Offaly Senior Football 2026

[Thomas mc]

10. C. Murphy 11. K. O Neill 12. R. Egan 13. J. Bryant 14. D. Molloy 15. E. Sawyer v Kildare

10. B. Carroll 11. P. Cunningham 12. R Mcnamee 13. R. Kenny 14. C. Farrell 15. A. Keelaghan

I know Keith get's into the team every day. He's probably our best player at the moment. But if you were to choose a better 6 forwards as a whole from those 2 groups, it's the second group every day of the week. So stop with the nonsense that there aren't players out there. That inside line scored about 11-45 between them in the club championship and none of them are in there. It's embarrasing.

Bill Caroll was out injured a lot of last year and is wishy washy with committment despitw being a good footballer
Peter Cunningham was a brilliant servant, has had his best days and was best at centre back, is now 32ish and has missed various stints in past due to work,
R mac while not old is 30 and has had his time aswell, retired of his own accord and was a good footballer but like the above guy achieved very little with offaly and was never a world beater
R kenny unproven at any level of county maybe deserves a shot though hardly david clifford
Cian farrell isnt bothered and is the type of lad thats not needed
A kelleghan is middle of the road at county level
Anton another lad mentioned 34 and a lad whos game was all about pace and carrying the ball at this point would have no impact but a great servant
Panda i seen mentioned, heading for the guts of 40 and has had his day
Our fit team won division 3 last year, these lads would not have improved that team , were not gonna start calling lads back in after a few injuries.. i see a couple other names mentioned from tullamore but wouldnt really be up to it. Ferbane have no real other standouts either.

[Offy]

A sobering evening in Derry to say the least.

Fine stadium and I had expected a defeat, but delighted to be playing a big team in an evening throw in. It felt like a good idea at the time.

What transpired was abysmal and as previous posters have said, it’s a combination of things like injuries and management.

On the injuries front, we are decimated and a lot of those players tonight won’t be on the 26 in general. I actually feel sorry for them. In particular a lot of young players in their first year of senior inter-county. Not fair on those lads being brought on to be slaughtered. They are either too young as of yet, or just not the standard and they are being let down.

On the players who are fit, and have been involved for years, some of their performance levels have dropped considerably. Why is the big question. Lack of motivation? Poor environment?

I felt the positioning of some players tonight was baffling. We actually appeared to have no structure in defence. At one point in the second half, Eoin Sawyer was at corner back. Going forward it appeared we just hit and hoped. Last year we played some outstanding attacking football. Flynn is a huge loss in that regard.

In a post above, Ru McNamee was mentioned as retired. I can say as a matter of fact, he isn’t retired and would return if DK wasn’t involved. His friendship with current players caused an issue in the run up to the Kildare game. I won’t say details but it was the definition of authoritarian. I’ve heard so many other things about his style. These are all from genuine sources or people involved and it’s frightening.

Injuries are injuries, but simply, with a population like we have, a lack a physicality like we have, we simply can’t afford to have players walk away or excluded. That’s on management.

Bury the hatchet, or end the regime. I don’t like calling for heads like in soccer. Relegation was likely without the injuries anyway. But with current mood, and the genuine egos of some involved, it can’t go on like this.

I think we genuinely have some gorgeous footballers who can play well on their day. Unfortunately the system behind them is killing motivation and confidence.

Can you imagine that bus home tonight. Every player would have the same thoughts. It’s toxic and it’s falling apart at the seams. Change the management style or change the management, it’s as simple as that.

[jimbob17]

10. C. Murphy 11. K. O Neill 12. R. Egan 13. J. Bryant 14. D. Molloy 15. E. Sawyer v Kildare

10. B. Carroll 11. P. Cunningham 12. R Mcnamee 13. R. Kenny 14. C. Farrell 15. A. Keelaghan

I know Keith get's into the team every day. He's probably our best player at the moment. But if you were to choose a better 6 forwards as a whole from those 2 groups, it's the second group every day of the week. So stop with the nonsense that there aren't players out there. That inside line scored about 11-45 between them in the club championship and none of them are in there. It's embarrasing.

Bill Caroll was out injured a lot of last year and is wishy washy with committment despitw being a good footballer
Peter Cunningham was a brilliant servant, has had his best days and was best at centre back, is now 32ish and has missed various stints in past due to work,
R mac while not old is 30 and has had his time aswell, retired of his own accord and was a good footballer but like the above guy achieved very little with offaly and was never a world beater
R kenny unproven at any level of county maybe deserves a shot though hardly david clifford
Cian farrell isnt bothered and is the type of lad thats not needed
A kelleghan is middle of the road at county level
Anton another lad mentioned 34 and a lad whos game was all about pace and carrying the ball at this point would have no impact but a great servant
Panda i seen mentioned, heading for the guts of 40 and has had his day
Our fit team won division 3 last year, these lads would not have improved that team , were not gonna start calling lads back in after a few injuries.. i see a couple other names mentioned from tullamore but wouldnt really be up to it. Ferbane have no real other standouts either.

Ah will you stop. Ive never heard such rot. You are deluded and clearly either have no idea of whats been going on or are politically connected to management. Are we better off with Sawyer Murphy and Dan Molloy playing in full forward line than R Mac Cian Farrell and Anton. Offy sums it up fairly well there i think.

[Superhans75]

Firstly thank for the kind Derry gaa
Today.
Number 2 not one player on the pitch today for Offaly could put there arm up
I'm writing this on my for the Wicklow London game
I'm not going to say anymore but arguing
About forwards that would not scare
Is futile
Take care
Hopefully next week
We have a new management

[Thomas mc]

10. C. Murphy 11. K. O Neill 12. R. Egan 13. J. Bryant 14. D. Molloy 15. E. Sawyer v Kildare

10. B. Carroll 11. P. Cunningham 12. R Mcnamee 13. R. Kenny 14. C. Farrell 15. A. Keelaghan

I know Keith get's into the team every day. He's probably our best player at the moment. But if you were to choose a better 6 forwards as a whole from those 2 groups, it's the second group every day of the week. So stop with the nonsense that there aren't players out there. That inside line scored about 11-45 between them in the club championship and none of them are in there. It's embarrasing.

Bill Caroll was out injured a lot of last year and is wishy washy with committment despitw being a good footballer
Peter Cunningham was a brilliant servant, has had his best days and was best at centre back, is now 32ish and has missed various stints in past due to work,
R mac while not old is 30 and has had his time aswell, retired of his own accord and was a good footballer but like the above guy achieved very little with offaly and was never a world beater
R kenny unproven at any level of county maybe deserves a shot though hardly david clifford
Cian farrell isnt bothered and is the type of lad thats not needed
A kelleghan is middle of the road at county level
Anton another lad mentioned 34 and a lad whos game was all about pace and carrying the ball at this point would have no impact but a great servant
Panda i seen mentioned, heading for the guts of 40 and has had his day
Our fit team won division 3 last year, these lads would not have improved that team , were not gonna start calling lads back in after a few injuries.. i see a couple other names mentioned from tullamore but wouldnt really be up to it. Ferbane have no real other standouts either.

Ah will you stop. Ive never heard such rot. You are deluded and clearly either have no idea of whats been going on or are politically connected to management. Are we better off with Sawyer Murphy and Dan Molloy playing in full forward line than R Mac Cian Farrell and Anton. Offy sums it up fairly well there i think.

Those 3 boys are gone, we were achieving nothing with them in the team, we blooded new players and won Division 3 as a result and it was the correct decision not to have them on the panel this year as we were movin on with successful panel from last year.. pure nonsense. In 2024 we blooded new players and the same lads were crying about cian farrell and panda and anton and all that shite, lads that were good footballers but made little or no real progress for offaly but in 2025 the lads who had been blooded in 2024 reaped the rewards and we actually won division 3, lads have forgotten that.. had we left those lads on the sideline and kept playing the old guard who had won nothin we would have lost some of them.. correct decision was made around all that and that was quite clearly justified with winning division 3 and we quite rightly moved on with the same panel and a few additions to it.. we've had a mountain of injuries and simply cannot cope with that, could not be expected to and we certainly arent gonna go back to those lads mentioned when weve moved on, we are relagated now and if lads think its a good idea to bring back aul lads and lads that dont really want to be there instead of givin game time to young lads then im not sure whats wrong with lads.. would ye rather bring back lads now and lose young lads instead of givin them a chance, lads that may not be movin mountains at the moment but jesus give them a chance its difficultt circumatances.. sure we'll lose a couple of young lads and in a few years when they are gone during their prime, we can have a testimonial for antons 40th. Sweet jesus! Similar in 2024 some of the lads that got a chance didnr pull up trees but they certainly proved the value of experience gained the following year. You cant get dropped after 10 years playing winning nothin and tell the management they were wrong after winning division 3 title. As soon as a bit of what should be expected hardship comes along the lads are on here up in arms about anton and a few others, for Christ sake!! Were ye in the stand crying out for these lads in croke park last year? Yesterdays result up there with 10 players out and new players introduced is in no way a surprise nor will it have any real bearing on the rest of the year or next year. The shite in offaly for 20 years with player power and lads controlling management and the dressing room and lads whinging about everything while winning absolutely nothin is ridiculous, lads there won no game in leinster and striggled in league and never bothered with 2nd competition, great servants but achieved nothing and couldnt have any excuses given the lack of any kind of success.. There was a decision made to take all that shite outta offaly and give new lads a chance and that was completely justified when that panel of players actually won a league title last year, had we won nothin then maybe you could make some arguement.. our struggles in division 2 are no reflection on that, they are as a direct result of havin 8 or 9 of our best players currently unavailable and we are up in grade! In the case of anton, he was slowing up and getting on and the team werent doing a whole lot, he got dropped and the team went on to be successful how can he argue against that? Maybe we would have won the league more comfortably if he was there last year

[Thomas mc]

Firstly thank for the kind Derry gaa
Today.
Number 2 not one player on the pitch today for Offaly could put there arm up
I'm writing this on my for the Wicklow London game
I'm not going to say anymore but arguing
About forwards that would not scare
Is futile
Take care
Hopefully next week
We have a new management

To add to my above comment, the current panel (along with a few new additions this year) won divison 3 last year and we praised them to the last. The lads that were dropped won nothing! Whole pile of lads out injured, up in grade and lads turn on them straight away. Typical offaly fans and calling for lads to come back. We quite easily forget that this panel of players won a division 3 title and promiton to division to division 2 (on meri unlike the farce that was 2021) after years of finishing 5th/6th in division 3 and spending plenty of time in division 4. The panel has been ripped apart by injuries but lads will be back and new lads are getting a chance and experience and from what i recall that worked out ok last year.. the deadwood is gone and we are left with lads that have actually won somethin in an offaly jersey as opposed to "great servants who won nothing and lads that arent bothered being there.

[Snotser123]

Some people on here won't be happy will we have a two man 3 man full forward line of panda Anton and Niall McNamee lads time moves on.....its how life works .....

[classof81]

This year is just showing how poor division 3 actually is. Wexford are on course to be promoted, clare are no where near the team they once were, fermanagh havnt won an ulster game in along time, laois and westmeath are in transition, rewind to last years championship and our so called best year, we got hammered by meath in championship and then on to taligan cup, laois and kildare beat us..limerick I think got to the final.. who did we beat? Waterford? Newyork?

[DurrowBoy17]

Some people on here won't be happy will we have a two man 3 man full forward line of panda Anton and Niall McNamee lads time moves on.....its how life works .....

Like we need to move on from your buddy Declan Kelly…

[jimbob17]

Firstly thank for the kind Derry gaa
Today.
Number 2 not one player on the pitch today for Offaly could put there arm up
I'm writing this on my for the Wicklow London game
I'm not going to say anymore but arguing
About forwards that would not scare
Is futile
Take care
Hopefully next week
We have a new management

To add to my above comment, the current panel (along with a few new additions this year) won divison 3 last year and we praised them to the last. The lads that were dropped won nothing! Whole pile of lads out injured, up in grade and lads turn on them straight away. Typical offaly fans and calling for lads to come back. We quite easily forget that this panel of players won a division 3 title and promiton to division to division 2 (on meri unlike the farce that was 2021) after years of finishing 5th/6th in division 3 and spending plenty of time in division 4. The panel has been ripped apart by injuries but lads will be back and new lads are getting a chance and experience and from what i recall that worked out ok last year.. the deadwood is gone and we are left with lads that have actually won somethin in an offaly jersey as opposed to "great servants who won nothing and lads that arent bothered being there.

Tmac, you sound like someone in terrible panic going around in circles and reiterating the same point 4 or 5 times over the last 2 posts. Maybe it's because you know the game is nearly up and at end of year, it'll be time to move on. I wish it was different. We'd all have loved for the team to be moving forwards, or even just remaining competitve and things to be positive, but the mood music emanating from the camp is anything but that. I wish there was no fall outs and that all these senior players or at least some were available. I wish that DK and MH had a strong cohesive group, but it appears very clearly that he hasnt. Everyone wanted DK to succeed when he went in. He was the local man who did great at underage.

Management teams live and die by the decisions they make. The fact is that many of the management decisions taken to "root out the dead wood" as you say have not helped the team, or themselves as management group and that is on them. They got rid of "dead wood" and brought in lads that would struggle to make the Ferbane or Tullamore teams. Some of them will never be county level players. The management soured relationships in how they did that, not what they did. This was the biggest flaw. People management is most important. That is your main job and some of that left a lot to be desired. I am surprised at Mickey Harte if he was involved in this as he always struck me to be utterly decent man. Those decisions that were taken then are proving very costly now. I have no issue with getting beaten or relegated. It was always going to be difficult, particularly with a few injuries. It is the manner of the beatings, the manner of player fall outs, the sense among the supporters that all is not well and being totally outnumbered by opposition support for home games. You insulted Offaly supporters and their intelligence above. Offaly supporters are not stupid and have voted with their feet. The people that were mis-managed are their neighbours, club-mates, cousins and friends. Management must remember that how they do things matters and has impact.

Fact is Ruairi Mac (age 29) didnt retire, he left because of management and from what I believe, with good reason. Same with Bernard Allen 2 years ago among others. There are a number of younger players that were involved over last two years that also left of their own accord for similar reasons. Now you could say that's their call but it isn't normal for the volume of people to be exiting at the rate they are. It is also not normal for a group to have the volume of soft tissue injuries that we have. It appears to be an unrelenting environment, and that some of the players are low on motivation, on confidence and belief. They are stuck now and are in for hard time ahead and it will be difficult for coming weeks and games. It is a tough time for them. I just wonder now about the level of trust left in the group. It must have been a soul searching journey back down the road from Derry. Would some of the senior players like to see some of these older players back? Absolutely, because they know their worth. Will it happen? Absolutely not, and there goes the problem. What we have left behind after injuries etc are just not able for it. The management chose to select these back end squad members over those senior players and are only finding out now that they were wrong.

I'd love if they could turn it around but that won't be easy. A few lads are trying to hold us together in likes of Hayes, O Neill and Plunkett and couple more but overall. it is not good enough and hasn't been by a long shot.

[biffinbanner]

lets hope the hurlers can restore a bit of faith today. badly needed.

[Offy]

There’s some obviously split opinions on management and former players. Plenty of lads were left out, or walked. I get people’s frustrations. I am deeply frustrated myself.

Some players were long in the tooth and never won anything with Offaly.

Some young lads were outstanding and deserved their place.

Last year was an incredible league and we deserved to win it, but our downfall against Meath in the championship, and subsequently, losses against Laois and Kildare, were down to the fact we had no bench. Harte and DK only used the likes of Ru, and Leavy.

As successful as we were, I would’ve loved to see Harte and Kelly be able to call on experience from Ru, Anton, Panda etc.

Cian Farrell has all the potential in the world with proper man management. He expects to start and he has the skills to do so, he just needs a calming influence. He walked under different management, but even if he’s assured of a role, he’d be involved.

I love the young lads. Genuinely gorgeous footballers, but we need to support them with experience. It’s hard to develop young lads when there’s no Ru, Anton, Panda, Declan Hogan to bounce off.

Nigel Dunne offered plenty last year off the bench before his retirement. Steady influence who is now a manager himself. We need old heads at times just to keep things ticking over. Settle a game, and do the basics right.

Simply we need the likes of Ru and Anton.

[jimbob17]

" lads there won no game in leinster and striggled in league and never bothered with 2nd competition, great servants but achieved nothing and couldnt have any excuses given the lack of any kind of success.. There was a decision made to take all that shite outta offaly

Again. what a load of absolute horse manure. For all the "shite" as you say that they took out, they brought in even bigger shite, and have overseen Offaly's 3rd worst league loss in history (yesterday) and the most embarassing championship result in the history of Offaly GAA in 2024 (a 14 point home championship loss to London). And there might be worse to come! Are these hammerings a higher level of shite than losing narrowly in a Leinster championship game?

I agree Offaly struggled to win games over number of years, but there was never the negative sentiment among supporters that there is now, of that there is no doubt. We were mainly Div 3 team after we got up with Flanagan about 8 or 9 years ago. We hovered in middle of Div 3 for most part and got a promotion and relegation with Maughan to Div 2. However, we were competitive throughout, and made best of young lads coming through under Kearns in 2023 when we beat Meath in Tullamore in first round of Leinster. It was all set up for DK when he came in on his own to just blend in a couple of more young lads - Egan, Furlong and O'Neill etc.

Instead he ripped up the script and cast off a load of lads that were after beating Meath. Just looking at that team now, it should be somewhat close to similar panel now if relationships were maintained and those couple of younger lads blended in. There was a major opportunity there and it wasn't taken. Like I said, Managements live and die by the decisions they make. I think on reflection in time, we will look back and rue this wasted opportunity.

As a comparison, Roscommon didn't go and cast off all their best senior footballers (Enda Smyth and the Murtaghs etc) after getting to same U20 final. They kept the lads in late 20's and early 30's and remained competitive and blended in the best of that U20 team (maybe 3 or 4 players) into seniors. Look at them now. DK had a glorious opportunity to capitalise on that in 2024 but made massive changes needlessly across the 2 years to now. Harte wouldn't have known too many of these lads that were moved on. There were 10 or 11 junior footballers on the Offaly senior football panel in 24 and 25 ahead of the lads that had beat Meath only a year or 2 years previous. We beat Waterford and Wicklow and New York last year in TC and lost to both Laois and Kildare. That wasn't moving ahead of any place we had been in the previous 6-8 years.

The injuries then like I said are massive, but lots of them were soft tissue injuries where pulled hamstrings, groins or quads or overuse osteitis pubis were factors, which should be mostly avoidable if not over-training. So now, we are harvesting the fruits of those decisions.

For context, going to hazard a guess on the current ages of that team that beat Meath in Championship - a Meath team who by the way, won the Tailteann Cup that year.

Ian Duffy 32; Lee Pearson 24, Declan Hogan 33, David Dempsey 28; Rory Egan 24(1-01), Peter Cunningham 32, Ciaran Donnelly 27; Jack McEvoy 25, Conor McNamee 30; Cian Farrell 26, Ruari McNamee 29(0-02), Anton Sullivan 34(0-01); Dylan Hyland 28(0-02, 1f), Nigel Dunne retired (0-04, 1 '45' and 1f), Jamie Evans 29. Subs – Cian Donohue 33 for Egan (HT), Bernard Allen 34 (0-01) for Farrell (49m), Joe Maher 33 for Evan (56m), Bill Carroll 25 for Conor McNamee (59m), Shane Tierney 28 for Allen, (59m).

80% of that team are still young enough and good enough but management fell out with or disregarded half of them.

To that group, add in Paddy Dunican 29, Furlong 23, Cormac Egan 23, Diarmuid Egan 25, Aaron Leavy 28, Shane OTG 26, Cathal Flynn 24, Harry Plunkett 23, Keith O Neill 23 and maybe one or two more. That should be the guts of the squad now but between fall outs, injuries and whatever else, we have been left in position of having a below par squad and the results we are getting now are the fruits of this.

[Snotser123]

: your hilarious ....the fact u don't even mention furlong and cathal Flynn im not sure what to say two best footballers in offaly the whole team had to be ripped up from a few years ago......Peter Cunningham left over a fall out with one of your darling players that you want brought back in and said he wouldn't come back as long as he was there so you may do some better research .......chilly donnelly is travelling .....suppose thats Kelly's fault too.....he only went travelling because Kelly is so nasty

[Anon11]

" lads there won no game in leinster and striggled in league and never bothered with 2nd competition, great servants but achieved nothing and couldnt have any excuses given the lack of any kind of success.. There was a decision made to take all that shite outta offaly

Jimbob you’re spot on and everyone know its. Add David Dempsey to the injury list now too.

Again. what a load of absolute horse manure. For all the "shite" as you say that they took out, they brought in even bigger shite, and have overseen Offaly's 3rd worst league loss in history (yesterday) and the most embarassing championship result in the history of Offaly GAA in 2024 (a 14 point home championship loss to London). And there might be worse to come! Are these hammerings a higher level of shite than losing narrowly in a Leinster championship game?

I agree Offaly struggled to win games over number of years, but there was never the negative sentiment among supporters that there is now, of that there is no doubt. We were mainly Div 3 team after we got up with Flanagan about 8 or 9 years ago. We hovered in middle of Div 3 for most part and got a promotion and relegation with Maughan to Div 2. However, we were competitive throughout, and made best of young lads coming through under Kearns in 2023 when we beat Meath in Tullamore in first round of Leinster. It was all set up for DK when he came in on his own to just blend in a couple of more young lads - Egan, Furlong and O'Neill etc.

Instead he ripped up the script and cast off a load of lads that were after beating Meath. Just looking at that team now, it should be somewhat close to similar panel now if relationships were maintained and those couple of younger lads blended in. There was a major opportunity there and it wasn't taken. Like I said, Managements live and die by the decisions they make. I think on reflection in time, we will look back and rue this wasted opportunity.

As a comparison, Roscommon didn't go and cast off all their best senior footballers (Enda Smyth and the Murtaghs etc) after getting to same U20 final. They kept the lads in late 20's and early 30's and remained competitive and blended in the best of that U20 team (maybe 3 or 4 players) into seniors. Look at them now. DK had a glorious opportunity to capitalise on that in 2024 but made massive changes needlessly across the 2 years to now. Harte wouldn't have known too many of these lads that were moved on. There were 10 or 11 junior footballers on the Offaly senior football panel in 24 and 25 ahead of the lads that had beat Meath only a year or 2 years previous. We beat Waterford and Wicklow and New York last year in TC and lost to both Laois and Kildare. That wasn't moving ahead of any place we had been in the previous 6-8 years.

The injuries then like I said are massive, but lots of them were soft tissue injuries where pulled hamstrings, groins or quads or overuse osteitis pubis were factors, which should be mostly avoidable if not over-training. So now, we are harvesting the fruits of those decisions.

For context, going to hazard a guess on the current ages of that team that beat Meath in Championship - a Meath team who by the way, won the Tailteann Cup that year.

Ian Duffy 32; Lee Pearson 24, Declan Hogan 33, David Dempsey 28; Rory Egan 24(1-01), Peter Cunningham 32, Ciaran Donnelly 27; Jack McEvoy 25, Conor McNamee 30; Cian Farrell 26, Ruari McNamee 29(0-02), Anton Sullivan 34(0-01); Dylan Hyland 28(0-02, 1f), Nigel Dunne retired (0-04, 1 '45' and 1f), Jamie Evans 29. Subs – Cian Donohue 33 for Egan (HT), Bernard Allen 34 (0-01) for Farrell (49m), Joe Maher 33 for Evan (56m), Bill Carroll 25 for Conor McNamee (59m), Shane Tierney 28 for Allen, (59m).

80% of that team are still young enough and good enough but management fell out with or disregarded half of them.

To that group, add in Paddy Dunican 29, Furlong 23, Cormac Egan 23, Diarmuid Egan 25, Aaron Leavy 28, Shane OTG 26, Harry Plunkett 23, Keith O Neill 23 and maybe one or two more. That should be the guts of the squad now but between fall outs, injuries and whatever else, we have been left in position of having a below par squad and the results we are getting now are the fruits of this.