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Our minor footballers are out this saturday against meath in navan. Anybody have any idea how they're shaping up or an idea of a starting 15?

Decent prospects. With Edenderry (Hard luck) and Moate doing well in the schools competitions, there is good cause for optimism. Admittedly, these schools are drawing from more than one county and Kildare have Cribben from the Edenderry team. Still, Minor is alaways about getting on a roll in the earlly stages, nerves can be big for minors but if they won the first one then who knows.

On paper should be one of the best teams in Leinster .With the majourity of last yers panilists and with reat tallent to be brought into this years squad they have the potential to win leinster at least.Goin by last years minor club and county games my first 15 would look somthing like this. The manager will have the luxery to pick and choose.
1 Shane Nally ferbane/belmount
2 Daniel malonney Edenderry
3Micheal Brazil Tullamore
4derek kelly edenderry
5Johnny Mcgrath St.Vincents
6 mark young Edenderry
7 Jake kavnagh rhode
8 ghram gullfoile clara
9 noel ghram st.vincents
10Stuart Cullan edenderry
11Richard Dunne ballycumber/tubber
12Jonathon duffy ferbane/belmount
13bernard Allen Ballycumber/tuber
14Anton sullivan rhode (c)
15Brian hogan tullamore
other main players. Robbie knight gracefeild,jonathon dunnigan Ferbane/belmount,robert levy rhode,paddy farrely tullamore,john ledwith clara,garreth macnamee rhode,john crumbie na/fianna ,Tomas buldger Birr

I see that Kerry have 5 of the Colaiste na Sceilige players on the starting 15, how many of the Edenderry school team will be on the Offaly starting 15?, this could bode well for Offaly in Leinster at least.

Taken from offaly.gaa.ie

The following is the Offaly minor football team selected to play Meath in the Leinster Minor Football Championship in Navan on Saturday, 18th April 2009. (Throw-in 7pm.)

This game is a repeat of last year’s Leinster Minor Football Championship final, which Offaly agonisingly lost by a point. Several of last year’s panel are still eligible for this season’s campaign.

1. Shane Nally, Ferbane/ Belmont (captain).

2. Paddy Kelly, Shamrocks

3. Derek Kelly, Edenderry

4. Darren Coughlan, Clara

5. Brian Hogan, Tullamore

6. John Ledwith, Clara

7. John Egan, Ballycumber/ Tubber

8. Noel A. Graham,, St Vincent’s

9. Graham Guilfoyle, Clara

10. Michael Brazil, Tullamore

11. John Crombie, Na Fianna

12. Richard Dunne, Ballycumber/ Tubber

13. Bernard Allen, Ballycumber/ Tubber

14. Anton Sullivan, Rhode

15. Jonathan Duffy, Ferbane/ Belmont

The rest of the panel (in alphabethical order) is as follows:

Thomas Bolger, Birr

Jonathan Dunican, Ferbane/ Belmont

Philip Farrell, Edenderry

John Flattery, Clara

Donal Hickey, Rhode

Mark Hughes, Ballinamere/ Durrow

Jake Kavanagh, Rhode

Colm Kilmurray, St Vincent’s

Robbie Leavy, Rhode

Gareth McNamee, Rhode

Eoin Rigney, Rhode

Darren Scanlon, Clara

Gavin Sheil, Na Fianna

Mark Young, Edenderry

Management

Declan McGovern (manager), Joe Bracken, Declan Farrell, Tom Spain.

Offaly suffer extra-time defeat in Leinster Minor Championship opener against Meath

Extra-time defeat for Offaly

DECLAN McGovern's Offaly side were within seconds of knocking defending champions Meath out of the Leinster Minor Football Championship after a remarkable second-half comeback.
Meath 0-18
Offaly 1-11

Offaly trailed by six points in the second-half but a great run of 1-4 unanswered put them into the lead as the game ticked into injury-time.

However victory was snatched from their grasp when a late point from Meath's Harrison Silke drew the sides level.

The home side were the stronger in the added 20 minutes and went on to claim victory by four points.

Offaly are not out of the championship despite the defeat. They now go on to face Longford next weekend. Longford lost a high scoring game against Laois by 3-10 to 1-13

I presume this match is away, as we traditionally play all our underage matches away??!

I presume this match is away, as we traditionally play all our underage matches away??!

In fairness, you aren't going out on a limb there!

Leinster MFC: Resilient Meath have that bit extra
20 April 2009

After staring defeat in the eye in normal time Meath regrouped for extra time to open the defence of their ESB Leinster MFC crown with a thrilling win over Offaly at Pairc Tailteann on Saturday night.

Meath 0-18
Offaly 1-11 after extra time

Pat Coyle charges looked to be cashing in their title they fell into arrears for the only time when impressive midfielder Graham Guilfoyle pointed Offaly in front with the hour almost elapsed.

Then in the third minute of stoppage time the outstanding Harrison Silke pointed from the right wing at the town end to level matters at 0-11 to 1-8. The Na Fianna clubman was Meath's outstanding performer pointing six times from play

Revived by the reprieve, Meath tagged on three points within seven minutes of the start of extra time with Damien Carroll (free), substitute Padraig McKeever and Emmet Boyle registering and it was 0-14 to 1-9 after 70 minutes.

Within 13 seconds of the commencement of the second period of extra time Ailbhe Mahon extended Meath's advantage with assistance from Carroll.

Points from replacements Robbie Leavy and Darren Scanlon (free) cut the deficit to the minimum but Meath's superior fitness saw them seal the deal with Bryan Menton, Carroll (free) and Shane Gillespie closing the scoring.

At the other end Conor McHugh saved brilliantly from Crombie just before Gillespie's insurance score.

Meath faced the sun but had the advantage of the breeze in the opening half and opened with points from Silke (who might have goaled) and Tolan.

Noel A. Graham and Guifoyle gave the Faithful County side a firm foothold at midfield but Offaly were let down by some poor marksmanship, registering five wides in the opening quarter and by half-time had posted eight.

Meath were marginally more economical and by half-time led by 0-6 to 0-2. Within six minutes of the restart the home side were six points to the good. Silke setting Liam Tolan up before pointing himself.

By the 41st minute the gap was down to two points with substitute Mark Young goaling after bursting unhindered through the Meath defence before Anton Sullivan pointed.

When Conor Devereux pointed it was 0-10 to 1-4 after 51 minutes and Meath looked to have weathered the Offaly storm. But points from Bernard Allen and Sullivan cut the deficit to the minimum by the 56th minute.

Then on receipt of his second yellow card - for a foul on Sullivan - Meath full-back and captain Ciaran Lenehan was dismissed and from the resulting free Allen placed Michael Brazil for the levelling score.

Offaly's numerical advantage was short-lived as Sullivan was red-carded but Guillfoyle looked to have earned them the verdict when fisting over after cutting in from the stand side at the hospital end.

Then came Silke sixth point from play to force extra time. The Na Fianna player was hampered by cramp for the remainder and was replaced before the end of extra time.

Meath look forward to a home quarter-final meeting with Westmeath on May 23 while Offaly are away to Longford in the second chance saloon next Saturday.

Meath - C. McHugh; K. Mallon, C. Lenehan, D. Coyle; G. Kennedy, B. Menton (0-1), M. McCormack; D. Carroll (0-2 fs), A. Mahon (0-1); E. Boyle (0-1), M. O'Sullivan; C. Devereux (0-1); L. Tolan (0-3), H. Silke (0-6), S. Tobin (0-1 f). Subs - P. McKeever (0-1) for O'Sullivan, S. Gillespie (0-1) for Tobin (both 44), S. Kavanagh for Mahon (55), T. Rahill for Lenehan (et), D. Larkin for Kavanagh (70), O'Sullivan for Silke (73).

Offaly - Offaly - S. Nally; P. Kelly, D. Kelly, D. Coughlan; B. Hogan, J. Ledwith, J. Egan; N. Graham, G. Guilfoyle (0-2); M. Brazil (0-1), J. Crombie, R. Dunne; B.. Allen (0-2, 1f), A. Sullivan (0-2), J. Duffy. Subs - D. Scanlon (0-2 fs) for Crombie (30), M. Young (1-1) for Kelly (33), R. Leavy (0-1) for Duffy (49), Crombie for Sullivan (et), J. Kavanagh for Egan (68), J. Dunican for Allen (78).

Referee - P. Kneel (Louth).

good win over longford couldnt get to it ,anyone at it to give us a rundown .

Kemo Sabe wrote:good win over longford couldnt get to it ,anyone at it to give us a rundown .

Black and Red Exile spent 2 hours writing a match report only for it to get eaten by gremlins!

Very impressive performance yesterday from our minors and a huge improvement on the Meath game last week. Against a strong breeze Offaly led 2.5 to 0.3 at half time and kept the scoreboard ticking over nicely in the second half, rounded off nicely with 2 goals in the last 10 minutes from Graham Guilfoyle and Anton Sullivan to cap off a proffessional and mature performance which should give us a nice springboard to do well and go for a Leinster title at least. Declan McGovern obviously did some serious work with these guys at training during the week as the support play and urgency that was missing for long periods in Navan last week were very much evident yesterday. Offaly now play Louth in Tullamore on Saturday week May 9th in the quarter final before a six week break for the leaving cert.
Offaly scorers yesterday were ANTON SULLIVAN 3.1
DARREN SCANLON 0.4 [ 2 FREES ]
MARK YOUNG, RICHARD DUNNE AND BERNARD ALLEN 0.2 EACH
BRIAN HOGAN 0.1
GRAHAM GUILFOYLE 1.0
Every player from 1 to 15 put in a good hour's shift. players to stand out were Anton Sullivan who hit 3.1 from play and followed closely by the midfield pairing of Noel A Graham and Graham Guilfoyle who dominated from start to finish, 5 of the 6 starting forwards got on the scoresheet with the exception being full forward John Crombie who nevertheless linked up very well with the rest of the forwards and was involved in most of the moves that led to scores, he was replaced late in the game by Ferbane/Belmont's Jonathan Duffy when the game was well won.
NOTE, One thing that bugged the hell out of me yesterday was the 10 euro admission charge to get into Pearse Park when it was only a fiver in Navan last week in what was essentially a first round match, the GAA are going to have to cop themselves on if they want to attract supporters to games for the Summer and stop screwing people.

My apologies for the mickey mouse report guys, as BNM stated I spent 2 and a quarter hours on Saturday night doing a very detailed report on this game but somehow cocked up and lost it, I didn't have the heart to do another 2 and a quarter hours so my apologies again.

Unfortunately/fortunately whatever way you like to look at it; the game against Louth is not a quarter final. The winners of this game will play the winners of Wicklow and Wexford at home in the Q/F on the 23 May... there you go

I thought Wicklow played Carlow next and we played the winner of those?

The Leinster website appears to suggest that, with Wexford playing Kildare next.

Funnily enough, the backdoor seems to be the place to be for this championship. Many of the teams that lost lost very badly, meaning that it could be the easiest route to the semi final, while if we do win out next two games, both at home, then we get another home match for the semi final - against the winners of Dublin and Laois. Bearing in mind that this Meath team is very decent and it always helps to get more games to find out your best team, I'd be guessing that we're not in a terribly bad position right now.

Wicklow beat Carlow 2.12 to 1.8 on Saturday and thus progress to play Kilkenny (if they field). Sorry writ in Wexford instead of Kilkenny above!