Offaly management 2027

[Thomas mc]

im living in clare and i know colm. i doubt he would take on another county. he is involved with cratloe seniors and id say hes quite content. some beautys of names being mentioned here? jaysus lads. do we want corner backs attempting eye gouging? id like stephen rochford personally if he was willing to get involved? he came to tullamore so why not offaly?

Whoever gets the Offaly SF manager job, will find a key aspect of the job is man management. Dealing with players as individuals. This is apart from tactics, coaching, and whatever it takes in managing a football team.
I would agree with the comments that local selectors/ selectors are included with the new manager. No ideas on candidates, but would Stephen Rochford take the Offaly job, and resign from the Tullamore set up?

Man management is bolox, DK and MH threw out lads that were too big for their boots and won a division 3 title, the only thing we won in 20 years.. man management is bollix, a lad either wants to play and commit or he can fuck off and be replaced by a lad that wants to play.. man management has not been a factor in any team for a long time.. a manager needs to come in and say here is what i want, here is my plan and you will follow and we will win, that how managers win and players buy in every player or otherwise they can fuck off.. any team that has won anything in last few years has had a manager come in and do that.. the offaly job is the least attractive in the country down to player power.. the fact is the players have pushed out not only one of the most succesful managera ever but his parnter in crime a year after winning a division 3 title.. any manager would run a mile.. anyone notice that wicklow actually won the TC?

[Anon444]

Man management and keeping everyone on side is the most important part of management, irrespective of the sport. What hardline approach has worked in recent years? It won’t work anymore, you can be strict but fair and unfortunately, it didn’t sound like there was a whole pile of fairness.

If man management was indeed a load of bollix, then MH and DK would still probably be managing.

[Fairplayalways]

We got a massive bounce in the Tailteann after a disastrous league (we know about the injuries and all that) We had a good run, beating Down was probably standout performance and first half against Wicklow - unfortunately it went west there after. Hard to know who will go in - from reading posters here who seem more connected to the club scene - if a local goes in some sort of politics is expected to rear its head and this one will be left out and why is this one in in squads etc. For that reason maybe an outside manager would be best - who though is the question...Hopefully whoever comes in can unify the group he has - we do appear to have some excellent talent and that was evident when we shook off the shackles..

[Bord na Mona man]

im living in clare and i know colm. i doubt he would take on another county. he is involved with cratloe seniors and id say hes quite content. some beautys of names being mentioned here? jaysus lads. do we want corner backs attempting eye gouging? id like stephen rochford personally if he was willing to get involved? he came to tullamore so why not offaly?

Whoever gets the Offaly SF manager job, will find a key aspect of the job is man management. Dealing with players as individuals. This is apart from tactics, coaching, and whatever it takes in managing a football team.
I would agree with the comments that local selectors/ selectors are included with the new manager. No ideas on candidates, but would Stephen Rochford take the Offaly job, and resign from the Tullamore set up?

Man management is bolox, DK and MH threw out lads that were too big for their boots and won a division 3 title, the only thing we won in 20 years.. man management is bollix, a lad either wants to play and commit or he can fuck off and be replaced by a lad that wants to play.. man management has not been a factor in any team for a long time.. a manager needs to come in and say here is what i want, here is my plan and you will follow and we will win, that how managers win and players buy in every player or otherwise they can fuck off.. any team that has won anything in last few years has had a manager come in and do that.. the offaly job is the least attractive in the country down to player power.. the fact is the players have pushed out not only one of the most succesful managera ever but his parnter in crime a year after winning a division 3 title.. any manager would run a mile.. anyone notice that wicklow actually won the TC?

Man-management = Telling everyone to fuck off...

Offaly 0-12 London 2-20

[jimbob17]

Said it all when the most senior players in the group made the decision that they needed change some weeks ago. It is all the more telling when so many of them had won U20 with DK only 5 years ago. People management is a subtle skill which was by all accounts, grossly ignored by last management as they exuded a culture of blame. Whatever about bullying a bunch of young lads to do things as you see fit, you are never going to win by trying to bully adults and it came back to bite them in the ass. The willing learners would take major lessons from this. This was foreseen a couple of years ago with all the negative stories emanating from that camp. The chickens finally came home to roost, and yet there are still some on here who just cant accept that you can't treat people poorly and also hold their respect...... Players put in too much time and effort and it needs to be somewhat enjoyable and positive to be around...... which I'm led to believe was lost on last management crew.

[frankthetank]

Accusations of bullying is a pretty serious comment.

[Offy]

Sort of Management related, but this is interesting from a very recent County Official on Twitter/X tonight.

Was that last line a dig at the Rhode players who didn’t commit or the management who wouldn’t pick them. Either way it’s a big conversation .

[Faithfully]

Sort of Management related, but this is interesting from a very recent County Official on Twitter/X tonight.

Was that last line a dig at the Rhode players who didn’t commit or the management who wouldn’t pick them. Either way it’s a big conversation .

It's definitely a dig at management for, in some people's eyes, casting people off before their time.

That looks like a great win for Rhode tonight.

[G91]

Rhode deserved the win Thier forwards were clinical definitely would say R.Mc stood out he was involved in everything

[biffinbanner]

would nigel dunne be a good fit for the offaly managers job? i hesrd him a few times. he seems very intelligent and knows his stuff?

[Superhans75]

The problem with offaly some of the people up to appointing the management are not up the job or
Have there clubs interest or influence.
Every county has that be we seem to Excel at it

[jimbob17]

Accusations of bullying is a pretty serious comment.

Just ask the players


Fully agree Super on that front. A committee of people with proper football knowledge should be given that role of appointing manager as is done in lots of counties. I'd worry if they don't appoint a committee to do the job.

As for Nigel, no other county would be considering likes of Nigel with his limited level of experience. Could he be part of a backroom team? Absolutely. He is only in 1st year managing a club team. He would need to do that for a couple of years and maybe give him a minor or U20 managers role before getting a senior managers job. Yes he'd have great knowledge and all that and certainly isn't knocking him but nobody with that level of experience would be considered in any other county. Give the chap a chance to develop and then maybe consideration then based on what he has done in coaching and management.

We need someone who has been around block a bit and learned ropes. I'd suggest 5 yrs management experience as a minimum - maybe done minors and club teams and been involved at county level backroom team at least on some level. Remember how Gary Neville did at Valencia when going straight from players dressing room.

[Tmacmahon]

​In the high-stakes world of intercounty GAA, "experience" is often treated as the ultimate prerequisite for a managerial appointment. While seasoned leadership undoubtedly has its place, treating age as the primary metric for suitability is a flawed strategy. Experience is valuable, but it is not the only ingredient for success. Sometimes, taking a calculated risk on a younger candidate is worth its weight in gold.
​Look no further than the ages of some of the game's most prominent figures when they took on their first major intercounty roles:
• ​Andy Moran: 38 (Leitrim)
• ​Mark McHugh: 36 (Westmeath)
• ​Kieran McGeeney: 36 (Kildare)
• ​Eamon Fitzmaurice: 36 (Kerry)
​These appointments prove that tactical acumen, modern coaching philosophies, and the ability to connect with a contemporary dressing room often matter far more than a lengthy resume. Dunne is 37 or 38.

​Modern GAA demands an unprecedented level of know how, Younger managers,many of whom are only a few seasons removed from their own playing days possess an innate understanding of the pressures, lifestyle, and culture of the modern intercounty player. This relatability fosters a unique trust and buy-in that can take years for an older manager to get
​The sport is evolving at a breakneck pace. Younger managers are often more adaptable, open to cutting-edge sports science, and willing to implement innovative tactical frameworks rather than relying on "the way things have always been done."
​now all that being said I'll somewhat contradict myself, I think its a must he ( dunne) is involved, but maybe as a coach /selector and in a few years take the reigns. Rochford to manage. All offaly backroom team would be an added bonus.
​

On a slightly separate note, when are they going to appoint the new manager? Id imagine the next month there will have to be a person in place

[Lone Shark]

The logistics of the intercounty manager role is completely different to what it was, so while I wouldn't set a line in the sand about needing to have X amount of experience, I'd still say that it would be better to have a feel for what that's like through proximity as a backroom team member or a player in the core leadership group, ideally in a Division One or Division Two county. For a lot of Nigel's time, he was part of a panel that was bouncing between Divisions Three and Four, in some instances because the structure and setup was so deficient.

I fully expect Nigel Dunne to be the Offaly senior football manager at some point and I expect that he'll do well in the role when he gets it, but the man himself would be the first to admit that 2027 is far too soon.

Now that's not to say that he won't get a call from whoever does get the gig to get involved, he's absolutely in a group of 10 or 12 people around the county who would be on the shortlist for any manager as possible coaches, but even though there are exceptions to this rule, I think the right way for anyone to approach it would be that you will get one shot at managing your native county, and you want to be the best that you can be when you decide to walk through that door.

Unless you turn out to be a truly elite manager (Jack O'Connor, Jim McGuinness, Kevin Heffernan, Billy Morgan), you're not going to get a second twist and I've no doubt that Nigel, much like any other young coach around the county who would aspire to taking charge of the Offaly senior team, he'd prefer to do his learning and make more of his mistakes in other roles along the way up.

Now, that's not to say that I wouldn't be open to a similarly inexperienced star name from an elite county, as long as they had some natural traits to lead you to believe that they were going to be a top class manager, and that you made sure to surround them with the right people to cover for the areas where they would possibly not be as adept. This would (in my opinion) be a price that would potentially be worth paying if someone like Ciarán Kilkenny, or a Stefan Campbell, Aidan O'Shea, Eamon Magee, Mattie Donnelly type figure, was to become available.

But in that instance, you're accepting that for those figures, much like Mark McHugh in Westmeath, they will make some mistakes due to their inexperience, and that they do not see the Offaly job as their final destination - but they will raise expectations and standards while they're here.

[Tmacmahon]

That's a very fair viewpoint LS