Offaly Senior Footballers 2025

[Bord na Mona man]

I also agree that the public may tire of the two-pointers. A goal is still only worth three points, and is now a less significant event. The two-pointer is hugely significant and maybe overly so.

Football may become more like hurling, where players increasingly take pot shots as soon as the goals are reachable. Hurling has become higher scoring, but conversely more stop-start as teams shoot on sight. More scores/wides, but more restarts and the ball in play less.
It's like how tennis evolved to have less rallies and more aces because of more powerful players and better equipment.

The main problem with football was the long passages of bore ball. The new rules have reduced this, but there yet be more adjustments needed.

[G91]

I also agree that the public may tire of the two-pointers. A goal is still only worth three points, and is now a less significant event. The two-pointer is hugely significant and maybe overly so.

Football may become more like hurling, where players increasingly take pot shots as soon as the goals are reachable. Hurling has become higher scoring, but conversely more stop-start as teams shoot on sight. More scores/wides, but more restarts and the ball in play less.
It's like how tennis evolved to have less rallies and more aces because of more powerful players and better equipment.

The main problem with football was the long passages of bore ball. The new rules have reduced this, but there yet be more adjustments needed.

Another issue with football witch has stopped (kinda) was basketball type play the hole way up the field , the a pass forward , backward , sideward multiple times all without one kick off the ball,

We need not worry about 2 pointers because if we are going to just sit in our own 21 as soon as a team puts on pressure like we did against Meath and no plan we won’t have to worry about scoring

Still can’t wrap my head around it as most people how we managed to loose in such a style that we did

[ah lethimoutwithit]

A lot of valid points made here since the match.
But a bit of perspective is needed. We gave a great account of ourselves against a high ranking Div 2 team.
As Kevin C says in nearly every article where a team has lost narrowly, "it wouldn't have taken a whole lot more to win it"!! Genius!

But it is true, goal came from kamikaze style play both forwards and back/goalie, we missed some crucial chances and discipline cost us another 2, plus the 2 after ball thrown up, ref definitely changed style of reffing as in we were going to get no frees in contact up front in last 20mins.

We paid the price for not having a bench that the management trust, as in a game like that its all about impact off the bench.
Persnally I am ok with the performance and there is a lot to build on, but also the Tailteann cup will be a tough competition to win and performances along with introducing more players is crucial.

[Superhans75]

After 2 days to reflect on the game
I have come to the conclusion the two
Management system is not the way forward
I was talking to a cousin at a funeral who
Is a mayo selector he talked a lot of common sense about Offaly there potential but also there weaknesses.
He was of the idea that Kelly should be back in the U20 and let Mickey have a run.for one season.
To be honest U20 could do with Kelly because the present system isn't working.
I' think disappointing aspect of this team is the forward line not scoring enough
And some serious issues with not having a plan B .
Hopefully we put our a strong team for the taliteann cup and not start blaming eachother either way it's a long time till next
End of January

[ruletheroost]

After 2 days to reflect on the game
I have come to the conclusion the two
Management system is not the way forward
I was talking to a cousin at a funeral who
Is a mayo selector he talked a lot of common sense about Offaly there potential but also there weaknesses.
He was of the idea that Kelly should be back in the U20 and let Mickey have a run.for one season.
To be honest U20 could do with Kelly because the present system isn't working.
I' think disappointing aspect of this team is the forward line not scoring enough
And some serious issues with not having a plan B .
Hopefully we put our a strong team for the taliteann cup and not start blaming eachother either way it's a long time till next
End of January

If only we had an Anton Sullivan or Cian Farrell to come on in the last 20 minutes, along with Roo Mac. The Meath forward substitutions won them the game. We brought on one forward who hadn't played any football in 2 months. The depth in the forward line just hasn't been there. The starting forwards, as brilliant as they have been, were eventually going to run out of steam.

We weren't far away, but the fact that the management only has faith in about 18 players is worrying. What must the other 14 or 15 lads that are training be thinking?

[SearingDrive]

After 2 days to reflect on the game
I have come to the conclusion the two
Management system is not the way forward
I was talking to a cousin at a funeral who
Is a mayo selector he talked a lot of common sense about Offaly there potential but also there weaknesses.
He was of the idea that Kelly should be back in the U20 and let Mickey have a run.for one season.
To be honest U20 could do with Kelly because the present system isn't working.
I' think disappointing aspect of this team is the forward line not scoring enough
And some serious issues with not having a plan B .
Hopefully we put our a strong team for the taliteann cup and not start blaming eachother either way it's a long time till next
End of January

If only we had an Anton Sullivan or Cian Farrell to come on in the last 20 minutes, along with Roo Mac. The Meath forward substitutions won them the game. We brought on one forward who hadn't played any football in 2 months. The depth in the forward line just hasn't been there. The starting forwards, as brilliant as they have been, were eventually going to run out of steam.

We weren't far away, but the fact that the management only has faith in about 18 players is worrying. What must the other 14 or 15 lads that are training be thinking?

Anton is gone, Cian walked, what about Roo?. The current management have decided on the panel, and I am happy with it.

Meath was a step up for Offaly. We lost, time to move on and learn from the errors last Sunday.

[SearingDrive]

I don’t care that simply wasn’t good enough

First half performance was excellent the wind had fuck all to do with Meaths scoreline Offaly never gave them a second , played nice fast attacking football , direct into the wing forward line no messing took the scores 2 or 1 when they’re was room to kick them

Second half
Running away from the player on the ball instead of actually putting some pressure on and the dog on the street knew meaths kicking ability from outside the arc

Made good progress in the league to go completely backwards and play like we did last year as soon as bit of pressure was on

Referee played the crowd , gave to many frees to Offaly in the first half so he had to please them

Changes were needed desperately
Left it until there was 30mins in the second half to make them

Navan is also a kip of a venue , had tickets for the stand had to sit in the open if the stewards bothered to put people in the right place would have been helpful
How can you get to. 2025 and have absolutely no development what are they doing with all the funding they get ?
Meath supporters are in a world of there own you’d think they were contenders for an all Ireland never mind Leinster

At least the parking was only 3 quid unlike the robbery of O Brien park et all

To summarise Meath did what they’re known for doing and we had no plan to deal with it , running around in circles instead of putting a bit of pressure on
There’s no hard look there you can’t be in hard luck when Meath dominated the way they did in that second half

I was in Navan @1 pm, thought the match was at 2 pm. Certainly the parking was better than the Tullamore parking by a fewTullamore GAA members, who lack interpersonal skills. All about money.

There was tea and coffee, and sandwiches gratis in the bar. A nice touch, it used to be available in OCP.

[Thomas mc]

All was great and all the praise but the knives don't be long coming out anyone realise that we were playing Meath in Navan who challenged for promotion from Division 2 and have been plying their trade at that higher level for a while and at the moment they are just a bit better than us? Wasn't really a whole lot in it at the end, they got a bit of a run on us which can happen, and home team chasing down a lead with wind behind them completely changes the dynamics.. First year new management and the team has gelled and will only improve going forward and of course we can learn from Sunday but some of the stuff that we didn't do well is harder do well against better and stronger teams.. so we can say we didn't do x or y, maybe we weren't let do x and y despite our efforts. Realistically the main goal for this year has been achieved and it might sound silly but there's a lot of work behind this team already.. are we good enough to win the TC, I think on our day of course and do I think we should go all out and win it? Yes but do I think there will be a change of attitude towards it enough to go on a run of wins to achieve this, unfortunately no I don't think so. Hopefully I'm wrong and we get the best out of the team. But let's be honest we were shit in it last year and lads were looking for a root and branch review and all that nonsense and then we completely turned it around.. it was never a reflection of where the team actually was or is because the players didn't bother with it.. to address the whole anton, cian and whoever else issue, the factors behind the good year so far are 1. Declan Kelly taking back the dressing room and gettin rid of the dead wood 2. New and promising and committed players willing to play for their team and manager were given their chance last year and the experience has stood to them all as individuals and as a team 3. Mickey Hartes influence, the positivity around it, his tactical ability and will to win and the fact he backed what DC had done the year before. 4 The new rules (maybe 2 pointers aside) suited our team and our style. The result in Navan has no real impact on any of the above in what became a meaningless competition as soon as we were drawn on the same side as Dublin. Let's hope we go at the TC.

[Anonymous1]

Is that you Joey?

[Lone Shark]

A few random thoughts, in no particular order.

(1) The two pointers are definitely a distortion on a day when there is any sort of wind factor, and particularly to get two points for a free from distance. I don't personally like it, and I think that when the statisticians have a year of data to work with, we're going to see some very unwieldy, awkward attacking play as team's realise that double the reward means that in many cases, a bad two-point shot will be a mathematically a better option than to take a shot from 30 metres out in a central position.

Now that being said, there is a narrative growing that Offaly lost the game to two-pointers. We scored five and conceded seven, in a game that we lost by seven points. There's a lot more to it than that.

(2) The bench thing is a massive, massive problem. Now I don't think getting into individual players is helpful, and since I've never watched Castleknock play a game in my life, I'm not going to say that there weren't good reasons for giving Eoin Sawyer a go. Management are watching him in training, they see what he can and can't do, and it was a game where we were almost certainly going to need a goal, so maybe that was it. Obviously on paper, you'd look at some of the other lads and say that they have more on their CV.

But stepping back to put it in context - our first sub was used after 63 minutes. Wicklow’s first substitution against Dublin was in the 45th minute, their second was after 63 minutes. Louth had two changes already made by the time the clock reached 63 minutes in Newbridge on Sunday. Every other team that was involved in the four Leinster and two Ulster quarter-finals had at least three subs made by the 63rd minute, and a couple had used all five replacements at that point.

Moreover, this is the fourth game in a row where we've used either two or three subs in total, at a time when in 80-90% of cases, teams use the full complement of five, maybe with a blood sub along with it. And we're not finishing games well, which is intuitive, let's put it that way.

There are counties not too far ahead of us in the pecking order where getting into the matchday 26 is a challenge, and where it's commonplace to have four changes made by the 55th minute, most preplanned, with one man kept in reserve in case of injury. Meanwhile we're frequently asking all eight of our middle third guys - players who are doing more running than ever - to play 60+ minutes. You don't have to be a sports scientist to realise this puts you at a disadvantage.

(3) Overall, I'm happy with a lot of Sunday's game. I would have felt that Meath were vulnerable mentally going into it, and that the most important thing for Offaly was to ask real questions of them - but at the end of the day, it's 20 years since we've finished ahead of them in the league. In Navan, we always needed them to underperform a little. We built up a decent half-time lead, we forced them to take tough shots, and in the third quarter, they nailed every one of them. They had 14 wides overall, but that was eight in the first half and six in the final quarter. When the squeeze was on, Meath showed up. That should make it a lot easier for Offaly to make peace with the result.

(4) Of course there are regrets. I'm thinking of the score BnM man mentioned where we nailed a two-pointer and then gave it right back by interfering with a mark. In the modern game, it's just not worth the risk - if an opponent has made a catch around the middle, you just have to back off for the next ten yards, there is no circumstance where it's worth rolling the dice. But as well as that, we were midway through the first half and Meath hadn't scored, and then Pearson pushed Curtis in the back for a handy free to get them off the mark. I know defenders have to walk the line in the modern game but it felt like handing them a big psychological boost, rather than making them earn it.

Then there was the half-goal chance at the start of the second half. I don't think that Tierney (the passer) or Hayes (the receiver) did anything really wrong, it was just a great play by Seán Coffey to read the move and intercept. ]

What I definitely don't buy into is this idea that where we went wrong was not scoring more in the first half, something I've seen brought up in a few spots. We led by ten points, we forced Meath to take risky shots, and they had a lot more possession in the first half than we did in the second. It was a strong wind, but it wasn't so unplayable that we should have gone the full second half without scoring from play.

(5) Of all the teams that Offaly have played and will play in 2025, Meath posed the biggest challenge in terms of winning ball from kickouts. We're not a big team, and I thought that we managed a difficult situation very well for a long time. Paddy Dunican had to play a lot of eye-of-a-needle restarts and he missed the mark with a few but largely was very accurate, while there were a good few times that we worked the ball out of defence well, even when the pressure was on. Daire McDaid stepping his man when he was the last man back in the right corner and no outball was fair chutzpah, to hand it to the lad. There was a lot of that, with Furlong, Bracken and Flynn all breaking out of tackles when they needed to.

With this in mind, Kyle Higgins' emergence has been vital, but even then, more strategies are going to be needed. Jack McEvoy has played well this year and I really like Jordan Hayes, I think he's one of the best all-round players we have, but I would say that neither is a 'Lord of the Skies' type fielder, they're both in midfield because they can do the job, rather than saying they're made for it. I don't think anything is going to change in 2025 in that Hayes is one of the first names I'd put on my teamsheet every week and while there might be better fielders than McEvoy, what you'd gain in aerial ability you'd lose in other aspects.

(6) For all the talk of Dublin's decline, no-one's beating them in Leinster this year anyway, so I don't think we missed out on any glorious opportunity in that regard. It is a pity though because a win over Meath would have been a big deal in its own right.


Like everyone else, I do hope the general attitude is one of knuckling down, using the next month well and hammering into the Tailteann. Cup. I don't agree with the TC at all, I think the old qualifiers were much better, but while it's there, we may as well use it, if only because there is a real advantage to sticking together as a group and training on into the latter part of June. Brian Byrne (Laois) mentioned that this year, that no matter what you do as a group in Winter, working together in high summer is great for any panel and even though they lost last year's TC final, he felt getting there and everything that went with it served them well.

Certainly there's no-one in the competition, or no-one that might yet end up in the competition, that Offaly should feel in any way nervous about facing.

[Offaly Hero]

A few random thoughts, in no particular order.

(1) The two pointers are definitely a distortion on a day when there is any sort of wind factor, and particularly to get two points for a free from distance. I don't personally like it, and I think that when the statisticians have a year of data to work with, we're going to see some very unwieldy, awkward attacking play as team's realise that double the reward means that in many cases, a bad two-point shot will be a mathematically a better option than to take a shot from 30 metres out in a central position.

Now that being said, there is a narrative growing that Offaly lost the game to two-pointers. We scored five and conceded seven, in a game that we lost by seven points. There's a lot more to it than that.

(2) The bench thing is a massive, massive problem. Now I don't think getting into individual players is helpful, and since I've never watched Castleknock play a game in my life, I'm not going to say that there weren't good reasons for giving Eoin Sawyer a go. Management are watching him in training, they see what he can and can't do, and it was a game where we were almost certainly going to need a goal, so maybe that was it. Obviously on paper, you'd look at some of the other lads and say that they have more on their CV.

But stepping back to put it in context - our first sub was used after 63 minutes. Wicklow’s first substitution against Dublin was in the 45th minute, their second was after 63 minutes. Louth had two changes already made by the time the clock reached 63 minutes in Newbridge on Sunday. Every other team that was involved in the four Leinster and two Ulster quarter-finals had at least three subs made by the 63rd minute, and a couple had used all five replacements at that point.

Moreover, this is the fourth game in a row where we've used either two or three subs in total, at a time when in 80-90% of cases, teams use the full complement of five, maybe with a blood sub along with it. And we're not finishing games well, which is intuitive, let's put it that way.

There are counties not too far ahead of us in the pecking order where getting into the matchday 26 is a challenge, and where it's commonplace to have four changes made by the 55th minute, most preplanned, with one man kept in reserve in case of injury. Meanwhile we're frequently asking all eight of our middle third guys - players who are doing more running than ever - to play 60+ minutes. You don't have to be a sports scientist to realise this puts you at a disadvantage.

(3) Overall, I'm happy with a lot of Sunday's game. I would have felt that Meath were vulnerable mentally going into it, and that the most important thing for Offaly was to ask real questions of them - but at the end of the day, it's 20 years since we've finished ahead of them in the league. In Navan, we always needed them to underperform a little. We built up a decent half-time lead, we forced them to take tough shots, and in the third quarter, they nailed every one of them. They had 14 wides overall, but that was eight in the first half and six in the final quarter. When the squeeze was on, Meath showed up. That should make it a lot easier for Offaly to make peace with the result.

(4) Of course there are regrets. I'm thinking of the score BnM man mentioned where we nailed a two-pointer and then gave it right back by interfering with a mark. In the modern game, it's just not worth the risk - if an opponent has made a catch around the middle, you just have to back off for the next ten yards, there is no circumstance where it's worth rolling the dice. But as well as that, we were midway through the first half and Meath hadn't scored, and then Pearson pushed Curtis in the back for a handy free to get them off the mark. I know defenders have to walk the line in the modern game but it felt like handing them a big psychological boost, rather than making them earn it.

Then there was the half-goal chance at the start of the second half. I don't think that Tierney (the passer) or Hayes (the receiver) did anything really wrong, it was just a great play by Seán Coffey to read the move and intercept. ]

What I definitely don't buy into is this idea that where we went wrong was not scoring more in the first half, something I've seen brought up in a few spots. We led by ten points, we forced Meath to take risky shots, and they had a lot more possession in the first half than we did in the second. It was a strong wind, but it wasn't so unplayable that we should have gone the full second half without scoring from play.

(5) Of all the teams that Offaly have played and will play in 2025, Meath posed the biggest challenge in terms of winning ball from kickouts. We're not a big team, and I thought that we managed a difficult situation very well for a long time. Paddy Dunican had to play a lot of eye-of-a-needle restarts and he missed the mark with a few but largely was very accurate, while there were a good few times that we worked the ball out of defence well, even when the pressure was on. Daire McDaid stepping his man when he was the last man back in the right corner and no outball was fair chutzpah, to hand it to the lad. There was a lot of that, with Furlong, Bracken and Flynn all breaking out of tackles when they needed to.

With this in mind, Kyle Higgins' emergence has been vital, but even then, more strategies are going to be needed. Jack McEvoy has played well this year and I really like Jordan Hayes, I think he's one of the best all-round players we have, but I would say that neither is a 'Lord of the Skies' type fielder, they're both in midfield because they can do the job, rather than saying they're made for it. I don't think anything is going to change in 2025 in that Hayes is one of the first names I'd put on my teamsheet every week and while there might be better fielders than McEvoy, what you'd gain in aerial ability you'd lose in other aspects.

(6) For all the talk of Dublin's decline, no-one's beating them in Leinster this year anyway, so I don't think we missed out on any glorious opportunity in that regard. It is a pity though because a win over Meath would have been a big deal in its own right.


Like everyone else, I do hope the general attitude is one of knuckling down, using the next month well and hammering into the Tailteann. Cup. I don't agree with the TC at all, I think the old qualifiers were much better, but while it's there, we may as well use it, if only because there is a real advantage to sticking together as a group and training on into the latter part of June. Brian Byrne (Laois) mentioned that this year, that no matter what you do as a group in Winter, working together in high summer is great for any panel and even though they lost last year's TC final, he felt getting there and everything that went with it served them well.

Certainly there's no-one in the competition, or no-one that might yet end up in the competition, that Offaly should feel in any way nervous about facing.

Broadly agree with everything here except the comment about the TC and the qualifers.
I agree with the Taitleann cup in the same way and for the same reasons as every county agrees with a Senior/Senior b/Intermediate/Junior club championship.

The qualifiers were tokenistic gesture for lower ranked counties (take your game or two, lose and let the rest of us enjoy the summer playing football). And do that every year. I hated them and the meek, servile attitude they engendered in the lower ranked counties - desperately hoping for one 'day in the sun', one 'big win' every few years. The qualifiers did nothing to serve football and only entrenched inequality.

[Cheddar]

After 2 days to reflect on the game
I have come to the conclusion the two
Management system is not the way forward
I was talking to a cousin at a funeral who
Is a mayo selector he talked a lot of common sense about Offaly there potential but also there weaknesses.
He was of the idea that Kelly should be back in the U20 and let Mickey have a run.for one season.
To be honest U20 could do with Kelly because the present system isn't working.
I' think disappointing aspect of this team is the forward line not scoring enough
And some serious issues with not having a plan B .
Hopefully we put our a strong team for the taliteann cup and not start blaming eachother either way it's a long time till next
End of January

Ah jaysus. We lost a game in the last few minutes after leading for the majority, with a goal chance at the end that would have put us up by a point. We conceded 1-2 straight after that. Had that long ball in from Flynn gone into one of the lads hands and into the net, you wouldn’t be saying that.

Jesus Christ we won promotion unexpectedly and then beat Kildare again to win the league outright in Croker. We’ve had a phenomenal year under Harte and Kelly. Poor game management against Meath but Jesus we genuinely were one clean catch away from winning on Sunday. Management wouldn’t be a problem then. These are the times we need to back them 100%. It’s the best football we’ve played in years with an incredibly young team. Sunday is a learning experience and we will know more when we play Meath next year in the league.

Management is doing well (And I was a major skeptic at the beginning)

[aigne]

When was the last time Offaly beat Meath in Championship in Navan (or even league)? Don't think it has happened in my time.

[Cheddar]

I' think disappointing aspect of this team is the forward line not scoring enough

We are averaging 21 points a game this year vs 15 last year. Yes the 2 pointers are part of that but scoring certainly hasn’t been any problem for us at all this year. The movement and decision making is the best I’ve ever seen. No where near as laboured as previous years. Quick ball, pace, movement, direct running, long range, sensible tap overs. It’s all part of a very cohesive forward unit.

On our forwards specifically, and in focus, the 5 who’ve started most or all games;
Keith O’Neill 2-30 (36 points)
Cathal Flynn 1-4 (7 points)
Dylan Hyland 2-34 (40 points)
Jack Bryant 1-14 (17 points)
Shane Tierney 1-12 (15 points)

I’m pretty happy with those numbers. Cathal Flynn’s role is obvious. He’s absolutely crucial this year in his movement, chance creation and possession. He’s not a scorer and won’t be, he runs the forward line.

Tierney has played well and is getting more involved in every game. He’s guaranteed a score or two and game and has been crucial in making darting runs to allow the likes of Keith O’Neill or Cormac Egan to run through the lines.

Bryant finally has the confidence in himself to make a difference. Again, he’s showing for the ball more and it’s key in creating scoring space. His best year at senior so far.

Hyland and O’Neill are obviously our chief scorers, but again, like the other forwards, their general play allows others to thrive and move the ball.

Our attacking system allows space and that’s what suits us. We have more than forwards scoring, and that’s crucial in any team. Cormac Egan has 2-6 so far. Furlong with 1-2. Jordan 1-4. Throw in Ru when he’s fully fit again, Cillian Bourke, Rory Egan etc., and we aren’t doing too bad going forward.

Absolutely we need more from the bench and I’m yet to see what Sawyer offers over Cathal Donoghue or Kellaghan or even Nigel, but look that’s for the management that we do have and do support.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Offaly and Meath playing championship at each other's home venues is a new thing 2019 might have been the first year of the current home and away arrangement. And Offaly and Meath rarely meet in the League.

But. There was a time around February 1993 (I could be wrong, I haven't checked to confirm) when, on successive Sundays, Offaly beat Meath in Navan, first in an O'Byrne Cup (might have been a final) and seven days later in the league.

When was the last time Offaly beat Meath in Championship in Navan (or even league)? Don't think it has happened in my time.