Avoiding the drop more important for Offaly than beating Kildare

In approximately six weeks from now, thousands of Offaly football supporters will stream across the border into Portlaoise, looking forward to a Leinster championship clash against Kieran McGeeney"s Kildare charges. Irrespective of what happens between now and then, the local rivalry between the two counties will ensure that the game is eagerly anticipated and methodically dissected by every supporter in the run up the match, culminating in what should be a great occasion at O"Moore Park. Some 48 hours from now, a fraction of that level of support will make the shorter trip (for all bar a handful of Offaly followers) to O"Connor Park for Sunday"s final round of the league against Limerick, with a thin smattering of away supporters likely to do little to bolster a sparse crowd. Despite this apparent inequality, one of these two games will be of considerably greater significance to the development of Offaly football in the coming years, and here"s a hint as to which one it is - you won"t have to wait that long to go to it. This is not meant to be another article downplaying the significance of the provincial championships - after all, the provincial championships remain the holy grail for most counties, even if the eventual winners tend to be the bigger guns who have their eye on greater prizes. However, for all bar Dublin in Leinster this year, a provincial championship would mean a successful season, while even Pat Gilroy might settle for that now, such has been his poor start to the year. None of this changes the fact, however, that even if Offaly were to put in a great performance in Portlaoise and come away the convincing victors, the county would still be rated only a 10/1 shot or so to win the Leinster Championship - meaning that they would still be 90 per cent likely to end the year without any meaningful success. The qualifiers would lie in wait either way, but as Kildare know all too well from last summer, an early defeat, even a chastening one as they suffered at the hands of Wicklow, can spur a county onto bigger and better things. Now contrast that with what"s at stake this Sunday - division 3 survival. It mightn"t sound that glamorous, but let"s take a moment to remind ourselves what tends to happen to Offaly teams when they spend the spring preparing with games against opposition that ranges from the poor to the downright inept. In 2005, Offaly hurlers ran up huge totals against teams like Kerry and Roscommon in division two of the league, only to suffer a 31 point hiding against Kilkenny in the Leinster championship. It was only in that game that John McIntyre realised which players were best equipped for championship hurling, and three games later Offaly performed heroically in Portlaoise and deserved better than a one-point defeat against Clare. Then we had last year, when the Offaly footballers came through the bottom division of the National Football league with relative ease, only to be toyed with by Westmeath and demolished by Down, both in O"Connor Park. Much like the hurlers in 2004, these defeats will live long in the memory of any supporters who had to endure them. Put as simply as possible, lower division football or hurling is utterly detrimental to the cause of Offaly teams and, while missing out on promotion this year from Division three is somewhat disappointing, it"s still far from tragic. However, to slip through the trapdoor back into the basement division would set the cause of Offaly football back years. The comparatively shallow pool of players in Offaly should theoretically make it easier to select both "probables" and "possibles" for championship teams, yet recent history has shown us that it has simply created a situation whereby it has become very difficult for certain players to play their way off a county team. When Offaly operate in a weak division where the opposition is substandard, that problem is magnified since even players operating well below championship pace don"t look to be underperforming as much as they are, or worse still, their mediocre displays are excused as the game is of little importance. Some weeks ago, this column discussed the relatively low level of player turnover in Offaly football and that situation was no doubt exacerbated by a series of handy fixtures in 2008 where players who were operating well below the necessary levels of performance still looked to be holding their own. This remains a quite young Offaly panel, with several players involved who will expect to develop as footballers in the coming seasons. It is utterly imperative that they develop their skills against decent opposition and staying out of division four is vital with that in mind. A sustained run in the Leinster championship would also help, but the qualifiers offer a second bite at that particular cherry this summer and ,while a win over Kildare would be very welcome, those looking ahead with the medium term future in mind would happily sacrifice that result if a much needed victory could be guaranteed on Sunday. No such guarantees are in place of course, but the good home form shown by Offaly so far this spring allows for some optimism. The team"s performance under lights in the previous game was nothing short of abysmal. However, if there was a time to have a bad game, that was it. That fixture in Newry stood out as the most difficult tie of the league campaign from the time the schedule was drawn up, and Offaly could very easily have played well and still come away with nothing. Indeed it could be argued that a 'good performance' and a narrow defeat might have led to overconfidence coming into this game, something which is surely not a concern now. Offaly have their fate in their own hands, something which most supporters would have happily taken after the horror show in week one against Roscommon. Whether they know it or not, that fate will go a long way towards shaping not just 2009, but 2010 and probably several years after that again. The clash with Kildare in May will attract more publicity and a far bigger number of supporters, but it"s on Sunday that Offaly needs to install solid foundations for the years ahead. NFL Division 3 Table P W D L F A PD Pts Tipperary 6 5 0 1 95 80 15 10 Down 6 4 0 2 92 72 20 8 Cavan 6 3 0 3 72 72 0 6 Roscommon 6 3 0 3 76 77 -1 6 Limerick 6 3 0 3 67 75 -8 6 Offaly 6 2 1 3 72 93 -21 5 Louth 6 2 0 4 87 79 8 4 Longford 6 1 1 4 66 79 -13 3 Remaining Fixtures - Sunday April 12th Roscommon v Down, Dr Hyde Park, 2.30pm, Robert O"Donnell (Donegal). Louth v Cavan, Drogheda, 2.30pm, Martin Sludden (Tyrone). Tipperary v Longford, Semple Stadium, 2.30pm, Michael Collins (Cork). Offaly v Limerick, Tullamore, 2.30pm, Frank Flynn (Leitrim).