Offaly v Sligo

[magpie seanie]

Teams from that game in 2017:


SLIGO: D Cafferkey; E McGuinness, L Nicholson, M Gordon; G O'Kelly-Lynch, P McNamara, S Power; D Cummins, P Kilcoyne; S Connolly, P O'Connor (0-5, 3f), J O'Reilly; K Cawley (1-2, 1-0 pen), A McLoughlin (1-2), L Gaughan (0-4, 2f).

Subs: S Carrabine for Connolly (35), N Mullen for Cummins (44), J Perry (0-1) for McLoughlin (54), K Banks for Nicholson (59), B Mahon for McGuinness (65), D Cummins for Kilcoyne (65), D Kilgallen for O'Kelly-Lynch (68).


GALWAY: R Ó Beoláin; L Kelly, S Ó Ceallaigh, R Greene; K Molloy, D McHugh, C McDaid (0-3); P Cooke (0-2, 1f), C Brennan; A Ó Laoi (0-1), M Daly (1-3, 1f), C Brady (0-1); R Finnerty (0-5, 3f), P Mannion, D Conneely.

Subs: C D'Arcy (0-3) for Brennan (28), S Kelly (2-1) for Ó Laoi (29), E Finnerty (0-1) for Brady (30), E Lee for Mannion (39), M Boyle for Conneely (49), C Haslam for Ó Beoláin (55), C Brennan for E Finnerty (black card FT), C Mannion for Kelly (75), P Ó Curraoin for Molloy (78), W Finnerty for McDaid (78).

[sligoman]

McGuinness hasn't really progressed as I'd hoped since he was minor. He looked a big prospect then.

[Maroon Manc]

Teams from that game in 2017:


SLIGO: D Cafferkey; E McGuinness, L Nicholson, M Gordon; G O'Kelly-Lynch, P McNamara, S Power; D Cummins, P Kilcoyne; S Connolly, P O'Connor (0-5, 3f), J O'Reilly; K Cawley (1-2, 1-0 pen), A McLoughlin (1-2), L Gaughan (0-4, 2f).

Subs: S Carrabine for Connolly (35), N Mullen for Cummins (44), J Perry (0-1) for McLoughlin (54), K Banks for Nicholson (59), B Mahon for McGuinness (65), D Cummins for Kilcoyne (65), D Kilgallen for O'Kelly-Lynch (68).


GALWAY: R Ó Beoláin; L Kelly, S Ó Ceallaigh, R Greene; K Molloy, D McHugh, C McDaid (0-3); P Cooke (0-2, 1f), C Brennan; A Ó Laoi (0-1), M Daly (1-3, 1f), C Brady (0-1); R Finnerty (0-5, 3f), P Mannion, D Conneely.

Subs: C D'Arcy (0-3) for Brennan (28), S Kelly (2-1) for Ó Laoi (29), E Finnerty (0-1) for Brady (30), E Lee for Mannion (39), M Boyle for Conneely (49), C Haslam for Ó Beoláin (55), C Brennan for E Finnerty (black card FT), C Mannion for Kelly (75), P Ó Curraoin for Molloy (78), W Finnerty for McDaid (78).

Now my knowledge of the current team is limited Seanie, Galway had 7 involved from the 2017 last Sunday with another 2 players in R Finnerty & D'Arcy who've played championship football.

[SLIGONIAN]

Hiring Taylor fast tracked retirements not that, that was a bad thing. If OHara knew writing was on the wall why did he even bother going for the job?

I think with a better manager we could of stayed up, Beat Down and offaly, and who knows. So much self defeatist jargon coming out.

The experience the younger players are getting now, is a losing mentality. Losing consistently is not good experience. Are we learning, I don't think so. It is very unlikely mcdonnell ever plays for us again, and Cian is showing no signs of going home here.

Do you honestly think Taylor is the man to develop the young players? When do results matter where Taylor is concerned?

I have to disagree there, we have a bunch of kids, the club scene in the county must be one of the worst in the country and as for fast tracking retirements, it had to be done whether voluntary or forced. Guys like Egan, Breheny, Harrison and Donovan have been terrific servants to the county and stayed on the last few years to help the side out when it would have been much easier to walk away - but we had to turn a new page at some point and while the short term they may have helped us this year, the bottom line is other players are getting the opportunity.

Losing experience is experience, I think we would have been far better suited in Division 4 this year. Next year we start at the level that football in Sligo is currently at, that's where we are at in the present. The good thing is the squad is young, they will improve and get acclimatised to the demands of senior football.

It will be 3 or 4 years before Sligo have realistic ambitions of getting back to a decent level, who the best man is to bring that on we will see but I think you need to be realistic. It's been the same moans with Flanagan, Carew, Corey and now Taylor, the players aren't there. We've been relying on veterans who have been well past their best to carry this team on their back in recent years. You look at when Kevin Walsh left - how many decent players are in Sligo from the ages of 23-29 right now? Murphy, McDonnell, possibly Cian Breheny? That is it, Sligo football has been an utter embarrassment for years. We seemed to have turned a corner at underage in recent years but for about 7 or 8 years before that we endured hammerings after hammerings.

I remember McDonnell and Breheny playing in an u21 Connacht Championship game a few years back where they lost to Roscommon by about 30 points. The results of the senior teams are the results of years of ineptitude at county board level - a manager can't fix problems that are that deep rooted. We have the young players coming through now, it will take them time but there is reason for optimism down the line but I could have down you 5 years ago to write off the next few years.

We should be looking at the likes of Derry who look to have used a terrible year last year to press the reset button and build to the future, I don't see what changing the manager will accomplish when the manager hasn't been the problem for the past 5 odd years.

Out of interest, what players that are playing for Sligo right now would you say are at the right level? I'd say we have about 5 players in our squad capable of holding their own at Div 2 level, many of them are very green and will develop and grow but right now that's about it.

I am going to start on your latest post about McGuinness, he was huge prospect but that injury he got and was year out looks to have curtailed his progress massively. Never really regained what he had.

The Club scene for me is irrelevant in some ways, having been involved myself, most of the county players don't really care about the club, there focus is county, they rarely play club, thats been my first hand experience. Secondly our club scene has been terrible for years for the most part but yet we got to connacht finals in 2010, 2012 and 2015 and underage connacht finals in 2015 and 2017 and various connacht finals in schools and AI b titles. You talk about underage, we have been more than competitive for years now, the schools success, what has come through from the David maye underage teams years ago, the niall murphy u21 side was good, etc... how did we f**k that up, look at all the managers you named, none of them were any good. The point is whatever the state of the club scene the teams we have had the last few years we should be in a hell of alot better position than we are now.

Saying we don't have the players is is a cop out, purely designed to take the heat off Taylor and CB, do you think all those retirees saw the manager selection, why is Kyle Cawley not involved, why isnt Cian at home,  what happened the minors of 2015, u21s of 2017, what did we do to develop them, what have we learned. The key bit we could change is at least select a manager with pedigree and experience o developing players. We seem blind and head in the sand in this regard.

Picking consistently poor managers is not doing us any favours. But for sure for me the CB are more accountable.  Taylor has no clue or experience in developing players. He has no clue how to get this team to learn. He cant even get them to translate great training apparently to on the field. He cant communicate without waffling.

Win or learn. We are not learning. Give me one example how we learned from Mayo connacht final in 2015. 4 yrs later and we are conceding 5 goals to Louth. The CB have picked a rookie inexperienced manager, even less experienced than flanagan, carew, corey. No lessons learned there. What have we learned in terms of developing players.

Sligoman you refer to 1 hamnmering our u21s got, we got to a u21 final which we could of won in ealry 2010s, our minors ran Galway close in those years when they were winning AIs, mentioning mcdonnell tells me your completely out of touch.

CK direct question, what on earth tells you Taylor can develop players compared with other previous managers? Give me one example that makes you think we are learning? Our CB aren't by the looks of things.

[sligoman]

Hiring Taylor fast tracked retirements not that, that was a bad thing. If OHara knew writing was on the wall why did he even bother going for the job?

I think with a better manager we could of stayed up, Beat Down and offaly, and who knows. So much self defeatist jargon coming out.

The experience the younger players are getting now, is a losing mentality. Losing consistently is not good experience. Are we learning, I don't think so. It is very unlikely mcdonnell ever plays for us again, and Cian is showing no signs of going home here.

Do you honestly think Taylor is the man to develop the young players? When do results matter where Taylor is concerned?

I have to disagree there, we have a bunch of kids, the club scene in the county must be one of the worst in the country and as for fast tracking retirements, it had to be done whether voluntary or forced. Guys like Egan, Breheny, Harrison and Donovan have been terrific servants to the county and stayed on the last few years to help the side out when it would have been much easier to walk away - but we had to turn a new page at some point and while the short term they may have helped us this year, the bottom line is other players are getting the opportunity.

Losing experience is experience, I think we would have been far better suited in Division 4 this year. Next year we start at the level that football in Sligo is currently at, that's where we are at in the present. The good thing is the squad is young, they will improve and get acclimatised to the demands of senior football.

It will be 3 or 4 years before Sligo have realistic ambitions of getting back to a decent level, who the best man is to bring that on we will see but I think you need to be realistic. It's been the same moans with Flanagan, Carew, Corey and now Taylor, the players aren't there. We've been relying on veterans who have been well past their best to carry this team on their back in recent years. You look at when Kevin Walsh left - how many decent players are in Sligo from the ages of 23-29 right now? Murphy, McDonnell, possibly Cian Breheny? That is it, Sligo football has been an utter embarrassment for years. We seemed to have turned a corner at underage in recent years but for about 7 or 8 years before that we endured hammerings after hammerings.

I remember McDonnell and Breheny playing in an u21 Connacht Championship game a few years back where they lost to Roscommon by about 30 points. The results of the senior teams are the results of years of ineptitude at county board level - a manager can't fix problems that are that deep rooted. We have the young players coming through now, it will take them time but there is reason for optimism down the line but I could have down you 5 years ago to write off the next few years.

We should be looking at the likes of Derry who look to have used a terrible year last year to press the reset button and build to the future, I don't see what changing the manager will accomplish when the manager hasn't been the problem for the past 5 odd years.

Out of interest, what players that are playing for Sligo right now would you say are at the right level? I'd say we have about 5 players in our squad capable of holding their own at Div 2 level, many of them are very green and will develop and grow but right now that's about it.

I am going to start on your latest post about McGuinness, he was huge prospect but that injury he got and was year out looks to have curtailed his progress massively. Never really regained what he had.

The Club scene for me is irrelevant in some ways, having been involved myself, most of the county players don't really care about the club, there focus is county, they rarely play club, thats been my first hand experience. Secondly our club scene has been terrible for years for the most part but yet we got to connacht finals in 2010, 2012 and 2015 and underage connacht finals in 2015 and 2017 and various connacht finals in schools and AI b titles. You talk about underage, we have been more than competitive for years now, the schools success, what has come through from the David maye underage teams years ago, the niall murphy u21 side was good, etc... how did we f**k that up, look at all the managers you named, none of them were any good. The point is whatever the state of the club scene the teams we have had the last few years we should be in a hell of alot better position than we are now.

Saying we don't have the players is is a cop out, purely designed to take the heat off Taylor and CB, do you think all those retirees saw the manager selection, why is Kyle Cawley not involved, why isnt Cian at home,  what happened the minors of 2015, u21s of 2017, what did we do to develop them, what have we learned. The key bit we could change is at least select a manager with pedigree and experience o developing players. We seem blind and head in the sand in this regard.

Picking consistently poor managers is not doing us any favours. But for sure for me the CB are more accountable.  Taylor has no clue or experience in developing players. He has no clue how to get this team to learn. He cant even get them to translate great training apparently to on the field. He cant communicate without waffling.

Win or learn. We are not learning. Give me one example how we learned from Mayo connacht final in 2015. 4 yrs later and we are conceding 5 goals to Louth. The CB have picked a rookie inexperienced manager, even less experienced than flanagan, carew, corey. No lessons learned there. What have we learned in terms of developing players.

Sligoman you refer to 1 hamnmering our u21s got, we got to a u21 final which we could of won in ealry 2010s, our minors ran Galway close in those years when they were winning AIs, mentioning mcdonnell tells me your completely out of touch.

CK direct question, what on earth tells you Taylor can develop players compared with other previous managers? Give me one example that makes you think we are learning? Our CB aren't by the looks of things.

Again, I think an awful lot of that is completely unrealistic.

We didn't have great minor teams for a long time, the minor side with Maye was not a great side - Maye was hailed as the next big thing in Sligo football and was a very big talent but he left Ireland at around 22/23 right after the Connacht final in 2012 I think (he may have played another year) and unfortunately we lost a big talent that a county like us couldn't really afford. There was a huge gap of talent that came through underage in those years and I don't see how Carew, Corey, Flanagan and Taylor should be burdened with taking the flak for county board incompetence.

Regarding the club scene, it's absolutely paramount. The club scene has fallen off a cliff in recent seasons. The Sligo Championship used to be competitive, the senior champions like Harps, Tourlestrane, Curry used to be consistently competitive at Connacht level - Curry and Harps made finals in 00s and they had wins over Galway, Roscommon, Mayo champions in that time and plenty of narrow defeats. Now it's an absolute procession for Tourlestrane who are probably not as good a club side as they were 10/15 years and they have failed badly in Connacht although they performed a little better this year.

A good club scene reflects a good county scene. We've had squad panelists in the past few years that were playing club football in Dublin and not even get a game with those clubs - what does that tell you in turn about club football in Sligo when we don't have guys playing regularly for their clubs who can offer more? For players outside the county scene, the club should be a driver for players to develop and push themselves on - you won't get that in Sligo. Pretty much any player in Sligo football who does not progress instantly from an underage squad to the senior squad now has absolutely no hope of making it in county football with Sligo and the reason is because the club football is so bad. Historically Sligo has also been able to bring lads in at 23/24 for their first senior call up and they've been able to make a good impact at county level because we had a decent club scene back then. I go to club games in Sligo, some of the tops senior clubs would look out of their depth in the junior ranks of the top footballing counties. Until such time as the club scene improves, we won't be making any notable impact. An ordinary enough Tourlestrane side are absolute certs for 4 in a row this year - nobody has done that in 60 odd years.

The intermediate and junior ranks are getting worse in anything. Well done to Easkey this year but they were not a junior club to begin with.

Saying we don't have the players is reality. I think he probably did, I think those retirements were well overdue and were holding us back. I say that with the utmost respect for guys like Harrison, Breheny, Donovan etc too - they have played on when it was much easier to walk away and without them we would have been down 2 years ago but that probably wouldn't have been a bad thing. We should have just sucked it up and press the reset button then.

Kyle Cawley? Cian Breheny? I think they have taken a look at Sligo football and the current state of it and said it doesn't matter who is in this year, we're going nowhere. Both play club football in Sligo and both have intercounty experience - that's enough to let you have a good gauge on whether the players are there and they are not. The minors of 2015 and u21s of 2017? Sure they squad is pretty much completely backboned by those teams, Taylor is currently building a team around those players. The fact is though that is probably not a county in the whole country right now who have as young, inexperienced and physically lacking a squad as Sligo have and if you can't come to your senses and see that I don't know what to say.

Nothing gets more at me than just aimlessly blaming managers. Taylor might have his failings, Carew, Corey and Flanagan too but the reality is that it didn't matter what players they had - no manager was going to do much better.

I think you overrate the level of football in Sligo, if you go club games it's a real eye opener and Sligo is one of the counties with the smallest number of clubs so it's not as if the sample size might be misleading - that's the reason we don't impact at county level. You mention the schools which is fine but both Summerhill and Attractas have the pick of Sligo at their disposal - look at the failings of all the other schools in the county. They don't overachieve in Connacht either, they go up against similarly sized schools and compete with them - it's not as what they are doing is a remarkable achievement.

Since the Mayo defeat in 2015, we have had 3 different managers. You just need to accept that this year, next year and probably the year after that is all going to be about player development. These lads right now are young, inexperienced and miles off the strength and conditioning needed for intercounty level. Until such time as they get up to that level there are going to be embarrassing results.

Taylor is a low cost, low expectation appointment. Nobody else wanted the job for a start, he has came in and to his credit, whether by choice or without choice he has had to completely overhaul the playing squad. It's good to see new faces in there, young guys with plenty of potential and I am fully realistic that what we have right now is nowhere near what is required but I'm optimistic in a few years time when these lads develop we can have a decent team again.

I think you're being completely delusional about the level of footballer currently available in Sligo and that is something Taylor or his predecessors have had no control over - they can only pick from the pool of players available to them and now and over the past 5 years that pool has been at a very low ebb and is probably at its lowest right now.

[ck]

+1

[Owenmoresider]

A fine summation there sligoman.

The decline in the standard of club football in the county is undoubtedly a major part in the decline of the county's fortunes at senior level. In the noughties it wasn't just Curry, Harps and Tourlestrane, there was a decent supporting cast of teams that could keep them honest and some occasionally got success of their own, the likes of Coolera, Mary's, John's, Easkey, Bunninadden, Ballymote, Castleconnor etc. It made for a decent senior grade at least, even if the lower grades weren't hectic. Now it's rather like the intercounty scene - one team clear out in front with 2/3 teams striving to keep with them, and the rest well back. No team retained the county title for nearly thirty years until Tourlestrane did it two years ago, and not alone did they win 3 in a row but it was a championship/league double 3 in a row. I'm not even sure if Tour have even lost a league game in the last 7/8 years. It is admirable consistency, but their team is hardly that much if at all better than the teams they had since the late 90's, which says much about where we are now.

Then you have those clubs, two in particular, that may be making progress but frankly for the size of their area ought to be at the very least seriously challenging for the senior title and indeed junior too, given how few clubs we have there. And another cause for concern is the state of football in the few towns and urban areas we have as well, one not even having a functioning club at present.

The schools is a good point too. Yes the big two schools may be competitive but they have a big enough area to pick from so ought to be. Not sure if it's still the case now but around 15-20 years ago Summerhill had the highest boys enrolment of any school in the country. Even with the distraction of certain other sports they ought to be winning more. And for all that between the two schools they have only managed a single Connacht senior title between them, and like with the county underage a litany of final losses in that time. And strange as it may seem there but are other schools in the county too, those of us in east, mid and west Sligo shouldn't be just ignored either because we, rather like in the higher echelons of Irish society, didn't go to the right school.

[SLIGONIAN]

I think ye are all missing the point.

I am not blaming Taylor for any of this current situation or previous managers. But what I am saying is having Taylor there for me kills any chance of us progressing or developing. Taylor has not overhauled the team or squad through choice or innovation. Hes had no choice in that regard. Can Taylor develop these players? That's my question. For me its a no from what I have seen. Just explain that to me what makes you think he can.

With regards to the state of club football, Taylor has no effect on that or schools so its irrelevant. Who is responsible for the Club game. The CB, what exactly is being done to improve the club game? Improving the standard is a long term overhaul. What are we going to do differently. I agree its in a bad way. But again its irrelevant to Taylor. Taylor was begged to take it, but the CB ignored a lot of applicants too. If you think no one else wanted it your deluded and misinformed. I don't care if you think we were unattractive there was interest. Hyland going to Leitrim was a big coup for them.

Just because we have the players we have and just because they are getting game time doesn't mean there learning in the right way picking up good habits or being managed in the right way. Experience for the sake of experience is not learning or enough of reason to keep Taylor. We need a better manager even now.

Taylor is not the source of the issue but he is a symptom of a CB who are terrible decision makers. They lack foresight, lack any kind of football intelligence to solve our issues, in fact they perpetuate them. Look at their Managerial selections, its a scandal. They have destroyed any potential progression the last few years and I just see their backing of Taylor as blind as they have been in the past. Taylor is very unlikely to have it in him to develop these players or future ones in the way we need going forward. 

What is being done to improve the club game?

[sligoman]

I think ye are all missing the point.

I am not blaming Taylor for any of this current situation or previous managers. But what I am saying is having Taylor there for me kills any chance of us progressing or developing. Taylor has not overhauled the team or squad through choice or innovation. Hes had no choice in that regard. Can Taylor develop these players? That's my question. For me its a no from what I have seen. Just explain that to me what makes you think he can.

With regards to the state of club football, Taylor has no effect on that or schools so its irrelevant. Who is responsible for the Club game. The CB, what exactly is being done to improve the club game? Improving the standard is a long term overhaul. What are we going to do differently. I agree its in a bad way. But again its irrelevant to Taylor. Taylor was begged to take it, but the CB ignored a lot of applicants too. If you think no one else wanted it your deluded and misinformed. I don't care if you think we were unattractive there was interest. Hyland going to Leitrim was a big coup for them.

Just because we have the players we have and just because they are getting game time doesn't mean there learning in the right way picking up good habits or being managed in the right way. Experience for the sake of experience is not learning or enough of reason to keep Taylor. We need a better manager even now.

Taylor is not the source of the issue but he is a symptom of a CB who are terrible decision makers. They lack foresight, lack any kind of football intelligence to solve our issues, in fact they perpetuate them. Look at their Managerial selections, its a scandal. They have destroyed any potential progression the last few years and I just see their backing of Taylor as blind as they have been in the past. Taylor is very unlikely to have it in him to develop these players or future ones in the way we need going forward. 

What is being done to improve the club game?

But you're calling for Taylor to go 6 months into a job nobody else would take on. It's going to be 3 years before any manager of a decent calibre will be interested in taking the Sligo job on. They look at the profile of the players available now and they see a bunch of kids with no real experience of intercounty football. Any manager would have struggled to keep us in Div 3 year, Jim Gavin or Jim McGuinness could have been over us and they would still probably have failed to keep us up. That is the reality.

I don't know how you can say Taylor hasn't developed the players when he's been 6 months in the job, can you possibly make that sort of a judgement after so short a time. You can make judgements on results, on performances and to be quite honest, the results and performances are what I expected at the start of the season and that expectation was solely as a result of the players available and the state of Sligo football. No matter who the manager was this year, I was conscious that this was going to be the reality and most Sligo fans I know and have spoken to would feel the same on the matter before Taylor was appointed and after.

The remit now is not performances, it is not results. It's about blooding new players and developing them, that is the remit of the job for this year and probably the next 2 years. If that goes to plan then we might be able to attract a better manager if Taylor is not the man for it but it basically seems that you had your mind made up on Taylor before you have even given him a chance. There might be some logic to it if it wasn't for the fact nobody wanted the job in the first place and you can understand that. The team needs stability now and I think Taylor should be there next year to continue the overhaul that has started.

I think your expectations of Sligo this year have been out of kilter with the reality of the situation.

As for the clubs, I think it has to be club driven itself. I think there are too many big amalgamated clubs like Harps, Molaise Gaels etc that the county board should be trying to intervent with. St Johns area a perfect example of a club with a big catchment area who seem to have varying success at underage but there then have huge issues in terms or retention at senior level. I think a lot of clubs let players slip away over the years with not enough of a fight.

The biggest factor is that there doesn't seem to be the same drive or culture in Sligo clubs that there is in other counties, Tourlestrane aside. If all the clubs in Sligo were as well organised and at the heart of the community as Tourlestrane is then the club scene would be in a much healthier state.

The likes of Coolaney/Mullinabreena and Owenmore Gaels have shown some encouraging signs of progress in recent years but ultimately the clubs themselves need to drive it and the county board should be making it their number one priority to facilitate this.

[LooseCannon]

I know that the thread would be fairly quiet, but is there any chance that the Sligo sob story could be relocated?
Do ye not have yer own section?

[Hound]

I know that the thread would be fairly quiet, but is there any chance that the Sligo sob story could be relocated?
Do ye not have yer own section?

Fair play LC, get stuck in.
And that bowsie AZ giving no dig out , you have to do it all on yer own!

[Ball Hopper]

We'll make a point of having next year's Christy Ring game between the two run to more pages than this one...

[SLIGONIAN]

LC this thread would be 3 post max thread if we weren't airing our crap, let's call a spade a spade

[LooseCannon]

LC this thread would be 3 post max thread if we weren't airing our crap, let's call a spade a spade

It's a spade alright.
Offaly remain unchanged from the last two games.
1. Patrick Dunican (Shamrocks)
2. Declan Hogan (Tullamore)
3. Eoin Rigney (Rhode)
4. David Dempsey (Ballycommon)
5. Cian Donohue (St Brigid's)
6. Johnny Moloney (Tullamore)
7. Niall Darby (Rhode)
8. Eoin Carroll (Cappincur)
9. Peter Cunningham (Bracknagh)
10. Shane Horan (Kilmacud Crokes)
11. Anton Sullivan (Rhode)
12. Cathal Mangan (Kilclonfert)
13. Bernard Allen (Tubber)
14. Niall McNamee (Rhode)
15. Ruairí McNamee (Rhode)

[Mano]

I'm with Sligonian on this one. I cannot understand the Paul Taylor love-in around the county and amongst some of the Sligo posters on here. He is a nice and popular guy around the county but as the County senior manager he should be judged on results and performances. Results are 9 defeats from 9 games. They won their first challenge game against Limerick lately. Some of the performancea have been atrocious especially defensively conceding 5-16 against Louth and 15 goals during the league. He is out of his depth unfortunately, tactically naive and selecting players out of position. He should never have talen the job. A few years managing Harps or another club senior club team should be the minimum requirement for stepping up to manage a county side.
Young players will not commit and make the sacrifices if a young inexperienced manager is their leader. They require some structure, experience provided by a manager with pedigree rather than rhe cheap alternative.