Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 31, 2026 10:07 pm
The obvious happening us...we could never lose Higgins , Hyland , Bourke , dunican , Flynn , furlong and Tierney from last year's team and survive in division 2....to think anything difference is very very naeive
Snotser.
Although we down players we had zero shape, no plan for kick outs, caught twice for only 2 back, walking into tackles with no options available.
Kick outs were a sad state of affairs....two going up for the same ball alot and just men against boys stuff ...all comes back to the players aren't there ....only two of the 6 starting forwards scored ...so that's where your at.....backs constantly letting their men out in front ..almost every ball for 70 minutes the offaly defender was behind his man for two weeks in row now.full back beyond roasted two games in a row....all in all I do think it comes to the quality of players pool is so so small ....these injuries have ravaged us
Didnt get there tonight but heard bits on radio. Didnt sound great. We are down bodies in a league where we would likely struggle with strongest team. Still think we should be a lot stronger than we are though.
I am just wondering what has happened the support base. There was a good following last year. Louth outnumbered us 5 to 1 at least in Tullamore in first round. People seem to be voting with their feet. Was chatting a lad that travelled tonight and he said there was barely anyone there from Offaly and was about 10:1 for Kildare supporters.
Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 31, 2026 10:52 pm
Kick outs were a sad state of affairs....two going up for the same ball alot and just men against boys stuff ...all comes back to the players aren't there ....only two of the 6 starting forwards scored ...so that's where your at.....backs constantly letting their men out in front ..almost every ball for 70 minutes the offaly defender was behind his man for two weeks in row now.full back beyond roasted two games in a row....all in all I do think it comes to the quality of players pool is so so small ....these injuries have ravaged us
Snorser so if our full backs getting roasted 2 games in a row why was it not changed before it? Why would 2 men be jumping for the 1 ball from kick outs? Surely that would be coached at training? If a player is getting a roasting at any level you move him, that's why players leave a panel.
Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 31, 2026 10:52 pm
Kick outs were a sad state of affairs....two going up for the same ball alot and just men against boys stuff ...all comes back to the players aren't there ....only two of the 6 starting forwards scored ...so that's where your at.....backs constantly letting their men out in front ..almost every ball for 70 minutes the offaly defender was behind his man for two weeks in row now.full back beyond roasted two games in a row....all in all I do think it comes to the quality of players pool is so so small ....these injuries have ravaged us
Snorser so if our full backs getting roasted 2 games in a row why was it not changed before it? Why would 2 men be jumping for the 1 ball from kick outs? Surely that would be coached at training? If a player is getting a roasting at any level you move him, that's why players leave a panel.
we have a midfield thats getting roasted the last 3 years and no changed.
Two players jumping for one ball you should know as a 13 year old shouldn't happen however it does happen to the top teams as well at times , it shouldn't need to be coached for god sake, hence why Marcus Dalton as soon as he came on won a few breaks...
Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 12:31 pm
Love to know where these midfielders are hiding in club football in Offaly that management are ignoring ? Any suggestions lads
Agreed. Managers can't just spawn inter county midfielders out of nowhere. Leavy and McEvoy are the best of whats there. What changes could the managers possibly make?
Though I agree that the likes of Cian Farrell etc should be on panel despite managerial fall outs.
Offaly had 8 changes last night from the team that started the League final against Kildare last year.
Kildare had 9.
Same problems are re-appearing.
Two in particular being the kickouts and the inside forward line.
The kickouts is a two-fold problem. One being the keeper and the other being our complete lack of ball winners.
As for the inside forward line, all three were replaced by the 49th minute and the replacements kicked 0-8 off the bench as opposed to 0-1 from the starters.
The full-back line requires some surgery too. Can't understand what McDaid has done to be dropped from last year?
Keith O'Neill the only silver lining.
A couple of returning players won't be enough to save the Titanic from hitting the ice-berg. The only question is whether we go down with the wooden spoon in tow.
Midfield is a huge problem and has been for years as someone pointed out. Are we going to expect any improvements going forward when we will be facing Conor Glass for Derry and Kilpatrick probably for Tyrone? Listening to it on the radio, the Kildare commentators were saying that Chip had zero options. The problem with our current midfield is that it is a very low ceiling, on their best days unfortunately we still won’t get the upper hand on Kildare, Meath, Louth, etc. Plus, the replacement midfielder it seems at the minute that came on last night is currently playing Junior A with his club, who prioritise hurling. Chip isn’t as comfortable on short ones as Dunican either. They might need to consider pushing Hayes up, but looks like they are set on him playing 6.
The injury excuse actually goes really far to answer a previous comment....there's no comparing our playing pool to meath or Dublin ...one side of the county hurling based etc etc ....even in the glory days offaly always lacked depth ....to expect a county with our playing population not to suffer when losing your 1, 3 , 6 , 11, 12, 13 and 15 off a team is just incorrect.....no one would argue Dylan has been our best scoring forward for 5 years now...Flynn was just awarded senior football of the year and is out playmaker ....furlong previous winner of senior footballer of the year..bracken another starting back that's missing....burke gone to Australia ....tierney a scoring forward.....Higgins started the league final win not 8 me months ago....if you attend club football in Offaly on a regular basis you will know we simply don't have the quantity or quality to deal with those losses.....yes management are making mistakes absolutely but to be calling for their heads because this playing pool can't cope on division 2 is plain wrong
The injury thing is one issue and lets be honest, it is a factor. The selection beyond that is another issue and we should be making much better fist of what we do have available. Firstly, anybody watching Offaly or Edenderry football for last 10 years will know that Jordan Hayes is not a 6, nor never was. There were other options. For example, Pearson and Shane OTG have both played at 6 for their clubs. Daire McDaid must have done something to insult someone - one of our better lads in 25 and superb for Tullamore. He should be starting. Hayes to MF or 11 or wing forward could release O Neill to play further inside. Rory Egan at 12 while Cormac is at 5 makes absolutely no sense to me. Cormac is one of our better lads but needs must at moment. Rory could easily fill in at 5 and release Cormac to 10 or 11. With few of these adjustments, all of a sudden, our forward division is much stronger and much more threatening. That is before I mention Marcas Dalton and Harry Plunkett who are both better forwards than at least two of the starting forwards on Saturday - and signs on by scores got when they entered the fray. There is 5 better options in my opinion before you ever mention the injured players. So while injuries are a factor, they are not the only factor.
For me sitting in the stand looking at your kickouts and that's where we lost the game. Our keeper has only to lads to aim at and you might get away with that in club football but not inter county level. You need 4 big men in on both side of the field to aim your kickouts at with rest ready on breaks. For offaly we don't have hight on your 5 , 7, 10, 12, 11, and all them positions require high ball fielders as kickouts are forced long more times than often. Hard to get short kickout away as well and if you do our 2 and 4 not comfortable looking for that short ball. We are where we are at and those player that came in need to be looked at going forward. Risks have to be taken with the injured list and for me i think the management team should have pulled 2 players off after 20 minutes that were not up to it and that send a signal to lads that you are not safe and if you don't buck up your next. Management need to be stronger there can't leave lads on when going bad. Let's just keep behind the team and hopefully players make it back over the coming weeks and we can see improvements in the panel there working hard not going to be easy with what's ahead of them but one has to hope they don't sink to far.