U20 Footballers

[Lone Shark]

All of what POTH said there is spot on, but just to add to that - a huge number of the players from last year's final weren't eligible for selection. Ryan and Ross Kellaghan, Ben Kennedy, Cameron Egan, Ronan Flynn, Conor Grennan, they're all some of the best players from that final and they're all overage. Eamon Maher chose to focus on the Leaving Cert so is not playing county in either code this year, Ruairí Woods is in with the hurlers, and there could be others that aren't available as well that I'm not aware of.

[ruletheroost]

All of what POTH said there is spot on, but just to add to that - a huge number of the players from last year's final weren't eligible for selection. Ryan and Ross Kellaghan, Ben Kennedy, Cameron Egan, Ronan Flynn, Conor Grennan, they're all some of the best players from that final and they're all overage. Eamon Maher chose to focus on the Leaving Cert so is not playing county in either code this year, Ruairí Woods is in with the hurlers, and there could be others that aren't available as well that I'm not aware of.

Kevin, Cameron Egan is underage this year.
It’s a very young team to be fair and if that’s their plan, to build this team to compete in a year or two then that’s fair enough.
Dermot Crombie was arguably one of the best players in the minor and 20s final and he’s not in there.
Adam Kellaghan was also very good.
Young Dunne struggled badly for a lad that’s training all year with the seniors.
Your senior panelists should be your standouts at u20 level but sadly that’s not the case.
They could still go on a good run though.

[Lone Shark]

My apologies to Cameron, thought he was part of the 'Born in 2005' brigade.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Some poor performances particularly Eoin Dunne.
Brian Carroll hardly touched the ball, Kaelum Bryant offered nothing. Other midfielder and centre back were limited too.
Eoin Rouse never got going.
Yes Kildare are a good side, and if they had a real go at us we could have gotten a serious scutching.
We could beat Wicklow but we will need a serious step up to do that.
In fairness to Jack Ryan, his kicking has moved on another notch from last year and he’s heading in the right direction for a senior contender next year.

Jake Maher one of the few others to put in a shift up to the level required.
For Kildare, looks like Glen Ryan’s lad is a cert to step up, super athlete to go with the football too

[faithfulfanatic]

Some poor performances particularly Eoin Dunne.
Brian Carroll hardly touched the ball, Kaelum Bryant offered nothing. Other midfielder and centre back were limited too.
Eoin Rouse never got going.
Yes Kildare are a good side, and if they had a real go at us we could have gotten a serious scutching.
We could beat Wicklow but we will need a serious step up to do that.
In fairness to Jack Ryan, his kicking has moved on another notch from last year and he’s heading in the right direction for a senior contender next year.

Jake Maher one of the few others to put in a shift up to the level required.
For Kildare, looks like Glen Ryan’s lad is a cert to step up, super athlete to go with the football too

Jesus a real breath of fresh air you are.

Why do you say if Kildare got a real go at us?
Judging by your post, half of the Offaly team were poor. With that in mind, could it not be said if Offaly had a real go at Kildare they would have won?

Kildare beat Wicklow by 18 points - why would we need a serious step up to beat them?

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Kildare controlled the game and played to patterns and were cautious in their attacking play.
They cut us open easy enough and could have scored a lot more. The 5 point gap could have easily been treble that.
Yes , half the team were poor. maybe we can step it up, maybe we can’t.
But to look at it like Wicklow lost by 16 , so we are grand won’t cut it.
I was disappointed in experienced players.
We scored a goal from play.
Sorry but hard to talk it up and hopefully lads step up this week

[Wingbackassassin]

Kildare are always very strong at under 20, i still think this Offaly team can go on a good run when they find their best form.
In fairness to Eoin Dunne, I dont think anyone expected him to be playing senior so quickly, including him this time last year. While hes physically very strong he still has other parts of his game to develop.
Its an interesting choice of selection from management. Underage can be very hard to choose as youre dealing with a lot of players sometimes hard to distinguish who has more ability and potential. The idea some had that management would entirely favour last years minors and start them with an eye on two years time rightly hasnt come to fruition. 5 starters born in 2008. 8 in 2006 and 2 in 2005. Good mix of tge three years there. Conor Bracken (06) was dropped entirely last year, albeit probably due in large part to Ballinagar season running so late, and is a starter this year.

[Superhans75]

Good win hard to know what we bet
But the lack of not scoring for a while
Looked a bit pear shaped
Missed for first 15 minutes because of work and traffic delays.
6.30 throw ins are hard to get too
Unless you're living local .
Hopefully an omen for Saturday.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Good win and nice to see a few changes deliver also.
Keeps lads on toes.
Should be good battle for places now and likely q final v Longford.
Fair dues

[Superhans75]

Hopefully common sense will prevail play the Longford game on Sunday as both
Senior teams are out why not play the game on Sunday
But as you know in the gaa
Common sense is scarce

[Barnet]

Offaly panel released, I see 1 Rhode man on it. None at weekend vs laois and none on minors 2 weeks back, i dont know if there is any on development squads i can only go by what I see. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Rhode seniors loose narrowly to Tullamore in a semifinal? Rhode under 20s win the championship? And Rhode minors beat in a county final? And 1 on our 3 teams? Anyone know the reason for this?

[DurrowBoy17]

One man who famously hates Rhode and was also Offaly director of football at underage and Offaly Senior Football Manager.
One man who dropped Cian Mcnamee off an u14 Panel for going to play a soccer match.
One man who has dropped or prized any Rhode man out of the senior football team.

In case you've still not guessed this miraculously.

The answer is - Declan Kelly

[Anon444]

I think it would be a lot fairer to suggest names of who should be there rather than saying one man is stopping management teams from picking players based on where they are from. The seniors last year had 2 Rhode players, both were asked in this year and declined. The 17s last year had a couple, maybe this year’s 17s group from Rhode aren’t as strong. That’s for the other topics on this forum.

Saw a bit of last year’s 20s and I thought that there was 4/5 Rhode players on it. This year there seems to be 2 on it, that’s with no knowledge of injuries. I would imagine there’s a few more.

[biffinbanner]

depressing result? longford 3.13 offaly 1.17.

[Faithfully]

Longford won the Leinster minor title in 2024. Won 2 games to qualify for the quarter final. It's disappointing to lose but it's hardly depressing.