Improper expenditure of nervous energy in Croke Park can account for the loss of 1.5-2.0km in the distance a player would normally complete in a 70-minute game.

That’s not just some random theory of applied mathematics, but one of the discoveries Emmet McDonnell has made since taking over as Offaly football manager – and one of the lessons he’ll be taking into Saturday’s Leinster football quarter-final against Kildare.

As a maths teacher at St Mary’s in Edenderry it’s only natural that McDonnell would engage in such measures, although he’s not alone.

McDonnell has been utilising the GPS player tracking system already tried out by several intercounty managers (including Tyrone manager Mickey Harte), even if there are those who openly question its validity (Pat Spillane being among them).

What McDonnell is sure about, however, is that the Offaly footballers needed to improve their work-rate on the field, which of course comes in direct proportion to their level of fitness.

His appointment last august – to replace interim manager Tom Coffey, who had stood in after the early exit of Gerry Cooney – was greeted with some surprise, not just because at age 33 he became the youngest manager in the senior intercounty game.

Looked limited
His experience looked limited too, although he did guide St Mary's to the All-Ireland colleges title in 2012 (a first for an Offaly school, and where he trained several of the current Kildare players), and there's plenty to suggest he's settling in perfectly to the task – while restoring some of the player harmony apparently lost in recent years.

The first evidence of that came in the league, where clearly desperate for promotion from Division Four, they took out Tipperary in the final game to cross the great divide.

That brought them to Croke Park for the Division Four final, and although Limerick won out narrowly, 0-16 to 1-11, McDonnell was happy his team got that vital test run in Croke Park (complete with the GPS systems under their jerseys).

“Yeah, and for 67 of the 72 minutes we were actually in the lead,” he recalled. “I think we scored after 20 seconds as well. So, we were happy with a lot of factors on the day.

“But a few of the lads actually struggled with nerves, playing in Croke Park. You could see it in their performance levels. We saw that with balls they would normally reach, and most of them came up 1.5-2km less than they would normally run.

"Now that came down nervous energy. We had decisions to make on the day, whether to take players off or not, but a lot of lads that suffered those nervous energy problems are the ones we'll use against Kildare, so we said we'd leave them out there, and let them gain that valuable experience."

Smart enough
McDonnell is smart enough to know that using the GPS system won't win Offaly matches: "It's just a guide, to compare to what some of the bigger teams cover, in terms of distances. And it also looks at certain speeds in certain areas. It's a tool with working with, in that area, that's all."

He knows too that it’s going to be a long, slow process to get Offaly football back up to the standard where they can beat the likes of Kildare. The obvious starting point is last year, when the two teams also met in the Leinster quarter-final, in Portlaoise, and Kidare won in a canter, 0-19 to 0-6.

“And it’s still early days for us,” he said. “We would actually aspire to the level of fitness, and professionalism, that Kieran McGeeney has brought to Kildare. We hold them up as a team we’d like to work towards.

Offaly’s last championship match in Croke Park was in 2007, and the Leinster semi-final, although McDonnell is right, they don’t travel without some hope. The last time Offaly won the Leinster football title was 1997, when they’d also played in the Division Four.

For McDonnell, a native of Westmeath, the return to form of Niall McNamee, still only 27, has been a further boost, if not blessing, and making him captain has added an extra edge to his game.

“ He’s playing very good football again, and leading from the front really. Players like Niall were just dying to train at a higher level, and we’re just trying to facilitate that process,” said McDonnell.