Cork crush Offaly to rekindle debate over Leinster hurling plight

By Kevin Egan

It’s amazing the difference that 70 minutes can make.

The wider hurling world celebrated Offaly’s return to relevance throughout this year’s Leinster championship, and while even the most optimistic predictions said that keeping it to a single-digit margin of defeat against Cork would have been an outstanding achievement, Offaly’s place on the Sunday Game in a battle against the Rebels was still expected to be a showcase of this immensely talented, albeit slightly lightweight side.

By the time Seán Stack sounded the final whistle, it was less about the flair, and more about the flaying. Since then, Offaly have been cited as the shining exhibit in a substantial body of evidence that Munster hurling is leaving Leinster behind, at all levels of the game.

There is definitely something in that theory, and it’s timely that a workgroup, chaired by former GAA President Nickey Brennan, is set to review the structure of the Leinster championships.

Gradually, but inexorably, once the principle of the fluidity of provincial boundaries was accepted, Munster has been ferocious in protecting the sanctity and ferocity of their competitions, while Leinster has often diluted competitions in the interests of helping counties who are trying to climb the ladder. And while Leinster GAA has an obligation to do all it can to boost teams like Carlow, Westmeath, Kildare and also Offaly and Laois, it has somehow turned into the foster home for Kerry, Galway and a host of Ulster counties as well. A year in which every Leinster intercounty team, at all age grades, was well-beaten once they come up against a Munster opponent, should force a rethink here.

Strictly from this county’s perspective, it may yet turn out that Cork’s ruthless exposition of every Offaly weakness will serve the team well in the long run.

The importance of bridging the physical divide is not new information, but the heavy defeat owed a lot to Cork repeating a small handful of the same techniques, purely because Offaly had no answer to them. Speedy puckouts in the 55 to 60 metre range meant that Patrick Collins had a tremendous retention rate.

Cork’s use of the give-and-go pass from that middle sector of the field created any number of overlaps and thus easy chances, and in a game where Offaly opted to drop Eoghan Cahill back around the middle, with Cathal King picking up Shane Barrett and Killian Sampson taking up a sweeping role, all that came of that was Cork bypassing the Shinrone man, and Mark Coleman arriving to double-team either Adam Screeney or Brian Duignan.

Addressing these few issues would create a completely different game and while that’s not a small step by any measure, Offaly’s path to improvement is a lot clearer and more obvious than the one in front of teams like Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, and possibly even Kilkenny.

Thirteen of the 20 players that took part in this game were born in 2003 or later, as are roughly half a dozen players from the remainder of the panel. Of the older cohort, there are players who may choose to step away for personal reasons, but there are none who should consider doing so due to any deterioration in the quality of their hurling.

It was 70 grueling, painful minutes that served as a harsh reality check, but progress rarely follows a straight line, and while the coming days and weeks will be difficult for everyone involved, all bar a handful of counties in Ireland would be delighted to be where the Offaly hurlers are right now.