Uibh Fhailí - Cill Dara Saturday July 4th, Tellamore

[Bord na Mona man]

A lot of positives for Offaly on Saturday. On a couple of occasions when you suspected Kildare were going to pull away, Offaly came storming back. In other years this might not have been the case. The effort didn't wilt and the players showed a bit of adventure in their play throughout

In the end Offaly weren't streetwise enough to close the deal and while we were close at times, I didn't believe a shock was a realistic possibility. The players will be disappointed with some of the poor decisions in possession and certain turnovers where the ball was softly spilled out of the Offaly player's hand, when a bit more strength would have seen them running into space.

A key difference between the sides was that Kildare could play long balls to the full forward line and had ball winners like Alan Smith to win the duels. Offaly had to either carry it in, or play it low into the corners. Niall McNamee wasn't in great shape and had to resort to one handed pick ups and catches and was easily knocked off it. In retrospect, it wasn't the day for him to play and also I'm sure the management might regret whipping off Nigel Dunne a couple of minutes before they realised Niall was goosed.

Offaly optimism should be tempered a little with the reality that Kildare are no great shakes and hit a stack of wides. Their tackling was bad - at least a dozen above the shoulder drag backs on runners that could have led to more black cards (the one on TSG highlights in the build-up to Offaly's goal being a text book example). They continually overcarried despite the ref continually blowing for it and committed bovine fouls like blatant shoves in the back. People might cite the 6 day turnaround, but those are the hallmarks of a team not going particularly well.

Offaly have improved by a decent measure in 2015 and have opened the door to improving a bit more in 2016.

[twohands!!!]

Ha! No need to congrats. Delaying the inevitable but there is something sweet around South Kildare when you knock Laois out of the senior and minor and Offaly out of the Senior, u21 and minor. Little victories and all that.

How would you rate Jason Ryan's chances of staying on?

[Dinny Breen]

Ha! No need to congrats. Delaying the inevitable but there is something sweet around South Kildare when you knock Laois out of the senior and minor and Offaly out of the Senior, u21 and minor. Little victories and all that.

How would you rate Jason Ryan's chances of staying on?

Pretty much dead man walking.

[twohands!!!]

Ha! No need to congrats. Delaying the inevitable but there is something sweet around South Kildare when you knock Laois out of the senior and minor and Offaly out of the Senior, u21 and minor. Little victories and all that.

How would you rate Jason Ryan's chances of staying on?

Pretty much dead man walking.

Yeah was thinking that even a handful of qualifier victories were unlikely to help him out much.

I do remember seeing a thing in soccer (I know a different sport) but the record of assistant coaches who step up to being manager tends to be very poor. Fitzmaurice in Kerry is the only exception I can think of off the top of my head.

[Dinny Breen]

I thought his appointment as assistant manager was a good one, had done reasonable well with Wexford, young and was coming into Kildare as a succession plan for McGeeney's inevitable exit. The problem was he was only there when the sh*t hit the fan.

He got away with a lot in Wexford because they as a county tend to focus more on their hurlers, Kildare though is football country, two large regional newspapers in the Leinster Leader and Kildare Nationalist, a dedicated radio station KFM and even the Herald devotes more to Kildare than any other county outside Dublin. His every utterance gets quoted, whereas Micko/McGeeney would inspire he comes across very poorly and badly in need of media training.

I stated this before but we haven't developed as a team and apart from Donnellan in goals I can't think of any Kildare player that has progressed and he doesn't promote youth. We have gone backwards, some of that is financial, some of that is the loss of senior players but the biggest part is mental and tactically we look lost.
It's galling for me to Cian O'Neill, Niall Carew, Ronan Sweeney, Tom Cribben all involved in provincial finals whereas we have a numpty in charge of Kildare. Throw in Glen Ryan who did well with Longford and surely among those 5 there is a serious management team ready to push Kildare on again .

[Croí na hÉireann]

I wouldn't class him as a numpty Dinny. I have been surprised at how far Kildare have gone back but there is a bit of a perfect storm there. As you alluded, the money and support that was there for McGeeney isn't there anymore, senior players have retired and the experienced players that are left look physically and mentally drained after the huge effort put in under McGeeney's reign. The intense focus on football in Kildare wouldn't be helping the situation and I agree that he probably got away with stuff with Wexford that he isn't in Kildare. This is just his difficult second album that will in all likelihood end in a low key release soon.

[Dinny Breen]

I wouldn't class him as a numpty Dinny. I have been surprised at how far Kildare have gone back but there is a bit of a perfect storm there. As you alluded, the money and support that was there for McGeeney isn't there anymore, senior players have retired and the experienced players that are left look physically and mentally drained after the huge effort put in under McGeeney's reign. The intense focus on football in Kildare wouldn't be helping the situation and I agree that he probably got away with stuff with Wexford that he isn't in Kildare. This is just his difficult second album that will in all likelihood end in a low key release soon.

Perhaps with a more experienced bunch of players like he had in Wexford he would do better but we need someone who can drive on young players, something akin to John Evans in Roscommon. His record label will be dropping him shortly, so I can't see him getting a 3rd album out any time soon.