Coffey gets stuck into tough task as interim Offaly boss

Interim Offaly senior football manager Tom Coffey has admitted he faces a very tough task to get his new charges in shape for the Leinster championship clash against Kildare on June 17. Coffey told the Offaly Independent that his immediate priority is to establish which players are prepared to make themselves available for the upcoming Leinster campaign. Recently, the likes of Ross Brady, Richie Dalton and Niall Smith have left the squad, while Coffey has admitted Offaly's chances of actually beating Kildare are "slim enough". "There's been players coming and going in the Offaly set-up, and it hasn't seemed a happy camp, so we have to see who is interested and get a settled panel doing some good, hard collective training," said Coffey. Former Rhode boss Coffey was in contention to become Offaly manager when the Faithful County were searching for a replacement for Tom Cribbin last year. But he withdrew from the race last October, publicly citing the "unprofessional" approach of the county board as the reason for his decision. In the end, Offaly plumped for Gerry Cooney to succeed Cribbin, while Coffey went on to take over as manager of Athlone in nearby Westmeath. However, following a poor Allianz Football League campaign, which culminated in Offaly's relegation to Division 4, Cooney resigned as manager. The vacancy has been filled by Coffey, on an interim basis (for the duration of this year's championship), following an emergency Offaly County Board meeting last weekend. Coffey also revealed the county board has apologised to him over the lengthy process they went through when appointing Tom Cribbin's successor. During his time in charge of Rhode, Coffey guided the club to Dowling Cup success and to two Leinster finals. A former Offaly U21 manager, Coffey also filled a similar interim role with the Offaly seniors in 2009 after Richie Connor tendered his resignation. Coffey has been dealt an early blow with the news that midfielder Brian Connor will be spending the summer in the United States. The 22-year-old, who is a son of Offaly's 1982 All-Ireland winning captain Richie, left for Chicago on Tuesday where he has been set up with a job and accommodation by the Wolfe Tones club. Coffey, meanwhile, has declared that while his appointment as interim Offaly manager will increase his work-load, he remains "totally committed" to the Athlone cause. Coffey's Athlone charges got their Westmeath SFC campaign off to a winning start against The Downs last weekend. "I will most certainly be continuing with Athlone. I gave them a 12-month commitment and I won't be breaking that pledge. In fairness, before the championship started I asked the Athlone players for an extra commitment, so it wouldn't be fair on those lads to decrease my commitment to the cause. "I fully intend to be with Athlone for the 12-month period I committed to, and look forward to seeing Athlone improve further as we go along," said Coffey. With just over seven weeks before Offaly open their Leinster SFC campaign against Kildare, Coffey insisted that his new commitments with Offaly will not affect his involvement with Athlone's training schedule. "We'll train three or four times a week with Offaly, and there will be enough scope to train with Athlone a couple of times a week. It's going to be a very busy period with commitments to Athlone, Offaly and obviously, the important commitments to family and work. But I believe I can give it a good go; I wouldn't have taken the Offaly job otherwise," said the Ballyfore native. There is, of course, a very recent precedent of a local manager balancing two jobs. When Pat Flanagan took the job of Westmeath manager, initially on an interim arrangement in April, 2010, he was still managing his native Clara as well.