Replying To Bainisteoir: "The management team - I'm assuming Murphy will stay on - now has the summer and autumn to ponder how things went this year. Clear success in terms of the league outcome, patchy bit towards the end of the campaign, we ultimately got there in the end. Wheels came off in the Leinster and Tailteann championships - no sugar coating our inability to maintain momentum from the league final. Maybe they got the best out of what they had and perhaps we lack the ability to mount a run on both fronts - it is a case of one or the other ?
I didn't like the way a few guys walked - with a shallow pool of players we cannot afford to let three leave - lads who all would have a contribution to make - we don't have the luxury of 'hidden talent'. The management of this has always been important, in bad times and it now seems also in successful times too.
Maybe the break will allow them reflect on what is a step-up to senior inter co management and maybe come back a little wiser and because Div 3 will be a big challenge for us containing Kildare, Offaly, Westmeath, Laois, Sligo, Clare, Carlow & Longford."
Is there anything you suggest why Joe wouldn't stay on?
Anyway it's a funny one. No idea what changed so much from middle of the league to now. We should have beaten Wicklow by about 10 points, just very wasteful. Fair enough it was against Waterford but we were very very composed and saw the game out easily. Serious resilience and bottle against tipp and good win against Antrim. Word out of the camp was incredibly positive and capped it off with a win in croker.
Not sure how we got to here. Wicklow in Leinster is still a tough one to decipher because it was so close to the league final and it's a comment thread that league finalists end up falling flat. Antrim we concede 6 goals with a turgid first half and what ever happened in Leitrim did things sour in the camp? Seeing how the league final went mood wise I find it hard to believe it went belly up and don't think it can be understated how bad it was to lose our strongest in the air midfielder, our biggest attacking threat while running at defenses and then our centre forward who scored 1-27 throughout the league.
Replying To CarlowJuniorB: "Is there anything you suggest why Joe wouldn't stay on?
Anyway it's a funny one. No idea what changed so much from middle of the league to now. We should have beaten Wicklow by about 10 points, just very wasteful. Fair enough it was against Waterford but we were very very composed and saw the game out easily. Serious resilience and bottle against tipp and good win against Antrim. Word out of the camp was incredibly positive and capped it off with a win in croker.
Not sure how we got to here. Wicklow in Leinster is still a tough one to decipher because it was so close to the league final and it's a comment thread that league finalists end up falling flat. Antrim we concede 6 goals with a turgid first half and what ever happened in Leitrim did things sour in the camp? Seeing how the league final went mood wise I find it hard to believe it went belly up and don't think it can be understated how bad it was to lose our strongest in the air midfielder, our biggest attacking threat while running at defenses and then our centre forward who scored 1-27 throughout the league."
Perhaps it was the loss of your key players.The drop in form was serious and ye will need to get it back to have any chance in Duvision 3.
End of football county season and this is where I see it.
The injured players and it was more than 3 were all big losses for the championship. Arguably our 3 most influential players were missing though.
Even if fit we do still need to find a replacement for Eoghan Ruth anyway given his age as in fairness he'll hardly be back for another year.
Midfield is a big problem but I'm not sure there's any hidden gems to be found by management though. We're a small county and the pool is small. There's one powerful midfielder out in Boston but he'll hardly be enticed home to play division 3. Other than that I think we're waiting on young players to develop but I believe they are coming and there's a few of them are midfielders.
Despite the disappointing finish to the season I don't believe Joe's going anywhere. We need probably 5 points in next year's Div 3 to stay up. We are capable of getting those points and he knows it and will target the league early again next year. The league is critical for medium term and sustainable championship progress in later years and if we could manage to stay in Div 3 and consolidate there we've a chance of progressing.
There is very good young talent coming through - I think next year's U/20 team could be very good if we get all on board. Then after that if we could be introducing those players into Div 3 rather than Div 4 in the next couple of years we could be in a good place come 4-5 years time. But we need to be patient.
Replying To Onion Breath: "End of football county season and this is where I see it.
The injured players and it was more than 3 were all big losses for the championship. Arguably our 3 most influential players were missing though.
Even if fit we do still need to find a replacement for Eoghan Ruth anyway given his age as in fairness he'll hardly be back for another year.
Midfield is a big problem but I'm not sure there's any hidden gems to be found by management though. We're a small county and the pool is small. There's one powerful midfielder out in Boston but he'll hardly be enticed home to play division 3. Other than that I think we're waiting on young players to develop but I believe they are coming and there's a few of them are midfielders.
Despite the disappointing finish to the season I don't believe Joe's going anywhere. We need probably 5 points in next year's Div 3 to stay up. We are capable of getting those points and he knows it and will target the league early again next year. The league is critical for medium term and sustainable championship progress in later years and if we could manage to stay in Div 3 and consolidate there we've a chance of progressing.
There is very good young talent coming through - I think next year's U/20 team could be very good if we get all on board. Then after that if we could be introducing those players into Div 3 rather than Div 4 in the next couple of years we could be in a good place come 4-5 years time. But we need to be patient."
A bit of respect for your opposition would go a long way too. Enjoy your year in division 3