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I've been subtle enough about it up to this, but that's it. Kevin Kilmurray has to leave, and he has to leave now. I shudder to think what will happen in the summer against Westmeath if we continue along these lines.

This Saturday the Irish public were treated to an unusual event, the likes of which has not been seen in this country for a long time. Certainly not since this writer was old enough to take up a newspaper, before scribbling all over it with a mixture of crayons, resulting in a kaleidoscope of colour that fascinated a toddler, even if it infuriated the adults who had yet to ingest their news, that was now in technicolour. This Saturday, the Irish Farmer’s Association said that their members were doing well – or the poultry sector at least, whose sales were holding up well in the light of the Bird Flu scare. Farmers doing well, and saying so – who’d have thought it?

In light of this, it’s fair to say the Irish public have clearly yet to develop a fear of chickens. Well this reporter saw plenty of them last Saturday night, and they were terrifying. These were not of the southern fried snack box variety, your more customary Saturday night chicken feast, but they were metaphorical chickens, and they were coming home to roost in unprecedented numbers.

On Saturday night, we saw the full fruition of our county board’s parting company with Padraig Nolan, Paul O’Kelly and Gerry Fahy in successive seasons, (not to mention a steady stream of hurling managers over the last decade) events which marked out Offaly as the country’s first and foremost managerial graveyard. Many managers have come to our county and left, beaten and chastened individuals, so many that others are naturally apprehensive to follow in their footsteps. As a result we had the players strike, so whoever took over after that particular winter of discontent had to be persevered with irrespective of their performance in order to restore some modicum of faith in our administrators among the GAA’s managerial community. This in itself was in theory a good thing, but it now leaves us in a situation where we have a football management in place that is clearly setting Offaly football back several years, with new milestones appearing on a weekly basis. In spite of this, they are untouchable from the county board’s side. This is why in light of Saturday night’s utter, utter humiliation at the hands of Dublin, the only moral course of action is for that management team to step aside for the good of Offaly football.

That may seem an odd thing to say after a two point defeat away from home to one of the top five or six teams in the country, but in Parnell Park the small band of faithful followers that braved the brisk elements witnessed an all time low in the fortunes of our county footballers, and had Michael Monaghan called a halt to proceedings with five minutes remaining with the score at 1-9 to 0-1 it would have been a much more accurate reflection of how the game had gone. Indeed there have been many games where teams have lost by eleven points and will have been far from disgraced – this was not one of those games.

The common refrain in this situation is that the manager can’t kick the ball over the bar – we’ve been hearing a lot of this now over the past few years. However on Saturday the players couldn’t kick the ball over the bar either, because the tactics employed were so ludicrous as to allow Dublin to completely dominate our scoring forwards, to smother our midfield players and to reduce us to a couple of missed goal chances and a few horrendous wides in the first fifty minutes of football – even had our forwards been on form, we would have still only had four or five scores at most, such was the scant supply, and poor quality of the little they had. Of course many of our players had a bad day at the office, but they were completely shackled by an appalling lack of nous on the sideline and for their morale, which must surely be at an all time low, new voices must be brought on board. Examples of such issues include:

(1) Physically Dublin were on another plane entirely to Offaly. When they took the ball into contact, they had the strength and know how to ride tackles and retain possession. Also if they were running with the ball, it was with purpose and direction. Our players were crowding the middle of the field, taking the ball into heavy traffic, and clearly did not have the conditioning to hold possession in the inevitable scrimmage. Now either our fitness regime is geared towards peaking in the summer, in which case such strong arm tactics were nonsensical, or else our players are not being given the right training to sufficiently increase their upper body strength. That they put in enough time is not in question, so clearly the quality of the training must be.

(2) Jason Sherlock started at centre forward, but dropped deep constantly, serving as Dublin’s playmaker, picking up loose ball and playing it in cleverly into Dublin’s lively corner forwards. His designated marker was Scott Brady, a man who could have contributed heavily to Offaly’s ball winning around midfield if he was allowed follow – equally he could have aided our full back line if he was allowed use his spare man status to drop deep and sweep up in front of Lynam, Casey and Grennan. Instead he was “holding” the centre back position, or in actuality, watching the passes from Sherlock and the Dublin midfield fly over his head. Even if this policy was not an instruction from our sideline, he should have been redirected, but was not, and instead looked lost and uncertain until his withdrawal. That we were unprepared for such a tactic is even more horrifying – Shane Ryan was named at full forward, and it was clear that he was likely to be pulled back to midfield, his preferred role at some stage. That he didn’t was only because he was making such good use of the excellent delivery he received from Sherlock and co.

(3) James Coughlan was recalled for this game, largely on the strength of his good recent form for Athlone IT. As with all corner forwards, form and confidence is everything to him – so why had he spent last weekend umpiring at Doon’s league match instead of playing and keeping up his good form? Management instruction of course. 21 year old footballers don’t need to rest every weekend, they need confidence and practice. If he was carrying an injury, fair enough – but instead it was just another flawed “policy”

(4) Niall McNamee has proved repeatedly that he is not a freetaker, and he is not a half forward. He is a scorer, pure and simple, and needs to be given space and early delivery in front of goal. Yet again last Saturday night he was given two frees that were clearly not suited to him, and the resultant misses in front of a less than sporting Parnell Park end terrace did his confidence no favours. He also spent most of his time dropping deep while Coughlan, Deehan, Kelleghan and Connor all got to spend time in his (McNamee’s) ideal role of inside forward. This is gross mismanagement of one of our finest young talents, and the leadingscorer from play in the Offaly championship for some time.

(5) The return of our captain Karol Slattery was cited all week as one reason why Offaly might do well in this game – instead he was largely ineffective because he was under instruction not to attack, despite being one of the best attacking wing backs in Ireland. As a result one of our threats was blunted, while Declan Lally could attack with freedom since he had little or no defensive responsibility, and he duly cleaned up.

These are just a selection of some of the more glaring errors that were made by our brains trust on Saturday night. 2005 was a poor year for our adult football teams, with our highly rated under 21 team going down badly to better weather management in Tullamore, while our seniors threw away that game against Laois before having the horror show down in Carlow. Some allowance could be made then for inexperience, and for a learning curve – however this year no such allowances can be made, and things appear to be getting much worse. Another U-21 team vanished without a trace, going down in Longford with a directionless vapid performance, assisted by little or no input or adjustment from our sideline until it was too late. Our seniors made a good start to the league against a woeful Cork team, but in truth that was as much down to the dithering and poor attacking play of our opponents as anything fantastic on our part. A typically slow start in Mayo was followed by a fine spell for about twenty minutes, before all fight and morale sapped away in the second half – and now we have the horror show at Parnell Park.

Offaly football needs a good run, and our players need to start believing in themselves – it’s clear that this is not going to happen under the current management. It’s also clear that for our county’s sake we can’t be seen to be dusting off the dagger before putting fresh managerial blood on it. Our current set up has been proven to be tactically bereft, far too slow to address problems that present themselves on the field before it’s too late, and above all, incapable of inspiring and motivating our rudderless panel who are more in need of a messiah and true leadership than ever before. If our management team walk now it will be clear that for all these failings, they will at least have had Offaly football’s best interests at heart. If they don’t, it’s going to be a painful summer, so we should all emigrate now. Bird flu is probably more fun than dining on these unappetising roosting chickens.

This was a hard one to swallow. I drove up from Galway half expecting a Good "Offaly" day out but I don't think it could have being worse.

Bottom line Kilmurray and crew will not leave, and the county board have an agreement with the players after the last strike to hold onto managers for at least two years. Where will this leave us?

We are going to the stick from outsiders and the press for this performance, and that is when Offaly gaels support each other because to many will be eager to do the opposite.

I have sometimes read on this site people knocking Ciaran McManus but he was the only one last night who could walk away with his pride intact.

it was a disgraceful performance. kilmurray should walk away after that. the players showed no pride or passion. i was very dissapointed walking out of parnell park on saturday night.

BOG OAK wrote:Bottom line Kilmurray and crew will not leave, and the county board have an agreement with the players after the last strike to hold onto managers for at least two years. Where will this leave us?

That's the whole point of it - he is untouchable, from our point of view he can only walk, he can't be fired. Hence the near begging that he do so.

Quite frankly where it will leave us if he stays is down among the bottom 6 or 7 teams in the country, with our best players demoralised and disillusioned with no hope for anything until a fresh generation comes along. Hence the urgency.

BOG OAK wrote: I have sometimes read on this site people knocking Ciaran McManus but he was the only one last night who could walk away with his pride intact.

I wouldn't say he was the only one, nor would I say he comes in for a lot of "undue" criticism. It's because he can play like that that he disappoints so much when he has a bad day. On the otherhand you'll never see someone criticise Neville or Karol - because generally they do what they do, and they do it without fail. Neither of them can reach the heights Mac can, but neither do they have those horror show days either. Rightly or wrongly Mac gets judged on another plane, and hence sometimes what is really frustration gets perceived as criticism.

It's for him I feel worst in all this - he deserves better, he deserves more medals more so than any player in Ireland - people talked for ages about Canavan deserving a Celtic Cross, well if that is true then certainly the same can be said of Mac - and this eejit we have in charge is making sure that will never happen now or for five years after he leaves.

If I remember correctly, Lone Shark was of the same frame of mind as myself when the championship draw was announced. Another crack at Westmeath and an opportunity to gain revenge...
Now I'm dreading the thoughts of another derby defeat in the summer.
And on the basis of what I witnessed in Parnell Park, unless the relevant people get a grip, Offaly will have slipped back to the standard of the pre-Tommy Lyons era in a couple of years' time.
Point no. 1: In a bid to stay sane, I'm retaining in my memory the first half goal chances, the couple of frees we squandered and an unlucky miss by Karol Slattery as evidence that Offaly did not deserve that first-half humiliation.
Point no. 2: In contrast, speaking for the motion that 'Kilmurray Must Go', we must remember that Dublin balooned a huge amount of wides on Saturday night and even when they weren't scoring in the second half, we made no impact until the flucky goal and 'Piller' Caffrey introduced substitutes.
Question no. 1: I touched on this after the under 21 debacle - when playing the 'blame game', is it appropriate to single out just the management, or do some of the players lack the necessary fighting spirit, or do we include - as I think we must - all those who had a hand in making Gerry Fahy feel so unwelcome after only one year in charge?
That must now be recognised as a catastrophic decision.
Point no. 3: I'll guess that the players have no faith in the management and that's hardly likely to change as the amount of tactical errors between last year and this year continue to mount. At least under Fahy, Offaly turned on the style in 2004 twice against Kildare, but now there doesn't seem to be any sensible game plan.
I think Lone Shark made a point about Scott Brady v Jason Sherlock. In my opinion, Brady had no option but to stay put because he wouldn't have had the pace to stick with Sherlock when he roamed out the field and would have ended up in no man's land. We needed a switch there after about ten minutes. I know options were limited, but maybe Barry Mooney at centre back was worth a try, or Karol Slattery considering his pace might have led to a few interceptions.
But there's no point getting rid of the management, like we did to Babs in '98 because the changes of a turn-around in fortunes would be very remote. The mistakes have been made and they can't be rectified.
It's sad that Offaly have so many players on the panel lacking physical strength, but there's not much the management can do about that. I've been studying underage football for quite a while and knew that once Jimmy Grennan departed, we would struggle desperately at midfield.
It was the same story in the second half against Mayo. Now all the top managers will know they can run through Offaly as they please so it could get worse before it gets better.
By the way, Jimmy Grennan is at least as fit as he was last year. I'd call to him with an Offaly jersey and I'd get down on my knees to get Cathal Daly back and I'd send Conor Evans a first-class ticket to come home from Australia. There's a crisis coming and we need all hands on deck.
Point no. 4: Free-taking played a significant part in our championship defeats to Westmeath and Laois in the last two years. Niall McNamee is not a consistent free-taker and either he gets specialised coaching or someone else must take over.
Question no. 2: As much as I admire Niall McNamee, and I genuinely do, I wonder will he ever do for Offaly what Dessie Dolan has done for Westmeath or Mattie Forde for Wexford?
Question no. 3: Who out there thinks James Coughlan has a lot to offer Offaly football?
I certainly do, though I appreciate there's mixed opinion on him at present. I'll never forget his club form from a few years ago and he played great when introduced against Westmeath in 2004. Now I wouldn't be surprised if he departed again. OK, he missed two goals but he's obviously lacking sharpness and more time on the pitch could change that, or am I being optimistic? All up-and-coming players need to be on the panel every year to reach their potential. I know Ger Rafferty had his ups and downs when he was on the team, but maybe if he stayed put since 2001 he would be a regular now in defence. That's just one example that springs to mind.
By the way, Barry Mooney suffered a dislocated shoulder so even if Shane Sullivan and James Keane return, our defensive options are thin on the ground. I hope the next few weeks don't turn out to be as bad as I think they will.

seamroga wrote: Question no. 1: I touched on this after the under 21 debacle - when playing the 'blame game', is it appropriate to single out just the management, or do some of the players lack the necessary fighting spirit, or do we include - as I think we must - all those who had a hand in making Gerry Fahy feel so unwelcome after only one year in charge?
That must now be recognised as a catastrophic decision.

Funnily enough, while I firmly believe that Gerry Fahy should have been kept, I think the real damage was done when Paul O'Kelly was let go. He struck me as a knowledgeable, intelligent individual who had a clear game plan every time he went out on the pitch. He generally reacted to how things were going, and he certainly was good for developing younger players. Bearing in mind how we should have beaten Laois (should have in the bad call by the referee sense rather than threw it away like last year) and would have beaten Roscommon but for Frankie having a freak day, I think he was really hard done by. But since that was done, Fahy should have been kept too.

seamroga wrote: Point no. 3: I'll guess that the players have no faith in the management and that's hardly likely to change as the amount of tactical errors between last year and this year continue to mount. At least under Fahy, Offaly turned on the style in 2004 twice against Kildare, but now there doesn't seem to be any sensible game plan.
I think Lone Shark made a point about Scott Brady v Jason Sherlock. In my opinion, Brady had no option but to stay put because he wouldn't have had the pace to stick with Sherlock when he roamed out the field and would have ended up in no man's land. We needed a switch there after about ten minutes. I know options were limited, but maybe Barry Mooney at centre back was worth a try, or Karol Slattery considering his pace might have led to a few interceptions.

Cetainly the first point is very valid - the players have no faith in the current management, and the plan seems to be more hare-brained every week. We started the year playing a blanket defence system - it wasn't pretty, but at least it was a plan. The same goes for the Scott Brady thing - maybe he shouldn't have followed him out the field, maybe Slatts, or Mooney should have followed him. Coughlan would have been my choice, but anything would have done. Maybe Brady could have dropped deeper and helped his ful back line more. The point is not that they don't have all the answers, it's that they don't even try to change anything - Brady was just left there, and Sherlock was left to run riot, with no apparent counter plan.

seamroga wrote: But there's no point getting rid of the management, like we did to Babs in '98 because the changes of a turn-around in fortunes would be very remote. The mistakes have been made and they can't be rectified.

Of course there is - if only to motivate the players, to give them some hope and to put a bit of forward momentum into matters. The 1998 case is the perfect example why we should. I'm not saying there is an All Ireland in this team, but there's a lot more than we saw on Saturday night. In saying that, it goes back to the fact that Kilmurray has to walk - we can't fire him - but if he did, I'd be right back fancying us to beat Westmeath again.

seamroga wrote: It's sad that Offaly have so many players on the panel lacking physical strength, but there's not much the management can do about that. I've been studying underage football for quite a while and knew that once Jimmy Grennan departed, we would struggle desperately at midfield.
It was the same story in the second half against Mayo. Now all the top managers will know they can run through Offaly as they please so it could get worse before it gets better.

Perhaps we're not endowed with powerful muscular Armagh style footballers - but then neither are Leix. Yet we play a gamestyle that demands that very attribute - this is the problem. It's only natural that a small county will be deficient in certain areas - but you have to play to your strengths. At the moment we could field a good few inside forwards who are sharp, quick and dangerous, but need quick ball and space. We have no powerful midfielders who can burst at pace, or dominate with a display of high fielding. Yet we crowd these forwards, and run as if our team was made up of six Dara Ó'Sé's. Back to management again. Teams can't run through us if you pack your team with pacy guys who rather than tackling rugby league style, just have the legs to keep up and make their guy play the ball under pressure - witness Chop Grennan at corner back - he gets by on this alone.

As for it can't be fixed, of course it can, it's just not being done. The under 21's have now been broken up - but of course if we were really interested in addressing this issue, we'd have specialised power coaches working with a "development" squad of forty players, monitoring their physical development and building their upper body strength scientifically. Rather than wasting their time wearing numbers 25-30 on the senior panel, lads like Tommy Coughlan, Trevor Phelan, David Egan, Shane Dooley, Aidan Keenaghan, James Rafferty, Richie Dalton, Diarmuid O'Donoghue, should all be spending two sessions a week doing this stuff, and preparing to provide the county selectors with real power options in 2007 and 2008.

seamroga wrote: By the way, Jimmy Grennan is at least as fit as he was last year. I'd call to him with an Offaly jersey and I'd get down on my knees to get Cathal Daly back and I'd send Conor Evans a first-class ticket to come home from Australia. There's a crisis coming and we need all hands on deck.

Couldn't disagree more - that sends the message that the panel we have now is inadequate. While I would love to see Conor Evans wearing 3 for the championship, he's not there, and giving Sean Casey a start is probably no harm in the long run. However he and others need proper guidance, a workable game plan suited to protecting them and playing to their strengths, and a real vision as to how scores are going to be prevented at one end and created at the other. We have none of these things.

seamroga wrote: Point no. 4: Free-taking played a significant part in our championship defeats to Westmeath and Laois in the last two years. Niall McNamee is not a consistent free-taker and either he gets specialised coaching or someone else must take over.

No doubt about this. Giving frees to someone who doesn't want them is lunacy. Basically a good free taker is worth carrying, despite what anyone says. Equally, we all hear of how Charlie Redmond spend hours just practicing frees, and Mossy Quinn does the same now - who on our panel is doing that? Better yet, who has been ASKED to do that? Deehan seems to be happy taking the frees - let him, just train him to. Maybe McManus could be cultivated into a more accurate close in free taker, seeing as he is playing with a lot more maturity since the Laois game last year. Maybe Padraig Kelly is the answer - you know he trains with placed balls. Again, let's think outside the box instead of falling back on just give it to the scoring corner forward. It's like McDonnell for Armagh - great footballer, fantastic finisher, outstanding corner forward - cack free taker.

And where does the flaw lie again - management .....

seamroga wrote: Question no. 2: As much as I admire Niall McNamee, and I genuinely do, I wonder will he ever do for Offaly what Dessie Dolan has done for Westmeath or Mattie Forde for Wexford?

Unequivocally, if given the same opportunity as them - yes. Has Mattie Forde ever played anywhere other than 15 for Wexford? No. Has Dessie ever left the full forward line for Westmeath? No. Has Niall ever been asked to play the role of forager around the half forward line for us? Yes. It's bloody lunacy, and I'm sick of it. We have a player here who is unstoppable in our county championship, and has been for the last three years. Rhode have enough sense to build their game around him as an inside forward - so should we. The nadir was watching him trying to track Caoimhin King last year in Tullamore.

Stop playing him in stupid positions - we don't play McManus at corner back, why is it okay to put Niall in a wrong position? And most of all, stop giving him frees - he is an instinctive scorer, this we've seen for ages - give him time to think about things and it all goes horribly wrong. He should not be let near a free kick again, and just let him do what he does best. (I'm actually getting angry now even thinking about this!!)

seamroga wrote: Question no. 3: Who out there thinks James Coughlan has a lot to offer Offaly football?
I certainly do, though I appreciate there's mixed opinion on him at present. I'll never forget his club form from a few years ago and he played great when introduced against Westmeath in 2004. Now I wouldn't be surprised if he departed again. OK, he missed two goals but he's obviously lacking sharpness and more time on the pitch could change that, or am I being optimistic?

I think he has the potential to, but I'm worried, frankly. He needs form, games, and self belief. That lad can kick points from ridiculous places once he believes in himself - as he did in 2004. Last year he suffered serious personal trauma, and was given a series of fifteen minute cameos. His confidence is low, so I think he should be allowed stay on the panl if he wants, but basically kept in cold storage for the year, and let Vinny spend a lot of time with him in Doon. Making him sit out Doon games like happened last weekend is appalling, and is clearly not a policy with the Paw in mind. If he kicked five or six points in that game he would have been looking forward to this game, instead look what happened. He needs to get back to scoring freely, and once he does that, he'll be chomping at the bit to come back.

Honest answer I don't know if that will happen though.

seamroga wrote: All up-and-coming players need to be on the panel every year to reach their potential. I know Ger Rafferty had his ups and downs when he was on the team, but maybe if he stayed put since 2001 he would be a regular now in defence. That's just one example that springs to mind.

Again, I'm not having it. Being on the panel for the sake of being on the panel is not a good thing. I do think that a development panel, with the long term future in mind would be positive all right, but when being on the county panel means missing club football and draining self confidence away, I don't think it's a one size fits all solution - re the Coughlan point above. Certainly it's not like our current vintage are being exposed to tactical nous and insight of the highest level. I think Rafferty may have got a raw deal, but that's a reflection of our tendency to try out new players in spring and then ditch them for the old reliables in April - another reason why calling for Grennan and Daly to return would do more harm than good. These players need to be allowed play their way off the team once they get on it. On the other hand, Rafferty left the panel himself, so I'm not sure if this case really applies to him.

I think we just need to avoid the current two outcome system - you're either on the panel, or in the wilderness. Some kind of middle ground would be enough to remind players that they are part of the loop.

seamroga wrote: By the way, Barry Mooney suffered a dislocated shoulder so even if Shane Sullivan and James Keane return, our defensive options are thin on the ground. I hope the next few weeks don't turn out to be as bad as I think they will.

They will probably be worse. The funny thing is that the Dublin game has now afforded management the opportunity to shake things up and try a few things in games that we'd be expected to lose heavily in anyway. The problem is that it won't be taken up - we'll have a few changes, but mostly players will be shuffled around with no real surprise or impact replacements.

The analysis is well covered above. My only comment is to ask that someone who has some influence with Kevin Kilmurray try and get across to him the need to do the right thing and concede that it just hasn't worked out. While all the focus here is on Kilmurray, surely the rest of his management team must carry a share of the load too.

If we hadn't sacked a load of managers over the last few years i'd be in favour of changing managers mid season.
don't forget if kilmurray was sacked now, on this year's evidence it would look poor.

the o'byrne cup, especially the destruction of leix was good, apart from the final of course.
the defeat of cork was good.

the mayo defeat was expected and you have the under-21 defeat and the humiliation the other night as two major negatives to cancel out the above.

I know we can't sack him - but that doesn't change the fact that we'd be better off if he was gone.

I wouldn't say the O'Byrne Cup was "good". We beat a cobbled together KK team, scraped past Louth and had one good day against Leix, a day when Laois played doddery football, and clearly weren't fit. Then Meath hammered the bejaysus out of us.

Equally, we weren't good against Cork - Cork were just shockingly bad. They went behind, flooded forward in numbers to try andscore, and left our forwards in space - and we still only scored 12 points.

You're right - the Mayo defeat was expected - but losing by 8 points scoring only two in the second half was not. And when you add in a humiliating display like Saturday night, it shows that we are being completely destroyed by our lack of any sideline skills. He must leave.

He won't I fear, but if we're to avoid a catastrophic summer, he must leave.

Can't see him going to be honest, even if it probably would be the best thing to do. I really can't fathom why Sherlock wasn't man marked when it was clearly obvious that he had adopted a roaming roll, the number of times that he was in acres of space to set up yet another attack was ridiculous.

I can only hope that a defeat like this will somehow bond the team together more. I also find it incredible that it took so long to put Colm Quinn on, we were crying out for a bit of leadership and experience in the forwards right from the start.

I was always worried that our blanket defence tactics would be found out once other teams got up to speed a bit more.

Despite the shocking performance I think that credit should be given to Neville Coughlan, McManus and Karol Slatter, they kept on working even when the chips were down.

The prospect of taking Tyrone on next week and Kerry the week after and needing a win is not something to look forward to anymore.

Hard to know where to start.
It was embarrassing stuff. Surreal. At one stage I wondered if we were going to score at all.
In Parnell Park of all places where Offaly were laughed at and jeered by the Dubs for 65 minutes.
At least in the bad old Division 4 days, you knew the expectation was lower and that we would eventually start to climb back up the ladder.

No point in going the wrongs of the game.

Can we put this defeat behind us and recover, or is this year a write-off?
Unfortunately our next game is against Tyrone. If there is a backlash in us, I think we are still up against a team that's too good.

Maybe in May everything will fall right?
The white heat of championship. The sight of those maroon clad twits and their baying brigade of oafish supporters. It's all on the day.
I remember in May 2000 we got tanked 17 points to 4 by Mayo in a challenge.
The players and management had a serious talking to themselves and resolved to put things right.
Two weeks later we beat the reigning All Ireland champions Meath in the in the championship first round.
Am I being too optimistic?

Ah lads, someone has to stand up for Kilmurray, so I suppose as a fellow Daingean man, I'll offer my services.

Now, I used to be a good Debater in the past, and often found it easier to argue against my own personal viewpoint. So what positives has KK brought to the Offaly Football regime? Eh ..... em ....... um ......

I'll come back to that one. Let's try to find another scapegoat then to deflect attention. The County Board; they're always an easy target. Well, they fired the last two guys and hired KK so that's saying something.

Ah feck this! That was painful stuff on Saturday. Unforgiveable. However, I can only say that there is little point in pursuing yet another change-of-management (either by choice or deed) unless there is a viable alternative that carries a reasonable expectation of improvement. Is that alternative known at this point?

The other point I fear now is regarding our much-loved Ciaran McManus. I fear now that he has used up his goal quota for the year. Cracking second strike there from the Big Man. I choose to remember that moment from this game. The rest .... I hypnotise myself to forget.

I don't think that Kevin Kilmurray will step down before Offaly exit the championship. Saturday night was embarrassing and the U-21's loss to Longford was equally disheartening but I can't see him going.

To be fair to Kilmurray he has changed tactics from last year with some limited success. The blanket defence is probably the only way for Offaly to go in Leinster this year. I'd say we should go more in that Ulster type direction rather than less. It would help if we could get the ball forward as quickly as Armagh or Tyrone when we win it but sometimes our forwards go through phases where they don't win any ball and it comes out as quickly as it goes in.

That said the manager has to take the blame for a dreadful lack of tactical adjustment during games. The Dubs tactic of positioning a free player (usually Jayo) on the 45 at the sideline to be a target for a footpass to take the ball out of defence was so obvious that I can't believe we didn't detail somebody to cut off the option. Jayo just gave it infield to a running half-back or midfielder who punted it in early to a corner forward and we were in trouble straight away. Our game only works if we can stop quick transfer down the field and we were wide open on Saturday night.

How can he persist with Niall McNamee as a free-taker? Saturday night he was taking them from his hands with a total lack of conviction. It's not fair to him or the team. There's nothing more dispiriting than missing an easy free. Tommo or Shaper or Colm Quinn, basically anybody but Niall Mac. I have great admiration and respect for Niall Mac Namee and it's painful to watch him in this situation. Also I totally agree with Lone Shark that he is ineffective when too far out from goal.

Also we need to coach the forwards into a pattern that gives the backs and midfielders something to aim at. When Armagh get to midfield with the ball we all know that there'll be a diagonal ball crossfield angled in front of the two inside forwards (Clarke and McDonnell) coming out with no half forwards cluttering up the area. We don't seem to be able to create space inside at all except occasionally for Tomas Deehan. At the moment none of the other forwards seem to have the pace to beat an inter-county full back out to a low ball. My preference would be to leave Niall Mac Namee closest to goal in a two-man full forward line with Tommo running into the corners for the ball.

Having said all that there is a collective lack of nloss of nerve and confidence in the team at times and the management can't take all the blame for that.

It's hard to put all the blame on individuals. We just lack leaders at the moment.

A couple of years ago, Finbar Cullen or the likes probably would have burst up the field and stuck over the first point if it hadn't arrived in the first 15 minutes.
We just don't have enough players who would take control of a developing crisis.
We have McManus and a couple of others, but most of the team seemed to wilt when things started to go wrong. Every mistake caused the collective confidence to sag. We walked into trouble, our passing was flat, movement was poor, the marking slack.

I saw the highlights and Kilmurray looked fairly shaken watching it and on an individual level you have to feel sorry for him. We sowed the seeds of this with our neglect of underage development.
A culture of back-slapping and self-congratulaion infected our county board after so many good times. The drive for excellence and success faded.

If you were on 50k plus would you walk?