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Snotser123 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2026 11:53 am Did some players not leave over lack of game time ? Because they weren't willing to be part of a squad , even players who were first sub in like roo mc refused to be part of a squad ....is that not true ....correct me if I'm wrong.....please you have brought me up there so correct me if on wrong on that ....not one person in the county was complaining about the forward selection when we were hopping off meath and Kildare this time last year......so yes it's hard build a squad in a small county when your best /first sub walks away because of lack of game time....it's a full commitment so he's dead right to walk away if he wants to but yes it's hard build a quality squad when subs won't stick at it ..and that no dig at them....

RU mc would 100% be in there still if Kelly wasn't there, starting or not, hes a good county man. He left after the year after being mistreated and seeing his brother being axed horribly by Kelly too.
P Cunningham another Offaly man who would 100% be in there if the set up was even half decent.

Lads are seeing it now, there are players there who have downed tools for last 4 or 5 games and still being picked.
And yes there may be lads on the panel who may not be good enough to play Senior for Offaly but with injuries and lads walking away and fall outs, we have who we have.
But lads downing tools is a huge concern, imo these lads woukd feel they will be on the team when we have everyone back.
On Conor Melia, I think given time he will be a good option but had no movement in front of him at times and whilst he was wayward with some kicks, he definitely had a lengthy kick out and can progress.
If Johnson got injured in the warm up them that is squarely on his shoulders and is unfortunate.


The sight of Sawyer coming on at half time…..I’m sorry but no. Niall Furlong no, Rory Egan last few games..no, , same with Marcus Dalton and even David Dempsey has dropped his standards…Jordan sauntered with the ball and had no cutting edge to his game .


There will be no change in mgt but game appears up unless there are a few few lads who have been carried pay the price with injuries returning, we won’t beat Laois.

We can only hope , like with the hurlers…..the group gets together and says”to fuck with these keyboard warriors, we’ll show them!”
Hopefully the bandwagoners will jump back on for the Laois game too.

Anon444 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2026 11:46 pm I think the injuries excuse is irrelevant at this stage, as I don’t feel that the team are playing for the management. Every team has been able to walk through during the league and we have not really grafted a dogged performance at all, bar one half against Cavan. Today, our full back gave away the ball under the stand when Meath got on top in the second half and walked back while they got a score. And it wasn’t just him so I’m not trying to blame him at all for the team performance. But there isn’t really anyone dogging it out, getting into the opposition’s face, how many scores are got against us with zero pressure on? Maybe it’s all speculation and I am completely wrong and if I am, I apologise in advance to all. But that’s the overriding feeling for me and it’s hard for a management team to turn that tide when it goes against you.

On the supporters issue, there’s a disconnect there. Teams travel with decent support when playing us, especially when they sense a bit of a trimming. And I wouldn’t blame supporters, I think if the product was better from our flagship team the support would follow. It was the same with the hurlers in the Christy Ring and it has been this way for a while with our footballers. The only way to draw supporters back in is to show serious fight.

Laois will travel up sensing a win. I hope that there will be decent support, but when another heavy beating is expected if we were to win and play a top 4 team, I’m not sure supporters rush to OCP.

Have to agree with general sentiment of this Anon. Meath the last day at times could just score at their leisure. They had free shots because some of our lads were just not working hard enough to track runners. Is this because we are not good enough / fit enough etc? I don't think so. I think there is a cohort of players there who are just going through motions with things as they do not have a real belief in it themselves. When you get seven defeats in a row and when there is a degree of negativity around the team, this type of thing creeping in is inevitable. Some lads have lost heart and it is hard to blame them. Yea they can spike for periods of games because they have ability but when the group dynamics are in a bad place, then you just don't get the same level of buy in as you might otherwise. Some will have seen how some of their peers - their friends have been treated shoddily. It all feeds in to a negative vibe, resulting in players dropping effort levels in periods of games, and it is hard to escape that type of malaise once it starts.

I have been watching Dempsey play football a long time and I have never seen him drop the head and walk like he did last Sunday after giving ball away. He always gave his all for the county to be fair to him. Maybe that was emblematic of the mood in the camp - which maybe is one of frustration at the moment. Don't forget we have averaged a 9pt defeat across 7 games with a -63 points score difference. We were lucky it was that low as on many days, opposition took foot off the gas with 15 or 20 mins to go with the game over - Cork and Meath as just two examples, Tyrone too. It is hard to be a player in that environment. Don't under-estimate that.

The knowledgeable GAA community in Offaly is a small tight group. The level of negativity that has come out of this camp over last 3 years or so is very disappointing - often through lads who are no longer involved to be fair. I have not heard of such a high level of negativity before to be honest out of group that was considered to be doing fairly ok (we won div 3 last year)- even when we were in Div 4. The supporters have picked up on all of this, and hence the disconnect with supporters clearly voting with their feet. The Cavan attendance was a big statement from the support base. The Offaly supporter generally is a real genuine GAA person. They are generally involved in their clubs in some shape or form and are genuinely interested in Offaly doing well. They are connected to the players or their families and know what is going on. DK had huge support at the outset owing to U20 success. It is amazing to see how far that has turned in such a short space of time. The fall outs with players, with medical staff, with clubs etc leaves a lot to be desired and hence the supporters are not willing to turn up.

I said before that the one job of a management team is to manage things - that means managing people in the right way, not falling out, and just simply having the capacity to bring people with you. You do that by bringing experienced people (coaches and selectors who know more, who have their own opinion and who will challenge you in the right way) who are not divisive with player group and have the best interests of players and team at heart - but also have the know-how to get the best of a group. There were serious misgivings on DK management team on that front after year 1 in 2024 and that full management group were all replaced bar DK for 2025. That was on the back of meetings that were done with the player group after the London debacle. I think DK made a grave error of judgement in year 1 by maybe not adding senior inter county experience to his ticket and trying to do a lot of it himself, as if he was training a club underage team. The science, the coaching levels, the expectations of senior players had moved on significantly from the level at which that first year was pitched. That chastening London game could easily have been the end.

MH coming in gave an obvious boost - and we did well last year in league - but there was still some negative noise going on in the background throughout, that probably only those close to football scene would have been privy to. There is no doubt but that DK was and is well intentioned in relation to getting success for the county. But is / was he misguided about the best way to do that? Had he enough experience in dealing with adult players to be put straight in?

It was mentioned before about stories being carried. In a squad that really believes, I think stories don't get carried near as much. I think you could somewhat equate the level of the stories being carried with the level of harmony and belief of the player group in what is going on. That was shown too in Dempsey's poor attempt to recover from his mistake the last day.

For all that, we still have enough talent to beat Laois. We have lads returning that will give the group a lift - I hope......... Hopefully, the group can turn things around with a good opportunity for the winners. For the players and Offaly's sake, I'd hope that a chunk of the support base returns to support them V Laois in first round.

Let's get behind the lads now. Regardless what's said these boys are working hard to represent there county, also to be fair to dk he has been involved with offaly along time he don't deserve the criticism he gets from us all, me included.yes he's time may be coming to an end but no one can fault the huge efforts put in down through the years. Best wishes to all against laois, any.news on the injury front? Anyone else back for laois?

Would not be Declan Kelly's biggest fan but as has been said , he has put a lot into football in the county and while not everyone will agree with the way he does things, he has got plenty of success down the years both inside and outside the county doing it his way.
There is not going to be any change of management this year regardless of results at this stage, so maybe it is time to lay off on the criticism, and get behind team and management and hope with a few players returning, the team can still get something from the year.
The players who are not involved this year, who have been mentioned numerous times here, are not going to be playing with Offaly this year, so no point in bringing them up constantly. At the end of the year I presume a review will be carried out and if things don't improve I can't see how this management team will stay on next year.

The same conversation is so stupid here.

He got us to Div 2 a great achievement , and we have one of the best managers ever in the game with us also.

What did ye expect to win div 2 with half a team with a full team we would of struggled end of debate thats our level.

Shockingly some people did expect Offaly to do well in div 2 of senior football league without the players who played 1, 3, 6, 11, 12 , 13 , 15 last year....let's support all the lads now who are doing there best for us in football and hurling

There’s a few stories about the man management of players and it’s absolutely shocking I can now understand why lads won’t play for them

Snotser123 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:18 pm Shockingly some people did expect Offaly to do well in div 2 of senior football league without the players who played 1, 3, 6, 11, 12 , 13 , 15 last year....let's support all the lads now who are doing there best for us in football and hurling

Our 13 and 15 were back in the league in case you didn't notice. And for the 10th time, every county has plenty of injuries.

As I mentioned before, Louth. They were only able to name 24 against Kildare, 24!! ... and they still beat Kildare on Sunday. The likes of Craig Lennon, Conor Grimes, Paudraic Tinnelly, Ryan Burns, Donal McKenney all injured. This isn't an excuse any more Snotser so stop using it.
The management need to stop blaming it also and take some ownership of the situation.


If we lose to Laois, I think management should go to have any hope for a Tailteann Cup.

Yes our 15 started one league game and kicked 7 points !!!!!!!!!!! Our 13 also has been sensational since coming back considering his lack of minutes last few months !!

If you think a different management set up would not have started the same forwards that current management did last season I'm not sure what to say.....Tierney, o neill , burke, Bryant, Flynn and hyland were all on fire last year stop rewriting history .....Higgins also came into the wing forward line to help on kick outs and done a great job in some big games....

In both codes we are working off one successful u20 team ....kildare have got to how many finals and players come and go ...they won an all Ireland in 2018 and have not won starter left from it....they should all be in their prime now.....they have clubs with huge playing numbers like naas and sallins absolutely hopping ....athy buzzing ....their is also war going on there as current management got rid of all senior lads for young lads...bottom line if we can't beat laois regardless of Flynn , paddy and furlong still out arguably 3 of of most important players to Offaly football for years it's a failure of management ....no excuses if can't beat laois

Snotser123 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 12:14 pm If you think a different management set up would not have started the same forwards that current management did last season I'm not sure what to say.....Tierney, o neill , burke, Bryant, Flynn and hyland were all on fire last year stop rewriting history .....Higgins also came into the wing forward line to help on kick outs and done a great job in some big games....

Kevin or sorry i mean Snotser give it a rest please. Its well known Declan's management of players is poor. Go back to Anton, A man who has given all to Offaly football receives a 46 second phone call how they are moving forward without him. I think its best you stick to writing on the paper to which then some of your articles have porkies in them.

Me and Durrowboy have had disagreements in the past but i will back him to the hills on this one he's 100% right.

The man management is absolutely horrific lads im after hearing two stories from the last week and it beggars belief why lads would give up their time to voluntarily do that when you are getting treated like dirt it’s 2026 whether we like it or not the game has moved on this iron fist rule doesn’t work anymore you can’t be this dictator and expect lads to play for you then I personally would be against changing management mid season but now I genuinely think we could get a bounce out of an interim manager even it doesn’t sound like a nice environment to be in