What I would do

[TheManFromFerbane]

Alright lads\lassies,

I'm a bit surprised at the magnitude of the negative comments on the site after the game on Sunday. I personally thought there has been progress made and we were in no way as far off as the scoreline suggested. And thats against a team that's played in 2 All-Ireland Semi-Finals in the past 3 years.

But that's my opinion. What I want to hear from the people who are really depressed\angry about yesterday, and even those who aren't, is what you would do between now and the Qualifier game and now and next year, to bring Offaly football onto a level where you think we're making progress.

[Bord na Mona man]

Last year against Kildare the game was over after 10 minutes. Offaly only lost by 6 points because Kildare cruised for the last 60 minutes. This year, Offaly at least engaged in a proper championship match and kept it competitive until the sending off.

If Offaly had 15 on the field and had a better free conversation rate, it would have been closer.
I'll grant you that "if only" may sound like the cry of the loser. But you have to rationally analyse where it went wrong.

What would I do?

I'd look at changing the tactics to give the defence a bit more cover. The full back line is currently very patched up. Withdrawing a forward and playing a sweeper might help out.

The backs also need to get the ball cleared and moving forward at all costs. Even it involves lashing 50-50 punts.
In the last few years Offaly defenders losing possession while engaging in 'ambitious' playmaking attempts has cost us a lot of cheap confidence killing scores.

"Crab football" as I've termed it - excessively going sideways with the ball. Unless you are operating to a gameplan with extra bodies back in support, don't take risks.

For the Qualifiers, I don't see much point in making loads of changes and taking gambles all over the field. Better off trying to fine tune the team played on Sunday and experiment again next January. We'll probably be stuck at midfield with John Coughlan suspended though.

Long term, the age profile of the team is decent enough and there is a decent sprinkling of talent coming through.
All going well, players like Anton Sullivan, Graham Guilfoyle and Noel Andrew Graham could fill key positions for Offaly in the future. Maybe John Ledwidth and Declan Murphy could be possibilities in the full back line.

[Georgio1]

You have to build from the back. We started the game with 5 defenders with no pace. We played poor passes which cost us scores, we kicked bad wides from frees. For the qualifiers we would need to bring in 2 new defenders, Scott and Shane Sullivan would go from the team. Move Kiely to full back, hopefully Brian Darby would be back in the corner. And I would look at Sean Ryan as a wing back. The lad has pace but is not cute enough for the forward line. I would move mountains over the winter to get Niall Smith back, along with Conor Mahon. I would also look for a new keeper, or get Mulhall working overtime on the kickouts.

[backofthenet]

Im not much of a football man but il give this a go,

Goalkeeper, needs to work for hours every week on his kick outs, this could make a massive difference even in the 3/4 weeks we have

Defence, I thought the full back line did ok to be honest, Meath were lethal from close range and considering they were under the cosh for a lot of the match i think a bit of fine tuning would do a lot here. Dalton too slow, Kiely did very well going forward, but made some very simple mistakes, stepping into the field while taking a sideline, kicking it over Daltons head etc.

Midfield, wouldnt change it to be honest, we competed well in there until the sending off, coughlan and Mcmanus will compete with most midfield pairings in the country.

Forwards, We badly badly need a free taker, definately cost us 3-4 points yesterday. John Reynolds was off his game, shooting was poor from 5/6 of the forwards, no prizes for guessing who is excluded, McNamee is in my opinion the best footballer in the country. A lot of shooting practise is needed, also I think we tended to panic a bit too much, rather than trying to work a scoring opportunity by bringing midfielders etc into play offaly players were more likely to shoot as soon as they got sight of goal. Ken Casey had the pace to round his man every single time, we didnt exploit it half enough, I would have dragged John Reynolds out to midfield to leave Casey and McNamee on the inside on their own, i think we would have got any amount of scores from this.

Like the hurlers, we dont understand tactics, we just line out in the same predictable way and we are too slow to change and adapt to a different game plan during the game if it is required.

[Long John]

Get rid of P Sullivan, Kiely, Dalton, and Reynolds.

P-Sullivan- A half forward or Midfielder for club, not county standard but if so should be played where he is used to.

Kiely- Got the run around. His man got a huge amount of ball and only for wayward shooting should of had 5 or 6 points from play.

Dalton- Terrible terrible terrible. Too inexperienced for such a position of centre back, too slow, no composure on the ball....awful.

Reynolds- Useless. Strolling around looking for handy ball, kicked 2 brutal wides, not a county footballer, never was, never will be good enough. Too small and light for this level. Get Deehan back instead of him. He'd cause defences a few problems.

Free Taking- Dont need to say much. Its obvious. Lads should'nt kick from the ground unless they are specialists at it.


The plus side
Slattery- Excellent. Possibly the best player between both teams. Gave it his all even when getting very frustrated.

McNamee- Thank god Meath hadnt a player like him. With decent support and supply he would of ripped Meath to shreds. Class act.

Anton Sullivan- Did very well when introduced. Sliced through the meath defence anytime he got the ball. He is lightening quick and so confident. Has alot to learn but he was better than 13 of the starters.

[Bord na Mona man]

If you are going to slate certain fellas and claim they should be gotten rid of, then you should at least be able to suggest alternatives that will improve matters.

Unless you are suggesting we start with 11 players the next day?

[black and red exile]

Guys it looks like another wasted year yet again for our senior team. Let's be honest, apart from London would we be confident of beating anybody either at home or away. There is far more interest in the club scene in the county right now from supporters, even back in the early nineties our county footballers were getting bigger support than now, I've never seen such little interest from the public in the footballers as this year and I suppose when we read of the carry on of some of them after the Louth game ya can't blame people for not wasting their money on travelling to a match to watch them. The qualifers are now a nuicance for our football panel, roll on the 26th June until we finally put this year to bed once and for all.

[Long John]

P Sullivan- replace with Brian Darby or Mark Conlon

Kiely- replace with Brian Darby or Paul McConway

Dalton- replace with Neville Coughlan, Matt Mitchell or Paul McConway

Reynolds- Ward, Deehan. Anybody who can kick a ball really.