Offaly Senior Football 2026

[biffinbanner]

"no county i have ever watched had 500 at it" your own words barnes. not mine. anyway lets hope we beat laois at least.

[Wingbackassassin]

We are a football county. We had rivals Meath and Cavan at home. I think that Meath game was the worst ever. Nobody cheered when Offaly scored. The paltry attendance is inexplicable. There is clearly a disconnect

Football county? How do you work that out?

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Lone Shark has again hit the nail on the head.
Relentless activity and coverage is going to kill it as you would need to be full time at it if you have kids involved.

however there remains a dramatic drop off this season no doubt.

But there is far too much activity and personally I try to get to a few underage games as well and have found myself deciding this year to skip the hurlers games as time is tight.
They really need to reduce the amount of league games I think.

[jimbob17]

We are a football county. We had rivals Meath and Cavan at home. I think that Meath game was the worst ever. Nobody cheered when Offaly scored. The paltry attendance is inexplicable. There is clearly a disconnect

Football county? How do you work that out?

Are you suggesting we are not a football county? How do you work that out.

We are in fact a genuine dual county - one of few. That means we are both a football and a hurling county! It is quite simple really. We are Leinster minor champions. We won All-Ireland U20 a couple of years ago. We have won more All Ireland senior football championships than 19 other counties including probabaly the most famous All Ireland win of all time (1982). We have the same amount of senior All Ireland football championships as Mayo (3). How under any other criteria do you consider us to be not a football county.

[Wingbackassassin]

We are a football county. We had rivals Meath and Cavan at home. I think that Meath game was the worst ever. Nobody cheered when Offaly scored. The paltry attendance is inexplicable. There is clearly a disconnect

Football county? How do you work that out?

Are you suggesting we are not a football county? How do you work that out.

We are in fact a genuine dual county - one of few. That means we are both a football and a hurling county! It is quite simple really. We are Leinster minor champions. We won All-Ireland U20 a couple of years ago. We have won more All Ireland senior football championships than 19 other counties including probabaly the most famous All Ireland win of all time (1982). We have the same amount of senior All Ireland football championships as Mayo (3). How under any other criteria do you consider us to be not a football county.

I think the description you're looking for is football and* hurling county rather than just the singular football as entire south offaly doesn't play football.

[Faithfully]

Football county? How do you work that out?

Are you suggesting we are not a football county? How do you work that out.

We are in fact a genuine dual county - one of few. That means we are both a football and a hurling county! It is quite simple really. We are Leinster minor champions. We won All-Ireland U20 a couple of years ago. We have won more All Ireland senior football championships than 19 other counties including probabaly the most famous All Ireland win of all time (1982). We have the same amount of senior All Ireland football championships as Mayo (3). How under any other criteria do you consider us to be not a football county.

I think the description you're looking for is football and* hurling county rather than just the singular football as entire south offaly doesn't play football.

It's the football thread and the discussion was about poor football attendances.

Everyone else understood what he meant, you're being unnecessarily precious and pedantic here.

[jimbob17]

Are you suggesting we are not a football county? How do you work that out.

We are in fact a genuine dual county - one of few. That means we are both a football and a hurling county! It is quite simple really. We are Leinster minor champions. We won All-Ireland U20 a couple of years ago. We have won more All Ireland senior football championships than 19 other counties including probabaly the most famous All Ireland win of all time (1982). We have the same amount of senior All Ireland football championships as Mayo (3). How under any other criteria do you consider us to be not a football county.

I think the description you're looking for is football and* hurling county rather than just the singular football as entire south offaly doesn't play football.

It's the football thread and the discussion was about poor football attendances.

Everyone else understood what he meant, you're being unnecessarily precious and pedantic here.

Thank you Faithfully. This forum is turning into classic social media now where nobody can say anything without some pedantic snowflake taking nonsensical umbrage to something. Football forum. Football county. If you don't like that or can't accept that, F*** Off and take opinions elsewhere!

[biffinbanner]

im proud of the fact that offaly is a genuine dual county and as a lifelong follower ive never distinguished between where in offaly a fellow supporter was from. etc. im living in clare where the divide is huge. the west is football and the east is hurling. but where it gets sad is that while the west gaa people follow the hurlers enthusiastically,but by and large (i gotta be careful here!) a lot of the east people delight in the footballers going bad. its a puzzler. but begrudgery i suppose. obviously the hurlers are stronger and as a result a lot of the top footballers in the county are on the hurling panel.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Id say you are not far off the mark here in Offaly either.

Apart from the Kearneys, theres not been too many from Ballyskenach/Kilavilla, Shinrone, Coolderry and others at too many football games in recent memory I would say.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

I think the description you're looking for is football and* hurling county rather than just the singular football as entire south offaly doesn't play football.

It's the football thread and the discussion was about poor football attendances.

Everyone else understood what he meant, you're being unnecessarily precious and pedantic here.

Thank you Faithfully. This forum is turning into classic social media now where nobody can say anything without some pedantic snowflake taking nonsensical umbrage to something. Football forum. Football county. If you don't like that or can't accept that, F*** Off and take opinions elsewhere!

Would it be a fair comment that apart from Kilkenny, every other county is a football county?

[jimbob17]

Possibly. Tipperary and Waterford would be hurling counties too but the football supporters there might not see it like that. Couple of counties would have a stronger support in hurling than football but would be genuine dual counties.... ie Clare, Cork, Wexford and Antrim as examples.

[jimbob17]

Just wondering what thoughts are on our 1st round game v Laois next Saturday. Fixed for 6pm in OCP, there is very little talk about it. Laois are probably fancying it given Offaly season to date. They are coming off a season having had some mixed results - but finished 4th in Div 3 ahead of Sligo, Clare, Limerick and Fermanagh. Paddy Power has us as slight favourites at 5/6 v Laois 6/5.

Given who is on the panel currently and based on league opportunities given, Offaly backs probably select themselves from end of league with SOTG, Dempsey and Pearson or McDaid in FB line, with half back line of two Egans and either Rory Egan or two corner backs mentioned above. Interesting to see who plays in goals after the league was probably split between O Toole and Melia. I'd expect to see Leavy and McEvoy at midfield with half forward line of O'Neill, Hayes and AN Other. I'd expect to see Hyland, Darragh Flynn and Tierney in full forward line, though Hyland could also be in half forward line making room for someone else playing inside. That would leave likes of Marcas Dalton,, Sawyer and Murphy competing for final spot in forwards, assuming nobody else has returned from injury, and that all of these would be selected ahead of one of our top scorers Harry Plunkett. They could also move likes of one of the backs up to fill a wing forward spot like they did in the league - Rory Egan or McDaid for example.

[Snotser123]

Hopefully people can put differences aside and turn up and support the playing group in such an important game for the county after not getting a win in either code in the league....given the amount of players still missing and the affect those players would have on the team it won't be easy in a fierce local derby...anything but a win is never enough here especially given we are at home, come on offaly

[Fairplayalways]

I suppose the results of the league speak for themselves as to why there is little chat on here about the game..very hard to see how we are slight favourites, its not as if we went down to Div 3 on last day due to other results really, had we been in Divison 3 we wouldnt be anywhere ahead of Laois I think..hoping we have some energy reserve that was not used in the league maybe, I dont know...I just think other teams will score more than us in both championship and TC..

[classof81]

Best of luck to the lads next Saturday, hopefully we get a good crowd. I'd think we should win, I don't think we been as bad as results show, iv been as big a critic as anyone but I would respect the work DK has done in the county and if its he's last year I'd love to see him go out with a bit of success. I agree laois will be well up for it but I would expect us to win by 6 or 7. Great to see hyland and Tierney back, anyone know what's the timeline for flynn to return