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PatSpillane wrote:

townman wrote:just one little thing did we not say all this when Tom Cribbin took over offaly that we need to build for 2 to 3 years
he got his wish but we are still no better off 3 years down the line.

i have a feeling we will be saying the same when Gerry Cooney rides into the sunset

town-man what in the name of god do you no about Gerry Cooney, if you back up your statement with relevant facts and results i listen to you but until then shut your mouth. Your always getting in digs here and there and i'm sick reading your sh*t. Give the team a chance, new management and a team in transition. miracles aren't going to happen,everything takes time. the O'byrne cup is a competition to blood new players into a panel and see if there up to playing inter-county football or not. Kildare are indeed a few years ahead of us but isn't it great to see the level that these players need to get up to if they are to be competitive. You seem to forget that Kildare are one of the best teams in the country and were unlucky not to reach an all-Ireland final in 2010. Your the one that will come onto this site and run down players and management but you will not get out and support them. I was one of the few Offaly supporters who traveled to Newbridge to follow the team and see there progress unlike you,who was probably on this waiting for the result so you could jump straight down there throat. The future is bright for Offaly and i seen the u21 team playing last Friday night against Laois and they were excellent,they gave Laois a lesson on how to play football in the 1st half. with right guidance from management teams, and backing from the county board and more importantly the faithful support out in full force again i feel Offaly will be back where they belong, contesting at the highest level within 3 years. As Einstein said town-man, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. When you understand this quote come back to me.I feel Cooney is the man to drive Offaly forward as well as Pascal Kellaghan with the u21's.I wonder will your opinions change in accordance with the results or will you be at the same sh*t focusing on the negatives. I'm optimistic about the future especially with the young talent coming through.

i didn't think a Kerryman care so much about offaly football, if you go back on what i said i didn't run down gerry cooney my point was the talent might not be in the county
and he will give his best but when his time is up we might not be any better than when he came in.

by the way not scoring in a first half of a game is not on poor form, its 1989 since we won the minor so where is all this young talent coming from love to see your point

whats the best 6 forwards we have? our backs were ok consdiering the pressure they were under but our forwards looked very very poor

Just in relation to the fitness and athleticism differences between kildare and offaly, I made this point earlier in the tread. It is not Cooney's fault. The scary thing is that OY have been in the gym all winter 3 - 4 days a week or some even more!! thats a fact, they are working hard. Here is the copied point from an earlier tread

"lot of hard work needs to be done to build up OY senior football, and needs to be supported by the county board in relation to experienced and professional set ups at minor and 21 level so that fellas are ready for senior when they are 22. Kildare have done serious work with their players at these levels in the last 4/5 years and are therefore properly conditioned when they get to 22. In OY, this is not the case and players only get their first experience of serious training from when they make a senior panel which is too late. Look at the dublin hurlers and the strides they have made recently. That has been preceded by serious work with professional support structures at minor and 21 level, ditto Tyrone football amongst many other examples.

In OY the old boys club dictate who gets the key underage jobs where often players are not improved, leaving the seniors to try and bridge the gaps that other counties are filling at 21 level. Kildare have a squad of 45 approx doing serious work with a second team operating as a development squad and competing in the junior championship. Cork are doing something similar with competition to make the senior squad from junior and 21 panels. This doesnt exist in OY because of a lack of foresight and some penny pinching on the co boards part. Until issues like this are sorted out by the co board, OY football will always stay in the lower echelons as they currently operate with the likes of Carlow Longford, louth and westmeath and wicklow their peers in Leinster with the likes of Wexford and meath a step ahead plus Dubs, and kildare a step ahead again."


So basically we are at nothin if the county board dont show any leadership and start doing things right where it matters at the lower levels that will feed into fellas at 21 years of age being well conditioned for county football. This is the crux of the whole problem!!!