Promotion possibly out of reach but Division 3 looks wide open

By Kevin Egan

It’s not an accolade that is sought after, but the numbers don’t lie. Offaly are officially the most “Division Three” county that there is in the Allianz Football League.

The Faithful County will embark on their 13th season in the third tier of the league this Sunday since the structure was changed in advance of the 2008 season. Longford (12) and Sligo (11) are the only other counties that have gone into double figures, while Westmeath will start their seventh Division Three campaign in the same period of time when the ball is thrown in at Glenisk O’Connor Park.

A quick assessment of the seven teams that Declan Kelly will plan to take on over the next nine weeks would suggest that in all likelihood, 2025 will be Offaly’s 14th year at this grade. While this is the perfect division for where the team are now in the sense that all seven games are winnable and all seven games could go the wrong way too, there is one leading candidate for promotion, one front runner to drop to Division Four, and six teams that could well have very little between them.

Down leap off the page as the division favourites, given their revival under Conor Laverty last year, the gradual success he has enjoyed in coaxing fellow Kilcoo players back into the fold, and the fact that the Mourne men won two out of the last three Ulster U-20 titles.

Most neutrals will probably make Westmeath the second favourites, and based on the levels of talent and experience in the squad, not to mention the excellent form the county showed in the round robin stages of the All-Ireland championship last year. That said, one wonders if young players like Senan Baker and Brían Cooney – who clearly have the talent to enjoy long inter-county careers – will need some time to learn and develop, and that might come at the expense of short term results, particularly given the relatively high number of 30-somethings in the panel that will need replacing over the coming few years.

At the other end of the spectrum is Wicklow, who lost most of their backroom team, as well as goalkeeper Mark Jackson, who was actually a source of quite a few scores, having already racked up over 100 points playing for his county. Conor Fee, Oisín McGraynor and Kevin Quinn are a handful of young players who showed up well in the Sigerson Cup, but right now, Wicklow would be most people’s first guess if they were to ask who would be relegated.

After that, it could go any direction. Clare have found a talented manager in Mark Fitzgerald to step into the gargantuan hole that was left by the departure of Colm Collins, but the Kerryman has been hammered by one player after another departing the scene in the Banner County. In all, 12 players – including stars like Eoin Cleary and Podge Collins, have stepped away from the county scene - and while there remains plenty of experience of playing at a high level in the panel, Clare are not the type of county that can easily overcome that type of player turnover.

Limerick also have a new manager in Jimmy Lee, and he too has taken a few unwanted calls from players telling him that they don’t plan on kicking football for the county in 2024.

The story is different in Antrim, where Andy McEntee has got widespread commitment, and they – along with Sligo, who will bring a lot of very good U-20s from last year’s All-Ireland final team in to the mix – look like the teams that might spend a lot more time looking upwards, at the top of the table, rather than nervously down at the relegation trapdoor beneath their feet.

But what of Offaly?

An outsider writing a similar piece for the Clare Champion, the Limerick Leader or the Andersonstown News might look in at Offaly and say that it’s hard to see a promotion push emerging from this group. The All-Ireland winners from 2021 are now at an age where they should be tearing it up in third level football, but that hasn’t really happened, and many aren’t even getting a start for their respective teams. A handful of key players have come back into the fold for this year but there are still more – Ciarán Donnelly, Paddy Dunican and Johnny Moloney all come to mind – who would be a huge addition if they were available. Speaking on the Irish Examiner GAA podcast, GAA writer and Galway resident Maurice Brosnan suggested that Moloney’s form with Maigh Cuileann was such that a call from Pádraic Joyce would have been warranted, so there’s no way that he wouldn’t be a huge boost to Offaly if available.

Add in Dylan Hyland’s suspension for the first two games, and Offaly don’t look like a team that will intimidate opponents too much.

This is where momentum, plus a little bit of alchemy from Declan Kelly, will prove crucial. The selection of Lee Pearson as captain looks like a very good one as the Edenderry youngster has come on in leaps and bounds, and while Declan Hogan is both likeable and a consistently solid performer on the field, Pearson’s selection is a clear statement that the time has come for the younger generation to lead, rather than just to fill in a few gaps around the fringes.

There is a positive energy around the county generally, and there’s nothing like a local derby against Westmeath to focus the mind in that regard. And while the Westmeath players have a bit more in their CV on the field of play, it’s equally true that when it comes to the sideline, Declan Kelly has a lot more done as a manager than Dessie Dolan has achieved since the end of his stellar playing career. While Westmeath deserved their 2-12 to 0-12 win in Mullingar last year, neither team showed much form in the O’Byrne Cup, and this could be a contest with plenty of intensity and plenty of errors, so if Offaly can make a few breaks go their way, a win could easily fall into their laps too.

Further down the road

Looking to the league as a whole, how Offaly fare will probably depend on a handful of individuals who need to take their game to the next level.

Defensively, there’s enough quality to put together a sextet that will look after their end of the bargain. Hogan, Pearson, John Furlong, David Dempsey, these are all proven players that can hold their own in any company, while it remains to be seen if Peter Cunningham will continue at centre-back, or if his talents will be deployed further upfield.

Instead, Offaly’s season will stand or fall depending on whether Jordan Hayes can control midfield, whether some out of Jack Bryant, Keith O’Neill, Cian Farrell, Aaron Kellaghan, Cathal Flynn and Cormac Egan bring their game to a new level, and of course whether or not players like Anton Sullivan and Nigel Dunne can continue to hold their own for more than just cameo roles.

A lot needs to fall their way for this to be the successful league campaign that everyone in the county hopes to see, but a path to progress is visible, at least. What more could we ask for on the last weekend in January?