jimbob17 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 22, 2026 12:52 am
Just reading back over recent posts, couple of things spring to mind.
Firstly, there are majorly polarising views from those who want rid of management yesterday to likes of Snotser who can only see player depth as the issues. The real truth always lies somewhere in the middle.
My first concern would be if there were any new injuries. Did Dempsey or Pearson come off injured? Or anyone else? There is a short window until championship. With 4 games lost in league now, and Tyrone to come, it is fairly certain that we finish in bottom 2 bar we win last two games and hope results fall our way which is unlikely at this stage. In that sense, injury prevention and getting lads back needs to be priority for next month so that in 5 weeks time, we are starting to get a couple of lads back.
If Pearson was played and was injured, then questions really need to be asked. I would hope that was not the case. There is a worrying trend on the injuries, lets not kid ourselves. The non contact injuries is a management / physio / s&c issue that should be properly looked at, by both the management but also the co board executive and an open discussion should be held so that the build up of any more stops now. Physio's and S&C coaches are getting paid to do a job, as are members of management. Now if they are, they are accountable to the county board, who should be asking hard questions to get this resolved as there is a distinct pattern here.
I know there were lads back in previous years before the clubs were out of championship and some of them were flogged. Not sure what happened this year but, the county board needs to call that stuff out. But so do the senior players and some of them need to grow a pair of balls and stand up for what is right if something is not right as they are the ones that are suffering - and I am not saying it is wrong, but there are some alarming red flags appearing on this issue at this stage.
The elephant in the room is the volume of key guys who have either walked away or not been called in or have been let go by management. In a bizarre way I feel sorry for management, as I do the players. It is not an easy place to be and hard decisions need to be made. The job of a manager is to make mostly good decisions. It doesn't matter really how good you are as a coach, or if you can get them fit or what you did as a player. The coach and S&C lads do the work on the pitch. The job of a manager is to make good decisions on firstly, who is on the panel, and secondly, who is on the team. Their job is also to maintain positive relationships with positive energy within the group and keep as many players onside for as long as possible. On this relationship front, there have been too many red flags from the very outset of the current regime.
So firstly, have we the best panel available? Absolutely not. And with the overuse injuries on top of that, the wider management team have contributed majorly to this poor run. Calling a spade a spade, Mickey Harte and the coach do not know the Offaly scene and so it is essentially down to the only local man involved as to who makes the panel etc (obviously D Kelly). Now do I think Kelly wants us to lose? Absolutely not. But between them all, we have ended up in scenario where we have a panel that is not competitive at this level. As a starting point, I think DK was put up on too much of a pedestal after winning the U20 and is far from the messiah some people proclaimed. Yes he fantastically well but there were other factors and other people who also played a major role, and that isn't taking from DK success with that group because it was a super achievement. Did he think his U20's were better than they were? Probably, and that was the fall-down in my opinion. He promoted lots of these unproven lads at senior level over lots of senior players and rushed them in too soon before they were ready, and some will never be ready. The best of them have done well (Pearson, Egan, Keith O Neill, Furlong etc) and others have struggled.
On any given underage team, you'll have maybe 2 or 3 lads that might become good enough for senior. On a really good team, that might become 5 or 6. I believe DK made the mistake of thinking he had all the answers in these young lads and lost too many of the senior players too soon because he either dropped them or ignored them in his first year in. The loss to London was our worst championship loss in history and was an eye opener to him I think. You have to remember, that when Bernard Allen was an U20, he was as good or better than Jack Bryant, as was Anton Sullivan, and Ruairi McNamee and probably Cian Farrell too. Bill Carroll was as good or better than likes of Morgan Tynan and Cathal Donoghue at U20 level, as was Peter Cunningham who was unmarkable at that age. Some others of the senior lads (Cian Donohue and Declan Hogan for examples) were a good bit better than those U20's but didnt maybe happen to have as good a support cast around them at underage grades and as a result, didn't win those Leinster the 2021 team won. As a comparison in point, would the senior hurlers cast off the likes of Ben Conneely, Brian Duignan, Ciaran Burke or Killian Sampson because the younger lads won an All-Ireland and they werent on it? Absolutely not because they are among the best players. And in a game like football where athletic prowess is hugely important, you need your best athletes and footballers or you'll be shown up. In this sense, I think the management made massive massive errors on selecting a lesser squad than was available and are paying the price now for cutting out all those senior players.
It is kind of sad it has come to this and the greater pity is the level of fallout, when everybody essentially wants the same thing. DK I am sure came into the role with good intentions, as did MH. We all wanted it to go well but for reasons outlined, I think there is an element of them losing the faith of most supporters and some of the players. Sometimes things are done eloquently and players get dropped in the right way where if done, relations are not soured and are retrieveable. My fear is that the relationships between management and some of these players have soured so much that they are irretrievable, are not for returning under the current regime, which will mean that there won't be much of a future for management beyond this year, barring an absolute miracle, where with returning players, we get to a TC final.
In the meantime, I fear there will be some more pain ahead and i think it'd be important for supporters to get behind those players now for last couple of games in the league where possible. They are no doubt doing their best in very difficult circumstances.