Offaly county football team

Offaly

Sport:	Football
Irish:	Uíbh Fhailí
Nickname(s):	The Faithful County
County board:	Offaly GAA
Captain:	Niall Darby
Home venue(s):	O'Connor Park, Tullamore
Recent competitive record
Current All-Ireland status:	Leinster (PR) in 2022
Last championship title:	1982
Current NFL Division:	2 (7th in 2022; relegated to Division 3)
Last league title:	1998
First colours Second colours

The Offaly county football team represents Offaly in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Offaly GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Leinster Senior Football Championship and the National Football League.

Offaly's home ground is O'Connor Park, Tullamore. Currently there is no team manager following the death of Liam Kearns.

The team last won the Leinster Senior Championship in 1997, the All-Ireland Senior Championship in 1982 and the National League in 1998.

History

Perhaps the most famous moment in football history came in the 1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final when Offaly played Kerry. The match was a repeat of the previous year's final; however, not only that but a win for Kerry would give them an unprecedented fifth consecutive All-Ireland SFC title. Kerry were winning by two points with two minutes to go when Séamus Darby came on as a substitute and scored one of the most famous goals of all time in football. ^[1] Kerry fumbled the counterattack which allowed Offaly to win by one single point with a score of 1–15 to 0–17.

The Offaly vocational schools' team have made it to six All-Ireland finals but lost all six, including the first final when they were beaten by the Cork City team in 1961.

Support

Professional golfer Shane Lowry said in 2021: "But any time I get the chance to go to O'Connor Park and watch Offaly play, I do and I am the first to give out if they lose and I am sitting in the stand." ^[2]

Current panel

Team as per Offaly vs Longford in the NFL Division 3 Round 5, 5 March 2023

No. Player Position Club 1 Ian Duffy Goalkeeper Walsh Island 21 Jamie Evans Right corner back Gracefield 3 Declan Hogan (c) Full back Tullamore 4 David Dempsey Left corner back Ballycommon 5 Rory Egan Right half back Edenderry 6 Peter Cunningham Centre back Bracknagh 7 Lee Pearson Left half back Edenderry 8 Jack McEvoy Midfield Clonbullogue 9 Conor McNamee Midfield Rhode 17 Nigel Dunne Right half forward Shamrocks 11 Ruairi McNamee Centre forward Rhode 12 Cian Donohoe Left half forward St Brigid's 13 Bernard Allen Right corner forward Tubber 14 Anton Sullivan Full forward Rhode 15 Dylan Hyland Left corner forward Raheen

No. Player Position Club 16 Corey White Goalkeeper Tullamore 10 Joe Maher Substitute Ferbane 18 Bill Carroll Substitute Cappincur 19 Aaron Brazil Substitute Shannonbridge 20 Cian Farrell Substitute Edenderry 2 Ciaran Donnelly Substitute Bracknagh 22 Jack Bryant Substitute Shamrocks 23 Shane O'Toole Greene Substitute Shamrocks 24 Luke Egan Substitute Tullamore 25 Morgan Tynan Substitute Ballinagar 26 Jack O'Brien Substitute Durrow

Current management team

• Manager: Vacant
• Selectors: Martin Murphy, ^{[3] [4]} John Rouse ^[5]
• Coach: Alan Flynn ^[6]
• Backroom: Brendan Egan, Paul Fitzgerald ^[7]
• Strength and conditioning coach: Keith Carr ^[8]

Managerial history

Offaly have a history of appointing "foreign" managers, doing so on several occasions since taking Eugene McGee from Longford in late 1976. Emmet McDonnell became the tenth foreigner to manage the team when he was appointed in 2012. Only Tommy Lyons was a successful appointment though; Lyons led Offaly to the 1997 Leinster SFC (a first in 15 years) and then to a first National Football League Division 1 title the following year. ^[9] According to Colm Keys, writing in the Irish Independent after the Offaly County Board sacked Stephen Wallace in May 2018: "In the quest for perfection, Offaly have repeatedly left themselves in a right old mess when it has come to choosing and retaining managers... No county has experienced such managerial upheaval as Offaly since the turn of the century". ^[10]

Key

*	Interim manager

Dates	Name	Origin	Honours
1969	Tom Scully	Aharney? Tullamore?	1969 Leinster Senior Football Championship
1970	Alo Kelly	?	—
1970–197?	Alo Kelly and Tom Gilhooley	?	—
1976–1984	Eugene McGee		1980 Leinster Senior Football Championship, 1981 Leinster Senior Football Championship, 1982 Leinster Senior Football Championship, 1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
1984–1986	John Courtney		—
1986–1987	Greg Hughes	?	—
1988–1989	Michael McBrierty		—
1989–1990	Jody Gunning	?	—
1990–1992 [11]	Brendan Hackett		—
1992–1993	Pat Fitzgerald	?	—
1994–1994	Eugene Mulligan, Eamon Mulhall and Kevin Gavin	?	—
1996–1999[ additional citation(s) needed ] [12]	Tommy Lyons		1997 Leinster Senior Football Championship, 1997–98 National Football League
1999–2002 [13] [14]	Pádraig Nolan		—
2002–2003 [15] [16]	Paul O'Kelly	Edenderry	—
2003–2004 [17] [18]	Gerry Fahy		—
2004–2006 [19] [20]	Kevin Kilmurray	Daingean	—
2006–2008 [21] [22] [23]	Pat Roe		—
2008–2009 [24] [25]	Richie Connor	Walsh Island	—
2009 [26]	Tom Coffey, Vinny Claffey and Phil O'Reilly	?	—
2009–2011 [27] [28]	Tom Cribbin		—
2011–2012 [29] [30] [31] [32]	Gerry Cooney	Meath? Or Tullamore?	—
2012 [33]	Tom Coffey * (2)	?	—
2012–2014 [34] [35] [36] [37]	Emmet McDonnell		—
2014–2017 [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]	Pat Flanagan	Clara?	2015 NFL Division 4
2017–2018 [43] [44] [45]	Stephen Wallace		—
2018 [46] [47]	Paul Rouse *	?	—
2018–2022 [48] [49] [50] [51]	John Maughan		—
2022–2023	Liam Kearns		—

Players

For individual player details, see Category:Offaly inter-county Gaelic footballers.

Records

• Tony McTague is the team's top scorer in National Football League history, finishing his career with 9–360 (387) in that competition. ^[52]
• Cillian O'Connor of Mayo became the highest scoring player in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, surpassing the record of Kerry's Colm Cooper, a feat O'Connor achieved against Kerry during a defeat in Killarney in 2019. ^[53] He had done this by scoring in all of his previous 51 previous championship matches prior to the record breaking match, except for one game against London in 2013 when he had been black carded, a rate of scoring in the competition only previously seen from Offaly's Matt Connor. ^[54]

Most appearances

• The following are among those to have made the highest number of appearances for the senior team:

#	Name	Career	Apps
?	Niall McNamee	2003–	148 [55]
1
2
3

All Stars

Offaly has 30 All Stars, as of 1997. 19 different players have won, as of 1997. Martin Furlong won four All Stars, while Matt Connor won three. No one else won more than two.

1971: Eugene Mulligan, Nicholas Clavin, Willie Bryan, Tony McTague
1972: Martin Furlong, Mick Ryan, Paddy McCormack, Willie Bryan^2nd, Johnny Cooney, Kevin Kilmurray, Tony McTague^2nd
1973: Mick Ryan^2nd, Johnny Cooney^2nd, Kevin Kilmurray^2nd
1978: Tomás O'Connor
1979: Seán Lowry
1980: Matt Connor
1981: Martin Furlong^2nd, Richie Connor, Brendan Lowry
1982: Martin Furlong^3rd, Mick Fitzgerald, Liam O'Connor, Seán Lowry^2nd, Liam Currams, Pádraig Dunne, Matt Connor^2nd
1983: Martin Furlong^4th, Matt Connor^3rd
1997: Cathal Daly

Colours and crest

Team sponsorship

The food company Carroll's of Tullamore has sponsored Offaly since the GAA first permitted shirt sponsorship deals in 1991. It is thus the sport's longest running shirt sponsor. ^[56]

Professional golfer Shane Lowry and Offaly announced a five-year partnership in April 2021. ^{[57] [58]}

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
1991–		Carroll's of Tullamore

Honours

National

• All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
  • Winners (3): 1971, 1972, 1982
  • Runners-up (3): 1961, 1969, 1981
• National Football League
  • Winners (1): 1997–98
  • Runners-up (2): 1968–69, 1972–73
• National Football League Division 4
  • Winners (1): 2015 ^[59]
• All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship
  • Winners (1): 1988
  • Runners-up (2): 1968, 1986
• All-Ireland Under-20 Football Championship
  • Winners (1): 2021 ^[60]
• All-Ireland Minor Football Championship
  • Winners (1): 1964
  • Runners-up (1): 1989

Provincial

• Leinster Senior Football Championship
  • Winners (10): 1960, 1961, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1997
  • Runners-up (9): 1907, 1945, 1954, 1962, 1967, 1970, 1979, 1983, 2006
• O'Byrne Cup
  • Winners (6): 1954, 1961, 1981, 1993, 1997, 1998
• Leinster Junior Football Championship
  • Winners (4): 1935, 1972, 1998, 2001
• Leinster Under-21 Football Championship
  • Winners (8): 1968, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1986, 1988, 1995
  • Runners-up (7): 1964, 1965, 1970, 1972, 1978, 2007, 2017 ^[61]
• Leinster Under-20 Football Championship
  • Winners (1): 2021 ^[62]
• Leinster Minor Football Championship
  • Winners (6): 1947, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1989
  • Runners-up (13): 1948, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1966, 1976, 1985, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2020 ^[63]

References

1. Breheny, Martin (17 September 2010). "1982: Kerry stunned as Darby derails the Drive for Five". Irish Independent.
2. "Lowry inspired by JP McManus to help beloved Faithful". RTÉ. 30 April 2021.
3. "Murphy ends Portarlington reign". Hogan Stand. 29 November 2022. The Gracefield clubman joins new Offaly manager Liam Kearns' management set-up after leading Port' to a three-in-a-row of Laois SFC titles.
4. "Offaly role for three-in-a-row winning manager". Hogan Stand. 11 October 2022. Fresh from guiding Portarlington to a three-in-a-row of Laois SFC titles last Sunday, Martin Murphy has agreed to join new Offaly football manager Liam Kearns' backroom team as a selector.
5. Verney, Michael (11 October 2022). "Liam Kearns reveals impressive Offaly backroom team but Faithful football boss is set to be without some star names". Irish Independent. Portarlington boss Martin Murphy, fresh from his Laois SFC three-in-a-row heroics, will link up as a selector where the Gracefield native will be joined by John Rouse, who led his native Tullamore to Offaly SFC success in 2013.
6. Verney, Michael (11 October 2022). "Liam Kearns reveals impressive Offaly backroom team but Faithful football boss is set to be without some star names". Irish Independent. Both have previously been involved as selectors with Offaly while Galway's Alan Flynn will be the side's coach having previously led the Tribesmen to All-Ireland U-21 success while also operating as coach with Clare and Kildare.
7. "Offaly role for three-in-a-row winning manager". Hogan Stand. 11 October 2022.
8. Verney, Michael (11 October 2022). "Liam Kearns reveals impressive Offaly backroom team but Faithful football boss is set to be without some star names". Irish Independent.
9. Breheny, Martin (24 November 2012). "The import and export business". Irish Independent.
10. Keys, Colm (18 May 2018). "Offaly seeking 15th football manager since last Leinster triumph". Irish Independent.
11. O'Riordan, Ian (9 September 2009). "Hackett is surprise choice for Westmeath". The Irish Times. After that Hackett took charge of Offaly from 1990-1992, and was also appointed trainer of the Irish Team for the International Rules series with Australia in 1990.
12. Horan, Liam (6 July 1999). "Offaly hope to conjure up new manager magic". Irish Independent.
13. Horan, Liam (4 September 1999). "Offaly favour Nolan in race for football job". Irish Independent.
14. Proby, Johnny (10 July 2002). "Nolan steps down as Offaly boss". RTÉ.
15. O'Riordan, Ian (24 October 2002). "O'Kelly is new Offaly manager". The Irish Times. The Edenderry clubman has a low profile in inter-county management, though previously he worked in the county as a selector under manager Tommy Lyons — the management team that led Offaly to the National League title in 1998 and the Leinster title the year before.
16. Kissane, Sinéad (3 September 2003). "O'Kelly loses Offaly job". RTÉ.
17. Keys, Colm (17 October 2003). "Dark horse Fahy gets Offaly job". Irish Independent.
18. "Offaly senior football team quits in support of manager: The entire Offaly senior football squad has resigned in the wake of manager Gerry Fahy's departure last night". The Irish Times. 14 September 2004.
19. "Controversy remains in Offaly football". RTÉ. 2 November 2004.
20. "Offaly managerless as Kilmurray quits". Irish Examiner . 13 September 2006. The Daingean native confirmed that he was stepping down last night after the Board reviewed his reign so far, which has run since November 2004.
21. "Roe will lead Offaly forward". RTÉ. 3 October 2006.
22. "Roe steps down in Offaly". Hogan Stand. 21 July 2008.
23. "Offaly manager Roe steps down". RTÉ. 21 July 2008.
24. "Richie Connor appointed Offaly football manager". Irish Independent. 26 September 2008.
25. "Offaly chief Connor resigns". RTÉ. 8 February 2009.
26. "Interim management team appointed in Offaly". Irish Independent. 10 February 2009.
27. Foley, Cliona (24 February 2009). "Cribbin era to get under way in Offaly". Irish Independent. Offaly's senior footballers, who ousted previous manager Richie Connor earlier this month, will have their first training session with their new boss Tom Cribbin tonight. Cribbin was appointed last Friday for the remainder of this season but local club matches at the weekend meant he could not convene the squad until tonight. At present Tom Coffey, Vinny Claffey and Phil O'Reilly, the three men who stepped into the breach temporarily when Connor stepped aside and were part of the sub-committee to find his replacement, are working with him, but Cribbin's backroom team has not yet been officially confirmed.
28. "Cribbin resigns Offaly post". Hogan Stand. 29 July 2011.
29. Kelly, Niall (4 November 2011). "Offaly convince Cooney to take football job". The42.ie.
30. Foley, Cliona (4 November 2011). "Cooney named new Offaly boss". Irish Independent.
31. "Cooney steps aside in Offaly". The Irish Times. 20 April 2012. Gerry Cooney has resigned as Offaly's senior football manager after meeting the players last night... The Tullamore native had only been in the job for six months but a disappointing league campaign saw the Faithful county relegated to Division Four of the National Football League.
32. "Gerry Cooney has stepped down as Offaly football manager after just six months". RTÉ. 20 April 2012. The Meath native was appointed in November after a prolonged search but a disastrous National League campaign, where the midlanders lost six out of seven games, saw the Faithful County relegated to division 4.
33. "Tom Coffey appointed Offaly interim football manager". RTÉ. 22 April 2012. It will be Coffey's second term as Offaly manager. He also served as interim manager for the league campaign of 2009.
34. Kelly, Niall (12 August 2012). "Emmet McDonnell appointed Offaly senior football manager". The42.ie.
35. "McDonnell resigns as Offally football manager". Off the Ball. 22 June 2014.
36. O'Rourke, Steve (22 June 2014). "Offaly manager Emmet McDonnell steps down after Wicklow defeat". The42.ie.
37. "Offaly football manager Emmet McDonnell steps down after loss to Wicklow". Irish Independent. 22 June 2014.
38. "Flanagan ratified as new Offaly manager". Hogan Stand. 30 October 2014. Pat Flanagan was ratified as the new Offaly senior and U21 football manager at a special county board meeting tonight.
39. "Pat Flanagan to guide Offaly football forward". RTÉ. 31 October 2014. Pat Flanagan was ratified as Offaly senior and under-21 football manager at a meeting of the county board on Thursday night.
40. "Offaly boss learned he was axed after his wife saw the news on social media". The42.ie. 7 July 2017.
41. "Pat Flanagan found out he had been axed by Offaly after his wife told him". Hogan Stand. 7 July 2017.
42. Cahill, Jackie (7 July 2017). "Flanagan learned of Offaly axing after wife saw it on Twitter". Irish Independent.
43. "Stephen Wallace confirmed as new Offaly boss". RTÉ. 10 October 2017.
44. "Sacked Offaly Football Manager Stephen Wallace Hits Back At County Board". Pundit Arena. 17 May 2018.
45. Ryan, Eoin (17 May 2018). "Stephen Wallace sacked by Offaly". RTÉ. Stephen Wallace's reign as Offaly manager is over despite a player statement of support for the Kerryman to the county board.
46. Arnold, Barry (19 May 2018). "Offaly replace Stephen Wallace with 'interim management team'". But the county board have moved quickly to put a new man in charge, with Paul Rouse to head the new 'interim management team'.
47. "Offaly move to replace Stephen Wallace as Paul Rouse heads up 'interim management team'". Irish Independent. 19 May 2018.
48. Kelly, Niall (11 September 2018). "Former Mayo boss Maughan rubber-stamped as new Offaly football manager". The42.ie.
49. "Maughan steps down as Offaly football manager". Hogan Stand. 13 July 2022.
50. Roche, Frank (13 July 2022). "John Maughan steps down from Offaly football managerial role after four years". Irish Independent.
51. "Maughan steps down as Offaly boss". RTÉ. 13 July 2022.
52. "Banner hero David Tubridy already has more history in his sights after becoming highest league scorer of all time". Irish Independent. 1 June 2021.
53. "Cillian O'Connor makes GAA history". The Mayo News . 16 July 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
54. "O'Connor set to overhaul Cooper at top of the charts". RTÉ. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
55. "'We're on to something' — Maughan feeling Offaly vibes". RTÉ. 1 June 2021. The Tipp game was his 148th appearance in either league or championship football.
56. "Our Story". Carroll's of Tullamore.
57. "Offaly GAA set to expand as Shane Lowry becomes sponsor". RTÉ. 29 April 2021.
58. "Shane Lowry: Open champion partners with Offaly GAA to offer support to home county". BBC. 29 April 2021.
59. O'Toole, Fintan (26 April 2015). "Four-goal Offaly power past Longford to clinch Division 4 league crown". The42.ie.
60. Neville, Conor (15 August 2021). "As it happened: Superb Offaly edge Roscommon to claim U20 football crown". RTÉ.
61. O'Brien, Kevin (29 March 2017). "Dublin cruise past Offaly to claim the first ever Leinster U21 four-in-a-row". The42.ie.
62. Graham, Brendan (22 July 2021). "Offaly sink Dubs to claim sweet Leinster Under-20 title". RTÉ.
63. "Meath edge out Offaly to claim 2020 Leinster minor football crown". Irish Independent. 30 June 2021.