'Pure emotion': Offaly players hailed after memorable Meath win
Monday's sports pages made pleasant reading for Offaly GAA followers, with the county's footballers earning deserved praise for their terrific Leinster championship victory against Meath.
The four-point defeat of Colm O'Rourke's Royals was the senior footballers' best result in years, and secures their place in next Sunday's Leinster semi-final against Louth in Croke Park.
On RTE's The Sunday Game last night, ex-Dublin footballer Paul Flynn spoke about the emotional scenes at the final whistle, as the Faithful County celebrated a result which came six weeks to the day after the sudden passing of manager Liam Kearns.
"It's fantastic, the scenes there at the end. Just pure emotion. It's their first (Leinster) semi-final in 15 years. The crisis has galvanised them, and Martin Murphy's men today were just full value for their victory.
"An excellent performance, and they're looking forward now to a semi-final against Louth," he said.
Yesterday's result in Tullamore was labelled "a shock" by The Irish Times, which carried a photo of Offaly's Declan Hogan on his knees in celebration as the main image on the front of its Monday sports section.
Declan had another reason to celebrate today (Monday) as the full-back was included in the Gaa.ie football team of the week.
"Declan is a leader and a winner, he has put in massive performances for his county. Fully deserving of this accolade," tweeted the official Offaly GAA account.
The Irish Times match reported included a quote from manager Martin Murphy, who said the win was the product of some high-quality training over recent days.
"I know the Offaly public probably wouldn't have overly expected us to go out and win that game as comfortably today, but we knew it was coming," he said.
A video on Twitter by David Hollywood, which showed the players' reaction at full-time, has so far been viewed almost 40,000 times:
And sports broadcaster Will O'Callaghan tweeted one of the excellent post-match photos taken by Eóin Noonan of Sportsfile:
The game against Mickey Harte's Louth this Sunday will have a 1.45pm throw-in. It's the first part of a Leinster semi-final double-header, with Dublin facing Kildare at 4pm.
Tickets are now on sale, and the two games will also be streamed on the GAAGO platform.