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Just finished jealously watching Louth doin a job on Kildare, Sligo having already turned over Mayo. What struck me about both wins was that it was clear that both Sligo and Louth believed they were going to win. They didn't hope for the best, or think they had a chance, they believed it. Even when Kildare came back at them second half, Louth just went up and pulled away again, when most underdogs would fall apart. 1-22 is a savage score.
I'd say before today Offaly would have been happy with a draw against either Louth or Sligo in the qualifiers but unfortunately the days when teams are cowed by our reputation are long gone. We seem to half believe in the hype about the opposition these days instead of having that good oul bit of ignorant self belief that you need to get anywhere. There's no way that there isn't the same quality of player in Offaly as either Sligo or Louth, if not better. But that confidence hasn't been there for too long now.
We need to fix the problem between the ears as well as everything else.

Any ideas how? Hypnosis?

agreed

Just watched the louth kildae game on rte player. It was indeed a joy to watch the passion and belief displayed by louth. But...... when you say that Offaly have as good a set of players as Louth I wounder. Every Louth forward scored and then they had White, a superb plac kicker and judge from the left. The wily old fox in jp rooney. What made me feel sad more than anything was the passion and childish excitement in peter fitzpatricks voice in his after match interview, Compare that to we get from Offaly teams these days. I think it is fair to say that football ability is not the biggest issue in offaly football.

the bare biffo wrote: I think it is fair to say that football ability is not the biggest issue in offaly football.

I think this would be perfectly fair to say. To compound issues one or two of Offaly's better players won't play.

Great respect for Louth. They could have folded a few times as Kildare pegged them back but they kept driving on.