Positives for Offaly this year despite McDonagh Cup final blow

By Kevin Egan

The U-20 All-Ireland final looms large on the horizon, but it would be remiss to start anywhere other than last Saturday in Croke Park, and to reflect on a remarkable Joe McDonagh Cup final.

In the press conference after the game, one reporter from Carlow local radio chose to ask Johnny Kelly about how, in his words, “everyone thought Offaly were going to win”, and if the players bought into that. Kelly showed remarkable restraint as he simply dismissed the idea immediately, without getting angry at the suggestion.

It was hard to imagine that anyone who watched the game could possibly have entertained the notion that Offaly were in any way complacent, as the players emptied themselves for the cause, but simply struggled match Carlow’s ability to win their own ball up front. John Michael Nolan, Chris Nolan, Marty Kavanagh and Paddy Boland were all very impressive in the air, and Offaly simply didn’t have the fielding power to match that.

Much was made after the game of Offaly shooting 26 wides, but that was as much a symptom of the problem – the team’s inability to create opportunities much closer to goal – than it was the problem itself. A quick perusal of that list of errors would reveal that a huge number of those misses were barely opportunities at all, and that in many instances, the shot was only being taken on because Offaly were struggling to get separation and space close to the Carlow goal.

Undoubtedly, luck was a factor too.

Nobody could reasonably argue that Carlow were not the better side for most of the 70 minutes, particularly the first half – however, Carlow’s first goal was as blatant a square ball as one would ever see, while Dara Maher’s red card was extremely harsh. Kelly felt that it wasn’t even a penalty and that would be a stretch, but the rule clearly states that a red card is the sanction for deliberately touching the faceguard of another player, and it’s hard to find deliberate intent in anything the young Shinrone hurler did there, regardless of the number of replays. Add in the injury to David Nally at a very inopportune moment, and the Gods of luck simply didn’t smile on the Faithful County.

The season isn’t over, with Tipperary slated to come to Tullamore in a fortnight’s time, though one suspects that this is a fixture for which the panel will find it tough to bounce back, given that they’ve just sustained their first competitive defeat of the season in the most important tie of them all.

However, when the dust settles, they can take a lot of pride in what they’ve done this season, and how they carried that attitude into Croke Park and once more demonstrated the resilience and persistence that has been their hallmark all year long. It may not feel like it right now, but huge progress has been made, and for obvious reasons it’s only better that things should get.