Draw with Cats raised hopes, can Offaly deliver against Wexford?

By Kevin Egan

It was American comedian and TV host Stephen Colbert who introduced the word ‘truthiness’ to the lexicon, using it to describe something that feels true based on gut feeling or intuition, even if there is either no evidence to back it up, or it’s flat out false.

It’s a natural instinct in people that is often exploited by populist politicians, but it feels appropriate to use the term to describe the game between Offaly and Wexford at Glenisk O’Connor Park tomorrow evening (Saturday, 6pm).

The truth is that it’s not the biggest game that the Offaly senior hurlers have played in the last couple of years. By any rational measure, either of the two Joe McDonagh Cup finals against Carlow and Laois, or even last year’s final round tie against Antrim that was a de facto relegation final, were much more consequential games, with no safety net if things went wrong.

Look deep into your gut, however, particularly for those of us of an older vintage who grew up in a time when Offaly and Wexford were two very competitive teams, and the truthiness of the matter is that this feels much more significant.

Wexford are not the same team that they were less than a decade ago, particularly compared to when they won the Leinster championship and pushed eventual All-Ireland winners Tipperary to the wire in 2019.

Nonetheless, their status as one of the traditional hurling powers is beyond doubt. For an Offaly team that is striving to re-establish itself as a serious force in the game, the recent draws against Dublin and Kilkenny were very positive steps forward. A narrow win against Wexford would feel every bit as significant as those and arguably more so, even though an analyst of form and results would say that the Dubs and the Cats are higher up the food chain.

As a tipping point for the championship as a whole, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of this game to Offaly. A home win will take relegation off the table and could leave Kildare with nothing but pride to play for in the final round. In that scenario, it’s almost impossible to envisage anything other than an away win and if that happens, the likelihood is that Offaly finish in third place and qualify for an All-Ireland quarter-final, or potentially even a Leinster final, although that would require a lot of other results to fall perfectly in the county’s favour.

But now let’s flip the scale, and say that Wexford go home with a win. The Model County have plenty of motivation of their own since their last game is against a Galway team that could well have a Leinster final place locked down by the time they travel to Wexford Park. So a win in Tullamore and then a home win over a second string Galway team puts them on six, and leaves them within touching distance of knockout hurling.

Moreover, it leaves Offaly going to Newbridge, needing to avoid defeat against a Kildare side that is growing in confidence with every game they play at this level. A big home crowd in St Conleth’s Park might help swing one or two home town decisions, and that game against a physical, mature Kildare side could start to go wrong very easily.

On the hurling side of things, there’s a lot to be optimistic about, albeit there are still health and injury issues that are depriving Offaly of key players.

Everyone involved in Offaly GAA and beyond wishes team captain Charlie Mitchell a full recovery from his illness and procedure on Sunday night and right now, it’s the long-term health of a very likeable young man that is the primary concern.

Whatever happens with regard to Mitchell’s long-term future in the sport, there’s no doubting his loss to the group for tomorrow. Adam Screeney’s participation also depends on how he has recovered from a hamstring strain.

Cathal King and Dan Ravenhill coming off the bench after missing the Galway game was positive however, as was the superb display of Eoghan Cahill, who stepped into the breach in the full-forward line and as freetaker, nailing that crucial 65 at the end.

The half-back line of Ross Ravenhill, Killian Sampson and Ter Guinan is beginning to look very settled and capable of giving Offaly a solid platform. Brian Duignan was a consistent threat up front, and Ben Conneely had a wonderful game at full-back.

His matchup with Lee Chin looks like a real heavyweight battle, and if the St Rynagh’s man can come close to breaking even against Wexford’s star forward, Offaly should be well on the way to victory.

The Model County have scored a mere 1-28 in three championship games so far that hasn’t come from the stick of the former All-Star, so if ever there was a game where Offaly needed to ‘hammer the hammer’, this is it. Because there are so many positive aspects on the hurling side, it’s on the psychological side that there is a real pressure to get things right this week. Raising your game to take on any Kilkenny team is not a challenge, but handling the fact that Offaly will start as very slight favourites for this fixture is a different matter.

There will be more people in O’Connor Park for this match than for any Offaly fixture so far this year, and it could even surpass the crowd of just under 10,000 that attended the Galway fixture last year.

Surviving and thriving with that pressure has been something that most of these Offaly players have mastered at underage level, but like everything else, it gets exponentially more intense as you move up into senior inter-county championship.

All that said, it’s a better situation to have a talented hurling team and be wondering about how they will handle a pressure cooker environment, or to modernise that phrase, an air fryer environment, than to have a more experienced team but to have question marks over their ability.