Offaly footballers taking full advantage of good fortune

By Kevin Egan

It was highlighted last week that the Laois footballers, even more so than their hurlers, would be seriously disadvantaged by not having a competitive game of ‘new rules’ football under their belts.

As it turned out, the gulf in quality was such that Offaly would almost certainly have won last Sunday's game under any iteration of the rule book. The five-point margin at the end was flattering to the home side, who came from 12 behind with a late run of scores that probably wouldn’t have happened if the game was in the melting pot.

Given the events of recent years, this Offaly team needed a chance to build up some momentum and confidence, and the fixtures gave them that chance. The opportunity still had to be seized, that wasn’t to be taken for granted, but now that it has, the spring is really opening up.

Kildare still look that little bit better than the rest in Division Three and even allowing for their first round defeat to Antrim, Clare are probably the second-best team on paper.

Eoin Cleary and Keelan Sexton are hugely talented footballers that will be a massive addition to Peter Keane’s panel in 2025, but the ring rust on the two of them was clearly visible in Belfast, where they effectively both played the full game and failed to score between them. Last Sunday against Leitrim, Sexton kicked a point and Cleary hit six, including two two-pointers.

But as many readers will be aware, those two opponents are last on the slate, so Declan Kelly and Mickey Harte will have the chance to keep building, to keep developing the group individually and collectively, and if all goes well, to be ready to take a free hit at the two top contenders by mid-March with perhaps eight, or maybe even nine or ten points on the board.

Aside from only getting three home games, the fixture gods have been kind. So far, that benevolence hasn’t been wasted, and it could get very interesting indeed if that continues.