Offaly Senior Football 2026

[Offalyman82]

We are clearly going with our strongest team available for the O’Byrne which is no harm with a tough division 2 campaign starting in a few weeks time. Harte likewise went with a similar strategy for the McKenna Cup when he was in charge of Tyrone & Derry. That strategy didn’t work out though with Derry & the players were burnt out when they came to the championship..

Meath had essentially a development team out last night but we can only beat what’s in front of us. It looks like Westmeath had a very experimental team out last night; but still beat the Leinster champions comfortably & Louth had 8 starters from the Leinster final. Saying all that; we should be way too strong for Westmeath if we expect to be competitive in D2.

[Lone Shark]

I wouldn't say that Westmeath were very experimental last night, probably half and half first stringers and potentials. I'd make it seven of that team would start if they were playing championship tomorrow and everyone is fit.

There were some young lads mixed in, the likes of Harry Niall, Shane Corcoran and a few others, but I'd say it was similar in profile to Offaly's team. Likewise Louth, Meath were the exception.

And I certainly wouldn't agree that we should be "way too strong" on Saturday. They were competitive in D2 last year and just lost a load of close games. I didn't cry for them doing so or anything, let's not get carried away, but they were right there in most matches - we'll do well to do the same.

[biffinbanner]

i was surprised to see offaly 1/5 to be relgated with boyles?

[Offalyman82]

With what I saw they they’re dead certs to be relegated.. a very poor performance. Thought McEvoy did well at midfield; couldn’t call out anyone else. Ciaran Murphy has been a useful addition. Cormac Egan as usual worked very hard.

But they were given a football lesson in Cusack Park today and Westmeath have a few starters to return: Connellan, Sam McCartan, Sam Smyth & Allen.

[Anonymous1]

Sobering defeat today. Unless some of our key players return in the next few weeks, we’re in for a couple of pastings and relegation looks likely.

[Superhans75]

Very poor performance today I know it was waiting to happen defence wise we are porous .
Too easy to score goals against same as Carlow last week.
Look it's not the end of the world
Take Cormac out of the side we look very flat .
Roll on the 25 th..

[DurrowBoy17]

Very poor today.

One of the worst forward lines I think I’ve ever seen from an Offaly team in all my years.

Some lads just nowhere near it I’m afraid.
Definitely need Hyland, Keith O’Neill and even Tierney back up front.

A cert to be relegated I’m afraid, especially with all the current injuries

[Lone Shark]

I'm like a broken record saying this, but we are in dire need of more depth. I've no issue with a few guys getting a run out to see if they can step up at a time like this and if I was to pick out a couple, I'd say that Marcas Dalton and Ciarán Murphy are showing enough to suggest that they will be worth meaningful playing time in the league.

Outside of that, I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that most of the other new recruits have a lot of ground to cover. That's not to say that they aren't worth persisting with in the background, but a good few of them are projects for 2027 and beyond, it's not reasonable to expect them to bridge the gap from U-20 or club to county over the course of one off-season.

It's all very well to say that we'd be a different team if we had Tierney, Bracken, Flynn, Dunican, O'Neill, Hyland, Higgins, Furlong and a few more, and absolutely, we would - but injuries are part of elite team sport and it's reasonable to expect that we'll be down three or four at any time, and possibly more. Holding out for the day when you have a clean bill of health is no way to operate.

On paper that was a decent Westmeath team today but there were just six players that started that game and their last game in the Tailteann Cup last year. They'll bring in McCormack, Connellan, Smyth, Allen, Sam McCartan and a few more.

I'm not going to over-react to an O'Byrne Cup game and say that relegation is inevitable but what we saw in Mullingar today was a bit of a concern nonetheless.

[faithfulfanatic]

Murphy been a good addition, brings some much needed size and has an eye for goal.

Have absolutely no idea what management see in Sawyer

[Anon444]

I know we are struggling for forwards, but defensively that was dreadful. We are lacking an out and out full back, so I can understand trying Cullen there, not sure how he would get on marking a less stiff forward but it was worth a go. WM’s full forward line scored 4-3, 4-1 from play. That is more than worrying and especially the nature of them. Ball watching, then man watching and turning back to the ball, being left with 3 forwards on 2 backs, etc. We will concede cricket scores unless that drastically improves.

[jimbob17]

On todays game, it looked bad. Very bad in fact given Westmeath appeared to have lot of youth in their team. It was as poor as I have seen in long time too but some context is needed too. It is O'Byrne Cup and we were down a lot of bodies.

Depth is certainly one thing we dont have when without so many through injury. There were likely a few playing Sigerson too that were left out for different reasons. I would be concerned about injury list and it looks to be extending by the week. I just wonder what we are doing to avoid all these overuse injuries. We just cannot afford them and lets be honest, overuse injuries are preventable. Looks like we possibly picked up couple more today in Ed Cullen and possibly one or two more, I dont know and hope the subs were not made due to injuries.

What is wrong with Shane O Toole, Geordi O Meara, Chris McKeown, O Donoghue, Oisin Keenan Martin or Gallagher Tynan and Finneran from Ballinagar? Are they injured or on panel? Take it Bill Carroll is not considered an option. With our depth pool cut massively with injuries, now we see the impact of not having likes of Ru Mac, Cian Farrell, Anton, Kellaghan and even Panda in there, all of whom I believe still have something to offer over and above others. Don't want to open up old wounds but the fact was clearly shown today that we cannot afford not to have our best 30 players available to us if aiming to compete in Div 2. Are the Shamrocks lads O'Rourke or Bates still U20 or are they involved? Where are the guys who were on this development squad over last 2 years?

On the rest, I for one was critical of Sawyer previously, but in fairness to him today, he kicked a good score and tried hard and seems to have filled out somewhat even if he has good bit to go on that front. He was involved at U20 level and I wouldnt totally write him off to be fair to him. He is a project that may or may not offer more down the line. I think Murphy definitely has something to offer, was just off with shooting today even if he scored 2-1 I think from play. Good to see Poland back. He will get to the level with consistent training. Good that Plunkett got a run in too. Was his brother not called in. Probably worth a look to be fair. Today was a day to see those lads as the league might be step too far for some of them.

Offaly had a shocking slow start but clawed back to 3pts I think. They could easily have got back to one or two but for very bad wides and poor free taking. Then floodgates opened in last 15 minutes and Westmeath athleticism showed. They have some classy young players coming through who are really good athletic footballers in younger McCartan, Drumm, Scahill and Whittaker. Ollie Bakers sons have serious potential too and I just feel the back end of their squad is way stronger than ours at the moment and that showed clearly today. Their experienced lads in Wallace and Loughlin and couple more had more influence and back up than our better lads today but I'd still feel us at full strength would be more than match for their best 15 and I'd take some solace in that. Furlong, Bracken, Hyland & Tierney and few more are needed back asap and they would make a big difference. While we did have maybe 8 or 9 champ players out on grass today, we also had lots of lads getting experience at this level and I think context is needed too before going in hard on anyone. As much as context it is needed for win over Meath, it is also needed for today and we shouldnt go away too despondent after it.

Mentioned above are injuries we can ill afford, particularly when we are short on depth and with some lads not selected for varying reasons, our depth to compete becomes a huge challenge. For me that is the biggest learning that management can take out of the day.

[oneshot]

one thing i notice from todays game and in games last year offaly are very small. they also have no freetaker and they have no one to kick a score from outside the arch. meath killed us last year with players who can kick two pointers.
we have no midfield either the last few year's and them weak links haven't been sorted out the last few year's.

[Lone Shark]

Can't do anything about the size thing - Meath is a bigger county with 54 clubs who field a football team, we have 32, four of which are hurling clubs that field teams in the championship as much as a social outlet as anything else. And when you have twice as many players to pick from, then you have twice as many guys that are 1.9m tall, and twice as many chances to find a handful of them that also happen to be able to play ball.

If anything, I would argue that there are a few guys in the Offaly panel now that are a bit of a reach in terms of ability, but they're there because they're on the bigger side, and the management is acutely aware that there is a deficit in that regard so they need to spend a bit on a few lottery tickets.

One the spectrum, Meath are one extreme. Against any county, they would have the upper hand when it comes to massive kickout targets. We're the other, we just don't seem to create that type of player too often, and one that we did is now out in Australia.

The two-point thing is a bigger issue though, and today I have us down for no scores from seven attempts for twos. Now that's still a small sample size, we hit a couple against Meath and Carlow and there are a few players that are comfortable taking them on, but 100% we need to be better at it, and we absolutely need someone to be the two-point freetaker until Paddy Dunican comes back. I hate that two-point frees exist and would love to abolish them, but until they are abolished, you have the play the game as it is and they are an absolutely vital part of it, to the point that you would carry a very ordinary footballer on the team if they had a high conversion rate from 40-50 metres out.

[The bear]

Was poor today, a few things I noticed. We can talk about injuries but the lads looked completely off the pace compared to westmeath. We didn't look like we had much shape about us either, that should be there regardless who you have on the pitch. Our 2 goals came from a 2 pointer dropping short and a man left COMPLETELY unmarked for the 2nd. Our tackling was none existent and there was no plan with our kick outs it was route 1 most the time. We are down a couple of players but so were westmeath and meath before that had half a team out. There is players at home that either wernt called in by management or won't play for the management, players who would strengthen this team alot. These issues are only raising its head now we have injuries. It's 4 year listening to the same voice, the hunger isn't there and I fear for these men. We were knocked out of the taligan cup last year early and 2 year before that by limerick and London, what big team have we actually beaten in this over last few year?we didn't have injuries then. Yes we won a poor division 3 last year when alot of teams were only getting to grips with the new rules and the hype of harte coming in. We have a somewhat easy draw in leinster later in the year I hope we get it right by then, either way it probably won't matter nothing will change next year regardless of results. Hopefully they prove everyone wrong and come out all guns blazing against louth in 2 weeks.

[Superhans75]

For a start people go on about how small the Offaly team is
You can't change your DNA
Pace is our friend but we have gone out of that style of play since Paddy Duncan got injured as we loved to attack from the back paddy is a master working with his backs .
His replacement looks a bit out of place
With the system at the moment
The two pointer kicking is another issue
But that is management issues
Yesterday was an eye opener but conceeding goals same as Carlow last week pretty easy . Has to address quickly