Offaly look to complete turnaround

IT’S a sign of the times when 24-year-old Karol Slattery is described as one of the senior members on the Offaly football team.

Twelve months ago, that was far from being an accurate statement but, as the cliché goes, a year is a long time in football. Rewind back to May 2003 and Offaly had a number of veterans gearing up for what would turn out to be their last hurrah with the county.

Once their championship ended in defeat to Roscommon in Mullingar, Sean Grennan, Vinny Claffey and Finbar Cullen bid their adieus. Significant losses, all three. If prospects for a successful 2004 looked bleak then, things looked positively black when Paul O'Kelly was harshly dismissed as manager after just a year on the bridge?