The targets Offaly teams must strive to reach this season

By Kevin Egan

If social media is anything to go by – and quite often it isn’t - the old tradition of New Year’s Resolutions appears to be on its last legs. A quick browse of most feeds will throw up with far more posts and comments mocking the practice, than content actually committing to any sort of positive transformation.

Setting ambitious targets and the pursuit of self-improvement is never a bad thing, though the practice of tying it to a certain date on the calendar is probably not ideal, since it encourages the line of thought that if you “miss the boat” and fall off the wagon by the end of January, you have to wait another 11 months to go again.

In the GAA, however, there’s no time quite like January, since anything is possible. In some cases there are new management teams and new players that offer the potential for improvement, in others it’s a scenario where lessons have been taken on board, experience has been garnered, and it’s time for a more mature group to take the next steps forward.

Of course that could all be torpedoed out of the water by the end of February. But now? The world is your oyster. In many cases, the key targets will be silverware based, but for this column, we’re going to look past those and identify a couple of other, less obvious targets that we’d like to see the various Offaly teams hit over the next six or so months.

Senior hurling

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see where the bar is for Johnny Kelly and the senior hurlers. A passing grade for this group means finishing anywhere other than bottom of the Leinster Championship table, which most likely means picking up a win over Antrim on the final day; while also avoiding relegation from what should be a very competitive and worthwhile Division 1B of the Allianz Hurling League.

Getting into the promotion mix in the league and picking up a scalp in the championship are the sweeter plums that might be harvested, though the opposition that most people would consider beatable on a very good day – Dublin and Wexford – are both road trips for Offaly.

We are going to focus a little on the Dublin fixture on April 19/20, but from a slightly different angle. It goes without saying that the most hyped Offaly team in 2025 will be the U-20 hurlers, who will start the year as one of the front runners for All-Ireland honours. The crowds will swarm to follow Leo O’Connor’s charges once again, but it would also be great if this year, some of that enthusiasm and energy from the public spread to the seniors. With that in mind, Offaly don’t need to beat Dublin in Parnell Park, but they need to be competitive, and come away from Donnycarney with travelling fans in a positive frame of mind.

That’s because a week later, Galway will come to Tullamore for a fixture that could be one of the biggest occasions for an Offaly senior hurling team for the best part of 20 years. A home tie against a well-supported glamour county, with an added derby element that will be keenly felt in places like Banagher and Lusmagh, this is the chance for the senior hurlers to give young supporters the kind of electrifying experience that has become par for the course for the U-20s.

Even if both these two April games end in defeat, Offaly hurling will be in a very good place if supporters have had a good day out, having witnessed the Faithful County compete well with a top tier side. The short term benefits will be seen for the next home fixture against Antrim, but on into the future as well.

Senior football

When new joint-manager Mickey Harte was first presented to local media last August, he was asked about Offaly’s dismal track record in second-chance competitions, and how he planned to address that and to get this group of players to properly commit to the Tailteann Cup.

It was hard not to let a wry smile escape when he replied by saying that the first thing for him was to try and win Division Three, so Offaly wouldn’t have to think about the Tailteann Cup at all. Born in Ballygawley, but already thinking like a player from Ballycommon or Ballycumber.

Historically, Offaly football and Offaly GAA generally doesn’t have a great tradition when it comes to embracing anything new. It’s been a long time since any Offaly team has been at the forefront of any sort of tactical innovation in the GAA. However, the sport of Gaelic football has been disrupted by new rules and there will be teams that steal a march in 2025 by coming up with something that hasn’t been seen before.

Whether that’s building towards taking 15 two-point shots per game, a new way of attacking the reshaped kickout, or a new shape to take advantage of the rule enforcing at least three outfielders at each end of the pitch, something different is coming. It would be a pleasant change if it emanated from the Faithful Fields.

Underage hurling

Like the senior hurlers, everyone knows where the line is between success and failure. At U-20 level, rightly or wrongly, winning Leinster will be seen as par, and only an All-Ireland title will be taken as an unmitigated success. This is despite the fact that Galway weren’t a bad minor side three years ago, and they should be better for having access to the round-robin series in Leinster, as opposed to coming in cold to the All-Ireland series, as they did in 2022.

For the minors, the floor is trying to stay ahead of Laois, Carlow, Westmeath and Kildare, and bonus country would be a win against a team like Wexford, Dublin or Kilkenny. A talented Westmeath group in particular will be a big test for Brian Carroll and his players if that particular local derby materialises, but regardless of results, it would be great to see some dominant leaders come out of his group.

We all know the story – one exceptional crop of underage hurlers won’t be enough. However it’s also important that the groups coming behind provide what the ‘born in 2005’ crew are missing, and in Offaly’s case, that’s the kind of player that absolutely dominates a key central position, and who instinctively leads those around him. If any of the ‘born in 2008’ vintage are reading, that’s the gap that’s in the market.

Underage football

Across the last three Leinster minor football championships, Offaly have played 15 games, winning seven and losing eight. Out of those 15 games, four of them were decided by two scores (six points) or less, and Offaly won all four of those.

It’s to the immense credit of the players involved that they have shown that resolve in tight finishes, as well as to the management teams who guided them through. But aside from those back to back games against Laois and Carlow two years ago, we’ve to go all the way back to 2017 to find the last time Offaly scored more than 13 times in a game.

On the back of a particularly low-scoring 2024 season, albeit with another hard-fought tight win in there, it would be nice to see the 2025 crop find their shooting boots at least once.