Offaly to field walking wounded to avoid drop

OFFALY manager Mike McNamara will ask Brian Whelahan, Ger Oakley and Neville Coughlan to play through the pain barrier on Sunday as the county battles to avoid the drop to Division Two of the NHL.

Whelahan and Oakley returned to light training on Wednesday evening, despite the fact both men are still struggling with facial and shoulder injuries respectively. McNamara admits that, with his team facing into the abyss of relegation, all three may be asked to tog out in Birr against neighbours Laois at the weekend.

“Eleven of what I would call our first fifteen are injured at present so we’re at crisis levels and, with our situation in the league as it is, one or two players may have to play through the pain barrier,” McNamara said yesterday.

“Brian Whelahan would be our premier hope to recover. With the nature of the injury he picked up we would like to give him longer to recover, but it may not be possible and he may have to play some part.

“Ger Oakley has a damaged shoulder and went for a scan on Monday. We’re still waiting for the results but he will probably play a part as well. Neville Coughlan missed our game last week because he was playing with the footballers, and even though he came off injured, he will probably play this weekend as well,” the Scariff publican revealed.

Their presence will be badly-needed against a Laois side that, the thumping in Galway aside, has shown encouraging form. Paudie Butler’s side secured their place in Division One with a win in Antrim last week.

The prospect of relegating their arch-rivals, who they could meet later in the year in a Leinster semi-final, on their home patch is one they will be salivating over, as Offaly defender David Franks knows too well.

“Laois are going very well,” the Ballyskenagh corner-back said.

“Paudie Butler seems to be doing some great work with those lads and they’re benefiting from it.

“Look at it this way, if we were playing them and we had the chance to put them down to Division Two, we’d go all out for it and they’ll want to do the same to us.

“People might say that they’re safe and they’ve nothing to lose, and I don’t know what sort of a team they’ve put out, but we might be meeting them in the championship for a place in the Leinster final this summer. They’ll want to do anything they can to dent our confidence before that.

“As well, no team wants to be losing games at this stage of the season.”

That’s a habit Offaly have worryingly developed in the last fortnight after an encouraging start to the season. Last week’s 21-point defeat to Dublin was a huge blow, even if they were missing a host of their top names.

“I don’t know what happened last Sunday. We’d gone fairly well in the league up until that. We beat Tipp in the first game, Antrim and Wexford and we were unlucky to lose to Cork down there. Last Sunday is a worry, although maybe it was just one of those things.

“We were four points to two up after 15 minutes and seemed to be in control. The next thing, we conceded a few scores and we were gone totally flat. That can’t happen. Any team, no matter who you are, has to respond to those situations better than that. We didn’t do that but we can’t let it happen again.”

The net result of that capitulation is that McNamara’s side now finds itself fighting for its life. As Franks admits, such a scenario isn’t good enough for a county with their pedigree.

“You don’t want to be in Division Two of the league, no disrespect to the teams down there. Just because it’s 10 or 15 years since an Offaly team has been down, there is no guarantee that we won’t be there come Sunday evening.

“The bottom line is Offaly haven’t won anything since the ’98 All-Ireland and before that it was the Leinster in ’95. That’s far too long a time for this county to go without winning a trophy. The honour of playing for your county is fantastic but you’re in the game to win things. If you’re not doing that you have to ask yourself why you’re there at all.”