Offaly Senior Football Team - Championship 2023

[JimBwobb]

Exactly what I was thinking

[Fairplayalways]

€25 for Offaly and Meath is certainly excessive, in particular given both are well out of competitive side of things for a good few years now..outside my and many peoples budget anyway..I always maintained no point paying that entrance fee and not being able to buy abit of grub etc. either at ground if available or en route etc..some will of course.. Will it be on clubber.ie I wonder..

[faithfulfanatic]

€25 for Offaly and Meath is certainly excessive, in particular given both are well out of competitive side of things for a good few years now..outside my and many peoples budget anyway..I always maintained no point paying that entrance fee and not being able to buy abit of grub etc. either at ground if available or en route etc..some will of course.. Will it be on clubber.ie I wonder..

It might be (and is) excessive but saying both teams haven’t been competitive in a few years is not an argument against the price.. there would be absolute uproar if they tried to set prices by how competitive people think the teams are

[Superhans75]

I think if they had a performance rated ticket prices
For Leinster championship we would all be due a rebate
Lol
Also some time with a therapist. Lol

[Fairplayalways]

Just to clarify, Ime not saying/intending that tickets 'should' be set by recent competitivness/success.. Ime saying both Offaly and Meath haven't been competitive in recent times, €25 for such a game seems excessive that's all..

[Fear Uibh]

any word on the team for Sunday yet ? is everyone available after the Longford game

[JimBwobb]

Shane Tierney on the panel for this weekends game.

[Bord na Mona man]

In last year's league game in Tullamore, Offaly would have been worthy winners until Meath snatched an injury time draw with a dubious looking goal.
Since then, Offaly have prepped in Division 3 while Meath have the advantage of being a division higher and been able to hold their own there.
One year on, that game is not much of a form barometer.

Managerially, Offaly are obviously in a distressing situation.
When Meath appointed Colm O'Rourke, I was happy to see it. With his Sunday Game spoutings about how the game should be played, he had already painted himself into a corner that 'boot to ball' and 'man to man' was the only show in town, that managers operating defensive systems were con artists etc. Most populist pundits are cute enough to avoid needing to deliver on the great game they talk about.

So while Meath had a couple of early league wins, scoring 8 goals in 2 games, they've found scores hard to come by ever since.
They've been opened up easily at the back by the higher quality teams.
So it remains to be seen if they adjust their approach for championship, or persist with keeping it old school.

[Fear Uibh]

I see Meath are starting 2 championship debutants in the full back line and 1 in the half back line, could be an area where we should try and capitalise on hopefully. team will most likely change before Sunday though.

[Superhans75]

Hopefully we will be well prepared for Sunday I reckon
Meath will try and get a bit tasty especially with the younger lads .
I'm expecting a couple of red cards ..
Looking forward to the game but don't like 4pm kick off
No need for it to be that late .

[frankthetank]

Have kick offs replaced throw ins?

Must have missed that.

[Behindthegoal]

Lads it’s not just your local clubs under 14 team where there’s politics going on it’s happening at the highest level too, there’s a serious bang of “one of for them boys” and agendas in this Offaly setup.
1. Jamie Evan’s is nowhere near good enough to be starting for Offaly, he wasn’t even making the 26 for any league games until Murphy took over, a fellow gracefield man been told Evan’s is like a long lost child to him so I’d argue that if an outside manager came in Evan’s would be lucky to be on the panel
2. Diarmuid egan left the panel during the league and was immediately replaced by another Tullamore man Nigel bracken who is at the latter end of his career and has been on Offaly panels for years barely stands out at club level why not look for a younger player or someone who has potential? Tullamore’s John rouse is probably the reason.
3. Shane Tierney is on the 26 for Sunday he hasn’t featured all year. Our team plays with two inside forwards at most but we now have four inside forwards on the bench? Make that make sense. There’s not a chance of him getting on so why not put a defender or middle third player on the bench? Because half of the management team had him and schools level and are all batting for him that would be my guess.

Lastly Paul Rouse was part of the selection committee for this management team and then John Rouse ends up as a selector there’s a shock.. It’s madness that this is still happening in Offaly at the top level it wouldn’t go on in any other county who are serious about going somewhere.

[Bord na Mona man]

[G91]

Keeper not the best keeper in the county either, where's Kevin nugent gone ?

If offaly are to win and I hope they do but they will have start kicking scores from a kicking distance and not try walk it in like the down game

Witch strange because any of that foward line should be more than capable of kicking scores from 21 or further

[jimbob17]

Lads it’s not just your local clubs under 14 team where there’s politics going on it’s happening at the highest level too, there’s a serious bang of “one of for them boys” and agendas in this Offaly setup.
1. Jamie Evan’s is nowhere near good enough to be starting for Offaly, he wasn’t even making the 26 for any league games until Murphy took over, a fellow gracefield man been told Evan’s is like a long lost child to him so I’d argue that if an outside manager came in Evan’s would be lucky to be on the panel
2. Diarmuid egan left the panel during the league and was immediately replaced by another Tullamore man Nigel bracken who is at the latter end of his career and has been on Offaly panels for years barely stands out at club level why not look for a younger player or someone who has potential? Tullamore’s John rouse is probably the reason.
3. Shane Tierney is on the 26 for Sunday he hasn’t featured all year. Our team plays with two inside forwards at most but we now have four inside forwards on the bench? Make that make sense. There’s not a chance of him getting on so why not put a defender or middle third player on the bench? Because half of the management team had him and schools level and are all batting for him that would be my guess.

Lastly Paul Rouse was part of the selection committee for this management team and then John Rouse ends up as a selector there’s a shock.. It’s madness that this is still happening in Offaly at the top level it wouldn’t go on in any other county who are serious about going somewhere.

Just few thoughts on points raised here.

1. I have no connection to Gracefield but have to say that Evans was a huge prospect at underage. He was on the panel at 19 under Flanagan I think and featured. He would be a much better player if he was training regularly with a Rhode or Tullamore, but Gracefield have probably let his standards slip over the years due to their levels or lack of progress. That said, he has huge athleticism and with exposure to high level training, is full value for place on panel. I believe if he had a few consistent years with county, he would be one of our stronger players. Regarding being on current team, I can't say bacause have not seen enough of him in recent times. I do think however that Murphy would generally be trying to do right thing for Offaly and it would be quite naive of him 'selecting his own' as you deem it if it meant compromising winning and by extension, his likelihood to continue in managerial role. If Evans is fit, in my opinion, he is well good enough. The question is, has he the work done to merit starting or paying a full game in terms of fitness. Only team management know that.

2. Diarmuid Egan would be a good panel player. Is he good enough for center forward or wing forward on this team in championship game? Not so sure he is but he is still young and with bit more time, could get there. Regarding replacement, I'd agree that replacement could have been younger player who could offer something, but when this happened, the 20s were still involved. It may have been different if they were out and to be fair, Bracken has not even been on a 26 yet so dont know how we can complain about that. If he is willing to come in and train hard as an experienced player, then wouldnt have much issue with it. For me, John Furlong, Jamie Guing and Keith O'Neill would be obvious candidates to come into panel if willing or injury free, as would Cathal Donoghue, who is injured. Who else would you bring in that is significantly better, who has never been tried that would come in and not mess around and conduct themselves in a way that would not negatively affect team spirit? I for one certainly cannot think of too many outstanding candidates.

3. Who is on the management team that has any connection to Tierney through school or club? I can't place any connection through club, school or otherwise. Tierney was an excellent underage and Sigerson player who has been injured for most of league but has been with panel since they started back training. Paddy Christie played him on DCU Sigerson team ahead of Jack Bryant and he is full value to be on the panel no doubt. I guarantee you that if he was from Rhode Edenderry, Ferbane or Tullamore, people would be looking for him to start and would not be surprised if he featured at some point on Sunday. If I recall correctly, he scored 3 points from play off Eoin Murchan in U21 final a few years ago and was on that team of the year.

4. There seems to be a strong anti Rouse bias in your post. I agree that it may appear there is a bias with one brother being part of a management selected by a committee that included a brother. However, i'd cavaet that by saying that in some recent years, over 20 people were asked to be co senior selectors and all declined. Would also say that John Rouse is a clever football man who is very popular and extremely well got generally. His football playing and managerial pedigree isnt too shoddy either in that he has 2 or 3 senior championship medals as a player. From a management perspective, he managed Tullamore to win a county senior title in the mid 2010's and would have won at least one Leinster Colleges A championship in Knockbeg, and possibly an All Ireland colleges title as a manager where he taught. If I were to crib about biases, I think while one could argue a bias here, this is a lesser bias than one could argue and that there is a lot of merit in having likes of John Rouse as a selector on an Offaly senior team, over any amount of others who have served as selectors in recent years.

All that said, best of luck to team and management tomorrow.