Offaly must exploit Longford's fragile confidence in Leinster opener

By Kevin Egan

There are so many reasons why Offaly’s football league campaign deserves praise. Obviously, the devastating death of Liam Kearns is top of the list, and it’s entirely possible that the full emotional toll of that shock may yet come to bear.

However, in every game that was winnable, these players found a way to win, and nothing says more about the personality and spirit of the group than that.

That there are weaknesses there is beyond doubt. Tullamore-based Garda Darren Gallagher has enjoyed some productive outings against Offaly in the past and there is no dominant midfielder in the Offaly panel suited to trying to curb his influence, while up front too, Longford might not be as cohesive as Offaly but they have lots of individual talent and pace.

Not unlike the Offaly hurlers, it can be hard for the Offaly football management to put six scoring forwards into the starting team, so the cupboard has been quite bare when it comes to packing the bench with impact subs. Longford, on the other hand, will have no bother fielding players with the world of scoring potential.

Defensively, there’s no doubt that Offaly are in much better shape. There have been times when the back six has been over-run this season, but that has usually stemmed from an inability to control the kickout and maintain possession for a spell to take the pressure off.

Addressing that kickout issue will be a key part of Martin Murphy’s game plan this week, and when we look back on how these players have performed all year, we can trust them to keep their nerve if it’s tight going into the last ten minutes.

Will it be? For all the tight games that Longford and Offaly have played in recent years (the last three games have been a one-point win for Offaly and two draws), we won’t say that for certain.

Longford endured a difficult league season and their confidence will be fragile, so if Offaly can hit the ground running and silence the crowd, there might be a part of the Longford psyche that will feel that a slightly longer break to the start of the Tailteann Cup might be no bad thing.

Equally, one has to wonder if the emotional energy that the Offaly players have expended over the past month will wear them down. It felt like that watching the second half of the Down game, though Down are capable of playing some very fast, athletic football, much more so than Longford.

All other things being equal, if this is just a straight footballing contest, Offaly should have enough to secure a first championship win in Pearse Park in 30 years.