Meath defeat leaves Offaly with plenty to ponder

By Kevin Egan

Whatever chance there might have been that Mickey Harte’s comments about two-point shots would gain traction, the fact that Meath raised seven orange flags in the second half of Sunday’s game in Páirc Tailteann means that they will probably be dismissed as the remarks of a man who just saw his team lose a game due to this particular new rule.

In general, there appears to be no appetite to change anything about the new rules, since the overall product is much more entertaining, even in the absence of any genuine surprise results so far.

From an Offaly perspective, the key thing this week, and between now and the start of the Tailteann Cup, is that there is an accurate diagnosis about where the weaknesses really are, and what needs to be done to address those shortfalls, in the short term and in the long term.

Focusing on Meath’s ability to kick two-pointers is to miss the point, on a couple of levels. Firstly, Meath hit the target from distance seven times, but Offaly hit five – two each from Keith O’Neill and Paddy Dunican, and one from Kyle Higgins. In a game that had a seven-point margin by the end, there was a lot more to the Royal County’s win than just that one aspect.

Secondly, it could be argued that Offaly did exactly what they needed to do in a game against a more highly-rated opponent that seemed to be going through some turmoil. They took the advantage of the breeze, they asked some questions by building up a ten-point lead, and they forced Meath to attempt scores under pressure.

Robbie Brennan’s side, who shot 14 wides over the course of the game as whole, didn’t miss the target in the third quarter when the pressure was on, and by the midway point in the half, the margin was down to one and Meath could now afford to miss a few more.

There was also some discourse that maybe Offaly needed to be ahead by even more, but on paper, Offaly should have been suited by playing against a team that was chasing the game, since it could leave the faster, more mobile Offaly team in with chances to mount breakaway scores against an exposed defence. The game wasn’t lost in the first half; it was lost in the second - a period in which Meath outscored Offaly by 1-20 to 0-6.

In terms of what went wrong, two obvious issues stood out. First and foremost was Meath’s ability to dominate the kickout battle, which was always a concern. Kyle Higgins led the way for Offaly here with an excellent showing in the air but he was outnumbered by a Meath side where Conor Duke, Bryan Menton and Jack Flynn made up a formidable line of totemic fielders across the middle.

Jack McEvoy and Jordan Hayes didn’t let the side down in the slightest, but they are much more all-round athletes and footballers rather than players whose game is all about getting their hands on high ball, and that started to tell.

Offaly were reduced to leaning on a couple of strategies that had very little margin for error – namely Paddy Dunican playing short kickouts that forced the Offaly backs to work the ball out of traffic through a high Meath press, and also asking the Shamrocks man to make eye-of-a-needle passes to players who found a small pocket of space out on the sideline.

Overall, the execution of these strategies was quite good, but life was so much easier for Billy Hogan, who could just run up, put his laces through the ball and depend on his array of fielders to do the rest.

Lack of bench impact

Even more pronounced however was how the Offaly management of Harte and Declan Kelly didn’t make their first substitution until Aaron Leavy came into the game in the 63rd minute. By that stage, the ship was taking on water in a few places, and it’s clear that more fresh legs were needed, particularly in the middle third.

To put that into context from the other games that took place over the weekend, Wicklow’s first substitution against Dublin was in the 45th minute. Louth had two changes already made by the time the clock reached 63 minutes in Newbridge on Sunday. Every other team that was involved in the four Leinster and two Ulster quarter-finals had at least three subs made by the 63rd minute, and a couple had used all five replacements at that point.

Admittedly, Offaly will never have the same level of depth that you’d expect to find in some teams, but the impact that Meath got from Aaron Lynch and James Conlon had a huge bearing on the game, with both men scoring off their first touch.

This columnist doesn’t have any access to what happens at training in the Faithful Fields, but if both Cillian Bourke and Ruairí McNamee were fit enough to be named in the matchday 26, then it seems like they would surely have been able to improve on things for 15 or 20 minutes, taking over from someone who had emptied the tank in the cause up to that point.

Likewise Nigel Dunne, who might not be a 70-minute player any more, but surely could have added something, while someone like David Dempsey could undoubtedly have come in earlier as well.

In the early rounds of the Tailteann Cup, with Offaly set to be first seeds in a group of four, it will be possible to get away with these things. But later in the competition when teams like Westmeath, Laois, Kildare (or Louth), Sligo and Limerick are there at the business end of things and the weather gets even warmer, Offaly will need to get more from the sideline.

Getting at least 20 players ready to make a meaningful contribution has to be a big part of what happens over the next month.