NFL Division 4 Title

[AZOffaly]

They could. They could indeed. But will they?

[SaffronHeart]

Will have to see AZ hopefully we will bring a decent crowd to Tullamore. Would be a cracking game played at championship pace. Antrim have stuttered through the league and are certainly a team in Transition with many key players AWOL.  Potentially more important game than the Division 4 final anyway. Need to beat Wicklow first before we can even think about Tullamore.

[stevecw]

We are obviously hoping for 2 Offaly wins, but can't really see it. Wasn't impressed with them at all the last day and hard to see them getting anything in Longford.
Antrim will beat Wicklow Sunday.
We always struggle at home for some reason. Game v Leitrim is exactly the kind of game we could lose. Lucky to draw home to Wicklow and very lucky to win home to London. 3 best displays were away. Broderick as has been mentioned has been a massive loss and he is out for next 2 games too.
For us this has been a very decent league, a massive improvement on finishing bottom of table last year no matter what way last 2 games go.

Longford should beat Offaly Sunday, and 2nd promotion place will come down to that game between Offaly & Antrim.

[The Insider]

Longford somehow got promotion , the final whistle barely acknowledged by the home support other than relief . Offaly  of course will blame  the ref , indeed the final red was incredibly  harsh unless the player said something to him. Seemed to take an very long time trying to tie his bootlaces and got 2nd yellow maybe for time wasting  but with Offaly  4 points down with injury time approaching  it was harsh in the extreme . A case of mistaken  indentity prevented Longford getting a red as another player took a  yellow for the player eventually black carded . Offalys lack of discipline cost them dearly as the were the better team in 1st half .

[macdanger2]

All down to a winner takes all in Tullamore between Offaly and Antrim by the looks of it

[SaffronHeart]

Massive game, offaly with home advantage will be favourites  but Antrim will head to Tullamore with confidence. Serious game ahead anyway. Not much between any of the teams in the Division or the teams in division 3 bar Armagh

[Catch and Kick]

Refereeing standard is just not good enough. They have affected the result in a number of games in the division, making to a lottery.

[panc56]

What I witnessed today in Pearse Park was demoralising. Longford promoted hardly even a clap at the end of the game. The game of Gaelic football has descended into farce , hand pass after hand pass across the pitch. Part blanket defence used sporadically more like sheet defence. Players sauntering around marking space more than anything. Offaly had 3 sent off all correct but if the referee applied the black card correctly they should have lost 3 by half time for body checking alone. I genuinely feel for either team having to play Dublin in Croke Park in June. The GAA have a lot to answer for that the game is at such a low ebb.

[Thewildcat]

but sure this black card has the game the way it is, as you said offaly could have lost 3 at half time, but i bet you anything if longford play Dublin in croker this summer the same body checks when the Dubs do it longford won't even get a free. offaly had 2 sent off still only lost by 3 points and were ahead at half time,  they could meet two more times i belive in the next few weeks the division 4 final if they beat Antrim and in tullamore in the leinster championship.

as for playing Dublin in croke park longford or offaly won't be any worse than the rest who have played them in leinster the last 5 years.

[AZOffaly]

but sure this black card has the game the way it is, as you said offaly could have lost 3 at half time, but i bet you anything if longford play Dublin in croker this summer the same body checks when the Dubs do it longford won't even get a free. offaly had 2 sent off still only lost by 3 points and were ahead at half time,  they could meet two more times i belive in the next few weeks the division 4 final if they beat Antrim and in tullamore in the leinster championship.

as for playing Dublin in croke park longford or offaly won't be any worse than the rest who have played them in leinster the last 5 years.

Point of order, we had 3 sent off.

The Offaly County Chairman was unhappy on twitter as he was tweeting updates. I had to tell him to be careful, because he was close to getting himself in trouble!

[The Insider]

Hard to blame ref for all of Offalys trouble yesterday For the 1st sending off , despite a teammate trying to pull him away from the situation, the full back still punched Micheal Quinn in full view of the linesman who had already warned the players to separate . The 2nd sending off ,the player committed the same type of pulling down offence twice in the space of a couple of minutes to pick up 2 yellows . I can only think the 3rd player said something to the ref to warrant the 2nd yellow . Both sides had frees brought in because of dissent , this benefited Longford more as the frees became score able . Even when down to 13 Offaly were the better side and should hav scored at least 1 goal in the 2nd half with their counter attacks . Don't know why they subbed Allen . He caused us problems all day .

[panc56]

Today's Indo called the game entertaining! Who writes this stuff? The black card doesn't work in the bottom tiers , the game was pulling and dragging all over again. You could not honestly say you enjoyed watching it?

[Qwerty28]

Despite sealing promotion with a game to spare, ye seem very disheartened lads! This year league is just if not more important than championship as this promotion is a sign of progression and chance to play better sides next year. Whoever wins between ourselves and Offaly in May is then in for a serious hiding more than likely unfortunately, therefore promotion and a league final victory are tangible signs of progress.

Performances seem to have been patchy throughout league, probably best summed u by the Waterford game, which was typical Longford -very good in patches and headless in probably more patches!

Like a lot of counties, Longford are in no man land, not good enough for  a Leinster challenge but better  or as good as probably 10 other side, so until such time as a proper secondary competition is introduced, thats treated seriously then we're going to continue treading water and yo-yoing between divisions 3 and 4.

[Shamrock Shore]

Missed the game as I was away but kept in touch on twitter.

I know it seems the last few performances were rank but we're out of Div4 and that's the main thing. I wasn't hopeful at the beginning but it would seem that while we are bad, there are teams a damn sight worse.

An evening out in Croke Park now and that's always welcome and the chances of a good auld fashioned baytin are remote.

[stevecw]

Awful display by Carlow on Sunday v Leitrim. 19 wides, 7 different free takers, 6 who missed. As it turned out with Longford beating Offaly, even if we'd won the game promotion was not possible.
But it was continuing a worrying theme where we play terribly at home and are decent away.Very lucky to beat London, a seriously fortunate draw v Wicklow and that hammering by Leitrim are what we we did at home. Away we drew with Antrim, beat Waterford and were very unlucky to lose by a pt to Offaly, playing well in all 3 games!

Playing Laois in championship which unfortunately is at home. We'd honestly be better off in Portlaoise.

Offaly v Antrim should be a great game on Sunday. Hard to call who'll will it but wouldn't at all be surprised if Antrim come down and scrape it.