Premature pitch invasion can't derail Offaly's march to Leinster crown

ONeills.com Leinster Under-20 Hurling Championship final

Offaly 1-18 Dublin 1-15

By Kevin Egan

Another night of chaotic, beautiful, agonising, heart-wrenching exhilarating tension and joy, brought by a group of hurlers that have become idols and icons to the people of Offaly.

There have been footballers and hurlers that have had long, dedicated careers in the Offaly colours who never once have got to play in the type of bearpit-like atmosphere that 15,215 supporters created in Portlaoise on Wednesday night. For many of these players, they’ve made a habit of it and they thrive on it.

In a nutshell, Offaly won last night's Leinster U-20 final against Dublin, thereby retaining their provincial title, because they looked after the basics so much better. Adam Screeney’s magical scores from play and an heroic shift from Dan Bourke over the hour might be the elements that will immediately leap off the page, but on a night when both sides made a lot of mistakes on the ball, Dublin made more, and were forced into many of them.

Colin Spain and Cathal King exemplified everything that’s so admirable about this team with a Trojan effort in the middle, throwing their bodies into every ruck – winning most of them – and never letting up in terms of energy and effort.

After the game, online forums and social media channels were awash with Dublin supporters bemoaning the performance of referee Caymon Flynn, saying that he was too easily swayed by the Offaly crowd. There was an element of truth in that, but it ignored the fact that some referees would have given Dublin’s Jamie Conroy a red card for his frontal shoulder to Donal Shirley, even though the Tubber man did turn into the tackle to a certain degree. In addition, Dublin's Conal Ó Riain appeared very fortunate to stay on the field for an incident in just the third minute of action.

After that, however, Offaly got the better of the free count; in part because they had more possession and it’s usually the team with the ball that gets fouled, but also in a couple of cases because a partisan roar forced Flynn to think about a decision that he may not otherwise have made.

For all the disgruntlement about free counts, however, there was never a time in the game when Dublin looked like the better team.

There was the first 20 minutes, when Offaly enjoyed plenty of possession and looked sharper in contests for the ball, but while hurling into the wind, they pucked a lot of ball in towards bad numerical situations, making Dublin sweeper Brendan Kenny look like a hero with the amount of ball he controlled. The Kilmacud Crokes player, a wing-back with a father from Roscommon and a mother from Singapore, shared more similarities with Seán Óg Ó hAilpín than the fact that, as Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh put it, neither of his parents are from a hurling stronghold.

Kenny was hugely involved, he was the launchpad for several Dublin attacks, and he popped over two outstanding scores from distance himself. Add in strong showings from Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing and Neil Hogan along the spine of the Dublin attack, and Dublin were able to quietly move 0-7 to 0-3 in front, using the wind well.

Then Shane Rigney pounced on Dublin’s failure to hold and clear Colin Spain’s lineball, firing in his third goal in two games, and Offaly were right back into the game. Screeney got the first of his two sublime points from play, Spain added another, and at 1-7 to 0-8 in front with the wind to come, Offaly looked home and hosed.

They should have been, but four poor wides in the early part of the second half left Dublin in the game, and they needed Liam Hoare to bail them out for the second time in a week, this time diving to his left to bat away Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing’s bounced penalty.

Ó Dúlaing pointed the 65 and added another to follow, but a host of wides and misplaced passes during this spell meant that Dublin didn’t get any closer than two points away, and then Offaly shot six of the next eight, including a goal effort from Doyle that fizzed over, another sublime Screeney effort, and consecutive scores from Eoin Burke and Shane Rigney that should have been enough.

Dublin hit two points, but Donal Shirley and Dan Bourke replied each time, ushering in a premature pitch invasion that threatened to derail things. After a two minute stoppage to clear the pitch, Dublin hoisted in a long ball, Offaly didn’t clear it, and Conn Rock slammed in a goal.

A dramatic, traumatic ending was on the cards, and Dublin did get one more long ball into the Offaly full back line, but on this occasion Conor Doyle was there to win possession, win a free, and make sure that the next time the fans spilled onto the pitch, they wouldn’t have to be ushered off it.

And as supporters crept into delirium, the players rolled with it. They’re used to it, after all.

Man of the match: Dan Bourke (Offaly). TG4 went with Adam Screeney and there’s no doubt that Offaly wouldn’t have won without his influence, but they wouldn’t have won without a fantastic hour’s hurling from Dan Bourke either, and he narrowly gets the vote here. He struck three from play but if Colin Spain had found him with a pass when going through instead of running into traffic, there could have been a goal added to that tally as well. Spain, Cathal King, Donal Shirley, Liam Hoare and Brecon Kavanagh were the chasing pack, with impressive displays across the board.

Scorers - Offaly: A Screeney 0-9 (6f, 1 '65); S Rigney 1-1; D Bourke 0-4 (1f); C Spain, C Doyle, E Burke, D Shirley 0-1 each. Dublin: D Ó Dúlaing 0-6 (2 '65s, 0-2f); C Rock 1-0; N Hogan, B Kenny 0-3 each; D Purcell, C Ó Riain, J Conroy 0-1 each.

Offaly: Liam Hoare; Ruairí Kelly, Ben Miller, James Mahon; Ter Guinan, Brecon Kavanagh, Donal Shirley; Colin Spain, Cathal King; Shane Rigney, Dan Bourke, Conor Doyle; Alex Kavanagh, Barry Egan, Adam Screeney. Subs: Leigh Kavanagh for Egan (36), Eoin Burke for A Kavanagh (43).

Dublin: Kevin Hogan; Conor Groarke, David Lucey, Cathal Kennedy; Eoin Keys, Conor Dolan, Brendan Kenny; Conal Ó Riain, Fionn Murphy; Jamie Conroy, Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing, Jack Behan; David Purcell, Neil Hogan, Ollie Gaffney. Subs: Conor Newton for Murphy (30+1), Conn Rock for Hogan (47), Dylan Bannan for Keys (50).

Referee: Caymon Flynn (Westmeath).