Eamonn Kelly: I know how much Offaly fans are hurting
The Tipperary native is cogniscant of just how badly the 14-point loss has been received in the county.
“I am certainly able to gauge it from where I am.
“There is certainly a lot of it, a lot of expectation which brings its own pressures as well.”
Offaly’s performance in TEG Cusack Park left Kelly bewildered.
“(There’s) a lot of frustration. We are doing it on the training pitch but we are not implementing it on the day of a match.
“That’s what matters. In some ways it’s a good thing that we have a short turnaround (to Carlow); we don’t have to be dwelling too much on last week.
“We must try to get back and get a performance at least.
He continued: “We had a game plan and we didn’t implement it.
“We seemed to be second to the ball and we didn’t seem to be up for the fight.
“Westmeath, it was a credit to them, they were flying, they wanted it more and they got the result.”
Kelly disagrees that it would have been almost unthinkable that Offaly should find themselves in such a predicament as now.
“Status in the game is fine, tradition and fantastic teams won All-Irelands in the 80s and 90s but that came on the back of winning minor and U21 All-Irelands.
“The success hasn’t been there the last number of years at those levels although they have been doing fantastic work at the minute.
“What’s realistic or unthinkable, I’m not sure. All I know is we have a group of players who are not playing to their potential.
“If they play to their potential and we get the best out of ourselves, that’s all you can control.”
Kelly now knows he must appeal to the pride of the players as they hope to rescue their hopes of making the Leinster quarter-finals, starting with a win over Carlow this Saturday.
“It’s who wants it the most. We have to see what we can try to do to understand why it’s not happening on the day of a match but it’s happening on the training field. (I) Just need to talk to the lads.
“There is no point in shouting or roaring or rallying the troops.”
Offaly will at least have home comforts in Tullamore in three days time but Kelly isn’t expecting any sympathy from a Carlow outfit also looking to make up for an opening defeat to Kerry.
“Carlow are a very good side, they have beaten Westmeath this year, the only side to do it and unlucky not to win a league title.
“Aside from Carlow, we know we have a huge task to get our own house in order.
“We’re down a lot of players from injuries even from last week so whoever takes that field is going to have to give a good account of themselves.”
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