Defeat to depleted Dublin raises questions for Offaly

Perspective can be a tricky thing. One of the little clichés doing the rounds at the moment is that 'when your neighbour loses their job, it"s a recession - when you lose yours, it"s a depression.' For those that are feeling the brunt of the current economic climate, the unfeeling words of economists and politicians who like to refer to matters such as the 'global downturn' or even a 'natural economic cycle' are probably of little solace - it may be global, but when it"s local, that"s when it matters. Football will never be as important as the basic art of making a living, but for those who took the time out to attend O"Connor Park last Sunday, it will have been difficult to retain that sense of perspective. To use a racing analogy, Offaly coming home four or five lengths behind Dublin, even allowing for the metropolitans sending down a third string team, is not a result of any consequence, however a handicapper assessing the two protagonists would have said that it was Dublin, and not the home side, who had the most improvement likely to come in the future. In particular, the manner of the defeat will have given rise to questions about the whole process of developing footballers within Offaly, as a few stark comparisons were unavoidable in the aftermath of a quite grim first day at the office. Dublin had won easing up, despite Offaly having got both a lucky goal and a relatively favourable assessment of events from Maurice Deegan and the final margin was certainly a lot kinder to the home team than the visitors. Above all, the visitors looked the more cohesive, more intelligent, more skilled and more committed outfit. A certain degree of experimentation is called for in the O"Byrne Cup, and there is no doubt that players like Joe Quinn, Matt Mitchell, Neville Coughlan and Conor Evans will come on for this outing and should rediscover the pace of county play in a relatively short period of time, while players like Kieran Flannery and Conor Carroll also showed in patches that they may have something worthwhile to offer down the road. The return of the under-21 players, the college players and the Rhode parish players will also strengthen Richie Connor"s hand considerably, while experiments like Ger Rafferty lining out in the forwards and Ciarán McManus filling the full-back role will either bear fruit or else be discontinued within weeks. Of greater concern is how Dublin"s conditioning and application highlighted how much ground Offaly players have to make up once they first reach the inter-county scene. To return to the racing parlance, a quick spin around the parade ring for these two teams would have led to considerable market moves in favour of the Dubs - they quite simply presented themselves in much better condition than their Offaly counterparts. Accusations of a lack of passion or commitment have occasionally been levelled at certain Offaly players in recent years, but in truth what can sometimes come across as an unwillingness to do what it takes, is often simply the result of an Offaly player constantly having to compensate for the 15kg of extra muscle mass that opponents carry into the game. This is not meant to suggest that Offaly players don"t train as hard as their counterparts once they join a county panel - this is a product of the different level of preparation before that ever comes to pass. The Dublin team that travelled to Tullamore did not include any of their under-21 players, neither did it include any of the 38 men that travelled with Pat Gilroy out on their training holiday in the sun. The players that were on show, with a select few exceptions, will not be playing inter-county football beyond February when the new Dublin supremo is expected to trim down his panel. Yet to a man, they were strong, powerful and capable of imposing themselves on their direct opponents. The only Offaly players who were able to stand into them were players like McManus, Neville Coughlan and Niall Smith - all men who have spent some time at the top level and have residual fitness from years of playing at that level, as well as being big men in their own right. That Dublin have up to 100 footballers in the county capable of playing to a decent level is hardly surprising, given their natural population advantage. However, it"s not population that has created a culture whereby players know that if they don"t present themselves in a good physical condition, they will not be considered for duty. Much has been made of the fact that there have been some very competitive teams at minor and under-21 level in Offaly in the past few years - but this is of no use unless the majority of these players are being taken aside and instructed how best to continue their development. There are at least 50 young footballers in Offaly right now with the potential to turn into county footballers in the next two to five years - however one has to ask, if they, at some stage, get the nod to do so, will they be any further on than they were at eighteen? A point which should also be considered before despatching cohorts of youngsters off to a life of pasta, raw beef and copious quantities of iron for lifting, is whether or not the training is being tailored to maximise the natural and individual talents that are specific to each player, or indeed the talents that will be needed for that player to best fulfil their likely role within an Offaly senior team. One of the brightest talents to emerge on the Offaly scene in recent years was Thomas Deehan - his sharpness, his initial burst of pace and his enthusiasm for the game marked him out as a real scoring threat and, during the Leinster championship run of 2006, he and Niall McNamee formed a devastating partnership. Deehan is now much more built up than he was then, but his speed has been curtailed by gym work that was utterly inappropriate for a player of his style and shape. He is now much better equipped to try and barrel directly through an opponent, but that was never his approach and it makes no sense to look to equip him to do this. He should be trained as you would a sprinter, completely different to how one would prepare a half-back or a midfielder. Offaly football is in crisis, not because a Dublin reserve team beat Richie Connor"s men in an O"Byrne Cup first round match, but because a generation of players who have the potential to turn the county"s fortunes around are in danger of being lost due to a lack of direction and a 'one size fits all' approach to physical development. Smaller counties cannot simply follow trends and expect to succeed - they must innovate and take the first steps. The coming years will tell if this is happening in Offaly, or if what was believed to be a brief sojourn into mediocrity is to become a permanent residency. Even though it was an experimental Offaly team that took the field in the O"Byrne Cup last Sunday, KEVIN EGAN believes the defeat to a reserve Dublin side highlights shortcomings in how football talent is being developed in the Faithful County.