Offaly Senior Football 2026

[Wingbackassassin]

Lads do ye follow football outside of offaly games? It absolutely was the worst possible draw
We had three options
Wexford Sligo Wicklow
Wexford are absolutely the worst outcome here if you dont understand that i’d find it hard to take anythinh you say about football seriously

Wexford beat leinster champions elect westmeath in the league, weren't far off Down either. They looked particularly strong against us last time we played in the Tailteann under similar conditions. Proper dark horses

[Lone Shark]

Lads do ye follow football outside of offaly games? It absolutely was the worst possible draw
We had three options
Wexford Sligo Wicklow
Wexford are absolutely the worst outcome here if you dont understand that i’d find it hard to take anythinh you say about football seriously

It is the worst possible draw in the sense that Wexford are the best team that we could have met at this stage, I would be quite confident that they are the second best team still in the competition, after Down. If you told me that Offaly were at full strength with Flynn/Dunican/Furlong and ideally Bourke, I'd say we're the best team in it, but based on what we have, and based on what Wexford have (assuming Eoghan Nolan is good to go) I'd give them a slight edge.

But the other way of looking at that is that while we might have got "lucky" and avoided Wexford at the quarter-final stage, we would have had (assuming either Fermanagh or Down get through, which is pretty certain) a 50/50 chance of drawing them in a semi, where we would then have to beat them in Croke Park - a venue where they've already had one run out this year.

And my take on it is that for Offaly, getting to a Tailteann Cup semi-final but losing at that stage is absolutely NOT a successful Summer. Only winning this cup, and getting the ticket to the 2027 All-Ireland that comes with it, would constitute success, and in order to make that happen, the upside of taking out one of the other big guns in Tullamore is worth the risk of an earlier exit. That's why I say it's a good draw.



All that said, we are absolutely not 1/2 favourites for this game. 4/5, at a push. I wouldn't back against Offaly since I'd take no joy in collecting any money won and I'd feel twice as bad about losing money that way, but there are three obvious bets for me this weekend, and Wexford plus on the handicap is one of them.

For what it's worth the others are Dublin minus four against a dishevelled Cavan team riddled with injuries, and Roscommon to lead Monaghan at half-time. At this stage Monaghan are even leaning into their thing of being a second half-team, to the point that last time out against Mayo, they won the toss and opted to go into the wind.

[jimbob17]

Lads do ye follow football outside of offaly games? It absolutely was the worst possible draw
We had three options
Wexford Sligo Wicklow
Wexford are absolutely the worst outcome here if you dont understand that i’d find it hard to take anythinh you say about football seriously

They are an average enough team - div 3 standard. Yea they fluked a win v westmeath in league with late goal but Louth hockeyed them in Leinster by 1.25 to 11pts. Put that in context.

We beat Down and Clare in run in. Why would we fear them, coming from div 4 last year. LS nailed it and I agree. It's q final stage and if we are to win T Cup, need to beat 2 of best 5 teams somewhere along line.

After league we've had, only reaching a T cup final could be accepted as breaking even and taking another step and winning it could be deemed as a successful year.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

We should fear them cause we have no devine right to beat anyone and without the heads right we wont win.
Plus almost every time i can recall us resembling favourites we turn it into a dog fight.

No hassle with tickets for this one anyway!

[Behindthegoal]

Division 3 standard is that not where we are? They fluked a win against westmeath… how can you fluke it you have to be in a position to win it after 69 minutes and they were.. how would we get on against westmeath? Thats a scary thought

[jimbob17]

Why would you fear a div 3 team. Not saying at all that it's a gimme. It's a 50 50 game. We are at home coming off two wins. We should be looking forward to it. And if we can't beat Wexford at home, then we've no business going any further in this competition. Simple as that.

As for WH, they've moved on. Good for them. They've got their best lads in there - from age 19 - 36 or whatever age Heslin is and are playing for each other as a team. Their manager had the smarts not to discard lads over 30 years of age, unlike our management. Would DK have gone back for Heslin in same scenario, or would Heslin have come back for DK in same scenario? That's the difference, and they are now Leinster Champions. You can wrap it up whatever way you want, but with the Dubs slipping, there was opportunity there over last 2 years to win Leinster and others had their shit together to take advantage when we didn't.

[Offalysupporter26]

Wexford will not be a simple outfit at the weekend, they are a team that have improved massively over the last 2 years and have a nice balance of size and skill all over the field. My only fear if they close Dylan Hyland out where will our scores come from, we’ve no other massive threat, Keith will chip in with a few scores if he’s on form but we’re not getting a massive amount of scorers from the midfield up whereas Wexford seem to have a variety of scorers looking at their last few games.
Our tails should be up and we should be favourites (just about) after playing at a higher standard all year. Let’s just hope things click on the day and we can get over this one. It certainly won’t be simple and could easily go either way.
I can’t see the team changing from the last day. Best of luck to the lads!

[Wingbackassassin]

Why would you fear a div 3 team. Not saying at all that it's a gimme. It's a 50 50 game. We are at home coming off two wins. We should be looking forward to it. And if we can't beat Wexford at home, then we've no business going any further in this competition. Simple as that.

As for WH, they've moved on. Good for them. They've got their best lads in there - from age 19 - 36 or whatever age Heslin is and are playing for each other as a team. Their manager had the smarts not to discard lads over 30 years of age, unlike our management. Would DK have gone back for Heslin in same scenario, or would Heslin have come back for DK in same scenario? That's the difference, and they are now Leinster Champions. You can wrap it up whatever way you want, but with the Dubs slipping, there was opportunity there over last 2 years to win Leinster and others had their shit together to take advantage when we didn't.

We have no one of Heslins calibre actively playing in the county. Closest thing was Niall McNamee who came out of retirement a few times if i remember correctly.
Think any manager in the world would take Heslin regardless

[jimbob17]

This is a very basic point. Our current management cast off all our older more experienced players with anyone age 29 or older removed for young lads that had won an U20. Those young lads were totally unproven at adult club level, let alone inter county, and many that were tried have struggled to make that step up - understandably. This flawed philosophy resulted in our worst ever year in 2024 - a home 14 pt championship defeat to London as evidence.

Luke Loughlin, Ray Connellan, Heslin, among others are all over the 30 mark and are among Westmeaths best. Sam Duncan, McCartan, Conor Dillon and Wallace are up there in age too. They'd have won no Leinster without them. McGeeney had more than 12 lads over 29 or 30 on panel that won the 24 All Ireland. Mark Dowd kept his best senior players over 30 and won connaught despite a rich vein of depth and underage success in Roscommon.

If that approach then, was taken now, would people think it ok to cast off likes of Dylan Hyland, Jordan Hayes and Paddy Dunican who are among the 29-30 year olds now. Thats what happened - simple as that. We've seen what Brian Flanagans similar approach has done for Kildare. They should be winning Leinsters and competing for All Irelands if right was right given all their underage talent over last 10 years or so. Young lads need experience around them in key positions to thrive. That's the basic point.

Yea Heslin is a unique player but point still stands. You pick the best players now for now and blend in couple of young lads to keep things fresh. We are 'in transition' for last 20 years. That's a load of rubbish and shite talk by people who want to excuse certain managements for doing a shite job.