Blast from the past

[blanketattack]

How come Offaly fans were already on the sideline when 2 points down ready for a pitch invasion? Were they psychic or something?

[Kerry Mike]

FFS AZ talk about kicking the poor Kerry folk when we are having a bad f**king week.

[spuds]

keep kicking az...

[fearglasmor]

I didn't realise that that goal came from a free kick awarded against The Bomber for a rugby tackle!

Not only that, but he threw the ball away aswell. Great sportsmen them Kerry lads. He shouldve got a red card.
AZ is right Kerry got exactly what they deserved. Mind you you it wasnt new, just no one else was good enough to catch them out.

[AZOffaly]

Ara lads I'm not trying to kick the kingdom when they are down. I have great time for Kerry. But it is (sadly) still our greatest moment, and I came across it the other day. I would have posted it even if Kerry beat Down

[Hardy]

I remember that Offaly team gradually homing in on the All-Ireland title year-by-year in a logical progression, one step further each year. I remember thinking it was kinda inevitable they'd win in '82.

1979 - lost Leinster Final
1980 - won Leinster, lost AISF
1981 - won AISF, lost final
1982 - got there.

[AZOffaly]

That's right Hardy, and it's a moot point as to whether they'd have won more All Irelands if they hadn't been staring down Kerry every year. I think if they had won in '81, they might well have been back in '82, but I think the whole progression thing, as you stated, turned into a holy grail, and when they did it, they were never going to go back to the well.

Of course, then less than 18 months later we had Matt's crash 

[highball]

Hardy - your forgetting the '78 leinster semi-final they lost to Dublin also. So each year from 78 to 82 they took another step towards Sam. They lost to Dublin for two years, then Kerry for two years before finally landing it.

They should have won it again it '83 but the worst thing to happen them was Cork beating Kerry with a last min goal in the Munster final the week before the Leinster final. All week in the lead up to the Leinster final people were talking about the AI but forgetting the Leinster final, typical Offaly just couldn't carry the fav tag. Dublin had them beat after 15mins. After that the team went down hill fast, Matt's crash, Carroll off to US, Sean Lowery, Richie Connor and Martin Furlong finishing up with a few more, backbone of the team gone. Very few people would have said that it would take 15 years to win another Leinster and no sign of another one coming...

The footballers are there, the heart is missing

[ballela-angel]

AZ - Good post - I'm from the generation before that one and was next door neighbor to Breen Morgan from Down and the tussles he had with Paddy McCormick in the early 60's were something - Paddy broke Breen's jaw in the 1960 semifinal replay and they ended up as lifelong friends! - Breen gave me his jersey from that match, which I still have and there were two small holes in the shoulder of it and he told me that that's where Paddy had bit him in the first semifinal - I don't know if that was true or not, but it made a big impression on me when I was a wee lad 

[Hardy]

Hardy - your forgetting the '78 leinster semi-final they lost to Dublin also.

You're right, highball. I'd forgotten that. Welcome to the board - or were you here before?

[JBM on the 21]

Picked up "Kings of September" at the local library when I was at home last Christmas - great read. Plots the story of both teams before and after the AllIreland. Anyone else read it? The Offaly County Board were not too keen on bringing in Eugene Magee as he was a Longford man (in their eyes , a county with no footballing history) even though he was revolutionising the game at UCD. Any truth to this AZ? 

[highball]

Hardy - your forgetting the '78 leinster semi-final they lost to Dublin also.

You're right, highball. I'd forgotten that. Welcome to the board - or were you here before?

Ran across the website recently, so just joined

Kings of September was a great read, brought back a lot of memories as a young fella. One other thing that I was always confused about, and someone else mentioned it, but when Darby scored the goal there was a massive amount of Offaly people on the field - why? Offaly were two points down so why would they have scaled the fence?

[Louth Exile]

The lads from Off the Ball had their roadshow in Whelehan's pub in Birr on Monday night. Click on the link below before next Monday and you can listen to Darby and Magee reminisce about that famous day!!
http://media.newstalk.ie/listenback/22/monday/2/

To be honest with you, they weren't a patch on Pilkington, Regan & B Whelehan in the first hour, they spent as much time talking about being on the drink as they did about hurling 
In this age of professionalism, where you are too old at 30, you can't smoke like Johnny did or have the physic that Daithi did, it was somewhat refreshing. A simpler time............. and Jaysus it was only just over ten year ago 

[seafoid]

Tomás O'Connor didn't hop the ball 3 times, he bounced it 3 times basketball style to get it under control. That's perfect.

i know that hopping basketball style was allowed but is it still ?
has to be best finish to any ai final

Offaly 94 hurling was even more breathtaking .
btw Loving those Platini style early 80s socks

[blanketattack]

What I find strange is how the '82 always get mentioned yet their 71-72 winning team never ever get much praise. Surely they should at least be up there with Meath 87-88 and Cork 89-90 who often get mentioned as one of the great teams.