'It's not going to happen overnight' - Emmet McDonnell

By Kevin Egan The recent history of Offaly football has made for grim reading. The standing of the county has dropped from one low point to another over the past decade, slowly and inexorably declining to the current situation. Not only will Offaly play their national league football in the basement division in 2013, but the current odds on offer from the betting community suggest that they aren't even expected to win promotion. In a league containing Leitrim, Carlow and London, and four Munster "hurling counties", Offaly are ranked as the third favourites to top the pile, while only two teams will gain promotion. Immediately behind them in the rankings are Clare, who will also be hopeful of a bounce after installing Mick O'Dwyer as their manager recently. It's not as if division 4 football is new terrain for the county - the last time Offaly won a Leinster title in 1997, the team played division 4 football that spring. In 2007, a revamp of the league and a shock reverse to Roscommon on the final day meant that the following year Offaly would play their football in the basement league, but the difference then was that they were the clear favourites to advance and big wins away to teams like Carlow and Wicklow proved that they were a cut above the general standard in the division at the time. Now, five years after the county last won a Leinster championship game, expectations both inside and outside of the county couldn't be lower. Emmet McDonnell has stepped into that environment as the new Offaly manager and his number one priority is to bridge the gap in strength and fitness that was painfully obvious when Offaly met Kildare in Portlaoise last June. "Physically, Offaly simply couldn't compete with Kildare last year. Next summer we're going to have to take on Kildare again, and this time we'll have to do it in Croke Park. Kildare's style will force us to cover every blade of grass in that big field, and we have to be able to do that and to match them for power in order to make sure that we're in a position to play football against them. Before we can try and figure out a way to beat them, we need to be sure that we'll even get the chance to compete," said McDonnell. Under Kieran McGeeney, Kildare have continued to improve every season and while that progress seemed to stall in 2012, clearly the former Armagh captain is starting a couple of steps ahead in the race to June 1. McDonnell acknowledges that fact, but still feels that there is huge scope for improvement with the players at his disposal. "What we're planning is not going to happen overnight. Other counties are a long way ahead of us and we've a lot of ground to make up. However I'm very happy with the commitment I'm getting from the players so far and while June is a very long way away, we're making progress in terms of identifying which players have the right attitude and mentality to play for Offaly, and getting those players ready for the heavy workload that's to come". Throughout the conversation, keywords like attitude, commitment and appetite feature prominently. It's clear however that this isn't part of a "managed message" from the schoolteacher, it's the fundamental building block on which he plans to put together his team for next season. "By far the most important ingredient for us as a management team is the appetite to train, the willingness to prepare, the commitment to improve as footballers," said McDonnell. "Everything else is secondary to that." "Right now we've nearly sixty guys in with us and I'm delighted with the response I'm getting from the players. The guys all want to be involved. Brian Connor and Graham Guilfoyle were both looking at going back to America but as soon as they saw what was happening they wanted to play football and be part of what we're trying to do. The lads seem to be very happy with the training that they're getting, but we still have to step things up another notch. What we're doing now is all about getting guys ready for the programme that's coming." Emmet McDonnell the manager is certainly clear on what he wants, but it's clear that Emmet McDonnell the teacher and the thinker is never too far away either. "A big part of what we're doing is that we've designed our training to be relevant to the modern game, to be purposeful. This isn't about slogging lads through the muck running laps, this is about getting players ready for modern football, to give them the explosiveness to break a tackle or to make a decisive hit in that crucial split second." "Some of the lads will need a bit of time to get up to the standard of course. Lads like Peter Cunningham, Eoin Carroll, Aaron McDonagh, these are young footballers with great ability and a great attitude, but it's a huge jump to go from playing minor football to under-21 and on into senior, so we need to be sure that we try and give these lads the best chance possible of competing this year." The immediate goal is to test the squad in the O'Byrne Cup, a competition that in recent years has been hallmarked by disputes over player availability. "We're fortunate that we don't have too many guys who are committed to playing Sigerson Cup football. We've a good few lads playing freshers football all right, but really there's only John Moloney and Bernard Allen who'll be away from us in January," said McDonnell. Many would argue that the lack of Offaly players competing in the Sigerson Cup is a worry, but McDonnell feels that the competition is not necessarily compatible with the training workload associated with playing inter-county football. "For some guys it's important to play Sigerson because there are scholarships to be had, and in some cases guys were getting exposed to a standard of training that they simply weren't getting with their clubs back home. However, counties like Cavan and Kildare are asking their players not to get involved with their colleges now, and you can see why because the demands on players are just too great. We're currently asking guys to train three nights a week and to do a long session on Saturday morning, and that will only increase as time goes on. It's very hard to do that to give a college team the necessary commitment as well." There it is again - commitment. That key attribute permeates the conversation, and a final attempt to identify a footballing identity to Offaly football under McDonnell's guidance only brings us back to that same point. "Right now, we're identifying the right group of players, the lads who have the attitude and the mentality to succeed. "When we have them, we'll build a strategy and an approach to suit them. But until we nail down that group of thirty, there's no point trying to decide what way we're going to play. "From Alan Mulhall in goals to Niall McNamee at corner-forward, every player has to demonstrate that they want to be part of the collective project we're undertaking. Nobody is guaranteed to be on my panel until they prove that, and only then will we start looking at how we will try to play football," he added.