Dooley is a huge loss, says Hanniffy

THE fact that Kilkenny have won the last six Leinster hurling titles is indicative of where Wexford, Offaly, Laois and Dublin lie in the pecking order.

The only serious challenge during this period was posed by Offaly six years ago, when they dropped Babs Keating after losing the Leinster final and Michael Bond inspired a remarkable All-Ireland victory over Kilkenny.

Since then, progress for the midlanders, under Fr Tom Fogarty initially and more recently with Mike McNamara, has been mixed. That, and a combination of injuries to key players, places a question mark over their prospects against Laois tomorrow night.

Last season, one of their better performances was in the qualifier competition against Limerick in Thurles. Just a couple of weeks ago, they lost to Limerick in the last round of the first phase of the League. It proved a costly defeat, because they lost in each of their three subsequent games and went crashing down to Division Two.

Team captain Gary Hanniffy does his best to put a positive spin on some of the perceived negatives about Offaly's current situation, responding to questions about low numbers at training, by pointing out that they were missing a lot of players because of injuries and examinations.

His brother Rory, arguably one of the team's more impressive forwards, was one of these ruled out in his case with a knee problem which not only continues to keep him out of action, but places a major doubt about his availability for a possible Leinster final appearance.

Brian Whelahan, for so long one of the main driving forces behind the team, is another withdrawal. And, another seasoned campaigner, Joe Errity, opted out at the start of the year.

But Hanniffy is not unduly worried. "We did well in the first phase of the League, but we were just pipped at the post by Limerick to go through to the second phase. We got beaten by Kilkenny and after that things just went badly. Before we knew it we were in Division Two," he states.

"It's hard to say where we stand in Leinster, though the championship will tell you very quickly where you are. But it would appear from the League that both Laois and Dublin are ahead of us. They each beat us, and Dublin beat us convincingly (4-21 to 2-6). Hopefully, we are better than the League results would suggest."

While Kilkenny didn't make it to the second phase either, he believes they will still be the major force in the province this year. "They are a fabulous team. It's up to everyone else to try and catch them, isn't it?"

"Anyone who discounts Kilkenny does so at their peril. They say themselves that their early season training wasn't what it was in previous years for a whole lot of different reasons. But, I'm sure that by now they are well up to speed. By the time their championship comes around they'll be back flying it. They won't be too worried, they'll be back flying it."

Training this year has been "less rigorous, physically," he says, adding that criticism voiced in public earlier on didn't impact on the members of the playing panel. His view is that supporters were right to voice criticisms, when they saw that the team wasn't performing up to the level expected of them.

"No one likes to get criticised, but to be honest it didn't bother us. You have to be thick-skinned in this game. The fact that we had a lot of injuries was a contributory factor. It was certainly unfair to criticise Mike McNamara."

From the players' perspective, nobody is making comparisons between this year and last year even though they did survive Division One then.

Without dwelling too much on the past, he acknowledged that Offaly had so far been unable to overcome the loss of Johnny Dooley, who had been forced to retire prematurely by a troublesome injury.

"You never replace a player like that. He was top-class."