The Offaly Football Mess Continues Unabated..

[Dinny Breen]

Gerry Cooney has tendered his resignation as Offaly senior football manager.

The Meath man was only at the Faithful County helm for six months but oversaw a nightmare national football league campaign which culminated in relegation to the basement tier, with Offaly losing six of their seven Spring outings.

Cooney's departure comes eight weeks before the midlanders open their Leinster SFC campaign against neighbours Kildare, on June 17th.

After a long meeting with the panel last night, Cooney decided to step aside in the best interests of Offaly football. The County Board have reluctantly accepted his resignation.

Just two weeks ago, Cooney reaffirmed his commitment to the post and said he had no intention of going anywhere. The likes of Ross Brady, Richie Dalton and Niall Smith had left the squad and in the end something had to give.

The statement from Offaly County Board this morning reads:

"Offaly County Board Chairman Pat Teehan has issued a statement saying that it is with regret that he reluctantly accepts the resignation of Gerry Cooney as Offaly Senior Football Manager. Gerry and his management team had a lengthy meeting with the panel of players last night and afterwards Gerry tendered his resignation in what he described as the best interest of Offaly Football.

"Pat Teehan thanked Gerry for his loyalty, commitment and 100% dedication to the long term future of Offaly football.

"Offaly County Board will now commence the process of putting in place, an interim management, for the Championship. Offaly County Board or Gerry Cooney will not be issuing any further statement at this time."

[Donnellys Hollow]

Pascal Kelleghan to take over the reins maybe?

[heffo]

All the stars are aligning for Kildare's unremorseful march towards Leinster & beyond.

[AZOffaly]

It could well be Pascal. There are others, notably Tom Coffey and Stephen Darby who arguably earned the right before this but have been spurned by the County Board. I firmly believe the County Board is paying for a serious short sighted approach when they culled Paul O'Kelly in 2003 and Gerry Fahy in 2004. They lost in a reply to Laois in 2003, who won Leinster, and by a point to Westmeath in 2004, who also won Leinster. In 2006 Offaly qualified for a Leinster Final, albeit one they lost comfortably to the Dubs.

But O'Kelly had a 5 year plan, and it had a chance. With the few decent minors and U21s coming through now, you need someone else with a strategic vision like that, not a short term band aid. Unfortunately our county board has proven that it is not prepared to live with plateaus or dips in a medium to long term plan.

The players must shoulder their share of the blame, but when the situation is so unsettled with a lack of continuity from year to year, it's not surprising that their bad mental traits are allowed to come to the fore, instead of being encouraged to adapt the right attitudes in a calm, settled, focussed set up. Kildare is probably a role model for the way a senior panel should be run, and even though we don't have the resources of Kildare, we do have some decent footballers that deserve a settled environment so they can grow up as County footballers.

Of course all the truisms about structures, etc, are also true here, but they are not bad in Offaly at the moment, and they need to be developed in tandem with a strategic vision for the senior team, not at the expense of it. No point throwing away a generation now for the chance of a good side in 10 years time. Why not both? they are not mutually exclusive aims, and in fact a good senior set up can be invaluable as a boost to those underage structures.

I suppose we couldn't let Meath get all the limelight.

[AZOffaly]

All the stars are aligning for Kildare's unremorseful march towards Leinster & beyond.

that's what we want them to think.

[Dinny Breen]

All the stars are aligning for Kildare's unremorseful march towards Leinster & beyond.

Yep Meath and Offaly imploding and Carlow have massive internal discipline problems with half their squad on the beer over the National League.

Just leaves the Goat Suckers but we'll give them time, they don't normally need a excuse to implode..

No preparation for Gods Own County, we'll lose yet another Leinster final probably in the region of a 20 point plus defeat leading to Geezer's resignation and the appointment of Val Andrews...

[Bord na Mona man]

Cooney inherited a lot of problems. Some players not committed enough, low morale and long term deficits in conditioning and fitness.
He was appointed very late after a very drawn out interview process. He lost some senior players but chopped some others as well which was ill-advised IMO.

After that it got worse. A poor O'Byrne Cup and league campaign. A new defensive system that wasn't really working.
He publicly "considered his position" after a heavy defeat to Wexford which more or less sent out the signal that he was a goner.

The best hope now is for an interim person to try and patch things up and get a respectable performance against Kildare.
Long term there badly needs to be some sort of credible management who get some continuity going.

Stephen Darby would be the obvious choice if he hadn't been previously been rejected for the job. You wouldn't blame him for not wanting to take the role. Paschal Kellaghan might be an option in the future.

[Captain Obvious]

What can a manager do in just six months? getting rid of manager weeks before the championship is foolish.

[Bord na Mona man]

What can a manager do in just six months? getting rid of manager weeks before the championship is foolish.

He got rid of himself in fairness.

In a scenario where things are unlikely to get any worse, you can get a bit of a short-term bounce from changing a manager. Players out to prove a point, a bit of freshness etc.
For a team going badly, it mightn't be that harmful. If an established manager in one of the high flying teams stepped down, then it spells bad news.

[Captain Obvious]

What can a manager do in just six months? getting rid of manager weeks before the championship is foolish.

He got rid of himself in fairness.

In a scenario where things are unlikely to get any worse, you can get a bit of a short-term bounce from changing a manager. Players out to prove a point, a bit of freshness etc.
For a team going badly, it mightn't be that harmful. If an established manager in one of the high flying teams stepped down, then it spells bad news.

The Offaly board didn't have to accept his resignation and by the sounds of it they didn't exactly stand in his way. Plenty of teams have produced better form in the championship some counties are taking too much out of league form.

[Jinxy]

Get your act together Biffos.

[seafoid]

Get your act together Biffos.

Look at what happened to the Biffos, Jinxy. It's very easy for an established county to get relegated from Division 3.

[Shamrock Shore]

Hard not to be smuggles at the moment as us Larries look around and see carnage in Cavan, Meath and now Offaly. We have a settled squad, a decent management team, a division 3 final in Croker and a joust in Div 2. A home Leinster match agin Laois to look forward to as well.

It will go horribly wrong, won't it 

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Hard not to be smuggles at the moment as us Larries look around and see carnage in Cavan, Meath and now Offaly. We have a settled squad, a decent management team, a division 3 final in Croker and a joust in Div 2. A home Leinster match agin Laois to look forward to as well.

It will go horribly wrong, won't it 

I don't think so, Longford seem to have established themselves as a decent middle of the road team, they beat Mayo a few years ago and almost beat Kerrry a few before that. They are no world beaters but the likes of Kerry, Dublin, Cork, Mayo, Tyrone, Donegal, Kildare etc. would defo take playing Longford in the Championship very seriously.

[neilthemac]

In fairness, Longford are a well run unit
Ryan has some very capable people in there with him, was very impressed when I heard who he had doing the strength and conditioning

The Biffos have done so little at minor or U21 for years that there is no base of talent to work with