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Harsh Early Season Dose Of Reality For Off The Pace Offaly

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Niall Smith holds onto the ball as Mikey Conway moves in to challenge. TT037307.

Kildare 0-17. Offaly 0-4.

OVERWHELMING evidence of the task facing new Offaly senior football manager, Gerry Cooney was presented in St Conleth's Park, Newbridge on Sunday when they were ruthlessly brushed aside by Kildare in the quarter-final of the O'Byrne Cup.
A 0-17 to 0-4 defeat tells all that needs to be said about this game from an Offaly perspective, apart from the fact that it could have been worse as Kildare didn't really go the jugular in the second half, secure in the knowledge that their safe passage to a likely semi-final against Dublin was well and truly in the bag.
It provided a very harsh early season dose of reality for Offaly - Gerry Cooney was still in Africa on his charity/business trip but no doubt, when he views the DVD of this game, he will quickly classify it under his 'horror' section.
Offaly were just miles off the pace - In terms of pace, running, physique and strength, Kildare occupied a different planet and this was best illustrated in the first half, when they stormed into a 0-10 to 0-0 half time lead, after playing against the wind. It was humiliating stuff at times and the possibility of Offaly failing to score at all, loomed large at one stage.
Thankfully that nightmare scenario was averted: It would be hard for any management or team to recover from such a fiasco but in the second half, a mixture of Offaly digging deep and fighting for their pride and Kildare easing off the throttle allowed them to achieve a tiny measure of respectability.
The harsh facts about where Offaly are at the moment can't be ignored, but just as it is important to acknowledge this, it is also crucial that the redeeming factors are also presented.
Kildare are now four years into a pretty savage training programme under Armagh folk hero, Kieran McGeeney and Offaly are effectively starting from scratch under Gerry Cooney.
In recent years, Offaly's performances have been substandard and there is one hell of a long road to get up to Kildare's fitness levels. Coupled with this, Offaly's best footballer, Niall McNamee is currently on a sabbatical, established players such as Ciaran McManus and Karol Slattery have retired (We can certainly question the wisdom of letting them go as both still have something to offer and are still among the best players in Offaly) and other young players were tied with college teams.
It meant that Offaly took to the field with a new look and experimental team - A team which was good enough to get past Westmeath in the first round, though we knew Kildare would be a bridge too soon for them at this stage in their development.
It did not make for pretty viewing and the first half was quite horrendous but now is not the time for reaching for any panic buttons. Patience is needed as Offaly try to build from a low place and an O'Byrne Cup defeat in January does not make one iota of difference, in the broader scheme of things.
Everyone involved will know how bad Sunday was, how far off the pace they were and criticism is really a waste of energy and time at this point - It is about what they do to try and improve and get up somewhere near Kildare's level and in Newbridge, they were definitely given a benchmark to aim at.
They are miles off that place at the moment and on this occasion, the game was unique in that it was almost bereft of redeeming factors for the visitors. It was an impoverished display and particularly thought provoking was Offaly's inability to win 50/50 ball. They were quite simply overwhelmed in the physical exchanges and it was a real case of men against boys.
The power of the Kildare team was particularly noticeable and Offaly just couldn't compete.
Some players went well at different times but none found the consistency to deserve a good overall rating.
Kevin Meehan did make some timely interventions in goals and Brian Darby, Richie Dalton, Paul McConway, Derek Kelly and Ross Brady had a patch of productivity at different times while Kilmacud Crokes player, Brian Hanamy did some good things when introduced but in general, the less said about the individual performances, the better.
The first half made for very painful viewing for the large Offaly following. Offaly had first use of the wind but were completely over ran by a dominant Kildare. Kildare had three points on board by the seventh minute and at half time, they had extended their advantage to a whopping ten points. Offaly's inability to win contested ball meant that they were on the back foot for almost the entire thirty five minutes and they were thankful that Kildare were happy to kick points instead of search for goals.
A Willie Mulhall point 35 seconds after the restart drew ironic cheers and Offaly did compete better in the second half. Kildare went 0-13 to 0-1 ahead before Alan Mulhall got Offaly's second point from an 18th minute free.
The Mulhall cousins, Alan and Willie completed a clean sweep of the Offaly scores with a point each six minutes from time but Kildare were never under the slightest threat and won pulling up/

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