Offaly restore pride but still bow out with defeat to Dublin

Dublin 2-17 Offaly 1-13

By Kevin Egan

Offaly were eliminated from the Leinster U-20 football championship with one game remaining on Wednesday night, but Mark Plunkett’s charges will feel a lot better about this performance than their dismal opening-round showing against Westmeath.

They asked real questions of a Dublin side that are right in the All-Ireland mix. It’s not that the seven-point margin flattered Dublin – far from it as Conor Melia made two outstanding saves and outside of a couple of missed two-point frees from the Bracknagh custodian, Offaly didn’t leave nearly as much behind them in the Faithful Fields.

The explosive pace of some of the Dublin runners - most notably centre-forward Paddy Kelly and, in the second half, Luke O’Boyle -cut the Offaly defence open down the middle time and again. David O’Rourke and Eoin Dunne battled manfully but struggled to deal with the sheer physical size of the Dublin duo of Stephen Hickey and Senan Ryan. Then there was the sheer class and style of Charlie McMorrow at centre back, who continued to bolster the lofty reputation he earned on Cuala’s run to All-Ireland glory.

However unlike the performance seven days previous, there was a lot to be encouraged about from an Offaly perspective as well. Top of the list was an excellent display from Dara Bates, notionally wing-forward but more usually deployed as a third midfielder and hugely productive as a ball-winner in that role.

Jack Daly scored a goal, made a couple of huge defensive interventions and generally went very well on a talented opponent in Joe Quigley, Jake Maher will be haunted by his giveaway pass for Dublin’s first goal but he went on to have a good game from there and greatly restricted Kelly’s influence when he switched onto him late in the first half, and Cillian Foran’s cameo role, landing two monstrous kicks from distance, showed his potential in the modern game.

Overall, Offaly’s attacking play was incredibly narrow and quite frequently, home team attacks ended up in short-range passes getting intercepted or with players getting smothered by a gang-tackle from Dublin. But to break even on the turnover battle with a team of this quality was another positive aspect from a group that had to operate without several players due to injuries or hurling commitments.

In the early exchanges, two quick points and turning Dublin over on their first three possessions hinted at the prospect of a victory that very few Offaly supporters would have thought possible

Even after Dublin pounced on Maher’s slack pass and worked the ball into Quigley for a close-range goal, Offaly kept in the game for the remainder of the first quarter, with Luke Kelly and Kaelem Bryan working hard up front and Bates carrying the fight in the middle.

Dublin’s sheer speed through the middle was always a danger, however, and once Paul Reynolds Hand got them going with a two-pointer, they built on that to lead by six points coming up to half-time, three of their first half points coming from Kelly.

But a Conor Melia save at one end, Jack Daly’s goal at the other at the end of a good move through heavy traffic, and a two-point free from Melia left it 1-9 to 1-8 at half-time. Suddenly Offaly were right back in a game where the possession stats and the list of total chances indicated that they should have been well adrift.

To maintain that state of affairs, they needed to keep converting chances at a much higher rate than Dublin. Instead, that script was flipped in the third quarter, during which time Dublin outscored Offaly by 0-5 to no score. Rian Doherty came off the bench to kick two good points and Kelly added his fourth. At the other end, Offaly missed several opportunities, albeit low percentage efforts that were taken from tough positions.

Then once again, just when it looked like Dublin would win well, Cillian Foran came off the bench to land two skyscraper kicks, and there was a goal between the sides with five minutes to play. There was a goal in the game too, but it came at the wrong end, from Offaly’s perspective.

Most of Dublin’s late scores came from Luke O’Boyle breaking a tackle and creating an overlap and this was no different, with Kelly the beneficiary as he was left with a clean run through on goal and the time and space to blast the ball into the roof of the net.

By the end, Dublin added one last point to mean that the winning margin was one point more than last week’s local derby. The mood among supporters afterwards, however, was completely different.

Man of the match: Dara Bates couldn’t have done much more for Offaly, but it would be churlish to pick anyone other than Paddy Kelly, even if his influence was greatly reduced once Jake Maher switched over from wing-back to try and match the Skerries Harps player for pace and energy.

What’s next: Offaly are away to Meath next Wednesday but because the Royal County will top the group and Offaly will finish bottom regardless due to head-to-head records, this will be a chance for Mark Plunkett and his selectors to share out the game time and to give other players a chance to play championship football for Offaly.

Scorers - Dublin: P Kelly, J Quigley (0-2f) 1-4 each; P Reynolds-Hand (tp), S Ryan, R Doherty 0-2 each; C McMorrow, C Burke, P Donoghue 0-1 each. Offaly: K Bryan 0-5 (4f); C Foran 0-4 (2tp); J Daly 1-0; C Melia 0-3 (1 tpf, 1 45); N Furlong 0-1.

Dublin: Aaron Lee; Emmet Brady, Darragh Murphy, James Brady; Ryan Mitchell, Charlie McMorrow, Jamie Smith; Stephen Hickey, Senan Ryan; Paul Reynolds-Hand, Paddy Kelly, Clyde Burke; Luke O'Boyle, Pierce Donohue, Joe Quigley. Subs: Rian Doherty for Smith (HT), Shane Mullarkey for Donohue (36), Dylan Kettle for Reynolds-Hand (50), James McCormack for Kelly (58), Oscar Donohue for Burke (61).

Offaly: Conor Melia; Jack Daly, Christian McKeon, Patrick Kenna; Jake Maher, John Colgan, Harry Goulding; David O’Rourke, Eoin Dunne; Steven Doran, Niall Furlong, Dara Bates; Cian Bracken, Luke Kelly, Kaelem Bryan. Subs: Jack Maher for Colgan (20), Cillian Foran for Doran (43), Brian Carroll for Bracken (43), Billy Quinn for Kelly (47), Charlie Keogh for Daly (53).

Referee: Colm McCullough (Louth).