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?

Yet here they are, booked in at Croke Park for the first time in three years and with a chance to end a wait for silverware that's twice that long.

As Ciaran McManus said earlier this week though, there is no secret to their success. Rather, it's a case of men like Slattery, Roy Malone, 19-year-old Niall McNamee and his partner at corner-forward Colm Quinn accepting a greater burden of responsibility on their young shoulders. That, and manager Gerry Fahy too.

"Sean, Vinny and Finbar were three big losses at the beginning of the year and a lot of people would have thought Gerry would take two years to build a team but he's got a good panel together and he's very professional," Slattery said.

"We do a bit on physical fitness as well but the focus is all on the ball. A lot of managers are starting to come around to that idea. It's a young panel but everyone says what they want and Gerry is very open-minded about that."

The last time the county was this close to winning a senior trophy was also a Division Two final. That was back in 2000 when a 20-year-old Slattery watched from the sidelines as Louth took the title.

A year later, they lost to Dublin in the championship at Jones' Road and, well, that's been it as regards Croke Park for them since.

Offaly may not know much about their opponents this Sunday, but they do know where they are coming from. It's been a decade since Down saw Croke Park, and as we all know, it's changed a tad since.

Paddy O'Rourke's side are just like Offaly young and hungry and it should make for an open game with both sides desperate for some silverware that would stand as concrete evidence to their revivals.

"Like ourselves, they haven't been in Croke Park for a while, so I'd say they're delighted to get a game," said Slattery. Any silverware is worth going for, especially with the new format of the league.

Beyond Sunday, Westmeath lay low in the long grass after a spring spent desperately scrambling away from the relegation trapdoor. Normally, such a local derby in the championship would demand Offaly's full attention but they've come too far to throw this one away now. After all, it's not every day you get to play in a Croke Park final.