Offaly Senior Footballers 2025

[Doon Exile]

Left it too late and tickets gone. First Offaly championship match I’ve missed in over ten years. Could have got terrace but I’ve 2 young lads with me so they’d see nothing.

Here in Tullamore instead.

Best of luck to team and management

[Doon Exile]

Paidi Clifford and seanie OShea not playing.

[Offaly Hero]

Disappointing to lose by such a narrow margin but you can only be hugely proud of the performance in the second half. The fitness, effort, skill and sheer heart shown by our lads in the last 20 minutes was hugely encouraging. They had more than enough chances to win it as Kildare collapsed. A pity, it would have been great to get back to Croke Park.

Overall though the year has been hugely positive.
One has to remember the rampant pervasive negativity after last year. If the naysayers were to be believed then every part and player of Offaly football was useless and Mickey Harte was only going to make it worse. Anton Sullivan was dropped and let fly on social media. Peter Cunningham and Declan Hogan didn’t join the panel. Cian Farrell walked, again.
After a few challenge matches in January were lost, we were dead certs to be relegated down to division 4. On the eve of the league, the mood was dark. All of it was ridiculous.

Now we can reflect on the year.
Promoted to division 2. Very competitive to Meath and Kildare in the championship. Both games we could have won. Meath have beaten Dublin and Kerry since.
The team has been built and has a settled appearance. Young players that 12 months ago were written off forever, are now established good and very good inter county players.
The fitness of the players is exceptional.
The age profile is very young.

It’s not all perfect. The panel needs to add depth and, as often happens a young team, many of Offaly’s matches have been marked by a period of complete dominance by the opposition. They’ve been inconsistent within games and from game to game.

It’s great however to finish the year with some positivity and to be able to look forward to next year with hope instead of fear. There is a lot to be said for that.

Well done all. A foundation has been laid.

P.S: Fair play to 18 year old Cillian Bourke for shouldering the responsibility and taking on that shot at the end. Well done.

[Cheddar]

Genuinely so proud of the year we’ve had. We have competed in every single game and honestly could have won every game we played in. The only game you could argue was Fermanagh away, but even at that we probably should have had a draw.

For once we don’t have negativity and worries. There won’t be any retirements. There aren’t any strops or fall outs. There are young players who will only get better and fitter. They style of football is a joy to watch and we create lots of chances.

I don’t even think we were great today, and I thought Kildare were very good. They played so much better than they had in the last two games, and we made poor handling errors and some poor shot selection.

Previously it would have taken our best performance of the year to even compete with Kildare.

We aren’t far off, and D2 football will bring us on, even if we do have some games where we can’t compete.

For once we end a year where we actually see the glass half full. Plenty more to come we hope.

Up the Faithful.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Here here to the above We made loads of mistakes against a physical outfit, but our workrate and committment dragged us back into it, and we could have won it.
Havn't tome for too much today, but want to say to the lads who will be gutted to have lost out like that to stick together, been a great year and well done to all including the management who have turned things around from last year.

We need moer new blood and hopefully lads are chomping at the bit to get call ups, but for now...thanks for a good year and looking forward to 2026 already!!!

[Superhans75]

Firstly I would like to thank the players and the management for an enjoyable season.
Hopefully there is more to come

My only disappointment was that we have looked goal shy since the Meath game except against a poor Loais team.
I would like to see some players not involved in this year's set up to hopefully have a great club championship campaign and put there
Face out there because we are at least 4 players short and division 2 is going to very tough.
Let's all have a great summer and hopefully be alive and kicking next January

[SearingDrive]

Firstly I would like to thank the players and the management for an enjoyable season.
Hopefully there is more to come

My only disappointment was that we have looked goal shy since the Meath game except against a poor Loais team.
I would like to see some players not involved in this year's set up to hopefully have a great club championship campaign and put there
Face out there because we are at least 4 players short and division 2 is going to very tough.
Let's all have a great summer and hopefully be alive and kicking next January

We all hope for that. Offaly football is in a good place. Not much credit to the footballers on The Saturday Game. A lot of praise for Kildare, not a word about Offaly finishing much stronger last night . A little bit of luck would have Offaly winning the game .

[Wingbackassassin]

Very disappointing loss. Could and probably should have gotten at least a draw. Kildare looked decent at times and a bit physically bigger than Offaly but overall weren't anything too special, similar to the two other games.
The crucial moment was the last play of the game. Paddy Dunican was up from goals, we should've been able to work a more clearcut opportunity even for a one pointer to draw the game. Both Dunican and Hayes looked to have half chances at two pointers during that phase but kept playing the ball around. In hindsight Cillian Bourke obviously shouldn't have shot. Remarkable really that he ended up being the one to have to shoot. He's not a natural scorer like an O'Neil or Hayes and it was rushed and never really looked like going over. He was brilliant in the game however, one of our best players at age 18. A real competitor.
Cathal Flynn and Keith O'Neil were both quality as usual. Jack Bryant wasn't great. Conditions would've suited a more explosive player like Tierney from the start. Hayes and McEvoy in the middle excellent fought for everything.
Daire McDaid isn't a corner back. Not sure how he kept being left back there 1 on 1 with kildare player twice his size. He plays all his best stuff going forward. Cormac Egan has had some great games but didn't offer much going forward here. Would've been more effective for him to throw his weight around in the full back line. Furlong, Pearson, Higgins, Bourke all did everything they could.
See Wicklow who we beat convincingly in the group have knocked out Westmeath. Wide open who wins it now.

[faithfulfanatic]

Kildare, Fermanagh, Limerick and Wicklow

Can’t see anyone other than perhaps Fermanagh getting near Kildare

[Hasselhoff]

We had no subs to bring in when in comparison Kildare seemed to bring in more subs near the end.
However we did finish strong which suggests our fitness was good

[Anonymous1]

Kildare, Fermanagh, Limerick and Wicklow

Can’t see anyone other than perhaps Fermanagh getting near Kildare

For all intents and purposes yesterday’s game against Kildare was the final of the Tailteann Cup.

Losing by a single point away from home with a massive Kildare crowd is nothing to be sniffed it.

This team is knocking on the door of becoming a top side but they require a couple of more quality players to do so, in particular another big midfielder or two and another couple of scoring forwards.

Having the same management in place for the first time since 2022 should be a benefit. The majority of the players are under the age of 25 too so you’d imagine they can only get better.

[classof81]

Same management in place

[Cheddar]

Same management in place? Next year be 3 year that's a long time, league isn't important its championship and we finish exactly as we did last year although not loosing to London we did finish 2nd in a group to wicklow.... division 3 was poor this year as are kildare don't b surprised to see them not winning it, we all hoped before year we could win taligan cup and get promoted or at least b in the mic, and recently been installed as favourites to win it. We fall out at quarters and everyone's happy same as last year! It's 2nd Thier football. We need extra lads? Please yhy can't use the lads we have! Brought on 2 lads game changed was beggin for another but didn't happen.

Probably couldn’t disagree more. When is Division 3 amazing? It’s third tier, it’s never amazing and we’ve struggled in it at times. We won it this year and deservedly so. If you honestly think last years TC campaign and this years finished the same, you weren’t at any of the games.

And on management, the original post is correct.
2025: Harte and Kelly
2024: Kelly
2023: Kearns (RIP) and Murphy
2022: Maughan

Honestly like, what sort of post is that. If you don’t see clear progress this year you haven’t been watching.

[Anonymous1]

Same management in place? Next year be 3 year that's a long time, league isn't important its championship and we finish exactly as we did last year although not loosing to London we did finish 2nd in a group to wicklow.... division 3 was poor this year as are kildare don't b surprised to see them not winning it, we all hoped before year we could win taligan cup and get promoted or at least b in the mic, and recently been installed as favourites to win it. We fall out at quarters and everyone's happy same as last year! It's 2nd Thier football. We need extra lads? Please yhy can't use the lads we have! Brought on 2 lads game changed was beggin for another but didn't happen.

I’m not sure if you can count or not but if you can’t can you please hold up your hand and check that 2 does indeed come after 1. Mickey Harte has only been here for 1 year.

Before the season nobody, absolutely nobody was predicting Offaly to get promoted in division 3. Surviving in division 3 and giving the Tailteann a rattle were the goals. We’ve done both albeit a bit disappointing to meet Kildare in a QF rather than a final.

You sound more like someone with a grievance over a certain player/players not being used than someone viewing the situation from an objective point of view.

For the record, I vociferously argued for Kelly to go last year so I’m no great fan but I can’t deny there’s been huge progress this year with Mickey and a bright future.

[jimbob17]

I was also very apprehensive at start of year and was worried that Kelly had lost the dressing room based on previous year results which to be fair, were extremely poor - and reports that were coming out. It certainly was a gamble with Harte given what had gone on and reports before league suggested not much had changed. But this is a results business and early wins in league allowed Harte to get to know and see players and as this happened, we saw progress. The backbiting stopped as the young players grew into their roles and we saw a couple of guys emerge that were not involved with the 2024 team - particularly Kyle Higgins and Shane Tierney. Aidan Bracken and McDaid really emerged in the backs while Jordan Hayes and Dylan Hyland grew in their leadership roles within the team. Credit to both Kelly and Harte for pulling this back on track when it seemed things were going awry.

The league was brilliant and credit where it is due to players and management. It was a decent effort in championship too when you consider how Meath and Kildare are doing and how they have done at underage in last 10 years. Good to see the young talent coming through and doing well - particularly Jack Bryant who promised a lot at underage. I'd hope that maybe Cian Farrell situation might be revisited for next year as we can ill afford to not have wider options we could use in Div 2.

That said, we need to expect that this years performances are minimum standard in 26 so we can stay in Div 2. We should be aiming to do what Louth have done and push on a bit and become a Sam Maguire team - hopefully be regaining Div 2 status next year - or failing that, reaching a Leinster final.

I have said this countless times before, that we have had very decent minor teams for last 10-12 years now so we should be expecting to be there competing with top 16 teams in country if we are organised right. We seem to have made strides this year and if we can do that again next year, then I will be happy.