Offaly Senior Footballers 2025

[Wingbackassassin]

Still early days I assume as championship still on. Was Kellaghan dropped?

Nobody else springs to mind as Ru is retired. After that really you are left with the Darby’s, McNamees, Sullivan etc who are all finished with Offaly.

Kellaghan never got his full chance yet, and he had a good year for Rhode so he deserves a place at the very least.

Roo hasn't retired. As Lone Shark confirmed, he has made himself unavailable for next year as has Aaron Keelaghan. Paddy Duncian won't be back for the guts of a year with an ACL. Cathal Donohoe gone too. Having Diarmuid Egan back fit will be a big plus. Of that panel of 26 from last years first league game, It looks like 9 of them won't be involved for the start of the league anyway.

Nothing confirmed about Cillian Bourke going to Oz. They will make a decision on him in November. Hard to know if he'll be offered a contract but I would say it's 50/50 rather than dead certain as some people are letting on.
Cathal Donoghue is on panel as far as I know or at least hasn't opted out of his own accord. Very talented player that the new rules should suit, I'm amazed he hasn't played much up to this point.
Kelleghan is certainly a loss but isn't any better than the players that were starting ahead of him last year imo.
Cian Farrell is obviously good enough by ability but I can understand see why any team would be reluctant to have him.
Cian Johnson good enough to be on the panel but is his all round game an improvement on any of the starting inside forwards from last year?
Harry Plunkett should've been called in as soon as he left u20 imo. However he is not a natural inside forward, Tullamore play him there because they're lacking players in that position which I think has hindered him somewhat. Brilliant free taker and with the 2 point frees so crucial now, there's huge incentive to get him in there. Paddy Dunican was coming up from goals and missing them against Kildare.

[jonsey]

The senior footballers were brought back in last week,not one rhode player on the panel …

Not a surprise
Rhode are not good anymore

a bit harsh, were Rhode not the second best team in this years championship, only lost by 4 to Tullamore and had Ruairi taken out of the game by Bourke early on, and had beaten Ferbane earlier.

[123]

There’s nearly a better 15 not in with Offaly than there is in there

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Any evidence of Cathal Donaghue performing well in the Galway championship this season?

I think the same names get bandied around all the time and hopefully there are a few lads that have put there hands up outside of senior a that are worthy of a chance.

The comment about the better 15 not in with Offaly is subjective, if a lad wont go in or cant commit then hes not better.

I know a couple that have opted out but there is no song and dance about it but there are reasons and they dont always have to be broadcast on tinternit.

We'll see whos there come the league.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Absolutely agree with True Red above.

Just as a reminder, here's the Offaly panel from the first round of the league in 2025.



Already we know that out of that list, from players that would generally play in the top half of the pitch, we need to replace Ruairí McNamee, Cathal Flynn, Nigel Dunne and in all likelihood, Cillian Bourke. Out of some of the rest - Gallagher, Sawyer, McDermott, Donohoe - I don't think I'm being harsh when I say that they all have a bit to find on 2025 form if they are to well and truly get in the mix for the equivalent fixture in three months' time.

So as far as I'm concerned there is absolutely room for Kelleghan, for Harry Plunkett, for Cian Farrell, for Cian Johnson and probably a few more along with it. And at the risk of showing a bit too much bias towards the big clubs, I'd say those four are all probably a bit further on right now than the quartet I mentioned above.

Perfect example of this is Robbie Gallagher , who has kicked on from what I've seen and surprised you havnt seen it. Granted if Kevin Corrigan had his way he'd be starting, but as a lad who was on the panel last year, I would say he has progressed and has the desire to be a county player v some of the lads that are named.
He's not the finished article but little evidence that he should be dropped based on his efforts for the club. Sawyer and McDermott, cant make an argument for them.
Morgan Tynan wont be back in there from what I know as is working where he may be limited. Daragh Flynn is one that should be added to the panel.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

limited in ability to commit.

[Cheddar]

Nothing official confirmed yet, but going off provisional fixture announcements, we have ;

Meath at Home
Kildare in Newbridge
Cork at Home
Cavan at Home

No word yet on Tyrone, Derry or Louth. There will definitely be one long away day to TYR or DER.

Those home fixtures, and Kildare don’t seem too bad.

Tyrone will be walking the league I imagine and will see themselves as contenders for an All Ireland if they are consistent. Derry are a mystery at the minute and have only won 1 game in 2 seasons.

[Faithfully]

With all players available, Derry and Tyrone are absolutely the 2 strongest teams in the division.

I'd be happy enough to have them both away. Better to have the home games against the teams we can actually beat.

[Lone Shark]

Perfect example of this is Robbie Gallagher , who has kicked on from what I've seen and surprised you havnt seen it. Granted if Kevin Corrigan had his way he'd be starting, but as a lad who was on the panel last year, I would say he has progressed and has the desire to be a county player v some of the lads that are named.
He's not the finished article but little evidence that he should be dropped based on his efforts for the club. Sawyer and McDermott, cant make an argument for them.
Morgan Tynan wont be back in there from what I know as is working where he may be limited. Daragh Flynn is one that should be added to the panel.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that Robbie Gallagher (or any of the others) won't get there, or that there is zero chance that they start for Offaly in the 2026 Leinster championship. Far from it - but if you asked me to pick which player is leading in the race to not just get a start, but to make an impact in a game against a decent opponent next April, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that any of the Cian Johnson/Cian Farrell/Harry Plunkett group are that bit further on. The gap between club and county football is huge anywhere, but you don't need quite as big of a bridge when you're starting from a Dowling Cup contender, as opposed to a team that just played their first ever year of senior B.

With regard to desire, it is impossible for anyone on this board to quantify that. For example, as some of you would have read, I did a pre-county final interview with Cian Johnson, and his desire to get back into an Offaly jersey was absolutely bubbling through in everything he said. But what matters is not what is said, it's what the player is doing to make that happen. In Cian's case, it's fair to say that he's in the best condition he's been in for a long time.

And by the time the Spring rolls around, it'll be obvious on the pitch which players are the ones that are doing more, and that's the desire that matters.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Take your point and would many forwards in Offaly see themselves as ahead of the Cian's & to a lesser degree Harry?
Probably not but desire linked to work rate is the issue and consistent application.
We are struggling for forwards and of course Spring will tell a lot, but the point I was making that the like of Gallagher had pushed on at a higher grade and was highly instrumental in his club probably over achieving this year, and from watching him he has progressed. My view is on that basis he is in a better position to push on with Offaly given he was in there last year. If you took the final on its own last Sunday however, you would argue that Cormac Delaney has a huge pile to offer but that form wasn't on show in the earlier stages.

That leads me back to my point that there are guys out there that mgt pick that are always the big names and sometimes the most talented just can't/won't commit, and its a waste of time trotting out names each year.

Again just asking how Cathal Donoghue faired this year, does anyone know? is he injury free at the moment.

[Superhans75]

We have Cavan at home on March 15
Derry and Tyrone away.
Ulster teams seem to be more forthcoming with information.
Will update when I hear more

[Lone Shark]

The beauty of picking an Offaly panel is that when it comes to this time of year at least, the small playing pool means that a lad like Robbie will get retained, and he will get his chance to continue his development and stake a claim for selection in the meaningful games in Spring. There is no way he's overlooked.

I can only assume that when the group regathers, they will start with the best part of 50 players, and hopefully there will be Tullamore and/or Clara players unavailable due to their ongoing commitments with their club. Take away the handful of players from last year who don't want to be considered for selection in 2026 (Kelleghan/McNamee/Dunne), the couple of medium term injuries, and one or two more who say thanks but no thanks when they get the call, and there's no way that a lad like Gallagher misses out on being one of the 16 or 17 forwards recruited.

It's a different way of making the same point I was making originally - that by the time we get around to filling up a November panel - and to be honest, the same also applies for a league panel in mid-January - you run out of realistic candidates before you run out of space to accommodate them. Invariably, you end up taking a flyer on some long shot candidates who might come in from a different background or who might have a lot of ground to make up, and the vast majority of those will fail to make it, and that's fine. What's not fine is if you're being finicky about guys who are a lot closer to the finished article, when the alternative are lottery ticket selections. Any management team will have issues with one, two, maybe three players for different reasons, there will always be guys where the negative effect they have on the group chemistry outweighs their positive contributions. But if that number goes up to five, six, eight, maybe ten, particularly in a small county, then you just have to find a way to build some bridges.

We're not Kerry or Dublin, where there is a surfeit of decent players that are six foot tall, 10% body fat and 85-90kg weight, so you'll have some very viable options missing the cut. We have 30-odd clubs that play football, out of which a handful of those are hurling-first clubs that just enter teams in championship and another small group of the most impressive players are lads who are committed to Offaly hurling.

So in that context, we can't afford to be too picky about the players who might have perceived flaws, or blots on their record from years gone by. Throughout 2025, we saw Offaly football teams compete quite well in their various competitions, despite the fact that management quite clearly didn't trust anyone outside the top 18 or 19 players. By the end, we had guys carrying injuries still playing most or all the minutes in big games, while we're going into the 68th minute of a helter-skelter game in Newbridge having made just two substitutions. In contrast, a big part of why Meath beat us in Navan is because they can bring in James Conlon to make an immediate impact on the game and on the scoreboard. Addressing that shortfall is, in my opinion, the single biggest challenge facing the Offaly management in 2026.

[Wingbackassassin]

Take your point and would many forwards in Offaly see themselves as ahead of the Cian's & to a lesser degree Harry?
Probably not but desire linked to work rate is the issue and consistent application.
We are struggling for forwards and of course Spring will tell a lot, but the point I was making that the like of Gallagher had pushed on at a higher grade and was highly instrumental in his club probably over achieving this year, and from watching him he has progressed. My view is on that basis he is in a better position to push on with Offaly given he was in there last year. If you took the final on its own last Sunday however, you would argue that Cormac Delaney has a huge pile to offer but that form wasn't on show in the earlier stages.

That leads me back to my point that there are guys out there that mgt pick that are always the big names and sometimes the most talented just can't/won't commit, and its a waste of time trotting out names each year.

Again just asking how Cathal Donoghue faired this year, does anyone know? is he injury free at the moment.

He played for Oughterard as they reached the Galway quarter final and were beaten by eventual champions Moycullen by seven points. He's injury free.

[Snotser123]

Plunkett whilst a super free taker isn't of county standard...that's glaringly plain to see...but seeing how sawyer and Gallagher were in there last year I can absolutely see merit for having him in over both of those ....won't pretend to be able to comment on sawyer at club level but seen him live the few times with offaly he certainly looked limited ..gallagher marked out of it in county final against maybe the first proper defender he faced all year would worry you...looks very one paced and decision making would need to improve...if you could get Johnson and Farrell in to replace those two maybe....the reality is after o neill Tierney Hyland Bryant we severely lack in that type of quality forward...who will be our keeper ? Anyone any fresh ideas for midfield ? Diarmiud Egan to start in the forwards maybe....cathal Flynn is such a loss ..he really was such a link man between defense and attack ...him and the keeper are massive blows

[Hyper]

Any evidence of Cathal Donaghue performing well in the Galway championship this season?

I think the same names get bandied around all the time and hopefully there are a few lads that have put there hands up outside of senior a that are worthy of a chance.

The comment about the better 15 not in with Offaly is subjective, if a lad wont go in or cant commit then hes not better.

I know a couple that have opted out but there is no song and dance about it but there are reasons and they dont always have to be broadcast on tinternit.

We'll see whos there come the league.

I was chatting his Da at the weekend, said he got mom in 3 games this year. He wasn't overly happy with the game time he got last year, and is going to see how it goes over the next couple of months