Offaly hurlers must aim to put unsteady Galway under pressure
By Kevin Egan
The past six days as an Offaly hurler must surely have been a huge emotional challenge.
The narrative all across the county and the country has been that the team’s efforts in Parnell Park were heroic, with more than a few comparisons drawn with the meek 2-24 to 0-13 defeat that the county endured seven years ago on their last trip to Donnycarney, a result that confirmed relegation to the Joe McDonagh Cup.
The last few minutes, where Dublin scored the equalizing goal and then responded to the Dan Ravenhill’s point with four scores of their own to take the lead, may have stripped away the fairytale, but it didn’t undo a titanic effort up to that point against the 2024 Leinster finalists.
For the players themselves, however, that relentless positivity will surely feel a little grating. The natural instinct of an athlete is to win games, and there’s no doubt that the Offaly panel perceived that as a winnable fixture before the start, and they were proved right. The failure to close out a strong position will be harder for the players to overcome, since they’ve set their sights much higher than just holding their own in the Leinster championship.
In contrast, the mood music on the other side of the Shannon will be very different. It doesn’t matter that Galway missed out knockout hurling in 2024; the nature of the beast in that county is that anything less than contending for All-Ireland titles is not acceptable.
Speaking to the Connacht Tribune in advance of last weekend’s season opener in UPMC Nowlan Park, Galway manager Micheál Donoghue said: “Galway’s one of the biggest counties with high expectations every year. It doesn’t matter when we got the job, when the ball is thrown in on Saturday evening we’re going to be judged.” And there’s no doubt that plenty of judgements, both measured and wildly overblown, will have been passed since Kilkenny’s 3-24 to 0-21 win over the Tribesmen.
On the one hand, there’s no obvious reason why expectations should be that high. Ask anyone familiar with the scene in the county and they would say that Henry Shefflin showed too much loyalty to the same group of experienced players at the expense of some very promising up and coming hurlers, and last Saturday, Galway started with just seven of 15 players that started their final 2024 championship game against Dublin.
Three of those seven lined out in either the full-back line or at goalkeeper, and two of the other four (Gavin Lee and Cianán Fahy) were deployed in very different roles to how they were used by Shefflin.
None of that will matter to those supporters who are used to watching a ferociously competitive club scene, and a county that is still waiting for the adult success to follow on from their run of five All-Ireland minor titles in six seasons from 2015 to 2020.
In front of what could well be the biggest home attendance at a senior hurling championship game involving Offaly ever seen, dealing with that occasion and putting early pressure on Galway will undoubtedly be crucial in setting the tone.
A host of changes to Galway's starting team is likely, particularly up front where there will be a clamour to overhaul a full-forward unit that scored two points between them. The likes of Conor Cooney and Anthony Burns could well be drafted in to start so it’s vital that Offaly don’t let those players get early scores to invigorate the side and give an overall sense of ‘now we’ve got it right’.
That’s why the lesson from Parnell Park has to be that in terms of hurling ability, this Offaly group now has what it takes to be very competitive – but that the extra touch of killer instinct will be what makes or breaks them, particularly in a game like this. The same crowd momentum won’t be there for the upcoming games in Kilkenny and Wexford, so this is the glorious opportunity to take on an opponent that is unsteady on their feet after being knocked to the canvas by the Cats.