Manager urges calm as big win opens up new possibilities for Offaly minor footballers

IT has been a very strange year for Offaly minor footballers. They entered their Leinster championship campaign with a sense of anticipation, a weight of expectation that was a bit over the top.

That expectation was fuelled by a couple of things. This general group of players had looked very promising at U15 level, losing to Galway by a solitary point in the Adam Mangan tournament final in Kilclonfert. They then won the Leinster Minor Football League this year and that more than anything else, led to a sense of hype that was well out of balance.

It is conjecture about how much of a factor that pressure was but it looked like it was not going to happen for Offaly as they embarked on a stuttering championship campaign. They had spells of rich promise but it was all in the fits and starts category.

They made a flying start in their first group game against Dublin but were a beaten docket by half time. They had an excellent fifteen to twenty minute spell against Louth up in Hunterstown but were blown away in the second half. They did just enough to beat Laois in their final group game to qualify for a preliminary quarter-final in third place. They met Wicklow there, controlling the game for long periods before almost blowing up in the last ten minutes, regaining their composure in extra time for a comprehensive win – they were clearly the better team but were very fragile when Wicklow got a run on them and how the visitors weren't awarded a last gasp penalty at the end of normal time will remain one of the mysteries of the season.

It all meant that all hype was well and truly gone as they travelled more in hope than anything else to Navan for their quarter-final against Meath. By this stage, the mood of optimism had been very definitely replaced by one of pessimism and a general acceptance among supporters that this would be the end of the road.

Yet Offaly produced their best performance of the year by a mile, rallying late to get a fully deserved 4-11 to 2-14 win. It wasn't the perfect performance as they flirted with disaster. They could easily have scored a further 2-5 and they made some fairly sloppy mistakes in the closing quarter. It looked like they would pay the biggest punishment of all for them as Meath led by two points, 2-14 to 3-9 with time almost up. Offaly dug deep and they got the breaks they deserved. Their two star forwards Cian McNamee and Dylan Dunne combined brilliantly in the 59^th minute to create a goal that was not really on, sub Paddy Burns fisting to the net from the edge of the small square. Goalkeeper Jack Ryan finally found the range from a long range free, booting over a two pointer from one on the 45 metre line deep in injury time and Offaly were through.

They have been drawn at home to Kildare in the semi-finals next Wednesday evening. The controlled nature of a lot of their play, the composure they displayed in tight corners as they moved the ball from defence into attack was very impressive on Wednesday. It was certainly their most complete performance of the year. They had rocky moments but there was no real horror period like the second quarter against Dublin, the first ten minutes and the twenty minutes at the start of the second half against Louth or the closing ten minutes of normal time against Wicklow.

Instead, Offaly kept working, got the fundamentals of chasing every ball, tracking every man right for the most part and their poor football was in moments rather than in concerted periods where untold damage was inflicted. It was easily their most consistent display of the year and it suggests that they have turned a corner. No one in the management or squad will need to be told about the need to keep their feet on the ground but a new set of possibilities has opened up for Offaly and that is exciting.

Manager Roger Ryan knew that Offaly were capable of the performance in Navan and he had a sense that it was coming but like most observers, he had wondered.

“I knew it was coming and I know it is in the boys. It is there. To be honest, we hadn't played well. There were patches in games. We played well up in Hunterstown (v Louth) for twenty minutes after the initial disastrous first ten minutes. I thought they were outstanding, they kicked 11 points in twenty minutes football. We just had to try and get it together for a longer period of time but you will never dominate a game from start to finish at this level.

“I am just immensely proud of them. When push came to shove, we took it. They don't die, they don't give in. There were a couple of games where they lived on a tight rope. We did it there this evening but I felt overall we were slightly a better team. We spurned a good few chances up front but at fifteen, sixteen, they are going to do that. One of these days they are going to click and have a real complete performance.

“I am happy enough, we are where we set out to be and in a Leinster semi-final. We will see who we play in that.”

The Shannonbridge man stressed the youth of the players and the development stage they are at.

“It was end to end stuff. Look, there were a few mistakes made but that will happen. We do forget their age and everyone needs to realise that. I genuinely don't mind criticism myself, it doesn't bother me but everyone just relax, they are fifteen/sixteen years of age. They are learning and they are doing their best for Offaly. I have no problems with their commitment all year around. They have been tremendous boys to train and when we got the two knocks in the first two rounds, they came in on the Saturday morning after we lost to Louth on the Thursday night and said we are going to take Laois. That is their attitude. They just get on with it and I am happy enough with that.”

Ryan was relieved to get the win over Wicklow the previous week.

“We had won the game three or four times and then decided to let in silly goals. You know, I think we should have been well out of sight. I will be honest with you, I was very disappointed with our first half performance. I thought we forced a lot and had a lot of handling errors which we don't accept, it is not the standard we expect from the group. We had seven handpass turnovers in the first half so I was very disappointed at half time even though we were playing against the breeze and we were winning the game by six or seven points but it was not the standard we set. They set the standards for themselves, I just guide them. That is the reality. We set goals at the start of the year and what we are doing is guiding these boys to do what we set out to achieve.”

He was asked about the late mistakes in Navan that led to crucial Meath scores.

“I think if we had lost it, we would have paid a dear price for mistakes but then mistakes happen in underage football. We could have been five or six points up at half time having played down the scoring end, which is the O'Mahoney's end around here but when push came to shove, we did it. I am delighted about one thing. We worked on goals and we got them in the first few minutes. That was from the training ground so I am very very pleased with that aspect of it.

“Overall, I think we were the better team but you will never come up to Pairc Tailteann and win by seven or eight points. You will take one or two and that is the level when you get to quarter-finals or semi-finals. No one beats anyone by ten-fifteen points.”

Roger Ryan, directing affairs in Navan. Picture: Ger Rogers

The demise of Offaly U20 footballers this year and the early form of the minor footballers has led to questions being asked about how well the underage development squad system is working. Some observers have been asking if there is enough volume of work at county level and if the policy of relying on clubs to do a lot of the developing is the correct one. The questions are also being asked in hurling but Ryan urged people to be realistic.

“Ah I've no real thing on that. Listen, we won the league. The first two rounds, we weren't where we should have been but being honest with you, we have to be realistic in Offaly. We know there are expectations on this group but we are doing our best. Everyone in Offaly GAA, hurling and football, are doing their best. We are picking out of 70/80,000 people which is small and half of that is hurling, half is football so you are down to 30/40,000 people, the same as Leitrim.

“Expectations are great but control it.”

This group played well at U15 level and almost beat Galway in that Adam Mangan tournament final but Ryan said that needs to be forgotten about.

The team is a very different one in any event with a significant turnover of players. Goalkeeper Jack Ryan, Caden O'Beirne, Tadgh Kelly, Eamon Maher, Eoin Rouse, Cormac Farrell, Ruari Woods, Dylan Dunne, Aaron Daly, Cathal Weldon, Tony Furey and Stephen Byrne played in that final and against Meath on Wednesday evening. Cian McNamee was gone out of the development squad system at that stage but unsurprisingly returned to the fold and others have also stepped up.

Kilcormac-Killoughey duo, Jack O'Donoghue and Oisin Carroll are on the Offaly minor hurling team this year, not playing football. Joe Rouse, a player with the St Oliver Plunkett Club in Dublin, impressed everyone that day with his toughness and desire and he was subsequently told that he couldn't declare for Offaly until after minor level – hopefully he will come back into the equation at U20 level in the next couple of years,

Ryan had another point to make about that U15 team.

“Yeah but at U15 level they played Galway and I am not taking away from those boys but they played half of Galway. They played Meath in a semi-final and it was half of Meath. It was two years ago, three months makes a huge difference in terms of athleticism, size. These young lads go through a growth spurt at fifteen, sixteen. What happened at fifteen is parked.”

Offaly's success in winning the league also led to anticipation that this team could be good but Ryan knew it didn't represent anything special.

“Yeah, we were going grand and we probably targeted one or two games. Galway in particular down in Ballinasloe and we got the draw out of that. I was probably happy with that. After that, we chopped and changed quite a bit. When we got to a final, we wanted to win it and we did but in the grander scheme of things, it was a league. The likes of Meath wasn't in it and I was very aware of where we were at in terms of the big boys. Louth lost the semi-final or quarter-final to Westmeath. I was at it over in Killucan and it wasn't a reflection of what Louth really were. I knew that. I knew when we were going up to Hunterstown we had a big game ahead of us.”

Offaly made a few changes for the Meath game and they worked. Tomas Carroll was very steady on the full back line, Charlie Duffy had a powerful game at midfield, scoring 2-1, and the selection of Eoin Rouse, a first cousin of the above mentioned Joe Rouse, at wing back instead of midfield worked spectacularly as he produced a man of the match display.

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Ryan acknowledged that their team had a better balance.

“It did but this all restarts tomorrow morning again and it is up for grabs. Some lads came in and did well. Charlie had an excellent game this evening. Charlie had been excellent for us earlier in the year. His form dipped but Charlie has been coming back training and he never gave in. Eoin Rouse, we felt we weren't attacking as much down the left hand side as we should have been. Eoin brought that depth down that side and to be honest with you, Meath set up very very defensive and we knew we needed to get the spread. We knew we would have a lot of play across the line and when we had, we were happy with Eoin coming down that channel.”