Seven year itch for Mooney, another prayer for the Faithful

BARRY MOONEY remembers how it used to be when he joined the Offaly panel seven years ago.

Back then they were Leinster champions and in the youngster’s first league campaign Tommy Lyons took them from the depths of Division Four all the way to the National League title.

Of course, the structure of the competition was very different in those days. Derry were the league specialists in the 1990s, but on a cold, wet April day in Croke Park Offaly outfought them to take the title.

Mooney’s older brother, Ronan, started at half-forward that day and the younger sibling came on with 12 minutes left to contribute a point at a crucial stage and Offaly eventually won by two.

Only a few weeks later their Leinster crown was whipped away unceremoniously in the first round of the championship, when Meath tanned them by 12 points.

That Leinster win eight years ago was the county’s only appearance in the provincial final in the 90s and they’re still looking to make their bow in a Leinster final halfway through the ‘noughties’.

“We’ve definitely underachieved as a team the last few years, there’s no doubt about that,” accepts Mooney.

“We haven’t even won a game in Leinster since 2002 and that’s a major disappointment to all of us. We’ll be looking to set that record straight against Louth.”

Val Andrews’ side, stricken by a near-apocalyptic casualty list, seem to be the perfect opponents to put that particular statistic right, but Offaly were bitten badly when favourites against Westmeath last year.

“I’ve played against Louth in league and championship the last five or six years and they’ve beaten us more than we’ve beaten them,” says Mooney. “I hear they’ve got a load of injuries but I can guarantee you a few of them will be playing on Sunday.”

Tomorrow’s season opener will be the only Leinster Championship game not to be played in Croke Park. It may irk traditionalists and may even favour Louth, who live virtually next door to Navan, but Mooney is adamant the venue won’t leave them at a disadvantage.

The game will also be Kevin Kilmurray’s debut as a championship manager. The league was useful as a getting-to-know-each-other exercise for all concerned and the signs were more positive than negative.

“That’s what the first couple of game were all about, the likes of the day against Laois in the O’Byrne Cup,” said Mooney. “We had a great league win against Westmeath and that was purely down to lads wanting to show Kevin what we could do and that we were playing for him.

“Against Kerry we came back very well in the second half. The game in Tyrone was our only real bad defeat and things improved again after that. The one problem is we’re not getting the results our performances deserve. We’re not taking our chances and that’s something we’ve got to change.”