Offaly v Kildare

[Hyper]

Well lads and lassies how is this one going to go? A few changes to the team with Paul McConway and Trevor Phelan starting (Kevin Lynam and John Reynolds being dropped). I for one fancy them to beat Kildare and set up a semi final date against Meath/Wexford.

[Lone Shark]

That's very interesting - more daring there than I thought we'd see all year. I assume it's a straight swap in both cases?

Anyway, I don't want to be more confident here, but I'm getting nagging good feelings about this one. It's not that I've suddenly changed my tune and think that we're world beaters, but confidence was very low up to this in the camp, and one win, even against one of the most useless sides you could hope to play (I honestly think Westmeath with Dessie are poor - without him they're not far off being as bad a team as there is playing intercounty football in Ireland) will stand to them. A little bit of momentum can go a long way, and hopefully this will be the start of just that.

In recent years we've a very good record against Kildare as well and on the face of it there's not reason why that shouldn't continue. Obviously they'll be very strong around the middle of the field, win a lot of ball and attack from the half back line as Kildare teams always will, but realistically if we can contain Doyle they don't have a lot else. Fennin hasn't really played well for a long time now, and their half forward line doesn't look like it has a lot of scoring in it. This O'Neill character at corner forward is an unknown to me, but in general it seems to be Doyle and not a lot else.

From our point of view, I'm impressed that management haven't done the lazy thing and just repicked a fifteen that won the last day. I wasn't able to see the game, but by all accounts it wasn't fantastic, so a few changes were needed to shake things up. I'm not sure how active Kilmurray is at the moment, but if Cooney has any ambition he'll know he's being watched now, and a good performance on the line on Sunday will probably secure the job for him next year if he wants it. The full back line clearly needs patching, but I'd say with Kildare the key is to crowd the midfield and backline, and try to attack their slightly ageing half backs and midfield with real pace when we pick up breaks. In this regard, I'd say the way to go would be to drop Paschal back as per the last day, let Quinn hang back as well, and let Phelan and Coughlan hit the flourbags with pace going forward. There might even be a case for letting McManus drop well back when we lose the ball and playing in around the half back line. I'm not sure if Kevin O'Neill will be fit for Kildare, but certainly if he's not their full back line will be there to be exploited, and the more games Deehan and Niall play together the better the combo will be.

I'm looking forward to it. This would be a great game to win for a couple of reasons - first of all, there is certainly a Leinster Final place there for the taking. Neither Meath nor Wexford would scare me, and like I said, momentum can go a long way in these situations. With two wins behind us the mentality would be completely changed going into a game like that. Secondly, thinking ahead, for too long now we've been making hard work for ourselves by not advancing to the Leinster semis and thus giving ourselves a chance of a handy draw the following year. For a couple of years now we've had to be primed to be good to go for a game in Croke Park in mid or even early May, and just for once it'd be nice to go into the draw in November knowing that a handy quarter final against Wicklow or someone would be a possibility.

[True Red]

Where did you see that team?its interesting to say the least

Surely james keane would have been in for lynam having replaced him the last day at half time?As for Phelan would you give me a break.the chap is too small and while he has pace it will be negated in Senior inter county championship.Also dont ask him to kick a ball over the bar from 35 yards.

[Lone Shark]

At the risk of being accused of more west Offaly bias, I think Phelan is a gamble, but there is a potential payoff there. Certainly he's not big, but your description could easily have been used about Declan Meehan before he got his start for Galway. He'll certainly give Anthony Rainbow a lot to think about if he marks him.

There are a lot of forwards in intercounty football who can't kick a ball over the bar from even middle range - while it's a handy skill to have, it's only really an issue if he keeps trying and ends up hitting a load of wides or dropping balls into keepers hands - I would suggest he's too level headed to do that. Anyway pace by itself can be a good weapon.

In saying all that, Leonard Mooney has every right to feel hard done by - from what I could tell, he was learning his way in an Offaly shirt, and his best performances were just before he was dropped. What is not in question is that Shaper was not playing well and someone else had to be tried.


Keane has been out for a long time - it is possible they feel he's not ready for 70 minutes yet. Obviously that's just a guess, but it could be the case.

[The Biff]

As a Kildare resident, I should be feeling quite on edge about this but, truth be told, I'm getting very little ribbing about it. That's probably because I have few Kildare supporters for neighbours. There are probably more Dubs fans near me than any others, and of course none of them would show any interest in the Dubln Hurlers either.

Nevertheless, we must consider ourselves to have at least an even crack at this one. As expected, the John Doyle "injury scare" shows that Micko's years of influence have left their mark in the shortgrass. But still maybe he wont be 100% fit so we should be putting him through a proper "fitness test" when the ball is thrown in.

The basic gameplan against Westmeath was pretty good. We had much fewer bad wides than in previous years. Our only real defensive problems (poor Shane Sull) were shown up clearly so surely-be-to-God we wont make that same mistake again. As I said a fortnight ago and it still holds true, I am (only just) more confident facing this match than I was before the first one.

[Bord na Mona man]

I think we are stuck for a wing forward. John Reynolds doesn't really have the physical attributes to play in this position. I think he is unlucky in that we have plenty of scoring corner forwards.
Is Leonard Mooney still on the panel? I didn't see his name listed on the subs for the Westmeath match.
Perhaps he would have come into consideration.

I'd be very curious about how Trevor Phelan does here. I don't think we would expect him to shoot or score. He would have the engine, but would he able to give and take the hits?
The opinion must be that James Keane isn't yet match fit. McConway looks enthuasiastic, he probably lacks experience.

[As Such Ger]

If I had the option of James Keane or Mc Conway, I'd choose Mc Conway everytime. I was shocked to see Keane coming on against Westmeath, and not at all surprised when his contribution was absolutely minimal - apart from allowing the Westmeath number 5 run up the field twice at the end to nearly snatch the game from our grasp. Fact is - he is a player with big potential but this year he should not be anywhere near the team - he is not physically right after his shoulder injury. He must have lost a stone in muscle and i actually fear that if he takes a big hit he will be back to square one.

Mc Conway on the other hand, while prone to the odd mistake that inexperience brings and some poor decision making, is a player that we really should develop into a top class inter-county player. I dont fear him starting this sunday.

I think Shane Sullivan is a fine footballer as well. has a bigger impact to make out the field, but is the right man to clog the holes left by Cathal Daly and conor Evans this year (I wont be surprised to see both of these back at 2 and 3 next year). His sending off was silly, but i still have great fate in him as a footballer.

Here's praying for a better match than the last day. beating westmeath or not, it was prehaps the most boring game of football i've ever been to... sorry, i take that back... the openign round against louth last year

[Overview]

Great to see the introduction of new players into the Offaly team, it has brought pace and passion back into Offaly football.Based on the O'Byrne cup run i would like to see Sean Ryan introduced at some stage on sunday to see how he performs in Croke Park. His pace and direct style of play would be the last thing a Kildare defence would want to face as the game progressed. A win for Offaly is on the cards with the continued solid performances of Alan McNamee vital to this prediction. He is now consistently playing as he does for Rhode for Offaly! Keep it going Alan.
Offaly 2.12 Kildare 1.11

[Ron]

Congrats to the lads. A huge effort by all. Wen they went a man down a bit like the last day everybody upped their work rate. I thought Slattery was particularly good and has proved himself again to be a great captain. Neville Coughlan deserves a mention too, he coverd a lot of ground and when he made runs forward Kildare looked in trouble.

Alan Mc did a lot of work while McManus was clearly singled out for special treatment early on until the ref finally spotted what was going on, was Mc on a yellow card early on? it looked like they were trying to rise him to get sent off.

Good to see so many of the forwards contribute to the scoresheet and the lads that came on did well.

[Hyper]

Well done to the lads yesterday. It was a great feeling coming out of Croker yesterday, hopefully it won't be lost in the Stewards Room. A supreme effort was put in by all.

[The Biff]

A good gutsy performance from Offaly yesterday. Intelligent play when we went a man down again, especially when compared to how Meath had reacted to a similar plight in the previous game.

Misc points (as I'd get too long-winded if I tried to make an essay of these):

* Surprised at Kildare's overtly tough attitude. McManus definitely singled out for provocation and fair play to him for not reacting. Killian Brennan and John Divilly offered only destruction for them. Kudos to us for drawing that attitude from our opposition.

* Scott Brady v.unlucky to get the line. Poor refereeing overall.

* Slatt's stepped up a Captain's performance. After one of his earlier runs finished with him bottling his own shooting chance and then we conceded on the rebound, he took responsibility the next time and took his own couple of good scores. Well done that man.

* Shaper Reynolds should stay on the bench. Lucky to earn the penalty after over-carrying the ball.

* What a shoulder hit from Ger Rafferty.

* No mention of Kevin Kilmurray whatsoever in the Official Programme. I thought he was only suspended, not wiped from the memories. Does he have any role at Training during his suspension period?

* Most goal chances very well taken.

* Better performance from Pauric Kelly. Good save. No kickouts went over the sideline but should have tried to keep more away from Dermot Earley who seemed to get feckin' everything that came near him.

* Was the ref going to book Paschal for his indiscretion BEFORE it was replayed on the big screen? It didn't look like it to me. I thought such TV replays were not shown in the stadium to make sure such possibilities were avoided.

* Why in the namajaysus cant somebody on the line be able to count the subs? When Paschal didn't go back on after he was patched up (even though he wanted to but was apparently told to run around back to the Hogan side), then I considered James Coughlan as no longer a "Blood Sub". Did anyone else think any differently? If we get away with this (as we possibly will by the sounds so far) then this whole Blood Sub thing should just be binned and change the whole process again. Its a farce.

[Bord na Mona man]

Great spirit from Offaly. You have to admire the battling qualities of this team. Even with a patched up team and down to 14 men, we still came good. The confidence of the young players in most pleasing.
McConway on his debut looked at ease in Croke Park. Deehan stuck away his chance well. Great composure from Niall Mc with the penalty. He had a Kildare player feigning injury in front of the penalty spot, and then the likes of Divilly trying to cause as much of rucus as possible on the 20 metre line.
He was left waiting about 2 minutes, but he did the right thing by placing the ball as late as possible and then stuck it right inside the post.

Kildare were tough sloggers and to wind this kind of game us a great learning experience.
I thought Brady was unlucky to get 2 yellows. Was his arm being pulled in for the first booking?

What is the latest on our injuries?
Hopefully we'll be back to full strength against Wexford.

[Lone Shark]

If you could bottle it and sell it you’d make millions. Recapturing lost youth has been a quest of the western world for as long as any of us can remember and if anything or anyone can do it better than Offaly footballers did for me yesterday, well then they have some gift.

Walking down Dorset St. on the way to the obligatory “Casual Dining” after the initial few analytical jars in Kavanagh’s, it felt like the street was ours again. Readers of this site may or may not have been up and down to Croke Park every second weekend in the 1990’s, but for the first time in what felt like an age the Biffs were once again lords of this place, and by God did it feel good.

Let’s not lose the run of ourselves here – our win two weeks ago over Westmeath was a case of one moderate team beating a very poor one, while yesterday’s opposition won’t have appeared on anyone’s shortlist of All Ireland candidates either, but wins in Croke Park have become a treasured and all too rare commodity in recent years and this writer for one is not about to decline any gift horse on the strength of a dental examination, irrespective of the oral condition of the aforementioned equine beast. We’ll also acknowledge that there may yet be a sting in the tail when the Leinster Council convenes to analyse our uncharacteristically thorough deployment of the full panel, but this is a GAA site, so let’s analyse the football and go from there.

In Mooney, Keane, Casey, Daly and Evans we had at least three and possibly four backline starters unavailable for selection coming into this game – for all Kildare’s talk of injury depletion, our absent players would be more than a match for theirs – and by the end, with Sullivan’s injury and Brady’s dismissal, it could be argued that we were down a full defensive unit. But such trials of the spirit can be character forming, and in general the hands on the pump can be proud of the effort they put in across the backline yesterday. Fifteen points was a lot to concede, but if we were to be fair, four of those were conceded in the last few minutes at a time when really all we needed to do was keep Kelly’s goal intact. While Kildare wouldn’t rate as one of the more prolific goalscoring teams in Ireland, it has to be said that only on one occasion did Padraig Kelly’s goal really come under threat, and that was after Sullivan slipped and injured himself leaving Kildare with a one man overlap. No doubt in the run up to the next game much hand wringing will be done at the thought of Mattie Forde’s glorious display for Wexford, and what our patchwork back line can do to minimise his impact – one assumes that negating it entirely would be beyond the best of defenders Gaelic Football has ever seen, at least assuming Forde is on a good day. However for the second successive game Nigel Grennan has comfortably looked after his corner, used his pace to good effect and read the incoming deliveries well. The nippy but essentially headless Tadgh Fennin mightn’t be in the same league as his Wexford counterpart, but nonetheless he still had to be contained and Grennan did so – he has earned a shot at the big time, as it were.

Neither of the Rafferty brothers would have been at the forefront of peoples minds back in January when the 2006 season was looming in terms of full back line slots, but again, credit where credit is due, both kept their respective markers largely in check, although Kildare’s refusal to hit early ball into the forwards played right into the two lads’ hands. Still, confidence will be greatly improved on the back of these displays.

The half back line was particularly encouraging, and probably our best line on the field. Brady thrived on the “loose” refereeing, and never shirked contact which was always at hand, generally presenting himself well for working the ball out of defence – he could even have had a goal, though that was hardly why he was picked. McConway was excellent throughout, and used the ball well as well as doing his defensive duties superbly – most certainly held on to his place – and Slattery was nothing short of outstanding. The way he stepped up when we went down to fourteen was inspirational, particularly his fisted point. Fast becoming one of Ireland’s elite players, never mind ours.

From there on it was a bit more of a mixed bag. Kildare did all the high fielding that was done, as you’d expect, but our winning of breaks was good, and in general we matched them for possession, which against any Kildare team is impressive. Clearly Colm O’Rourke and Joe Brolly haven’t watched McManus in recent years, because their attack after the Westmeath game was way off the mark. Once again he helped out his defence well and played good measured ball into the forwards. He wasn’t as dominant as he can be, but he played his role well, one wild ball across the goals out of defence notwithstanding. McNamee likewise won breaks, got forward well and delivered in a decent fashion. The way he responded to Kildare attempting to rise him was excellent as well – he got on with playing football while Divilly and Brennan concentrated on mischief. All in all it was a pretty comprehensive riposte to the two pundits.

The forwards struggled in some areas, but delivered when they needed to I suppose. I thought both Niall and Deehan were out of the game for large spells, but they both took their goal chances when they came, so fair play on that note. They didn’t waste a lot of balls either, and got out in front well. Certainly they continue to develop.

Half forward on the other hand wasn’t hectic. Neville put in a lot of yards but never really got into the game, and gave it away a few times – he’ll want to improve on that next time out. Phelan did nothing wrong, but Kildare landing high balls on top of him made it very hard for him to compete. He used the couple of balls he got reasonably well though – it’s just a pity he never got the chance to take off and use his pace. Quinn obviously never had a chance, and Shaper to me still doesn’t look confident shooting for scores. Pascal once again came close to getting himself sent off – sadly his biggest contribution to the game. If we went down to thirteen we were fecked – he really needs to cut out that stuff. Finally Jimmy Coughlan, the only other sub with a good chuck of time on did okay – still a bit quiet, not crying out for the ball like he used to, but he took his score well and might come back into contention yet – he is definitely another option.

All in all, a lot of work to do and the opposition continues to get tougher, but it’s nice to see them grinding out wins. We’ve played well and lost all too often – now it’s time to add that toughness to what is a reasonably talented outfit.

Two wins out of two for the Cooney regime.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Walking down Dorset St. on the way to the obligatory “Casual Dining” after the initial few analytical jars in Kavanagh’s, it felt like the street was ours again. Readers of this site may or may not have been up and down to Croke Park every second weekend in the 1990’s, but for the first time in what felt like an age the Biffs were once again lords of this place, and by God did it feel good.

Excellent stuff. As ever.

"Nippy but essentially headless." Great stuff.