Offaly fancied to prevail as Antrim have too much ground to make up

By Kevin Egan

The TV cameras this Sunday afternoon at 2pm will be in Parnell Park, where Galway and Dublin will battle it out in what is effectively a Leinster SHC semi-final, and they will also be in Páirc Uí Chaoimh for Waterford’s attempt to upset the odds and send Cork, the previous favourites for Liam MacCarthy, tumbling out of the Munster and All-Ireland race.

The meeting of Offaly and Antrim in Tullamore will have a much smaller audience on GAA+, yet for the two teams involved, it could be argued that the consequences are even more far-reaching than for any of those who will hurl in Donnycarney or in Cork. Perhaps for a Patrick Horgan or a Stephen Bennett, where age and injury means that their window to win an All-Ireland title is diminishing rapidly, it might feel different, but regardless of what happens Leeside, Waterford and Cork will be right there in the mix again next year, every bit as much as they are now.

For Offaly and Antrim, the story is very different. Antrim are a unique and valued piece of the national hurling landscape since their explosion on the scene on that fateful August Sunday in 1989, but for all the continued strength of their club scene, a strength which means they will always have capable hurlers, it’s beginning to look as if the wreckage that will be left after Davy Fitzgerald’s departure – which looks like a stone cold certainty, regardless of the result this Sunday – will take a long time to clean up. The Joe McDonagh Cup is now a tightly-bunched field, as evidenced by the fact that Westmeath, Leinster SHC participants in 2023, have it all to do to avoid relegation when they go to Tralee tomorrow.

In his time in charge of the Saffrons, Darren Gleeson built Antrim into a side that had a formidable home record at Corrigan Park, and a team that stronger counties wanted to play in challenge games. Getting access to these games is a huge issue for a county that is as far away from the country’s hurling ‘heartland’ as they are. If his past spells in charge of Wexford, Clare and Waterford are anything to go by, time spent hurling under Fitzgerald also leaves players burnt out, and it’s quite likely that some will step away next year. Even though Offaly would be Joe McDonagh Cup favourites in 2026 if they were to be relegated this Sunday, dropping back down to that level would be a huge backwards step for the development of this team. The crossover with the U-20 panel made life very difficult for both Johnny Kelly and Leo O’Connor in 2025, but that won’t be an issue next year, when the bulk of the panel will be able to concentrate exclusively on senior hurling. Playing Leinster championship hurling in 2025 was important, playing at the same level in 2026 is all but essential.

The league will be ideal preparation, Offaly should have three home games in the championship, with Wexford and Dublin both set to come to Tullamore, those are games where a meaningful scalp can be taken. None of that will matter if they don’t find a way to pick up a result at 2pm this Sunday.

Unsurprisingly, Antrim were a shadow of themselves in Salthill. Keelan Molloy, Seaan Elliot and Joe Maskey all didn’t play, James McNaughton was suspended and Eoghan Campbell played at centre-forward, and once they turned around to hurl with the wind into their faces, they didn’t ask Galway to get out of second gear. This is a playbook they’ve followed before, particularly in 2023 when they also 'phoned it in' against Galway, before making six changes for a game in Mullingar where they hurled Westmeath off the field one week after Westmeath beat Wexford.

After the game, Davy Fitzgerald tried to create an ‘us versus the world’ narrative by suggesting that Johnny Murphy (linesman in Salthill) and other unnamed officials “despise” him, and suggesting that they would be going to Croke Park to address unspecified grievances.

It’s all designed to have the team tuned in and fit for one big performance in Tullamore. The closing 15 minutes on Sunday will tell a tale as to whether Antrim’s freshness and ambush factor will prevail, or whether Offaly will be more battle-hardened, more cohesive and more confident, on the back of a strong showing at Wexford Park last Saturday.

A replication of that showing, albeit there remain concerns about the bench impact given that Offaly once again went right up to the closing minutes before bringing in a third sub (Eoghan Cahill), should be enough to see out the game. In terms of their hurling, there’s too much ground for Antrim to cover to get from where they are now to where they need to be to match Offaly at that level. Where it will get treacherous will be if the various Antrim mind games get under Offaly’s skin. That remains the biggest landmine still to be sidestepped.

Minor final highlights issues with new rules

If it wasn’t for Jack Ryan doing the same thing in the second half, it would feel like sour grapes to highlight the view that Connell Kelly’s three two-point frees seemed to represent harsh punishment for innocuous enough offences. Of particular note was the contested midfield catch where Aaron Daly made a genuine attempt to win the ball and had his hands on it, only for it to be deemed to be interfering with a mark, and so led to the free being brought forward.

But over the course of the full hour, both teams would have felt that honest attempts to play the game in the right spirit saw innocuous frees awarded somewhere between 40 and 50 metres out from goal, and when that shot sails over the crossbar, a two-point punishment feels wrong.

It’s easy to say this now because Louth scored three two-point frees and Offaly scored four of them, so if you take them all away, the result would have been the same. But if they had changed the game, it would have felt wrong.

For this column, the verdict on the two-pointer from play still needs time before it can be given definitively. It has added to the attacking element but when the wind and the likelihood of counterintuitive plays are factored in, such as players taking possession at the top of the small arc and coming outwards rather than attacking the goal, it might yet be a bit too transformative.

Likewise, if a player is winding up for a shot from distance and he’s fouled in the act of doing so, it makes sense that like basketball where a foul on a three-point shot leads to three free throws, the punishment should bear relation to the crime.

But a two-point punishment for very incidental contact in the battle for possession at midfield, or for a three-man-up breach, or even for a marginal foul on a player who is himself out of scoring range, feels draconian.

Likewise when it comes to the new advantage rule, there were times when it felt like a team could hold the ball for as long as they liked until they got a shot off, and even still if they missed, play would be brought back for the free.

The spirit of that rule was to encourage players to continue the attack, and to make sure that no play was brought back for a free when the side that was fouled was driving forward, possibly to create a goal chance. But what has happened now is that slow build-up play can continue for an age, akin to a rugby advantage where it often continues until there’s a turnover or a score.

For Offaly people, last Monday night was special, and memorable. For those charged with the management of the rules of Gaelic football, it should be a case study.