Published: Saturday, 7th January, 2012 9:30am

Offaly in need of fresh tactical approach as new season kicks off

The proliferation of college teams in the Bórd na Móna O'Byrne Cup may increase the competitiveness of the event, but it also reduces the appeal of a lot of the individual fixtures that are drawn up within the competition.

After all, Wicklow v Dublin City University is hardly comparable to a Wicklow v Dublin derby for the majority of the GAA public in the border areas around Greystones, Bray or Saggart.

However, the residents of the midlands can have no such complaints with a prime midlands derby looming on Sunday in O'Connor Park.

By the end of the summer the result from Sunday's tie will be long forgotten, but both Gerry Cooney and Pat Flanagan will be acutely aware that even in the short term, a good result against local rivals is a sure fire way to secure a little bit more popularity and support early in the season.

Certainly both sides will be eager to get as many good pre-season games as possible in this tournament, before embarking on tricky league campaigns with no easy games on the horizon.

While both managers would welcome a win, Offaly supporters in particular will be acutely aware that with a very new look team, expectations at this stage of the season should be very limited.

Niall McNamee's absence is a huge blow for obvious reasons, while any squad suddenly shorn of the influence of Ciarán McManus, Karol Slattery and Scott Brady is likely to lack a little bit of leadership.

However, even allowing for all the new faces in the squad, supporters are likely to be particularly interested in Gerry Cooney's tactical approach to the game, since 2012 is likely to be a year where those teams that innovate best will prosper.

With such incredibly talented squads, Kerry and Cork were always likely to go well in 2011, provided their managers didn't completely sabotage the efforts of the players. As it turned out, Conor Counihan guided his county to a National League title before running into an injury crisis among his forward division in the summer, while Jack O'Connor came within a inch of taking another All-Ireland title.

However, outside of those two counties, the three most successful teams in 2011 were the sides that possessed the most clear and unique tactical approaches.

Dublin played non-fielding midfielders and deployed a style based largely around mobility, with half-backs and midfielders carrying the ball into the attack from wide positions, often taking the ball into the tackle and relying on their physique to beat their opponent and create an overlap. They avoided getting sucked into clusters of defenders and rarely lost their shape at the back.

Despite the absence of consistent scoring forwards, they ended the year as Leinster and All-Ireland champions as a result.

Donegal's defensive approach was well noted and yielded great results, despite the high level of criticism it attracted, while Kildare were lambasted for kicking a lot of wides by people who failed to see the intricacy of the approach that they were employing.

The Lilywhites played a high energy game where they only moved the ball forward at any time - players circled back behind the ball when in possession to ensure that when they turned over the ball they weren't vulnerable to fast breaks, and even though they kicked a lot of wides, this was because they invariably went for shots as soon as they were on rather than recycling the ball and playing side-to-side football in an attempt to get the ball into the hands of a preferred shooter.

This meant that while they had a lot of wides, they rarely were caught with too many players committed to the attack, and their powerful ball winners around midfield gave them a good chance under opposition kick-outs.

A dropped pass or a spilled ball gives possession to the opposition, a wide ball only gives them a chance to win it, and even then your defence will be set and ready.

Kildare may have ended the year empty handed, but they are now fourth favourites for this year's All-Ireland while they were hugely unlucky in both games that they lost.

For too long now, Offaly football has been devoid of any such tactical nous or innovation.

The traditional approach of pulling half forwards back and looking to create space for inside men before hitting that space with long deliveries from the midfield sector is all very well until opposing sides deploy sweepers to double team, forcing Offaly to carry the ball into crowded attack zones and invariably cough up possession.

A replay of last year's championship exit to Limerick should give a clear illustration of what is meant by this as Limerick dropped men back, forced Offaly to carry the ball in and then took their scores on the break.

With a new panel and no expectancy of success early on, Gerry Cooney is in the ideal position to create a new identity and approach for Offaly football.

While it might be a little early to expect to see too much on Sunday, supporters will still be hopeful that this is the year where, instead of sticking to a tired and jaded approach from twenty years ago, Offaly finally starts to lead rather than follow in the race to find the best approach to maximising resources on a football field.

But only after beating Westmeath, of course.