Hopes for 2025

[Behindthegoal]

Sligo lost to Galway in the Connacht championship by 2 points after conceding a late goal. Galway almost won the All-Ireland. Sligo got to the Tailteann cup final took Down to ET with 14 men. They are definitely a better team than us and will win by at least 3 in the first round. Clare beat us last year with half a team they have a lot of lads back now and Peter Keane as manager who was 1 kick of a ball away from stopping Dublins 5 in a row. They will also beat us handy as will Kildare. The disrespect for other counties here is mad who do we think we are imagine what they’d be saying about us based on last year..

[Bord na Mona man]

Hurling:

Senior - Use the league to continue bringing through new talent.
A couple of good displays early in Leinster would be nice. However, a win against someone like Wexford or Dublin is meaningless come the final day.

It's a final day showdown against Scrappy Doo, bucklepping on the sideline. Antrim have played this game before. Rope-a-dope until it matters.
In the cup final of 2024 Offaly somehow won it in the final minutes against the head. We could be staring down the same barrel again next near.

U20 - In 2024 Offaly were brilliant at times, but didn't always shoot the lights out either. Dublin x 2, Galway and Kilkenny were 7/10 performances.
In 2025, Bourke, Miller, Egan and very importantly the midfield partnership need to be replaced. The rest of the team will be a year older, Ravenhill back, but Offaly are now the hunted team, not the hunters any more.

Minor - Same ask as always. Stay above Westmeath, Leix, Kildare etc as a baseline. See can we go well against Wexford, Dublin, Kilkenny.

Football:

Senior - Getting out of D3 requires Offaly to take a big leap forward.
We need to be able to comprehensively beating a couple of teams, and seeing out some close wins in other games.

The usual dose of narrow defeats, narrow wins will see Offaly sweaty about relegation but probably hanging on.

Preparation is more important than talent. Offaly have had better talent coming through than other counties for years but haven't harnessed it.
Example. Westmeath haven't beaten Offaly at minor level since 1963 and they've played 13 times since. In the last decade Offaly have beaten them 4 times by a total of 26 points.
Yet, it's accepted that they're a stronger senior team, capable of running Galway, Armagh and Tyrone close. Maybe Mickey Harte will kick Offaly out of a rut?

U20 and Minor - Don't worry about systems too much. Release the handbrake and see how well our lads get on at football.

[jimbob17]

Hurling:

Senior - Use the league to continue bringing through new talent.
A couple of good displays early in Leinster would be nice. However, a win against someone like Wexford or Dublin is meaningless come the final day.

It's a final day showdown against Scrappy Doo, bucklepping on the sideline. Antrim have played this game before. Rope-a-dope until it matters.
In the cup final of 2024 Offaly somehow won it in the final minutes against the head. We could be staring down the same barrel again next near.

U20 - In 2024 Offaly were brilliant at times, but didn't always shoot the lights out either. Dublin x 2, Galway and Kilkenny were 7/10 performances.
In 2025, Bourke, Miller, Egan and very importantly the midfield partnership need to be replaced. The rest of the team will be a year older, Ravenhill back, but Offaly are now the hunted team, not the hunters any more.

Minor - Same ask as always. Stay above Westmeath, Leix, Kildare etc as a baseline. See can we go well against Wexford, Dublin, Kilkenny.

Football:

Senior - Getting out of D3 requires Offaly to take a big leap forward.
We need to be able to comprehensively beating a couple of teams, and seeing out some close wins in other games.

The usual dose of narrow defeats, narrow wins will see Offaly sweaty about relegation but probably hanging on.

Preparation is more important than talent. Offaly have had better talent coming through than other counties for years but haven't harnessed it.
Example. Westmeath haven't beaten Offaly at minor level since 1963 and they've played 13 times since. In the last decade Offaly have beaten them 4 times by a total of 26 points.
Yet, it's accepted that they're a stronger senior team, capable of running Galway, Armagh and Tyrone close. Maybe Mickey Harte will kick Offaly out of a rut?

U20 and Minor - Don't worry about systems too much. Release the handbrake and see how well our lads get on at football.

Fully agree with your points here re football. That WH example says it all really. We have not harnessed the talent available over the years by getting all best players in at same time and making team out of them. That can only start with knowing the talent available! Is it we didn't have right personnel involved with them at management level or what? We are certainly doing the bridging from minor to senior arseways too often.

I'm just wary we often ignore good football people within county for mediocre coaches selectors etc based outside the county who don't know county scene. I know a few of the footballers and every year for guts of last 10 years, I've heard one or more of them triumph some new outsiders coaches / selectors credentials, knowledge and ability early in season only for them to say they weren't up to it when they finished up. I've yet to hear of any of these outsiders leave Offaly and turn up a few trees elsewhere. Invariably, they disappear into obscurity from where they came. If these are the people we have running our teams, then surely we'd be as well off giving our own people a go and upskill them through their involvement. The grass isn't always greener on the other side!

[jimbob17]

And for purposes of clarity, not really talking about manager here per se, but those around the manager. We have had Dublin and Longford based football coaches in recent years. DK had Westmeath and Dublin based selectors last year that could not have been familiar with local scene. There are S&C coaches from Offaly that could be used but we tend to bring in outsiders from other counties who when they leave, take that experience and expertise away to their own counties. It means we are not growing our own stock of coaches and I think the club structure and underage structure does not benefit from that. We are actually benefitting other counties by getting their people the experience of working with our teams which in a way is very much counter-productive to our counties development.

No issue if buying in coaching talent that is proven elsewhere, but if it isn't (like we have seen), we should really be looking at our own people with the same qualifications as those outsiders we buy in. There are plenty of them out there.....

[Superhans75]

All well and good about growing the coaching skills and ethos in the county itself
But realistically the players have put there best foot forward as well
The late Bobby Robson said
A good team picks itself
A poor team picks on itself
This is a make or break year hence Mickey Harte's recruitment ( wether it's right or wrong
Will depend on results)
Have a good New year folks

[oneshot]

keep our status in leinster hurling and give the young players time. get out of division 3 or stay in it.