Offaly minor football panel 2025

[hard2watch]

We will take the positives..

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Small point alright but speech not the finest at the end, and after previous times with minor hurlers and edenderry schools , surely to God with all the prep, someone can put a note together and have that done if the player is not comfortable and doesn't need to be worried about it. PRO surely could have all that in hand in advance as it is a special moment and no harm in having the prep done. Not blaming the young lad at all, not blaming anyone, but it should be managed is all I'm saying.

That aside if thats the low then happy days.

Huge battling display to the end and refused to buckle when Louth were so superior in many areas. Ability to nail 2 pointers was key and fair play to Jack. Also fair play to Cian Mc on the footballing front as he popped up all over the field and has developed his team ethic in recent matches and he executed a brilliant turnover when Louth looked certain to score to put them 4 up again near the end.

Credit to the management and all the work theyve done and its a huge step in their confidence and abilities to manage the team through so many games and hope to see them kick on further, the ability to develop and nurture strong mgt teams is huge for our future prospects.
Great crowd there last night again and great to see so many teenagers travellling up and it makes my day to see them enjoying occasions like this which were all too common in my youth!

Just a comment on the ref, he gave so many bizarre calls (particularly in the first half against us), but he seemed to do the same in the second half in our favour. On reflection the penalty was nailed on.
Finally and to be fair it would have been great to see it acknowledged in a speech after, fair play to Louth. A fantastic group of young lads, some incredible talent and no doubt they will have a further say in this championship. They played some incredible football and are clearly very well coached and drilled. It speaks volumes for the efforts of our guys that they hung in there and drove on during the final 10 mins. The effort and skill from our guys was unreal, particularly during the second half and last 10 mins. There is great talent starting to emerge but harnassing it and nurturing the next management teams are crucial next steps.

[Offaly Hero]

He is the Captain of his Team for gods sake, If they knew he couldn't string two words together give it to someone who can.

"he wouldn't have prepared anything beforehand." - Will you please stop, was he only made Captain 5 minutes before throw in?

Again, you embarrass yourself.

Lots of people of in this situation don't prepare these speeches in case they're tempting fate.
Honestly, just stop. He's 16/17.

[Bord na Mona man]

I noticed on various social channels the usual eruptions from the defeated team about the referee.

Firstly, the sending off (apparently a disgrace) was no Joe Sheridan/Martin Sludden moment, but we’ll forgive Louth people being high on their own supply after all the recent re-hashing of how victimised they were back in 2010.

It is a contender for the most inconsequential red card in GAA history. The shoulder connected with the chin and it was a clear foul. The sanction applied after was a moot point.

Other than that, Louth got most of the first half frees because they dominated possession and won the majority of kick outs. Some frees appeared soft, like on one occasion the Louth midfielder took a mark and pulled Aaron Daly down on top of him. It was brought forward for an easily scored free.

However, the refereed applied the same standard in the second half. The team without the ball got strictly pinged for infringements. In this case, remarkably it was Offaly who dominated, which was an unlikely prospect at half time.

Louth also fell into the trap of trying to close out their game by holding onto their lead, going negative and into retreat. This again lead to a slew of increasingly panicked attempts at tackles, as Offaly continued to gain confidence and momentum.

[oneshot]

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..

theres always one to find something to moan about

[SizeFive2024]

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..

Ah that's harsh, I'd imagine the lad was prepared and forgot everything, froze on the occasion and no one could have an issue with that. You probably only find out you are not good a public speaking when you try it.

That irrelevance aside, well done to management and team, they are brilliant, so happy for them.

[Doon Exile]

Talk of a double header with Roscommon/louth game in Pearse park Longford on Saturday 7 June.

Hopefully it won’t happen. If yer on first, the fans can’t go on the pitch afterwards.

If on second, all the parking is gone and the seats in the stand too…!!

[Thomas mc]

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..

Ah that's harsh, I'd imagine the lad was prepared and forgot everything, froze on the occasion and no one could have an issue with that. You probably only find out you are not good a public speaking when you try it.

That irrelevance aside, well done to management and team, they are brilliant, so happy for them.

I tend not to criticise lads on here particularly on their footballing or hurling ability and especially young lads because they all work hard and are trying to do the right thing and make big sacrifices but a speech is a simple thing and he didn't try to do the right and you can talk all you want about emotion and sure what have you but a simple thanks to everyone followed by a woo hoo is the simplest thing in the world.. in all likelihood the lad knew what he was at and wanted a bit of fame out of it and a few shares and likes on social media, something i don't think should be encouraged, rather should be discouraged and should be a learning for the young lad who is and will be a role model and someone young kids look up to for many a year.. if he kicks a ball wide he doesn't deserve criticism because he practices hard to kick it over the bar and is trying to do the right thing but the speech is different if he has the intention of gaining a bit of notoriety from it, he needs to learn. Agree also someone should have had a word in his ear before hand because of similar previous happenings with other speeches.. ye may say it's no harm but the lad knew before the game that there was a big chance he'd have to do a speech and was probably trying to emulate a previous speech that gathered a bit of fame on social media.. we all probably said at the time sure no harm a bit of emotion but I think its now proven otherwise. It's not something that needs to be encouraged, someone needs to say well done on your performance but listen the speech left a bit to be desired, it's not unfair or harsh just a learning for the lad, there's been plenty of young lads make great speeches and show some class.. well done to all involved. Phenomenal success over the last few years.

[pigeon house biffo]

Hi

Can anyone send a link/screenshot/article to where anyone with any sort of credibility is talking about the winning captain’s speech, only ones I see talking about it are the usual cry arses on here, cheers.

[pigeon house biffo]

Even it I was to take this to the extreme, when I go on twitter and search for ‘offaly speech’ there is 1 (ONE) reference to the offaly captain’s speech.

If thats something that gets your goat you really need to get outside to touch grass or hug a loved one, honestly, get a grip.

[Thomas mc]

Hi

Can anyone send a link/screenshot/article to where anyone with any sort of credibility is talking about the winning captain’s speech, only ones I see talking about it are the usual cry arses on here, cheers.

Ya know what amazes me you talk about cry arsed but it's funny a young lad will burst a gut and sacrifice everything to try do his best to play with his county and win but when they don't win plenty lads were on here crying about them and complaining about them.. just hard to understand when a young lad is trying to do the right thing and it doesn't work lads are happy to criticise him but when he let's a few fucks outta him and messes up a simple speech in front of young supporters looking up to him, he's a great lad. It's mine boggling how lads heads work

[pigeon house biffo]

Yeah its crazy how everyone here is emotionally invested in the oratory skills of teenagers. I’m sure most here could relay verbatim any of the recent winning captains speeches. Do you realise how silly you are looking right now, literally no one else cares about the topic only you

[Thomas mc]

Yeah its crazy how everyone here is emotionally invested in the oratory skills of teenagers. I’m sure most here could relay verbatim any of the recent winning captains speeches. Do you realise how silly you are looking right now, literally no one else cares about the topic only you

You criticise teenagers when they are trying to do the right thing and working very hard to perfect it but have no issue at all with them doing the wrong thing and making no effort? And I'm the one that looks silly.. call me silly all you want.. the simplest part of the evening was saying thanks to a few people and he messed it, it's something he should learn from, that's all I'm sayin

[True Red]

The men who have lived in darkness have seen a great light: those who have lived in the darkness of the bog. Sam Maguire sitting on the sideboard is no longer a mirage but a reality. Tonight in the home county the tar barrels are burning, the bonfires are crackling, the beer barrels are rolling, the heather is blazing, the bogs are beaming, the flags are waving, the champagne corks are popping, the joy-bells are ringing, the drums are beating, the people are dancing, the children are singing, the moon cloths the county in a satin cloak, and at last old Croghan hill is crowned. The cavalcade of cars are winding their way homewards to the peatlands of Offaly, the chimney stacks of power stations are blowing a silent tribute.

The above quote was written by a tremendous Gael in the aftermath of the first All Ireland football win in 1971, Fr John McWey who was a curate in Edenderry and an officer of the Offaly County board. It flashed across my minds eye as I drove home from Newbridge last Monday evening. The wind turbines of Mountlucas framed by a red hued sky came into view and as I drove between the Hills of Allen and Boston I paused to reflect on what has gone before can never be forgotten.

As Roger Ryan said himself in the post match interview, its our 'Offalyness' that defines us. It allows us to go about our day to day with our chests stuck out a little bit more. His team of youngsters brilliantly encapsulated that in the final v Louth.

Listen, to all intents and purposes, for large portions of that game, Louth were the marginally better outfit. A solid platform in the middle, with an ace placekicker nailing the long range frees, Offaly minors had their hands full.

But.....But.....But......

They stuck to their stall. They hung in the game, and the forwards kept the scoreboard ticking over. Coming down the stretch you could sense that it was there to be taken.

I grew up going to Offaly games, knowing that once things were right it was going to take a good team to beat us. And if we got a team to the last few minutes, well then they would have to put us 6 foot down to make sure we were beaten.

This group of teenagers (some posters on here would do well to remember that) gave us the answer we all wanted. It was no mind boggling tactical move, no blanket defence gameplan.

It was Guts.

Honesty.

Passion.

Determination.

Of course the skill and ability came to the fore when the game was there to be won. But it was the above that put that team in the position to apply those traits.

Of the success in the last 5 years, I have to say that Monday night was the most heart warming for me. Its the stubborn refusal to be beaten that always was the hallmark of Offaly GAA teams.

Congratulations to all.

To paraphrase the quote above;

The cavalcade of cars are winding their way homewards to the peatlands of Offaly, the blades of the wind turbines are turning in silent tribute.

[SearingDrive]

Yeah its crazy how everyone here is emotionally invested in the oratory skills of teenagers. I’m sure most here could relay verbatim any of the recent winning captains speeches. Do you realise how silly you are looking right now, literally no one else cares about the topic only you

You criticise teenagers when they are trying to do the right thing and working very hard to perfect it but have no issue at all with them doing the wrong thing and making no effort? And I'm the one that looks silly.. call me silly all you want.. the simplest part of the evening was saying thanks to a few people and he messed it, it's something he should learn from, that's all I'm sayin

I tend to agree with the above comment, Offaly minor footballers had a brilliant win on Monday, one that typifies all there is about Offaly teams who put pride in the unique tricolour jersey. It is normal to thank your team mates, and management, families, and finally the opposition Louth, who are a brilliant side.
It takes two teams to create a terrific match.
The use of crude language on a public occasion, is never correct, and was a small blight on Monday’s achievement. I put it down to youthful joy, and naievety. Learn from the experience.