Whelahan: that’s the greatest Birr team

BIRR manager Pad Joe Whelahan is a passionate man at the most mundane of times so stick a microphone under his nose after his side have won yet another provincial title and the results are always likely to be entertaining.

With his captain Gary Hanniffy still giving his acceptance speech, Pad Joe was already revving up the vocal chords and the Offaly county board were specifically targeted by the man who was again overlooked for the job of county manager this year despite his Midas touch with Birr.

"We got in there early and hit them hard and that's what Offaly hurling did for years. That's the greatest Birr team the greatest club team of all time. We proved it today. DJ Carey what did he get from play? What did Carter get? A group of ordinary hurlers bet them," Whelahan offered from the muddy touchline.

"We prepared perfect for that. We did our homework well. We had a meeting last night and DJ Carey was never mentioned. We didn't mention his name because we weren't worried about him. I said it during the week in the papers. We are worried about no-one from Kilkenny. If you play ground hurling and hit them hard and play with man-to-man marking they're not half as good."

"I'm disgusted with the county board this year," he continued. "Look at that performance out there and see what it takes to beat Kilkenny because (the county board) can't do it. We won the All-Ireland title last March, the county title a few months ago and now the Leinster nine months later. We've been going six years non-stop.

"I said I wanted the (Offaly) job. They don't want to keep Offaly hurling alive. If they wanted to keep it alive they would have given me the job. We'll see what happens now. You won't see Brian Whelahan there next time, or Joe Errity. They'll be gone," he warned.

When it comes to putting in hours at the coal-face nobody does it better than Birr in club hurling. Yesterday, nobody demonstrated that better than Johnny Pilkington. His performance from midfield may have lacked the scoring bursts supplied by Simon Whelahan, but it was his Duracell performance that typified the All-Ireland champions' efforts.

"It was a great second half performance out there by Birr," the midfielder said moments after the final whistling through a bloodied forehead and a cigarette pursed between his lips. "There was a ferocious wind out there in the second half. We were just a bit more determined than Gowran .

"When an Offaly team play a Kilkenny team, they're up for it anyway - well, barring the county team anyway. This was a big challenge for us. Gowran were coming out with DJ Carey, Charlie Carter and a few other good lads. Offaly hurling hasn't been going through a great spell of hurling against Kilkenny teams, but we had a team who were determined to get one over on them this time.

For Young Irelands, there was little shame in losing to such a Trojan bunch and manager John Brennan was putting a brave face on afterwards.

"They are a formidable side. Their hurling is pure class and they were crafty as well. On a day like today experience counts for an awful lot and Birr have lots of experience. There's no shame in losing to that team."

Any post-mortem of yesterday's game however will have to begin with the dreadful conditions which ruined the game as a spectacle, if not as a contest. Brennan summed it up best although he was refusing to lay the blame for his side's defeat at the doorstep of Mother Nature.

"It wasn't easy to play. Fair due to Portlaoise, they did their best after all the rainfall and it wasn't their fault but there were guys there who literally couldn't hit the ball.

"If you have Charlie Carter hitting the ball from 30 yards out and it falls short and Rory Hanniffy doing the same at the other end, it's terrible. I mean, DJ Carey and Brian Whelahan were having fierce problems with just getting 65s to the 21-yard line."