Lyons and Offaly `getting there'

THE top of Division Four mightn't be the most glamorous spot in the National Football League but it beats mid-table to which berth Offaly's footballers had, by dismal increments, slid hardly a decade after winning the 1982 All-Ireland. Last August, a new manager was appointed and signs of life are again detectable in the county.

Tommy Lyons, manager of Kilmacud Crokes' successful assault on the 1995 club All-Ireland and strangely dismissed from consideration when Dublin were looking to replace Pat O'Neill, was someone eager to take on an inter-county challenge.

"It was certainly a challenge," he says. "My first impression was that fitness levels were very poor but the football was there alright. I brought together a development squad of around 50. Now that's down to 38, all through natural wastage - fellas not willing to give the commitment.

"I was staggered at the lack of fitness because I thought it was there in every county nowadays. It's hard to assess football ability in circumstances like that. If you look at a guy one and a half stone overweight playing football, there's the odd flash but when he loses it, he's a different footballer.

"Most of the panel have lost at least half a stone - even the fittest. I immediately put them all on diets and weights training. We haven't started bleep tests yet but will after Christmas. At the first sessions, timing them around the circuit took around 48 seconds. Already it's down to between 36 and 38."

When Lyons took over, he instituted a severe regime with four sessions every week. Training on Tuesday and Thursday, trial matches on Saturday and team matches on Sunday. There weren't any distractions as the sifting process progressed.

"We weren't allowed into the All-Ireland B this year (Offaly have won a senior All-Ireland too recently)," he says. "If didn't bother me this year, I only had the thing up and running when it started. We'll see next year."

The advantage of a county team that's out of shape is that it initially gives a new manager a straight-forward and reasonably attainable task. The playing stock within Offaly is respectable enough. An under-21 All-Ireland eight years ago and a Leinster title at the same grade last year are evidence of some potential.

The team can boast a talented midfield in the gifted Ronan Mooney and Ciaran McManus who played a major role in UCD's Sigerson Cup triumph last March. In attack, Peter Brady - a prodigious talent, grown disillusioned and uninterested over the past two years - has returned to the fold.

"It's a very young panel," says Lyons. "I've gone for a young set-up and most of them are also single which I wanted. It's important. If you've a group of guys married with young kids, round trips of, on average, 70 miles fours times a week are a problem.

"There was a lack of pride in themselves and the jersey but it takes very little to get that going. Once you're organised, guys respond to the promptings and get positively motivated. Turning up was their first target - remembers I've already lost 14. But, by the end of January, there'll be 30 or 31 who'll be very committed.

"Offaly also have tradition. They've won All-Irelands - even winning the hurling makes a difference; they're used to the idea of being able to win All-Irelands. That tradition is worth a couple of points when they're togging out."

The long-term prospects for the county brightened up dazzlingly over the recent Bank Holiday weekend. The draw for next summer's championships saw Offaly, placed in the preliminary pool for Leinster's weakest four teams, situated on the manifestly easier side. The province's top four teams, Meath, Dublin, Kildare and Laois, would have to fight it out to reach the final. This was, however, only a peripheral issue for Lyons.

"The main priority was to get out of Division Four. You need the better quality of football - Mayo were very unusual in that they went from Division Three to nearly winning an All-Ireland. I warned the players that the Leinster championship is a lottery. We didn't know the draw then; we could have drawn Meath. As it happened, the draw was kind to seven teams, ourselves included. Offaly is the type of county that, if it got going and won a few matches, would develop.

"I would say we're 60 per cent there in terms of performance. Whether that includes 100 per cent of the players who will be there in the championship, I don't know, but we're getting there."