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Well, what are our chances against our friends from Iarmhi. We should beat them, especially with no Dessie but can Offaly be trusted to show their best form on Sunday. Will McManus be like a mad bull and play like one. Will Kilmurry make the right moves etc from the line, I mean from the stand. Maybe he should stay their. What team will be picked. Is his so called best 15 the best 15 in the county. For the last 10 years we have been regarded at the unlucky team in Leinster now is the time and its starts this Sunday to show that we're not too far behind the so called best in Leinster. I feel that if this team got any sort of a run in championship football it could be the makings of this team.

Yes I think we've enough to win this game. Mc would be a big loss though and as I said in the other thread I wouldn't be surprised if he played regardless of injury. (Or maybe they'll start him to see how he goes, easlier to take off an injured player than put him on). Whether he'll be fit enough to play at his best is another thing.

Offaly's div 1 games should stand to them and it was encouraging to see that in the league we battled right to the end of all the games. That quality will be required on Sunday.

If players like Niall Mc, Karol Slattery and Scott Brady are on their game and we can take our frees etc. we will be hard to stop.

Like you say if we win this game it could be the catalyst that this team needs. There's nothing like beating the neighbours in a Champ game, and it would be our first decent win in leinster in a good few years. (no disrespect to Louth who are probably much stronger this yr than last).

Offaly 1-14 - 0-15 Westmeath.

It'll be very tight lads, Dessie or Not, They wont go down without a fight!
Who'll take the frees, 45's etc... Will it be Niall Mac prehaps?

Midfield and the half forward line is will be the winning of the game!

A Westmeath win, very simple Im afraid, we aint got a good structure or game plan.
Cant see us winning this one- a draw at best!

I think Offaly are good enough to win, no doubt. The question is will the tactics and mentality be right? If we get into a winning position will we close the game out, or for whatever reason ease up/retreat into our shell and get caught again.

Laois 2003
Westmeath 2004
Laois 2005

All games that should have been won, all games that were lost (2003 after a replay). The signs are not good, but we will do feck all until we discover how to win championship games we deserve to win, instead of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

I'd be a very unconfident Offaly by 4, assuming we don't sh*te on the eggs again.

Heard on the wireless there this morning that Kevin Lynam and Nigel Grennan will be making their debuts for Offaly this weekend

Grennan at corner back and Lynam half back, Kelly got the nod in goals, apart from that the team is much as expected.

if we havent a better half back available than that we should just throw our hat at it

OFFALY (SF v Westmeath):

Padraig Kelly
Ger Rafferty
Shane Sullivan
Nigel Grennan
Kevin Lynam
Scott Brady
Karol Slattery
Alan McNamee
Ciaran McManus
Colm Quinn
Neville Coughlan
John Reynolds
Thomas Deehan
Pascal Kellaghan
Niall McNamee

The back line looks very suspect especially the full back line,

Sean Casey maybe unlucky not to get a place.

Reynolds not an ideal half forward. Hes a scorer not a grafter. He might kick a few scores from there but overall not the idael choice at wing forward especially with the way Kilmurray used his half forwards during the league as extra backs. Better in around full forward.

agree back line does look a bit suspect but westmeath aint the greatest forwards either so they should be able to handle them at least agree about reynolds he aint a grafter at all

It could be a case of we'll score more than ye game. If N. Coughlan and Slattery start running forward at pace it could open up the game. Again Niall Mc is key in my opinion, if he plays well then we're in with a great chance.
I agree with the opinion on Reynolds, but I, although he is not a grafter, he is good at keeping possesion and he links up well with Deehan when they both play.

I was just looking at the results in the results section on this site and its mental to think that we haven't won a game on Croke Park since 2001! Hopefully that demon can be laid to rest.

We could be in trouble here. The back line could be dodgy and I'd like to have seen James Coughlan started ahead of Reynolds in the forwards.
The problem as I see it is that in a small county like Offaly, can we really afford to be without the likes of Conor Evans, Cathal Daly and Barry Mooney? Sean Casey isn't fully fit after injury and Thomas Coughlan - who has a fair bit of defensive experience - isn't involved. As far as I'm concerned, they are five of the top 10 or 12 backs in the county at present. And despite his inconsistency in the past, I think we could pay the price for not having Roy Malone in the squad as well.
I don't want to sound negative ahead of the big game, but as someone else has stated, we've lost a good few local derbies in the last four or five years.

With the players available for picking this is the best 15 in the county and they should take care of Westmeath. Barry Mooney is a hugh loss. As for Roy Malone, I feel that Roy's days as an inter county player is gone and he's knows that himself. I think that Reynolds will have a good game as he is a good ball carrier and is strong in the tackle. At the end of the day we'll have to go to Croker and shout our heads off for the faithful and have faith in our team. We were the Div 1 side and were unlucky to be relegated, as for Westmeath I still don't know how they got promoted.

I agree that we have to go in to this game slight favorites but in a game against wesmeath form usually goes out the window. It'll be decided by who goes out and wants it more, because if we're honest, there is very little between Offaly and westmeath at the moment. Even though we haven't won inn croker since '01, we've had better teams than this since then. We'll have to just go and support the lads and hope that they rise to it on the day. As for the Reynolds/ Coughlan thing, i think it's a good choice. Reynolds is a good ball carrier and is a grafter to an extent. You won't see him dropping his head like we've seen coughlan do in the past.