ruletheroost wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 10:56 am
Roger is a brilliant guy and has done very well with a very talented group. Bringing in the best players around at this age group. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that if someone had their way one player wouldn’t be there because he played a bit of soccer when he was 14.
Would we be in a Leinster final without this player? I highly doubt it.
I see it reared its ugly head again recently with a player receiving an email that he was being released from the u15 development squad for missing a Saturday session and was his 3rd absence.
This kind of thing needs to stop.
Making 14 year olds commit to one sport just feels wrong. Will this player be allowed back in when he’s older if good enough? Probably.. as is the case with our minor star.
Give it a rest and lets just acknowledge the acheivements of the team and mgt and all involved in Offaly GAA on reaching a Leinster final. We want to win it and hopefully the lads can deal with the occasion, but with Louth as clear favourites our lads can play without the level of expectation that brings.
Enjoy the experience and as stated before, its what you do from here on will define ye as footballers.
Up Offaly.
Ah lads. What can you say. Twice Louth had it won but in fairness to Offaly, they never gave in. With 5 mins to go I was thinking that if we were to lose, then you wouldnt mind losing to a super Louth team. Their No 8 Tom Maguire gave an exhibition. Their 9 and 11 caused endless problems for Offaly and their no15 Kelly caused endless problems also. But we found a way somehow and credit to all involved for it, they showed some spirit.
We really struggled at kickout time in 1st half but we adjusted somewhat at half time and seemed to do better here in 2nd half against a super Louth midfield. It seemed Louth had won it three times in second half taking a 5 or 6 point lead twice and again by a point on 60 minutes. But up stepped Jack Ryan again. 8 points by my count and in huge pressure moments, no more than the Kildare winner. Credit McNamee too in not forcing it on 58 mins and taking the one pointer free to bring it back to 3pts instead of forcing a two pointer. He believed, and knew what was in these lads. That took fair balls.
Dunne and Furey in forwards too were excellent and the one thing that enthuses me about this group is they never die. Tonight very much replicated that Kildare game and you knew when we got back level, our character would shine through.
Full credit to Roger Ryan, Keith McGuinness, Nigel Dunne and rest of management team on such a massive achievement. It will inspire another wave of young talent and we have now won an underage Leinster every year since 2021, including two All irelands and reached two more. And the year isnt over yet! That is huge for Offaly GAA
has to be one of the best football underage wins they showed some balls the last 10 minutes. brilliant lads . also the ref was a bit hard on offaly louth got some easy frees first half i though.
I have to admit that I more focus on the hurling action generally, but I just want to offer my congratulations to these young men. Although we haven't hit the heights on the underage hurling that we were maybe expecting this year, this team has given all supporters a welcome boost and shows the work that goes into both codes across the county. I must admit I hadn't expected anything after they lost to Louth earlier in the year, but they have really show some steel to grind our results when it seemed the tide was going against them throughout this campaign.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that we are not a Cork, a Tipperary, a Galway or a Kilkenny in hurling.....And also that we aren't a Dublin, Kerry or Tyrone in football. We are a small county with limited population resources, trying to compete as best we can in both codes. This is something that is quite unique. Because of these constraints, it isn't possible to have minor or u20 championship winning teams every year. But if we can bring a good team along every 4 or 5, and maybe pull 1 or 2 off each team in between.....we will be doing great.
We have something in Offaly that is very hard to put a value on....in terms of tradition and belief in both codes. I'm glad we do, and I'm glad we are trying our best to nurture that tradition in both codes with our youth. We probably lost our spark a little for 10/15 years with underage development not being up to what it could have been for a number of reasons. Hopefully the underage success in hurling and football over the last 4 years will inspire and light a spark in the imagination of all boys and girls across the county. I see it already with the Senior teams.....Offaly came within a whisker of beating Dublin and Wexford in Leinster hurling this year. Good performances against Waterford and beating Dublin in the league before being promoted from 1B. In Football, the under 20 players from 2021 have come of age and are really finding their feet at Senior, just missing out to a very good Meath team in Leinster, but also winning their league final and getting promoted to Div 2 for next year. There is a clear upward trend from what I can see.....and the success from these minor footballers will only bolster that, and give everyone another lift. There will be blows.....no doubt.....but it can't all be plain sailing.
Best of luck to this fine team in the All Ireland series. They have nothing to fear from anyone, and as the step from provincial success to all Ireland success has already been taken by other Offaly teams in recent years, they should have no shortage of belief that they can do the same.
Esto Fidelis
'Babs keating 'resigned' as coach because of illness and fatigue. The players were sick and tired of him'
Absolutely brilliant win by Offaly last night, Congrats to all involved. Young Cians speech needed some work was there nobody to give him a little advice. He never mentioned his own Management Team, the officials, the ground staff of Newbridge, and most importantly the Louth Team on a massive battle..
Last edited by hard2watch on Tue May 20, 2025 11:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
hard2watch wrote: ↑Tue May 20, 2025 11:53 am
Absolutely brilliant win by Offaly last night, Congrats to all involved. Young Cian McNamee's speech let himself and the County down a little at the end, was there nobody to give him a little advice. He had time to Fcuk out of him 3 times but never mentioned his own Management Team, the officials, the ground staff of Newbridge, and most importantly the Louth Team on a massive battle..
You've let yourself down.
The young man is 16/17 and speaking to a crowd of thousands after captaining his county to victory in a hugely emotional and tiring match. He's never done anything remotely like it before and he wouldn't have prepared anything beforehand. Most of us hate something as small as making a group presentation in work and yet you see fit today of all days, to come on a public forum and write that absolute unfiltered, unadulterated rubbish.
