Allianz FL Division 4 2013

[townman]

good post truth as i see it, but your right about a few things and McDonnell learning new things today
but the one problem we have all season and for most of yesterday, we have no midfield and Alan Mc
should have got the call after 20 minutes, i though Niall Mc could have been brough out to centre forward for the last 15 minutes as there wasn't much ball going into him which we need to, to win.

i didn't get to croker watch it on the box, but when offaly ran out for the second half when i seen Anto Suillvan running out i though he was after replacing someone as i just got to see it as the ball was threw up, did he even touch the ball in the first 36 minutes

i think David Carroll looks lost as a right half back, and i fear he will get over run again the flourbags
in june. anyway this is McDonnells first year over them and we will have to give the man 3 or 4 years
at least he got us out of division 4, his next stage will be to at least keep us up in division 3 and maybe in 2015 we can look to get into division 2, its going to take time and a lot of up and downs.


i don't expect much again kildare as they are a good 5 years ahead of offaly but a better show than last year will do. maybe a nice few back door wins will round off a good first year for McDonnell and his squad, it was good to see offaly footballers back in croker last night .

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Right lads, lets cut to the chase.
1) Mcdonnell should be learning, but he knows that he has a bench, and he must use it a little quicker.
2) Our backs were roasted and if Limerick could kick points, this would have been a drubbing.
3) We are starting out on a process, so no big panic about the result, but the above are fact.

One poster wonders about Shane O'Sullivan, how in the name of God do you think he could have survived out there last night?
Guilfoyle and Anton were poor, but their men caused havoc coming up the field. Eoin Carroll had an absolute nightmare from start to finish (both in defence and in an attacking sense), and how he was left out there to suffer was beyond me. Mick Brazil was cotinuously beaten to the breaking ball, and I was really disappointed with his display. Alan Mc set the tone for his display with a ridiculous early lobbed free to Richie Dalton which was turned over, and continued in this vein.
Those are a couple of areas that changes needed to be made, and wern't until too late. If the aim was to win the game then changes should have been made, if the aim was to give as many as possible exposure to Croke park then this aim was not achieved either. If the aim was "this is my starting 15 for the championship and they are staying on the field regardless" then its job done!

Positives, Alan Mulhall, fantastic display, Brian Connor, again excellent and 2 super second half points, Niall Mc, pure class.
As another poster says, bigger picture, ye maybe, but this picture needs to change a little in order to get bigger! We did kick some fantastic scores, but we were completely outplayed tactically, and our blanket defence conceded way to many scoring opportunities to what is a decent but limited team. I would fear that the gap will not close v last year against Kildare.

Finally, on what was a big enough day, and nothing against the man involved, but it was a little disappointing ( but not surprising) to open the Indo yesterday and have to read about Mac's exploit in masters athletics on a day when a completely new team from Offaly were back in a final in Croke park? How lazy can ya get?
Best of luck to the lads in the lead up to the championship, only they will know what they took from that game yesterday.

[ryot]

I had a lot of things on my mind to post, positives & negatives but on reading the last few posts I have to agree with

Truth as i see it

Bigger Picture

So there is plenty to take from a suscessfull League campaign, lots to learn and a lot of young players who have had some good days while Niall is again being Niall.

That does me for now.

[The Biff]

First things first - well done to the team on a credible performance. We were within striking distance at the end. We competed fairly well overall and could have won, which would have been a bonus given that the main aim (promotion) had already been achieved.

Midfield is our biggest problem. I don't feel Alan Mc has much more to offer us at this stage, and Richie never seems to impose any real presence on a game. He always seems very nonchalant to me, and looks most likely to kick possession away with a loose pass. He's probably above average to sin the ball, but his passing needs major work. We may need Brian Connor to be moved out to the middle, but hopefully not at the expense of his points-scoring contribution.

Alan Mulhall had a stormer; great to see a good reliable keeper at the back. The rest of the backs .... Meh! Ross Brady took his goal really well, but I cant help wondering what our full-back is doing that far up the field in a move like that.

Whatever our problems with free-taking, I hope we do not revert to using Niall Mc for this, because he seems to play his best when not taking the frees. Some superb scores from him. Neither would I want to see him moved out to half-forward. He drops back a fair bit anyway, but undoubtedly is most dangerous when close to goal.

For the Championship, I certainly feel better this year than last year. Kildare are probably the county most likely to beat themselves. Lets hope we might be ones to benefit from their next implosion. I give Emmet McDonnell fair credit for achievements so far in his first year in charge. My faith is renewed.

[summerindublin]

[quote="Ahlethimoutwithit"]One poster wonders about Shane O'Sullivan, how in the name of God do you think he could have survived out there last night?/quote]
He would have survived better than the man who replaced him who was like a headless chicken, he scored a goal and thats it, also young Carroll, not at the races, Sullivan IMO is a better player than either of these.

[Bord na Mona man]

http://action81.com/blog/?p=7158
Tactical analysis of Saturday evening.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Was reading report on Div 4 match in the local paper (Midland Tribune), couple of things struck me,
1) Emmet McDonnell spoke about how well Eoin Carroll did on Saturday???? In fairness he is a young lad who did well in his previous couple of games and Saturday was a day where he was outplayed, and things did not go well for him
2) THe main match report never gave any insight into where Niall Darby was playing on the field and how that particular tactical ploy worked or did not work.
3) No discussion on how, despite us having 13 men behind the ball, Limerick had a huge number of opportunities to shoot unopposed and had unmarked men inside our 45.
4) Little mention of the fact that we were in trouble in many sectors, only one sub was used with 15 mins to go and W Mul was brought on in last 5 mins, whilst Limerick emptied the bench throughout the last quarter and finished strongly.

Nothing new or insightful from the manager or reporter about what could have been learned from the experience. Everyone keeps saying about what we are learning, maybe I am being harsh, yes this was a slightly better display than against Limerick and even some of the rubbish played against Tipp. But we were still brutally exposed at the back by Limerick, and I think this was their highest score so far in the league?

In short Limerick attacked at pace, and ran good angles and defended in depth, many of our scores bar the early 1-03 were exceptional kicks from outside the normal scoring range at this level.

Yet again, limited analysis by our reporters, maybe he should get a little feedback from his uncles!

[Bord na Mona man]

Tactically Offaly had it perfect early on. Withdrew the half forward line and create huge space past midfield. Offaly's early scores came from Offaly breaking through at midfield and having an ocean of space to carry it into without a Limerick man in sight. At the other end Offaly crowded out Limerick very well. Limerick were passing it around inside the Offaly 45 and getting nowhere and eventually shooting (woefully) under pressure. At that stage you couldn't have imagined Limerick kicking 16 points.

As mentioned, once Limerick went direct and started kicking over the Offaly cover, they caused problems. This happened in the Tipp game as well. Offaly had players back, but many of these players were taken out of the game once it was played over them into the full forward line.

Limerick also brought back some cover to stop Offaly carrying it through, players like Guilfoyle and Sullivan were now forced to turn backwards to lay it off, where they had been allowed to carry it forward. So Offaly needed to kick more. The difference was, the Offaly forwards weren't so good at regaining possession. There were several handling errors off these and also the support was slower in arriving. Limerick were much better at feeding off this broken play at the other end.

I watched Stephen Lavin for the evening as a case study and he put in an unbelievable shift. At times he was marking an Offaly player in his own full back line, yet when Limerick attacked he was haring up the field in support every time. He scored two points, but he assisted in several other attacks with his runs and carries.
Firstly Offaly weren't great at tracking these type of runs - players tend to mark space rather than runners in a defensive minded system and also, Offaly didn't have enough strike runners of their own to have a similar impact at the other end.

Offaly didn't use the bench in a meaningful way and I wonder did the management view this game as a means to test the stamina of the starting 15 on a Croke Park evening? A couple of players were clearly out on their feet near the end and weren't able to chase their man to prevent Limerick’s last couple of scores.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

"I wonder did the management view this game as a means to test the stamina of the starting 15"

If so then unbelievable, sure each match is different, and players run more in some games than others. For example, as you pointed out there was no reponsibility for tracking runs, whoever was on Lavin would have been a prime candidate for substitution with 20 mins to go if they were tracking back.
And basically it was blatantly obvious that some guys were struggling badly against their opponents and regardless of stamina, substitutions needed to be made.