Clare clash to test Offaly’s mindset with promotion almost secured

by Kevin Egan

Last Sunday the Offaly footballers faced, embraced and aced the biggest test of their footballing credentials so far in 2025.

We’ll try not to get too carried away with the result of a home game where both teams scored precisely 17 times, but it would be churlish to acknowledge the footballing intelligence and craft that was required to produce a display like that, one which puts the group in a fantastic position in advance of this Sunday’s trip to Ennis (throw-in 2pm).

However if last Sunday's game in Tullamore Glenisk O’Connor Park was a test of football, this Sunday’s game in the newly renamed Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg will be a test of mental strength.

For the purposes of gaining promotion to Division Two of the league for 2026, the magic number is ten. Win, draw, or even lose by ten points or less, and Offaly will gain promotion. Fail to clear that low bar, and it will be down to Antrim to do Offaly a favour in Newbridge which, on the face of it, seems hugely unlikely.

And while that seems like a substantial cushion – albeit it probably translates to a six-point win in ‘old money’, or pre 2025 terms – the problem it creates for Offaly is that there will be a natural human instinct to now see an eight or nine-point defeat as a win, which in turn will change the team’s mindset this Sunday.

If this was round four or five of the league but the two teams were coming off the back of their respective results last weekend, we’d say this had the makings of a fantastic contest. Both sides have just scored well and played some outstanding attacking football in their most recent outings.

Both sides play without fear or trepidation, and neither team should win big in the battle for primary possession in the absence of a dominant fielding presence around the middle.

The challenge for Offaly this week is to still perceive the contest in that light, and to go down to Ennis with a view to winning the game, and playing that way from the first whistle. That means responding to the concession of two or three consecutive scores with urgency and determination, rather than subconsciously thinking about the healthy margin for error that exists.

Obviously, if we fast forward to the last ten minutes of the game and Clare are already eight or nine points to the good, throwing caution to the wind instead of making sure to do no more harm would be foolish.

But it is only in exactly that type of scenario that Offaly should be too considerate of the promotion race, because while promotion is a crucial target, it is no less important that the group seeks to keep their momentum alive, even to build on it.

If Sunday was to go wrong - and considering how easily Clare ran up a score on Laois last Saturday, that threat has to be respected – then suddenly Offaly would find themselves finished with the league and potentially facing into a Leinster quarter-final against (presumably) Meath with a pall hanging over the group.

Lose that, and it’s back to the Tailteann Cup, arguably with even less vim and vigour about the group than there was in advance of the ill-fated 2024 campaign.

Winning a Division Three title in Croke Park is not essential, but picking up more meaningful scalps along the way, and ideally bouncing into that Leinster quarter-final with a positive energy, has to be the priority. That is the vision that Offaly have to carry into the game in Ennis.

Eyes must be kept on the prize that is another strong performance, but away wins against opponents that are more likely to spend the summer playing Sam Maguire football instead of Tailteann Cup games are rare jewels, and they have to be pursued. That needs to be the approach that Offaly bring to this game, and everything that we’ve seen so far from this young panel indicates that they can do that.

If this game becomes just about two incisive attacking teams trying to outscore each other and not a battle over the margin of victory for Clare, then Offaly are well capable of finishing the season with a sixth victory and an undeniable statement that this group has arrived.

Waterford game also a test of mental strength

For the Offaly hurlers, Saturday’s game in Walsh Park (4pm, live on TG4) is also something of a battle of the mind, albeit in a very different way.

The absence of the U-20 players, Waterford’s home advantage and their need to win the game to take care of their own promotion hopes, allied to the very strong likelihood of another meeting with the same opposition a fortnight later, means that it would be very easy for Offaly to mentally draw a line through this game and say that it’s nothing more than a challenge match. But there is a lot more than that on offer.

While Offaly are very fortunate to have some of the best U-20 hurlers in Ireland, they’re not yet at the level where they are a country mile ahead of the next best alternatives.

Operating without the members of Leo O’Connor’s panel shouldn’t turn a team that is unbeaten in 2025 into a side that has no hope against a team like Waterford, but now the communication becomes all-important.

If the message of releasing all U-20s to concentrate on their championship somehow comes across as saying this game doesn’t matter, and that the senior players in the squad are nothing without the ‘born in 2005’ brigade to support them, then the outcome is all too predictable.

If, on the other hand, a handful of players from the deeper part of the Offaly senior panel get to play important roles and use the game minutes that have been very hard found so far in 2025, there is every chance that Offaly can take a lot from this game.

Finally, there is the ‘Leinster solidarity’ argument. There is no prospect whatsoever of a return to an era where the Leinster senior hurling championship is a competition for Leinster teams, free to enter for any of the 12 counties in the country’s eastern province.

Nonetheless, there still should be a sense of lingering injustice that while a county like Galway is granted access to all Leinster competitions, smaller counties for whom the Leinster championship means so much more – like Offaly and Carlow – are frequently locked out at senior level.

Meanwhile Waterford could fall off a cliff, but the five “traditional” hurling counties of that province are protected, as if they are some sort of UNESCO heritage project. There is still an outside chance that Offaly can do their bit to help Carlow secure promotion at Waterford’s expense.

It’s unlikely, but if Laois pull off a shock against a Dublin team that have nothing to play for, then wouldn’t it be great for Offaly to do their part to boost another like-minded county that has also been locked out of the golden circle!