Offaly's Tailteann Cup campaign brings novel date with New York

By Kevin Egan

For novelty factor alone, expect a decent crowd in Tullamore for the Tailteann Cup game tomorrow (Saturday), with Offaly and New York set to meet for the first time ever in a competitive fixture.

As Sligo will testify, this New York team has something to offer. It will also be the first time in 53 years that New York will play a second game against an Irish county in the one season.

Back in the 1960s, the winners of the National Football League in Ireland would travel to New York to play a ceremonial final, which was quite often played over two legs.

The last time this happened was in 1969, where Kerry – who had beaten Offaly in that year’s 'home' final – earned the trip stateside.

A lot has changed with New York football in the interim, particularly with ten home grown panellists now on board, and getting an extra couple of months to train collectively will stand to their group.

Expect them to cause Offaly a few problems at various stages, but they won't have the advantages of their home games in Gaelic Park. The pitch there is smaller, has a synthetic surface, and the logistical aspects of travelling tend to impede the Connacht county that visits.

If Offaly are good enough to beat Wicklow by eight points - a one-sided outcome that surprised this columnist - they certainly should have enough to comfortably progress and secure a spot in the semi-finals, which will be televised live.

If nothing else, that “big day” experience would be a welcome reward for the players, for supporters, and also for the sponsors.

There aren’t too many sponsor-county relationships that have been as warm from the start as Offaly’s connection with Glenisk, and given everything that the Cleary family and their business have been through, and everything they did for their employees and continue to do for Offaly GAA, it would be fantastic to see them rewarded with national exposure in a fortnight’s time.

Crucial game for Offaly ladies

On paper, Offaly had it all to do last week against a mature and physically powerful Wexford side in the first round of the TG4 Intermediate Championship, and in the early stages of the game it looked like things were going away from them.

But with Offaly wind-assisted in the second half, Mairéad Daly and Ellee McEvoy led a remarkable comeback that saw the team come from ten points down to take the lead, and in the end it was a late Wexford goal that secured a 2-12 to 3-7 home win.

On paper, that was the toughest game in the group, but anyone who was in Kinnegad for the league semi-final against Leitrim will know that there is little or nothing between these two counties, and on Sunday at 2pm in Clara, both teams go into the game needing a win to keep their chances of a knockout place alive.

Leitrim responded well to the disappointment of losing that league fixture, and they went on to win the Connacht Intermediate championship, before their surprise loss to Wicklow last weekend.

These next two matches are games that are very winnable from an Offaly perspective, and while winning this championship is probably a bridge too far, getting more knockout football under their belts would be a huge boost for a young Offaly group under a new management team.

This is a vital fixture and it would be great to see plenty of supporters make their way to Bretland Park to get behind the Faithful women.

Celtic Challenge final

The Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge is a competition that hasn’t quite caught fire since breaking for Covid, but up to that point it was growing in significance all across Ireland.

For huge swathes of counties, it served as a de facto minor championship, while for stronger ones, it gave an opportunity to put together multiple panels and create a wide base of players with meaningful inter-county experience.

In between, for counties like Offaly, it tended to serve as a good introduction to inter-county hurling, and created a nice bridge between development squads and full on minor championship.

Offaly were the first ever winners of the Corn Michael Hogan, which is the top tier event, in 2016, and then last year they won the Corn William Robinson (tier three) by beating Westmeath in Mullingar in a contest that was very well-attended. Many of this year’s successful minors were involved in that group, so the value of this preparation is clear to see.

This year, Enda Mulhare’s side started poorly with defeats to Wicklow and Meath, but they have pulled it together since, and reversed that result against Meath by beating the Royals by 0-20 to 1-10 in last Sunday’s Corn Jerome O’Leary (tier four) semi-final.

Westmeath are the opposition again tomorrow afternoon in Abbotstown, with both counties fielding U-16s with a view towards preparing for the 2023 minor championship.

No doubt a handful of Offaly players will also still feel that a strong showing might yet prompt Leo O’Connor to draft them back into the 2022 minor panel, who are preparing for an upcoming All-Ireland semi-final. Mark Mulrooney, Gearóid Maher, Killian Spain and James Morkan are all still part of the extended 2022 minor panel, so look for them to be tuned in and ready to impress in tomorrow’s game at 12.15pm.

Analysing the analysts

All across the media landscape, the demands of online and social media are such that there is a greater value put on soundbites and controversial statements than ever before.

It’s also true that as the average viewer becomes better informed as to what is happening on the field of play, it requires even greater insight and communication skills to stand out in a good way.

Both in hurling and football, many analysts and pundits fall short in this regard.

A sure fire way to tell that a pundit is in over their head is if, in football, they do little more than bemoan defensive football and defensive systems, without offering any insight as to what teams could be doing better, bearing in mind the players at their disposal.

Lazy hurling analysis is different, and usually involves endless talk about intensity and workrate. The team that won showed savage work rate, they just wanted it more, while the team that lost lacked intensity. Repeat ad infinitum, or for as long as RTE keep paying you a four figure sum to sit there in a free suit and do so.

However, the pursuit of soundbites does lead some pundits to go to extreme measures.

Last weekend, we had Colm O’Rourke claim that Donegal's Michael Murphy can’t be called a top player because “the best players are those that have performed at the highest possible level on a continuous basis in semi-finals and finals,” which is clearly, objectively, nonsense.

Ask most neutrals who the best player in Ireland is right now, and they’d say David Clifford – who has only played in a couple of All-Ireland semi-finals and finals (the 2019 decider went to a replay).

O’Rourke's remarks were followed up by Marc Ó Sé really overegging the Kerry 'yerra' mentality by claiming that Derry are a better team than Kerry right now in a recent podcast. Such ridiculous comments will work out for them, because they will generate angry responses online, and thus drive “engagement”, which will in turn make social media managers very happy.

This particular GAA supporter doesn’t take kindly to such blunt insults to the intelligence of the ordinary fan, and so will be “engaging” with different pundits from now. Hopefully more will do the same.