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Realistically what are you expecting from both county footballers and hurlers
Going to be interesting one a few bubbles are going to burst and some are going to bloom
Anyone's thoughts?

Hurlers will battle well but ultimately end up in in joe mcdonagh for 2026. It'll come down to offaly vs Antrim.

Hopes:
Offaly senior hurlers retain their Liam McCarthy status with a win over Antrim. And give Dublin and Wexford good games

Offaly U20 hurlers make it 3 Leinster Championships in a row and go hard for back to back All Irelands

Offaly senior footballers retain Division 3 status and win Leinster Q-Final vs Meath/Carlow. And push on to have a reasonable Tailteann Cup run

What I think will transpire:
Senior hurlers will stay up but could ship a couple of serious trimmings.

U20 hurlers won’t make Leinster Final as the volume of games catch up.

Senior footballers will just about stay up in Division 3. No idea how they’ll fare in the championship.

Hopes for 2025? Fine weather for the hurling and the football. Obviously.

My predictions
Hopefully a promotion run Division 3 is possible if the knives don't come out
Leinster championship is realistically a step to far pass the the first round
Hurling wise I think retaining our Liam McCarthy is probably asking a lot for a team
That concedes so many scores
U20s Leinster hurling were there to be shot at but we have the know-how and a little bit street wise so you never know. Especially as it's quite compact fixtures wise .
It's going to be a rollercoaster year but let's enjoy it

Hope would be senior hurlers stay up. They have every chance. Also for u20s to retain leinster championship. Will need lots of working together between Leo and Johnny Kelly for that to happen.

On football front, hoping they are competitive and there is positivity coming out of group, unlike last year. Hoping the Harte move works but we need our best players in there for that to happen. Hope this is the case.

Minor footballers promise to be good group and hopefully they can get to a Leinster Final or beyond.

On club front, need Other clubs to get themselves in gear and challenge Tullamore and KK more for Senior Championship honours.

consolidation in the leinster and div1b. beating antrim would be a good year. the u20 winning leinster would be great. but asking a lot 3 years in a row? the minor footballers are supposed to be a good group. would be lovely to get to a leinster final and as a result into the all ireland series. the senior footballers will do well to retain div 3 status with all the departures..

Hurling:

Strong showing in 1B.

Maintain place in what is referred to as the ‘Leinster Championship’.

Football

Regroup and maintain Division 3

Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year to all you!

Are we still talking about surviving in div 3

Thats at least the last 6 years where that has been the stated goal

Bit of ambition and expectation wouldn’t go amiss methinks

pigeon house biffo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 26, 2024 3:50 pm Are we still talking about surviving in div 3

Thats at least the last 6 years where that has been the stated goal

Bit of ambition and expectation wouldn’t go amiss methinks

I think people are being realistic, based on recent league form.

pigeon house biffo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 26, 2024 3:50 pm Are we still talking about surviving in div 3

Thats at least the last 6 years where that has been the stated goal

Bit of ambition and expectation wouldn’t go amiss methinks

Wouldn't agree at all. The goal only 2 yrs ago was to get out of Div 3 and we were close a few years. I think last years step backwards has made people less ambitious which I think is wrong. There have been good minor and u20 /21 sides and s&c through dev squads for nearly 10 years now, going back to Dave Hare initial involvement and maybe even before that. We should be doing better in senior football than we are. Don't buy the bulshite that we don't have the players. We should be knocking on door of div 2 at this stage! Maughan got us up there and Kearns almost did in year 1. Anything below 4th or 5th in Div 3 is underperforming in my view.

Promotion to division 2 is not out of the question the draw has been kind enough
It's up to the golden generation to stop the moaning and put the effort on the field.
Because if it goes badly the long term future of Offaly football will be like the Israelites
Wondering around division 4 .

the amount of good players we had, that might have been instrumental in getting us to div 2 were there 2/3 years ago. they dont seem to be there now. i hope im wrong but its looking gloomy.

Every year on here it’s the same old story
“Oh we should be challenging for promotion" only after 3 rounds to be 0/3 wondering where our 2 wins to stay up are going to come from. Maughan got us promoted from the Covid division 3 where we played a washed Tipp and Wicklow along with Limerick, that will never ever happen again. Plus that group has mainly moved on now I would say at least 10 starters from that team are unavailable now so no comparison can be made.

Not sure where the optimism is coming from we were absolutely appalling last year, now we’ve got Mickey Harte sucking 80-100k a year out of us until his phone rings again and he will be out the door working alongside a joint manager who is clearly out of his depth at this level.

I would be astonished if we finished any higher than 4th and wouldn’t at all be surprised if we finished 7th and got relegated but my guess is 6th. Lads How has the draw been kind to us? Kildare Clare and Sligo will all beat us no matter where the games are so having 2/3 of them at home is a serious disadvantage we basically only have 1 winnable home game Vs Antrim. Leitrim will finish bottom then it’s Fermanagh Laois Antrim and ourselves in whatever order. We simply don’t have enough senior players in that dressing room to challenge for promotion and that’s just the reality whether lads want to admit that or not I don’t care come back to this in April and we’ll see.

Sligo are know great shakes as those who were up there last paddys weekend ( weather awful factor that day)
Loais are hit and miss
Kildare are the strongest team
Clare big powerful men but still beatable
Antrim always play one good away game
Leitrim on roll but it's a good weekend away
Fermanagh Yo Yo team but Al least get some
Cheap booze and food shopping.
Let's enjoy whatever happens roll on the 26
January
Anyword on challenge games