We have to face the music, says McIntyre

STICKING a microphone in John McIntyre’s face after the final whistle yesterday didn’t feel so much like kicking a man when he was down, more like robbing him of his wallet as he lay bruised in the gutter.

In fairness to the Offaly manager, he didn’t dive for the sanctuary of the dressing room or hide behind any monosyllabic answers. Instead, he chose to take the humiliation - his own word - of a 31-point slaughter on the chin. No questions ducked, no excuses offered.

“I have to face the music and the players have to face the music. My head will probably be on the block now. It’s probably Offaly’s worst ever championship mauling of modern times and I’m the manager and I’m not going to walk away from that responsibility.

“It’s a bad day but there’s no need for inquests. Kilkenny cleared us out in the air. They were physically strong and it’s back to the drawing room in a big way. My worst nightmare has come true. In sport you have to dream and our dream was to beat Kilkenny today but we didn’t figure that it would be this bad.”

Emerging from the murky depths of Division Two to take on Kilkenny must have been like reading nursery rhymes to prepare for the Leaving Cert, but McIntyre still couldn’t have envisaged the freedom Kilkenny’s forwards were allowed in front of Offaly’s goal. The last time they conceded six goals to their neighbours in summertime was back in 1943. Kilkenny had never come near scoring so many points against them either - 22 was the highest five years ago.

What makes shipping half a dozen goals yesterday all the more mortifying is the time Offaly devoted to minimising Kilkenny’s opportunities around the their own penalty area in the week leading up to yesterday’s rout.

“We addressed it during the week,” said McIntyre. “In the last five championship meetings between Kilkenny and Offaly, Kilkenny scored 17 goals and Offaly scored four.”

The margin of Offaly’s defeat, allied to Wexford’s smooth passage against Laois, will now lead inevitably to a week of great introspection and hand-wringing in Leinster hurling circles and McIntyre fired the first volley in that argument yesterday.

“There’s been a lot of talk about Kilkenny and Cork dominating hurling. It’s a load of nonsense that that’s bad for hurling. It’s not Kilkenny or Cork’s problem. It’s up to the rest of us to get up to the standard they’re at.”

Brian Cody is usually a man to talk up any game, no matter how one-sided, but even he couldn’t escape the true picture painted by this evisceration. “I take no pleasure in winning that game by that margin, but it’s up to John McIntyre to lift them now. Offaly people are proud people and I hope in the future they will be back competing at the very top,” he said.

“We’re all interested in the welfare of hurling and we all heard the negative talk about the state of Leinster hurling, but I have no doubt that they’ll regroup and come back as strong as ever. They’ve lost a lot of top-class players in the last few years and it takes time to get over that.”

As McIntyre said, Offaly’s problems aren’t Kilkenny’s concern and the hunger shown by his team was further confirmation of how eager they are to atone for last year’s All-Ireland defeat to Cork. “We’re delighted with the win. We approached the game the same way we would approach a game against Cork. There were a few newcomers to the Kilkenny team and we were determined to make up for the flop in the Leinster semi-final last year,” Cody said.