Last Saturday evening in Thurles was one of those rare occasions when Tipperary’s senior footballers carried the tag of favourites into a championship game.

Tom Coffey has offered to take charge of the Offaly senior football team for the next three seasons.

Ciaran McManus will not be coming out of inter-county retirement to line out for the Offaly footballers this summer, according to new manager Tom Coffey.

One of the GAA’s chief selling points in this heavily-marketed age is that its stars live amongst us.

Offaly's interim football manager Tom Coffey is piecing together his panel ahead of their crunch Leinster SFC clash with Kildare on June 17.

Former Offaly star Roy Malone says the county team will force all teams back to the drawing board if they manage to beat Kildare in their Leinster SFC quarter-final.

Offaly County Board have appointed Tom Coffey as senior football interim manager.

Offaly GAA have appointed Tom Coffey as the interim manager of their senior football panel for the 2012 Championship.

Offaly’s Gerry Cooney became the second manager in the past 10 days to resign after a players’ meeting.

Gaelic football's managerial merry-go-round took another twist this morning with the announcement of Offaly manager Gerry Cooney's resignation.

Under pressure Offaly boss Gerry Cooney saw his 14-men secure a gritty win at Kingspan Breffni Park and drag Cavan into a relegation battle.

The managers of Allianz Football Division 3’s bottom two teams,Tipperary and Offaly, have both dismissed speculation they were close to vacating their positions.

Longford are unbeaten, while Cavan, Wexford and Roscommon also claimed victories following the round 4 action in Football League Division 3 this afternoon.

Antrim maintained their winning start to the 2012 Allianz FL Division 3 campaign with a nine-point win over Offaly, but Faithful boss Gerry Cooney fired a broadside at referee Ciaran Branagan before leaving Casement Park.

Antrim took over at the top of Allianz Football League Division 3 tonight, while Cavan registered their first win of the campaign.

Outside of Kilkenny’s defeat to Wicklow last weekend, Offaly’s 12-point loss to Longford was the biggest deficit of the 15 Allianz League games.

New Offaly manager Gerry Cooney has named his team to face Longford in their Allianz Football League Division 3 opener against Longford at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Sunday (throw-in 2.30pm).

KILDARE made light work of a desperately uncompetitive Offaly to set-up an O’Byrne Cup semi-final with All-Ireland champions Dublin that has an exciting feel to it, even at this early juncture of the season.

NIALL McNAMEE has not been named in the Offaly squad for next month’s Bord na Móna O’Byrne Cup but is expected to return to county colours during the Allianz Football League.

Offaly footballer Niall McNamee has become the latest player to complain to the social networking website Twitter after a false account was created in his name.

Ciaran McManus has hit out at Offaly GAA officials for the procedures they used which led to Gerry Cooney being installed as the new Offaly senior football manager.

OFFALY legend Ciarán McManus has criticised the procedures used by board chiefs to appoint Gerry Cooney as the county’s new football manager.

Gerry Cooney was installed as the new Offaly senior football manager at a County Board meeting last night, with Ollie Baker taking over as the county's hurling boss.

FORMER hurler of the year Eoin Larkin has been nominated by James Stephens as the next Kilkenny captain.

SEAMUS McENANEY has revealed he was always aware of the enormity of the decision facing Meath to consider appointing a non-native as manager for the first time.

AFTER nine long weeks of speculation, and much debate from both sides, Meath has, for the first time, appointed a manager from outside the county.

SEAMUS McEnaney’s high profile management team comes with a price tag of between €60,000 and €80,000.

FORMER Meath boss Eamonn Barry last night blasted plans to appoint Seamus McEnaney to the county job claiming the Royals don’t need “outside people to come in” and manage the side.

MEATH legend Liam Harnan has urged county officials to make history by appointing Seamus McEnaney as their first ever non native manager.

Former Carlow and Wexford boss Pat Roe has been appointed as manager of the Offaly senior footballers.

THE Leinster Council are to meet within the next 48 hours to determine if Offaly have forfeited their Leinster Championship victory by using one substitute too many in the three-point win over Kildare.

THEY didn’t need to be told that this was far from an impressive performance but, after the trauma of their last visit to Croke Park, Offaly were content enough to leave HQ with the victory in the bag.

New Meath manager Eamonn Barry has admitted that winning tomorrow’s O’Byrne Cup final against Offaly would be “a huge boost” for his side.

Colm O’Connor

IT’S being billed as the ultimate escapism for the stressed out businessman; a chance to achieve an elite level of fitness and a life-changing psychological experience.

THERE are almost 7,000 people in Ireland on methadone, a staggering 90% increase since 1998.

THE State’s reliance on methadone to wean users off heroin means many addicts are never given the opportunity to get off drugs completely, a treatment expert at a leading residential clinic has warned.