaly's 6 but Offaly could have had 3-4 more goals.

Bar the opening score of the game I'm not sure Kildare ever led again.

[Lone Shark]

Even starting as 3 point favourites despite losing by 6 two weeks prior seems a bit mad.

Kildare had no players returning and Offaly had none injured in that period so were they really suggesting that a change of venue was worth 9 points?

It's not a case of a change of venue being worth nine points, but more that the market as a whole (bookies and punters, let's not forget - punters piled into Kildare for the game in OCP as well) felt that Offaly overachieved or Kildare underachieved (or both) in Tullamore. Given that both teams scored 17 times that day, I think there is some basis for it. Moreover, a team being better on the day doesn't mean that a team is better. Mayo didn't suddenly parachute into being All-Ireland favourites the day they beat Kerry in Castlebar a month ago.

One thing that is a golden rule from when you're the man at the other end of the computer in these situations is that a match going differently to how you expect doesn't mean that your initial assessment was wrong. The money, rather than the result, is a much better indicator of when you've misread a game, or missed a vital piece of information.

[Lone Shark]

Offaly were the better team on the day.

Yes - Kildare kicked 12 wides to Offaly's 6 but Offaly could have had 3-4 more goals.

Bar the opening score of the game I'm not sure Kildare ever led again.

That's the key phrase. Nobody is saying that Offaly didn't deserve to win on Sunday, or in Tullamore last time out for that matter. It's about how you assess the teams from an overall standpoint, allowing for the most recent result, but not exclusively so.

And the thing with wides is that it's a lot easier to imagine a team that tends to be inaccurate having a good day in front of the posts out of the blue, than it is to imagine a team that traditionally creates 21 or 22 scoring chances in a game suddenly creating 30 instead.

All that said, I think Sunday's win will change the public perception of Offaly in a way that the round robin game wouldn't have. More than likely, it's the difference between us going up at 2/1 or 9/4 to win in Navan, as opposed to the 7/2 or 4/1 that would have been on offer for that fixture if it was priced a few weeks ago.

[pigeon house biffo]

Declan Kelly having a right dig at Cian Farrell on Radio 3 by the sounds of it. No need for it.

https://www.midlands103.com/news/sports ... lan-kelly/

Didn’t hear the whole thing, can you elaborate?

[Anonymous1]

Even starting as 3 point favourites despite losing by 6 two weeks prior seems a bit mad.

Kildare had no players returning and Offaly had none injured in that period so were they really suggesting that a change of venue was worth 9 points?

It's not a case of a change of venue being worth nine points, but more that the market as a whole (bookies and punters, let's not forget - punters piled into Kildare for the game in OCP as well) felt that Offaly overachieved or Kildare underachieved (or both) in Tullamore. Given that both teams scored 17 times that day, I think there is some basis for it. Moreover, a team being better on the day doesn't mean that a team is better. Mayo didn't suddenly parachute into being All-Ireland favourites the day they beat Kerry in Castlebar a month ago.

One thing that is a golden rule from when you're the man at the other end of the computer in these situations is that a match going differently to how you expect doesn't mean that your initial assessment was wrong. The money, rather than the result, is a much better indicator of when you've misread a game, or missed a vital piece of information.

Fair enough but it doesn’t take much money to move the market for a game at this level.

[Anonymous1]

Declan Kelly having a right dig at Cian Farrell on Radio 3 by the sounds of it. No need for it.

https://www.midlands103.com/news/sports ... lan-kelly/

Didn’t hear the whole thing, can you elaborate?

I assume he’s interpreting that as a thinly veiled dig at certain players.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Declan Kelly having a right dig at Cian Farrell on Radio 3 by the sounds of it. No need for it.

I think he's not saying anything that he's not entitled to say and that would not be said in any other county with ambitions. Its you thats making the assumptions.