Awffuly 0-10 Dublin 1-12

[Lone Shark]

Not sure if I'd even back us to take part to be honest. The winner will be the only team that actually cares about the bloody thing - there's usually two or three each year. Wicklow are probably the best shot for it actually.


I'm just after looking at the game on Setanta there again, and without the craziness of having to do in running on it, I was struck by how many players I actually think either didn't do that badly, or else weren't entirely responsible for their own downfall. Obviously that's not to say it was a good performance - of course it wasn't - but I guarantee you that an astute manager worth his salt looking at that performance would definitely say that there is something in this team.

I know I said before that it wasn't worth analysis, but here we go anyway....

Kelly None of the calamity efforts, couldn't be faulted for the freak goal either, but still cost us a score through a dodgy kickout. Remains to be seen if he'll want to keep going.

Quinn The man is a good footballer, but he's too nice, he doesn't have the aggression and a few of his handpasses really put lads under pressure. A good all round footballer, but i fear that he may become a Basil Malone - good at club level, but just not really good enough in the height of summer to play intercounty.

Evans Much more like it. You didn't take him on without getting a scar or two for your sins. Great to see him back, and if he's on form next year it's one problem position resolved

Keane Okay, here's the first instance of a man out of position. I'll be the first to admit that when I saw him marking Tommy Freeman up in Monaghan I thought we had found ourselves a corner back, but he just does not defend his line enough - Brogan must have taken him along the endline four or five times. Now this is a failure - and not of Keane's - on two counts. I'd reckon he probably never played a game at corner back in his life up until this year, so surely one of our coaches should have prepared him for this. I still would love to see him tried at midfield, but gut feeling tells me he'll be wearing six within the next year or two.

McConway Still a bit raw, but you couldn't say he was the worst of them either. One of the lads who could turn into a real monster if he keeps getting the right weight training.

Brady Didn't have the worst game, but as we suspected, the game kind of passed him by. Seeing as in order to win a Leinster Title we'll have to win most of our games in Croke Park, it's no good seeing him play well all winter on tighter pitches and thinking the problem is solved. Still a great man to take the ball into contact and come out the far side though.

Slattery To think I was worried about him coming into this game. Fought like a demon, and was definitely our man of the match - that sequence of tackling midway through the first half to force the free was inspirational. Unfortunately no-one got inspired.

McNamee Disappeared I thought - one of our worst performers on the day. Never made the tackles, and failed to track Whelan on a rake of occasions. Might be the best midfielder in the county, but only because we have none at all. I'd prefer to see us trying to make a good half forward or half back into a midfielder rather than trying to make a mediocre midfielder into one.

Smith Twas a bit of a learning day - he'll come on for this though. Took his score well, but needs to get a bit more decisive on the ball - some of the passes he gave could have got fellas killed. Needs to bulk up, and he could yet have a future.

Neville Broke even with Cahill, and but for a bad bounce of the ball a few times he could have had a few scores or created more openings. If he's on form, I'd pick him every time.

Paschal Cullen ran the show from the back for Dublin, and the fact that the Dublin centre back was more of an attacking influence than the Offaly centre forward says it all.

McManus He has dominated games like no player we've ever had since Matt Connor by times, and unlike Matt Connor, his performances were driven by sheer force of will and savage preparation rather than Matt's once-in-a-lifetime skill, and his burst at the end when he won the ball and took three Dublin lads to drag him down for Niall's last free showed me that the will and drive is still there. It's up to himself if he wants to go to the well one more time, but if he does, he should be accomodated somewhere in the diamond where he can have the most influence. As an aside, we've all accepted that his strike rate from frees is not huge - however it does my head in to see Niall taking frees from 50 metres out, or worse yet, attempts at playing a threadneedle pass into a crowded full forward line from such a free, only for Mac to sit idle. He has a 50% (roughly) strike rate from long range frees, and I'd say if you were to look at a recording of what we've garnered from such frees in the Roe era, it wouldn't be 50%

Deehan Couldn't judge him on the amount of time he was on the field.

Ward At least we confirmed that the league form was of more value than the Carlow match.

Niall If he does decide, as he could do, to go off to America or Australia, God help us. He's an absolute class act, and that's all there is to be said really.

Ryan Having seen him play football yesterday and hurl in midweek, he has all the makings of a future poster child for player burnout. Took the fight to the Dubs throughout, and though he's no doubt going to get sick of hearing this, defied his stature with a performance worthy of an eight foot tall man. Can only imagine the amount of clamouring for him that's coming down the line.

Connor Didn't see him get on the ball, but I saw him standing hands on hips unable for the pace often enough - can only assume he has some fitness issue?

None of the other subs really got any length of time, but I have to confess I was amazed to say Willie Mulhall come on. Possibly for experience, but even so it struck me as an odd decision. The truth is that we still needed two goal to scrape a draw with three minutes left - hugely unlikely, but still plausible. Not the time to be throwing out caps for the sake of it.

[The Biff]

I too watched most of the rerun on Setanta last night. It's good to see the whole match again, as opposed to just the extremely squeezed highlights of the Sunday Game. It's true that it didn't look quite a bad as I first felt watching it there in the Stand. What did become even more apparent is how bad Collins did as Ref. We did seem to get more of his dodgy calls come our way, but he still stopped any momentum building up by continuously not playing advantage. Also his complete lack of mercy on the Overcarrying rule seemed to make many players on both sides rush their passes before they had spotted the target.

We spilled a lot of ball in tackles, and mis-judged bounces. These are very basic things that are hard to excuse. We lost midfield parity by a long way. Our long passes towards the forward line dropped 10 yards short most times. Finally, it really looked to me that Vaughan gave Joe Quinn a decent nudge on the back to make sure he would not be able to catch or punch the ball that finished up in the goal. So it looked to me anyway, but we never ever looked like getting back to a real threat on the result. Dublin were just a little bit less-bad that we were.

[the rat]

it was an awful display. no heart, no guts. i personally think roe should walk away.

[TheManFromFerbane]

i personally think roe should walk away.

For his own sake maybe.

Pat Roe wasn't out on the field on Sunday. 16\17 Offaly men went out there on Sunday and apart from a select few none of them won their personal battles.

Worse than that some players didn't even try.

I can stand a player being crap, but I can't stand a player not trying. I was sickened to look at some of them.