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Management to be reappointed for two more years even though players who are guaranteed starters have asked for a change and also clubs are unhappy. It is unfair but the county board have decided they want DK and MH to remain, so we need to move on now. Hopefully we gain promotion in 2027 and a Tailteann Cup if we achieve both them things the whole thing has been acceptable . Best of luck to all involved

Tmacmahon wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 11:09 am Management to be reappointed for two more years even though players who are guaranteed starters have asked for a change and also clubs are unhappy. It is unfair but the county board have decided they want DK and MH to remain, so we need to move on now. Hopefully we gain promotion in 2027 and a Tailteann Cup if we achieve both them things the whole thing has been acceptable . Best of luck to all involved

Any thoughts on the 2027 anthem? We should incorporate mickey and declan to show them some support.

Tmacmahon wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 11:09 am Management to be reappointed for two more years even though players who are guaranteed starters have asked for a change and also clubs are unhappy. It is unfair but the county board have decided they want DK and MH to remain, so we need to move on now. Hopefully we gain promotion in 2027 and a Tailteann Cup if we achieve both them things the whole thing has been acceptable . Best of luck to all involved

The clubs, and the members therein, ARE Offaly GAA.

I'm not a fan of the concept of inflicting a management team on a group of players that are ambivalent or have mixed feelings on them, much less don't want them, but that is more a grey area generally. However the idea that a decision like this should be taken and the clubs not consulted until a county board meeting in September, by which time it's nearly too late to go back on it, is not acceptable. In the modern era of emails etc., the very least that should be done is that clubs should be polled on what they want to happen. The better option again would be for there to be more than six meetings in the year, and definitely a change from the culture of no meetingsin the Summer, which is a throwback to a bygone era.

Nor would I be particularly happy with the idea of the majority of the clubs opposing a management decision, but the decision getting carried because the top table's 14 or 15 votes support it en bloc.

20 years ago Gerry Fahey recognised all this when a vote took place to extend his tenure as manager and it was carried by a narrow majority with most of the top table supporting him, and he stepped down anyway because of it, saying (rightly) that he didn't want to manage the team unless he had widespread support.

Whether this management team would have the same outlook remains to be seen.

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 1:47 pm

Tmacmahon wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 11:09 am Management to be reappointed for two more years even though players who are guaranteed starters have asked for a change and also clubs are unhappy. It is unfair but the county board have decided they want DK and MH to remain, so we need to move on now. Hopefully we gain promotion in 2027 and a Tailteann Cup if we achieve both them things the whole thing has been acceptable . Best of luck to all involved

The clubs, and the members therein, ARE Offaly GAA.

I'm not a fan of the concept of inflicting a management team on a group of players that are ambivalent or have mixed feelings on them, much less don't want them, but that is more a grey area generally. However the idea that a decision like this should be taken and the clubs not consulted until a county board meeting in September, by which time it's nearly too late to go back on it, is not acceptable. In the modern era of emails etc., the very least that should be done is that clubs should be polled on what they want to happen. The better option again would be for there to be more than six meetings in the year, and definitely a change from the culture of no meetingsin the Summer, which is a throwback to a bygone era.

Nor would I be particularly happy with the idea of the majority of the clubs opposing a management decision, but the decision getting carried because the top table's 14 or 15 votes support it en bloc.

20 years ago Gerry Fahey recognised all this when a vote took place to extend his tenure as manager and it was carried by a narrow majority with most of the top table supporting him, and he stepped down anyway because of it, saying (rightly) that he didn't want to manage the team unless he had widespread support.

Whether this management team would have the same outlook remains to be seen.

How do we know the clubs are against it? Theres what 20 regular contibutors on here and they seem to think that they represent the views of the 50 odd thousand others that would have an opinion.. players and camp appear to be happy given our run in the tailteann cup. If every manager was to be dropped because of players having "mixed feelings" there would be no managers at all. Its time we keep this going and quash this player power nonsense that has plagued us for 20 years and continue the work of the last 3 years and set a precedent and culture where we have 30 odd lads that want to play for offaly and not wishy washy committment from "big" names.

Thomas mc wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 1:59 pm How do we know the clubs are against it? Theres what 20 regular contibutors on here and they seem to think that they represent the views of the 50 odd thousand others that would have an opinion.. players and camp appear to be happy given our run in the tailteann cup. If every manager was to be dropped because of players having "mixed feelings" there would be no managers at all. Its time we keep this going and quash this player power nonsense that has plagued us for 20 years and continue the work of the last 3 years and set a precedent and culture where we have 30 odd lads that want to play for offaly and not wishy washy committment from "big" names.

Nobody's saying that we know - we can speculate, but that's all it would be.

However what we DO know is that there is a lot of talk about DK and MH having their term extended, and we DO know that there is no county board meeting scheduled for the foreseeable future. And it's all very well to say that the clubs can choose not to ratify, but it's not fair to say that when they don't get the chance to do so until after the majority of teams have been knocked out of their club championship campaign, and when the choice presented to them is to either take what you're given, or else leave Offaly back at square one at a time when 90% of counties have their managers and their coaching teams already in place.

Neither is it fair to say that when out of the 30-odd clubs in Offaly that field an adult football team, they could very heavily favour a clean break, but be outweighed by the top table, aided by the hurling-only clubs who in some cases, might have a very different agenda.

We don't know what the clubs will say - I can confidently predict the answers for four or five of them where I would be in regular touch with key members of their executives - but the only way we will know is to ask, and to ask now, not present them with it all done up in a nice neat little bow in two months' time.

Now I will happily accept that we don't know what the clubs will say, and I will happily respect that they should be the ultimate arbiters, but I've heard nothing to suggest that there is any willingness to actually find this out and act on the information. Instead, it's been treated like a hurdle that must be negotiated.

However neither can we say with certainty, or even confidence, that the "players and camp appear to be happy" as you put it. The players appear to be fit, the players appear to be committed to performing to the best of their ability for Offaly, and that's what I'd expect based on the handful of them that I would have had any conversations with. They're good, genuine lads.

But it's more than a little bit rich to look at a season that saw Offaly play 12 competitive games,, three of which (Derry/Laois/Wicklow) were an absolute debacle, and pick out the only three games that the team won and cite those as evidence that the camp is a happy one. Even Karoline Leavitt would struggle to say something like that with a straight face.

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 2:41 pm

Thomas mc wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 1:59 pm How do we know the clubs are against it? Theres what 20 regular contibutors on here and they seem to think that they represent the views of the 50 odd thousand others that would have an opinion.. players and camp appear to be happy given our run in the tailteann cup. If every manager was to be dropped because of players having "mixed feelings" there would be no managers at all. Its time we keep this going and quash this player power nonsense that has plagued us for 20 years and continue the work of the last 3 years and set a precedent and culture where we have 30 odd lads that want to play for offaly and not wishy washy committment from "big" names.

Nobody's saying that we know - we can speculate, but that's all it would be.

However what we DO know is that there is a lot of talk about DK and MH having their term extended, and we DO know that there is no county board meeting scheduled for the foreseeable future. And it's all very well to say that the clubs can choose not to ratify, but it's not fair to say that when they don't get the chance to do so until after the majority of teams have been knocked out of their club championship campaign, and when the choice presented to them is to either take what you're given, or else leave Offaly back at square one at a time when 90% of counties have their managers and their coaching teams already in place.

Neither is it fair to say that when out of the 30-odd clubs in Offaly that field an adult football team, they could very heavily favour a clean break, but be outweighed by the top table, aided by the hurling-only clubs who in some cases, might have a very different agenda.

We don't know what the clubs will say - I can confidently predict the answers for four or five of them where I would be in regular touch with key members of their executives - but the only way we will know is to ask, and to ask now, not present them with it all done up in a nice neat little bow in two months' time.

Now I will happily accept that we don't know what the clubs will say, and I will happily respect that they should be the ultimate arbiters, but I've heard nothing to suggest that there is any willingness to actually find this out and act on the information. Instead, it's been treated like a hurdle that must be negotiated.

However neither can we say with certainty, or even confidence, that the "players and camp appear to be happy" as you put it. The players appear to be fit, the players appear to be committed to performing to the best of their ability for Offaly, and that's what I'd expect based on the handful of them that I would have had any conversations with. They're good, genuine lads.

But it's more than a little bit rich to look at a season that saw Offaly play 12 competitive games,, three of which (Derry/Laois/Wicklow) were an absolute debacle, and pick out the only three games that the team won and cite those as evidence that the camp is a happy one. Even Karoline Leavitt would struggle to say something like that with a straight face.

Im not citing those as evidence of a happy camp but i know that the camp is happy and everyone has their shoulder to the wheel.. and thats the way forward and its a culture created by declan kelly and mickey harte and if we start this shite of bringing back in wishy washy lads we are going backwards! The 3 games we won were in our championship, the championship that we should be prepping for so they are significant, they werw also against 2 promoted teams one of which will likely win the championship and who disposed of Donegal earlier in the year and lets not cod ourselves wicklow are no pushover, so to put no value on the games we won and put no context is non sensical.. the matches we lost were in the league, division 2 where we were destroyed with injuries, but if you want to just ignore the injuries to justify getting rid of a management team who won a division 3 title and actually had the team competing in our championship compared to previoys years its probably the best we've done in a long time. Its time to stick with a management team and develop a team and cultute instead of players whinging and dictating and throwing managers under the bus.

How can people say it’s a happy camp when everyone hears negative stories? The only way we will truly know how the camp feels is if there is a big turnover in the squad. But I suppose then people will say they were right to ‘get rid of’ any bad eggs.

Thomas mc wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 4:53 pm
Im not citing those as evidence of a happy camp but i know that the camp is happy and everyone has their shoulder to the wheel.. and thats the way forward and its a culture created by declan kelly and mickey harte and if we start this shite of bringing back in wishy washy lads we are going backwards!

So when I say we should ask the clubs and they should be central to the decision, your response is (reasonably enough) how do we know what the clubs think.

Then when it comes to the players, your evidence is "Trust me, Bro".

You can see why we'd be skeptical.

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 8:11 pm

Thomas mc wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2026 4:53 pm
Im not citing those as evidence of a happy camp but i know that the camp is happy and everyone has their shoulder to the wheel.. and thats the way forward and its a culture created by declan kelly and mickey harte and if we start this shite of bringing back in wishy washy lads we are going backwards!

So when I say we should ask the clubs and they should be central to the decision, your response is (reasonably enough) how do we know what the clubs think.

Then when it comes to the players, your evidence is "Trust me, Bro".

You can see why we'd be skeptical.

It is quite clear that there are people on here very closely connected or involved on some shape or form with management team who have a vested interest in trying to portray all is OK which it clearly is not and has not been. They are reluctant to accept any sort of constructive criticism. These issues appear to have been going on quite a while now, running back to early 2024 when there were reports of a toxic culture around the squad being reported by the players at the time. If some of what I have heard is true, it is quite scandalous and it is no wonder the players are looking for a change. To suggest the culture is in any way ok is quite troubling given the volume of stories reported by the players, and in that sense, if you dont know what good should look like, then you should not be in there in the first place. I have heard of this 'wishy washy' rhetoric thrown around before and it would appear to be closely affiliated with powerful influences in Offaly football. It was stated about some senior players who either left or left themselves which I think is disgraceful and not representative of the facts. No player who is willing to put lives on hold to play inter county football is 'wishy washy' despite such disrespectful put downs thrown around by some who may have no clue what it takes to be a county player.

Offaly GAA is the clubs, and if an executive tries to rail road a re appointment through with no mandate from the clubs and a strong mandate against same, I could see the next co board meeting to be very interesting indeed. If true re a 2 year term being imminent, it would appear that they have chosen not to listen to the clubs, or the players whom by all accounts have sought or are seeking change as posted above by another poster. Now if this player group is a senior group of players who are central to the team, then they need to be listened to.

They are the ones that will know best if things are right or otherwise. They are key and should be central in all this, and are the ones that make the massive sacrifices and put lives on hold to play for Offaly and their voices should be listened to, whatever that is. They know the levels required and what is happening in other counties. They'd all have played Sigerson etc with other county players and are well connected and have buddies in other set ups. Most would have a lot more experience of senior inter county football too than Declan Kelly, and I dont want to be disrespectful here, but lets be honest, he'd have come from a junior football background with Kilclonfert, and wouldn't have had any senior inter county experience before taking on the role. That is not his fault, that's the club level he came from and is not intended to be disparaging, but a bit more senior inter county experience in selector role may have stood to him before taking the role. It is a massive jump. Yea, some would say he did well in Lomans etc, and there are often different personalities involved, but if you'd talk to those involved in Lomans, you could get a very different picture of how things actually went there also...... Obviously Harte is there too but the man is well in his 70's at this stage and is down for the easy bucks.

On the back of proper conversations with senior players, they should then make a decision to either stick or twist. Not listening and rail roading a decision against wishes of key stakeholders can and will not end well and will set Offaly football back a long way. It is never the wrong time to do the right thing.