Landmark victory over Wexford shows how far Offaly have come
By Kevin Egan
If proof were needed that this Offaly hurling group is different, we got that last Saturday evening on what was a wonderful night in the story of this county’s resurrection as a hurling force.
It’s not that Wexford are a huge scalp in the same way that they were anything from five to ten years ago, but nobody could dispute their status as an established and traditional hurling county.
Even when Offaly have gone well in recent years, they have struggled to handle those occasions where the level of expectation has gone up a notch or two, and they’ve certainly found it difficult to handle it when some key players are unavailable.
In a Leinster championship that is run off at breakneck speed, there will always be some absentees but losing players of the calibre of Charlie Mitchell, Donal Shirley and now Dan Ravenhill would have been a really big hill for previous Offaly teams to overcome. This group made light of it, the players that came in stepped up to the level required and the outcome was a comprehensive win.
If proof were needed that the current Galway senior group is the same as ever – overflowing with talent, but chronically unreliable – we got that too on the same evening. The upshot of all that is that while there are a couple of permutations that are remote possibilities, in a nutshell, Offaly need to beat Kildare but they also need Dublin to beat Kilkenny if the season is to be extended beyond 3.45pm on Sunday afternoon. Had Galway beaten Dublin in Salthill, Offaly’s fate would have been in their own hands.
The first and most important part of the equation on Sunday is for Offaly to make sure to pick up a win in St. Conleth’s Park. Under normal circumstances, a team with nothing to play for is usually some way short of their best, but it’s a little bit different in Kildare, in that they would have known from a long way out that they would do incredibly well to avoid the drop.
They will look at this game as an opportunity to do something special in the same way that Offaly would look at an All-Ireland quarter-final tilt at a team like Limerick or Cork. On paper, it might seem like a forlorn hope, but it’s also a shot to nothing.
In three of their four games so far, Kildare have started very well. A plethora of wides was the only reason they weren’t way out in front of Wexford, they led Galway by nine at the turnaround in that Newbridge fixture. And last Saturday, they had hurled into the wind in Nowlan Park and trailed by a single point, with Kilkenny down to 14 men.
Their second half performances in those games weren’t as good, but there is still plenty of quality in the panel, not to mention oodles of experience and physical strength. On one of the smallest county grounds in the province, this is a real banana skin fixture and one that Kildare would have circled at the start of the year as their best hope for a win.
Regardless of what happens in Parnell Park, anything other than a comfortable Offaly victory here would feel like a disappointing footnote at the end of a season of landmark progress. It wouldn’t wipe out the feelgood factor from the three home games in Tullamore, but it would put a dent in it.
Over to you, Dublin
If Offaly do come out on top against Kildare, it then becomes a question of how things play out in Donnycarney. The contest has been assessed by those in the trade as one where Dublin are between half a point and one point favourites, but there is a nagging sense of concern that when all the cards are put on the table, Dublin’s desire to reach a Leinster final might not quite be able to match Kilkenny’s need to stay in the championship.
On raw form, Dublin have a slight edge, and since Offaly hit them for four goals in Tullamore, the decision to bring Liam Rushe back into the centre of the defence has shored things up considerably, which is significant up against a Kilkenny attack with Eoin Cody and TJ Reid along the spine.
That said, Kilkenny look to be moving in the right direction too. Harry Shine returned from injury for the Kildare game, Adrian Mullen came off the bench to make his first appearance in the championship, and overall Derek Lyng will pick from a much more formidable attacking cohort.
Perhaps it’s old age and all the scars of history that come with that, or perhaps it’s just the mind’s way of protecting the heart from being broken on Sunday, but even if the bookies make it an even game, it’s almost impossible to imagine anything other than Kilkenny getting the result they need on Sunday. But Offaly fans live in hope.