Hurling abuse to steady Birr in title face off with Athenry

SURELY in a hurling community as small as Offaly, where national success was unheard of until 1981, the current success of all-conquering Birr enjoys countywide support?

Afraid not. With three All-Ireland club titles to their name, the reigning champions are only two games away from an unprecedented fourth. Surely, that prospect should have universal appeal in the Faithful County? Not a bit of it, according to Simon Whelehan.

"We get a lot of abuse within the county," he said. "We get very little neutral support. The county final last year drew biggest crowd in years, Kilcormac-Killoughey got a great start, huge cheers, hats going up in the air. Then we got a goal, it was almost silence, you could barely hear anything, a few cheers."