Offaly Senior Football 2026

[Wingbackassassin]

Dalton played at 6 for Clara for a year and was very good there - senior B player of year in fact. SOTG played there with Shamrocks previously. Pearson did it with Edenderry. Jordan Hayes has NEVER played there.

Cormac Egan has mostly been a forward. I never mentioned him to be put to inside line so don't understand relevance of your no 13 comment. And I know all about C Egan. Saw him play Rugby for Tullamore for your information as a kid and coached against him when he was only a chap playing for a different club before he moved to Tullamore so no need to question my knowledge on him. Yea he played at 13 as u20 fair enough but generally played withdrawn 13 role (as a half forward) running from deeper in half forward line. He is a good half back for Offaly and in a full team, I'd play him at 5 possibly. Rory Egan is an athletic 5, not a scoring wing forward. His best asset is athleticism and straight line runner, coming on to the play at pace, not as a creative footballer, which you need as a forward. He is as good a defender as Cormac in my opinion but nowhere near as strong as a wing forward.

You must have coached under 6/8s because that's the only time C Egan played for a different club than Tullamore. His rugby career also ended when he was about 12 so I think you should accept your first hand knowledge of him is limited.
I think Rory Egan has his strengths but he's not a great defender whatsoever, can't tackle and not on the same planet defensively as cormac egan.

Above is the part where you are grossly misinformed WBA. Just stick to the facts in future..... No need to comment on others knowledge or lack thereof when your own assertions are as far off the truth as these ones are.

Factually Cormac Egan only played for Ballinamere Durrow up as far as under 8s. What part of this is grossly misinformed?

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Looking at the last few pages on this is tough reading.

There are a lot of injuries, far more than you would expect and far more than we might normally have.
Many of them are not down to over training, simply bad luck.
However, there is an issue with management of the squad, and rotation, and I guess that if I was to pick one guy it would be Ed Cullen. PLayed full back v Meaths second team, played full game and then thrown in again v Westmeath, completely out of his depth re pace for the position and knowledge of it and goes off injured with hamstring.
With the amount of players who are out I guess that can happen and we are running out of players. So for me the rest of the league simply is about at least utilising as many players who are there at the moment in the remaining games to rule them in or out, and try to manage the load for key players.
I know I am contradicting myself a little but I did say at the start of the league that we were going to be up against it. Thats the case and Sunday will be no different. Building a squad is the key to building momentum.
I would like to think that we have 3 games coming where there will be a savage effort required from who is there at the moment and they need to be managed accordingly. You cant throw the subs to the lions either in these 3 games, but mix it a bit and lets face it, we are operating at a level above where many of our guys are currently at. But the experience plus the integration of some of the returning injured players should leave us in agood place come the championship.
Overall though, I think that the season and the compact nature of it is very punishing on the players. Particlulary the guys from smaller but reasonably successful clubs who will not get a break at all and this needs to be looked at in the greater scheme of things.
There are a few lads on that injured list that I suspect just don;t have the durability to train at the level that intercounty football is at and that is unfortunate.

[DurrowBoy17]

Or it could be that they were flogged needlessly.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
15 out injured is not normal!

I see Pearson and Diarmuid Egan is named. I suspect that team named for Sunday won’t be the one that starts. Mcdaid to start anyways, and surely sawyer won’t start either?

[Cheddar]

So from this list, we are missing;

Paddy Dunican
John Furlong
Dylan Hyland
Shane Tierney
Jack Bryant
Cathal Flynn
Kyle Higgins

Include Cillian Bourke and Aidan Bracken and that’s 9 of last years STARTING TEAM who are not there currently through injury an AFL.

Any word on when some of these lads will be back.

Had hoped there would be players back since Kildare. Nathan Poland played well in Newbridge and not here this week.

Can we just have some luck with injuries please

[Snotser123]

Aidan bracken missing as well. ...hed had a great spell under Kelly and harte last year ....

[G91]

Did Cian Johnston get dropped off the panel or is he still injured

[Cheddar]

Did Cian Johnston get dropped off the panel or is he still injured

Was wondering that myself. He was named on the bench against Mayo in a challenge match. Haven’t heard about him since.

[Superhans75]

The starting panel for tomorrow looks a bit toothless
Not too sure about O'Toole in goals
His kick out distribution is poor
And he has a habit of staying on his line
Doesn't seem to communicate with his backs
He is a good keeper but maybe needs a better goal keeping coach .
Well hope springs eternal.

[del]

Cian Johnson broke a finger in the week before the mayo game presume he’s still in there just not back from injury
I believe there will be a change in goals tomorrow too.
Hopefully also if the likes of Lee Pearson and Diarmuid Egan are injured that they are let recover and not be persuaded to play while injured as realistically the league is a write off anyway and we’ve enough injuries already without compounding them

[Anonymous1]

Cian Johnson broke a finger in the week before the mayo game presume he’s still in there just not back from injury
I believe there will be a change in goals tomorrow too.
Hopefully also if the likes of Lee Pearson and Diarmuid Egan are injured that they are let recover and not be persuaded to play while injured as realistically the league is a write off anyway and we’ve enough injuries already without compounding them

Johnson still has a broken finger.

Poland and Pearson are also both out afaik.

Is Bryant also out or will he be added to the 26 late?

Beating both Meath and Cavan in the last two games likely wouldn’t even be enough to stay up as Meath will have a lot more than 4 points and we wouldn’t have the head to head on any other team bar Cavan so we really need at least a point tomorrow to have any hope of surviving.

[jimbob17]

Any idea on actual team. I would imagine the named team will not start. In fairness, with all the injuries, the team named is probably as good as we could put out from those on panel. Hope Egan and Pearson make it but i'd expect they might not.

By all accounts Bryant will be out for a while, as will Nathan Poland, which really takes from forward options. Is McDaid back? If so, he could come in for one of backs.

Could be a very long 70 mins. Cork are a decent outfit and at full strength, we would struggle.

[Offaly Hero]

Very creditable performance today for an injury ravaged panel. I think nearly everybody would have taken that result before the game.

It’s all about the Taitleann Cup now and getting our best team on the pitch for when that starts.

[Behindthegoal]

For the life of me I cannot see what Eoin sawyer offers he wouldn’t get on club teams in Offaly

Support was pitiful today outnumbered at home by a county who don’t have a great following embarrassing stuff I don’t want to see bandwagons up in the Celt bar for Tailteann cup

[Anon444]

The result was definitely one you’d take, but how the game played out was a different story. I think we would have lost if we had everyone available as Cork looked to take the foot off the pedal when they were 10 up with a gale behind them.

I really do not see anything worth pursuing with certain players, particularly the lads who have been drafted in from Dublin. With Sawyer, he has gotten ample opportunities and it’s like a bad game doesn’t affect his starting role. I don’t blame him, I blame the management at this stage. He didn’t do well in Division 3 and he’s not going well now. Simple, give someone else a run to see if they can show something. With Murphy, he looked good in the O’Byrne Cup but he’s not quick enough or fit enough to be a half forward and he’s not nippy enough to be an inside forward. I would also have serious issues around how he got on the panel in the first place. I remember reading that he text the manager looking to play for the county, can anyone imagine the response they would have got if a local player did that? Fair enough if he was scouted, but come on.

Look, management can say that there are too many injuries and they are right. But can we please at least start helping ourselves.

[DurrowBoy17]

Completely agree Anon444.

It’s like a novelty using the 2 boys from Dublin. Something new and shiny.

Harry Plunkett kicked 8 points today. How silly does Deck Kelly look now not playing him before this because of his own personal problem with him.

We only looked a bit better when we had the Ferbane and Tullamore lads on the field at the end. It’s not rocket science, we’re actually better when we’re not playing junior/intermediate lads. Reality is Sawyer, etc wouldn’t even start on a Tullamore/Ferbane team.