Offaly football boss Pat Flanagan is eager to keep his squad together for the All-Ireland qualifiers.

There are fears that some players could lose interest and possibly walk away from the Faithful panel in the wake of last Saturday's devastating Leinster SFC first round loss to Longford, but Flanagan is hopeful they will stick at it.

"History has said in the past that we haven't done quite well in the qualifiers. But I have asked the boys whether they want to be 100 per cent committed or whether they just want to come and sit and hold the jersey," he is quoted in the Tullamore Tribune.

"We only want fellas that are going to be 100 percent committed for the qualifiers. What we are trying over the next three or five years, we want to build and progress and if we don't have 100 per cent commitment that is not going to happen and unless we are in qualifiers that is not going to happen."

The Clara man rejected the notion that Offaly are better off not having to face Dublin in a Leinster SFC quarter-final at Croke Park.

"From a personal point of view, absolutely not. We were absolutely mad to try and get up to play Dublin to see how far we had progressed," he stressed.

"We played in the O'Byrne Cup and I know that is a completely different competition but we would have set our stall, where we were at and what we needed for next year. But we have to take it from this game now and see how we can improve. It is all about the qualifiers now and it is a new competition for us. The Leinster championship is gone, but it wasn't that we didn't want to play Dublin."

Tweet

Most Read Stories