Derry debacle leaves Offaly with plenty to ponder

By Kevin Egan

A strong final quarter against Cork may have masked some of the problems, but the mask came off in Celtic Park last Saturday evening, where Offaly endured a humiliating defeat at the hands of Derry, 2-25 to 0-8.

So far in the 2026 National Football League, the three highest winning margins were all produced in round four games. Wicklow beat London by 16, Kobe McDonald’s incredible debut helped Mayo to beat Monaghan by 19, and Offaly lost by 23. You don’t need a mathematical or statistical background to interpret that factoid.

But before we break it all down, a disclaimer of sorts is warranted. Your columnist joined the Offaly Independent in 2008 having written for the paper intermittently for the previous four years. With the benefit of hindsight, I’ll freely admit that it was only after spending some time around various club and county teams in selector, coaching and analytical roles that I absorbed a lesson that should be one of the first things explained to all inexperienced sports reporters. That is, unless you are in the dressing room and on the training field, you are working with only a small fraction of the relevant information.

Perhaps if you were married to one of the players you might have a bit more insight, but even then, if it was a side managed by Jim McGuinness or Jim Gavin, we wouldn’t bet on it.

So we’ll keep the observations factual, as if that isn’t a good rule of thumb generally. From the outside, it is a statement of fact that this Offaly senior panel has been beset with a biblical plague of injuries, the vast majority of which are non-contact soft tissue injuries that are often associated with overuse.

David Dempsey became the latest casualty last weekend, and the Ballycommon player is now expected to miss more time before returning to the fold. It is also true that there has been plenty of turnover within medical personnel working with the Offaly senior footballers in recent seasons.

It is plainly true that there is a significant cohort players who are standout players for their clubs and who would merit panel selection on ability, but they are either unwilling to commit to playing senior football for Offaly presently, or the current management have opted against selecting them, for their own reasons.

It is also factual to state that there are a considerable number of players who are unavailable for reasons that clearly cannot be attributed to anything other than bad luck, or those players having other options. In this bracket we would include Cillian Bourke; the long-term injuries to players like Paddy Dunican and Cathal Flynn; and those players who are involved with Johnny Kelly’s senior hurling panel, but who would otherwise have been called up by Kelly and Harte based on their club performances.

There is absolutely nothing that Offaly GAA can do about the last of those three things, and it may be the case that there is no malign reason or no issue of concern with regard to the first two, even if the effect that those realities have had on this team’s results is undeniable.

All that said, the cumulative effect has been devastating. Indeed, unless a dramatic turnaround happens, the fallout could extend beyond 2026 into subsequent seasons, so it is incumbent on those responsible within Offaly GAA to investigate if there are underlying issues that require remedial action.

The track record of Mickey Harte and Declan Kelly is such that they absolutely deserve the benefit of the doubt, both in terms of their own decisions, and those of the backroom team that they have put around them.

But saying that Offaly's problems are just down to misfortune is not the same as saying that results like last Saturday’s debacle should just be summarily brushed aside on that basis either.

Those of us outside the inner circle can only speculate on how Offaly football has got here, but those with the responsibility need to dig deeper.