Real test awaits Offaly after Antrim’s antics last weekend

KEVIN EGAN previews the Offaly hurlers’ relegation play-off against Antrim, a game which will surely be far different than last weekend’s farcical encounter between the counties.

All across the national newspapers this weekend, coverage of the Antrim v Offaly relegation play-off will probably refer to Antrim’s hopes of “ambushing” Offaly. Regardless of what happens in Ballycastle on Sunday afternoon, one thing there won’t be is an ambush, since that word implies that Offaly would travel north expecting an easy afternoon. Nothing could be further from the truth and it’s a safe bet that the players and management are acutely aware of the bear pit that awaits them in the very north east corner of the country.

Last Sunday, the two counties met in a meaningless fixture that everyone knew would be of no consequence. Brian Whelahan and his selectors treated the game as one would expect, selecting a somewhat experimental team and giving game time to some of the players that are hoping to make the first XV for the summer as opposed to those who expect to. However Antrim went ten steps further again, treating both the fixture, their hosts and the supporters who travelled with a level of disrespect unbecoming of any county.

For those who didn’t go to O’Connor Park last Sunday, the basic facts are these. Antrim travelled to Tullamore with just 19 players, they arrived at the venue at 1:50pm claiming that they thought the throw in time was 3pm instead of an hour earlier, they fielded a team that included a handful of under-21 players who aren’t even part of their senior panel, and they failed to afford their supporters the courtesy of naming that team in advance.

Needless to say, their performance was akin to what one would expect from an intermediate club team – though to be clear, that was entirely the result of their lack of preparation, not a lack of ability.

For many years now, Antrim have made quite an issue of the lack of meaningful games for their teams, due to their isolated location and the unwillingness of county teams to travel north to play challenge matches against them, for logistical reasons. However even if we ignore that this was a National League match and instead look on it as a challenge game, their excuse of not knowing the correct throw-in time is risible, and will surely mean that their cries should and will be treated with derision next time they’re uttered. 

At the lowest club level imaginable, it’s unheard of for teams to mistake the throw-in time, much less when the tie has been advertised all across the country for a week. If they had claimed to have met with a delay en route to the ground that would have been one thing, but to say that they got the time wrong, an utter nonsense of an excuse, is tantamount to making it obvious that they didn’t want to be there on time, which is an insult to everyone involved, including Offaly GAA.

Quite why they wanted to do this is not clear. Perhaps they wanted Offaly to slip into bad habits in the second half of the game last week, hoping that those habits would carry over into Ballycastle – and a look at the last 20 minutes of Sunday’s tie would suggest that this is a very plausible explanation.

Alternatively, perhaps they wanted Offaly to be angered by their attitude and to lose their composure this weekend; or perhaps, they thought that Offaly would somehow think that this was a real reflection of where Antrim are in the sport, and so complacency might set in. Whatever their motivation, it’s clear that Antrim did this with a purpose, which in itself suggests that a lot of thought has been put into this week.

Beating Antrim has often caused Offaly real problems but beating them at home is a difficult task for any team. The Saffrons ran Cork to three points in their last home outing, while after the game Kevin Ryan claimed that his team were tired from a week of heavy training with this fixture in mind.

On top of all this, Offaly’s defensive injury list means that it will be a makeshift sextet that takes the field, particularly in the central positions, where Ger Healion, Rory Hanniffy and David Kenny are all suffering from injuries of varying degrees of severity.

Colin Egan filled in admirably well at centre-back last week but he will be tested to a much sterner degree if he lines out at the same berth this week, while James Rigney’s difficulties at full-back have essentially ruled him out of contention for that berth. It remains to be seen what Brian Whelahan chooses to do about this position this week, but Antrim will feel that the edge of the square is a weak point in the Offaly team until someone proves otherwise, all the more so after PJ O’Connell struck three second-half goals in Tullamore.

Some would argue that Offaly are spoilt for choice up front, with Joe Bergin in fine form, Shane Dooley coming back into fitness, Brian Carroll scoring well from the corner, the Kilcormac-Killoughey quintet of Currams, Mahon, Slevin and the Geraghtys all available and the excellent form showed by Conor Doughan, Seán Cleary and Stephen Quirke last week.

However, one thing we haven’t seen this year from any Offaly player is a vintage performance at centre-forward, where it will be vital for the visitors to step up and curtail the dominant influence of Neil McManus.

McManus is an outstanding half-back who would walk onto any team in the country and any strong Antrim performance is usually built upon his dominance of the opposition puckout. Of course it would be great to see an Offaly centre-forward pick off a handful of scores on Sunday, but it’s far more important that McManus’ influence on the game is curbed and that he spends his time on the back foot, chasing the sliotar rather than carrying it and playing it.

In that regard, this could be a good time for Conor Mahon to be handed the eleven jersey and asked to carry the fight to the home side. All the scoring power in the world is no use if the opposition have the ball and the K-K player is still the leading ball winner in this current forward line, at least in the absence of Colin Egan due to defensive duties.

Home advantage is Antrim’s biggest trump card here – the very fact that they turned up in Tullamore at all was probably down to their unwillingness to concede a walkover, and to consequently toss for home advantage for the game that mattered.

Offaly need to take the crowd and momentum factors away from them and critical to this aim will be denying them the oxygen of goals and controlling possession. Solve the full back and centre forward conundrums, and they’ll have gone a long way towards doing just that.