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No Iv stated previously I disagree with management on certain decisions ....the obvious ones , Dempsey , sawyer etc etc....sawyer and Murphy not being from the county of course is a sore point and I get that totally...im totally in agreement with folks on these points ..also totally believe people when they say management has poor man management skills ....Ben o Connor is the most talked about manager in the country at the moment...he doesn't exactly seem the cuddly type does he...harte famously had massive fall outs with Tyrone as did Cody with kk....its not u 14 football folks ..but I do believe you are going to have disgruntled players in a county set up if not getting game time..the commitment is so much...i can't think of any player the last 3 years that has walked away that's been playing week in week out because they just couldn't listen to management but I stand corrected if wrong on that...but I keep going back to even with Jim Gavin in charge , once we lost all those players I won't bother naming them all we weren't going to stay up ....I simply cant move from that position ....bringing back old players iv seen mentioned here wasn't going to change that ....not a chickens chance in Thailand .....management done job last year got us promoted and won a league final on national television in croke park not 6 months ago against a team who everyone from Paul Flynn to colm parkinson are saying are dark horses for leinster ....

Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 15, 2026 10:25 pm Its ok everyone we will get new management at end of summer and they will bring in on these great players from the cold that harte and Kelly have ignored ...be patient ...leinster will be ours next year when new management brings all the dropped players back

This is a forum for people to air their views. You clearly are fully behind management. Others clearly are not and have made it known on here that they are not. There have been a good few stories that have come out of that camp over last two years that are not great, lets be honest, and unfortunately, supporters are voting with their feet which is a concern.

I am somewhere in the middle and take a balanced perspective on all as someone with best interests of Offaly at heart. Management is not easy and I want the players and management to do well, as we all do. For all that, It's not going too well currently - and hence supporters disquiet. 0 from 3, not very competitive, albeit in Div 2, and a huge volume of injuries. There have been issues and genuine supporters would have genuine concerns that we are not going in right direction.

Still though, I find it absolutely astounding that you continually come on here with smug comments, trying to portray that there have not been any negative issues within the senior football squad that have been influenced by management or member/s of management team. The level of blindness is actually laughable at this stage if I am honest.

Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 15, 2026 10:55 pm No Iv stated previously I disagree with management on certain decisions ....the obvious ones , Dempsey , sawyer etc etc....sawyer and Murphy not being from the county of course is a sore point and I get that totally...im totally in agreement with folks on these points ..also totally believe people when they say management has poor man management skills ....Ben o Connor is the most talked about manager in the country at the moment...he doesn't exactly seem the cuddly type does he...harte famously had massive fall outs with Tyrone as did Cody with kk....its not u 14 football folks ..but I do believe you are going to have disgruntled players in a county set up if not getting game time..the commitment is so much...i can't think of any player the last 3 years that has walked away that's been playing week in week out because they just couldn't listen to management but I stand corrected if wrong on that...but I keep going back to even with Jim Gavin in charge , once we lost all those players I won't bother naming them all we weren't going to stay up ....I simply cant move from that position ....bringing back old players iv seen mentioned here wasn't going to change that ....not a chickens chance in Thailand .....management done job last year got us promoted and won a league final on national television in croke park not 6 months ago against a team who everyone from Paul Flynn to colm parkinson are saying are dark horses for leinster ....

You love to talk about how the Mickey Harte-led management team led us to division 3 glory but never have anything to say about the Declan Kelly-led management team that led us to the glory of a 14 point defeat at the hands of the mighty and all powerful London.

All camps have drama , I'm not sure of people's ages here maybe people showing their youth ...all politics is local..for years tullamore complained why so many rhode lads in with Offaly ..now it's vica versa...no doubt last year the senior clubs were jealous when ballinagar had a few players on the panel ....im not behind management at all I'm just not going to pretend there's a plethora of forwards and midfielders out there in club football that aren't been asked into the county set up ...we lost our 1 , 3 , 6 , 11, 12 , 13, and 15 from last year for god sake ....everyone allowed opinion ....I just think it's so naive to think we could cope without all those. ..actually throw burke into that as a loss from last year as well .....

Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 15, 2026 11:04 pm All camps have drama , I'm not sure of people's ages here maybe people showing their youth ...all politics is local..for years tullamore complained why so many rhode lads in with Offaly ..now it's vica versa...no doubt last year the senior clubs were jealous when ballinagar had a few players on the panel ....im not behind management at all I'm just not going to pretend there's a plethora of forwards and midfielders out there in club football that aren't been asked into the county set up ...we lost our 1 , 3 , 6 , 11, 12 , 13, and 15 from last year for god sake ....everyone allowed opinion ....I just think it's so naive to think we could cope without all those. ..actually throw burke into that as a loss from last year as well .....

Snotzer answer anonymous question above that you were asked, and what's your opinion of the supporter walkouts this year do they not count

If a petty hatred for a manager stops you going to a game instead of supporting lads giving up there social lives and time for most of the year that says more about you than the set up

If you lived next door to anfield and hated slot but loved klopp would u just stop supporting the team ....what an embarrassing attitude to have ...managers will come and go ....

Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 15, 2026 11:16 pm If a petty hatred for a manager stops you going to a game instead of supporting lads giving up there social lives and time for most of the year that says more about you than the set up

So you would rather loose a thousand supporters than loose ur management? Wow

Snotser123 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 15, 2026 11:16 pm If a petty hatred for a manager stops you going to a game instead of supporting lads giving up there social lives and time for most of the year that says more about you than the set up

I was at the game to support the players.

Managers will come and go.

That’s perfectly fair, I think you’re entitled to think that. I suppose two things can be true, I think yes we were bound to be way weaker without a lot of our main players, but I would love for the management to really have done something with some of the players that were there so that the squad overall would be of better quality when we get everyone back. It really irritates me though how they have managed the squad in terms of game-time.

Last year was largely successful. But a disastrous 2026 will outshine a good 2025. For the next day, I would like to see a combination of Gallagher, N Furlong, Conway or Flynn get game-time ahead of lads who just haven’t performed yet. Who knows how they will do unless they are given a chance.

On a separate issue, petty jibes on this are unnecessary. Just say your opinion, ask a question, no need for stirring. Everyone wants the best for the county.

Anon444 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 15, 2026 11:21 pm That’s perfectly fair, I think you’re entitled to think that. I suppose two things can be true, I think yes we were bound to be way weaker without a lot of our main players, but I would love for the management to really have done something with some of the players that were there so that the squad overall would be of better quality when we get everyone back. It really irritates me though how they have managed the squad in terms of game-time.

Last year was largely successful. But a disastrous 2026 will outshine a good 2025. For the next day, I would like to see a combination of Gallagher, N Furlong, Conway or Flynn get game-time ahead of lads who just haven’t performed yet. Who knows how they will do unless they are given a chance.

On a separate issue, petty jibes on this are unnecessary. Just say your opinion, ask a question, no need for stirring. Everyone wants the best for the county.

If we get relegated (as seems likely) and don’t win the Tailteann Cup, we’ll be back in the exact same spot in 2027 as we were at the beginning of 2023.

We’ll have made the square root of zero progress despite having an All Ireland U20 winning team fully integrated.

I don’t think too many people would’ve accepted that as an outcome when JigJam was ringing out around Croke Park in August 2021.

Very fair points Anonymous. As I said, a disastrous 2026 will outshine a decent 2025, which of course was preceded by a ‘not so good’ year either.

I’m not going to take sides on the management or current squad situation, but let’s pray and hope a miracle happens and all of our injured players are back. What is everyone’s predicted team/matchday panel.

By Laois, you’d pray to see;

1. Dunican
2. McDaid
3. Dempsey
4. Pearson
5. O’Toole Greene/Rory Egan
6. John Furlong
7. Cormac Egan
8. Hayes
9. Leavy/McEvoy/Higgins
10. Hyland
11. Flynn
12. O’Neill
13. Tierney
14. Plunkett
15. Bryant

16. Chip/Melia
17. Conor Dunican
18. O’Toole Greene/Rory Egan
19. Diarmuid Egan
20. Niall Furlong
21. Murphy
22. Leavy/McEvoy/Higgins
23. Johnson
24. Dalton
25. Molloy
26. Poland

To me that’s our strongest panel of current squad members. Instantly that forward line is far more diverse. All capable of scores and quality football. Cathal Flynn is such a huge loss for our creativity. Some of the interplay last year with all the forwards was outstanding.

That bench even has potential match winners.

I’ll be up North myself then next 2 weekends. This is what Division 2 is about. We’ve been stuck in Division 3 for years with a few stints in Division 4. This is only our second stint of Division 2 in the best part of 20 years and our second in the last 5 years.

I’d much rather be playing against seasoned teams than be heading to Waterford and London every year.

Appreciate it while we have it. I spent too much of my life watching Offaly play Longford. Hopefully more of a crowd do appear for the next 4 games before the derby with Laois.

Glass half full as always.

UTF

We are working off a small amount of clubs and a small population playing both codes....the reality is probably life bobbing between div 2 and 3.....when Jim jam was playing in croke park where did u expect to see us in 2027???? Its like our talented group of hurlers it's not as simple as seeing them win an all ireland in 2029 .....you need team after team coming behind them to bulk up the numbers and in both codes we got two freaks of teams and then it was back to the norm ...counties like tipp Clare Galway limerick kk Kerry Dublin Tyrone are in 20s finals every other year so we can't expect to lift Sam or Liam off one generation of players .we have to be realistic as well folks ....

What a highly exciting 15 that is you name and even as still with everyone back at midfield we be exposed at kick out as was proved last year in navan etc. ....totally agree on cathal Flynn ...a really devastating loss ...his speed to break the line ...he really was able to get us up the pitch ...but it's them all really. ...no Hyland or tierney to give it to ....dunican a massive loss he had really settled into the role ....it's not mentioned often but bracken a huge loss , a tough teak solid defender , safe pair of hands every time i seen him. ...furlong of course his intelligence ....