Leinster victory would keep the Faithful happy

Brendan O’Brien

So says the team's goalkeeper Padraic Kelly, one of the senior members on the panel and one of the leading voices in the players' tête-à-tête with the county board last year.

The kernel of the showdown was what the footballers perceived as the board's failure to adequately support their efforts and a revolving door managerial policy that saw Kevin Kilmurray eventually replace Gary Fahy, who himself had only slipped into Paul Kelly's shoes the year before.

Seventeen grievances were drawn up and handed to county officials. None seemed outlandish or unachievable, but the fact that players were instructed in advance of the Westmeath Leinster championship game not to swap jerseys at the final whistle highlighted how far Offaly needed to come.

With morale low and bad feeling high, it seems amazing that Offaly came so close to beating the eventual provincial champions Westmeath and Laois in the past two years.

We haven't won a championship match in three years," Kelly says.

"Sure, we've won a few qualifiers but with Leinster opening up more every year that's not good enough.

"We haven't been able to put two good performances back to back. Other teams like Laois and Westmeath have taken their chances, but not us. That has to change. There are no excuses."

Since last year's stand-off, professionalism has at last got a foot back in the door. Gym membership was sorted out, with Leinster rugby's weights specialist on board to supervise, while a regular Tullamore-based physio addresses every ache and pain.

A new player-friendly chairman, Ollie Daly, is also in situ, the supporters' club has been revived and an

underage hurling and football academy had its ribbon cut last month.

It may be an improved recipe for success, but it's not exactly going to leave them one step ahead of the posse this summer, according to Kelly.

"You can say this and that are being done right now, but that's just the

basic platform for success, not an

extra. That just brings us in line with every other team we'll be facing."

It's not just off the pitch that Offaly are a work in progress. Having achieved promotion to Division One last year, survival was the limit of their ambitions this time.

With that much achieved, Kelly feels it may take another spring of rubbing shoulders with the big boys before the benefits really begin to shine through.

What Offaly need though is more young bucks coming through to jostle for places with the likes of the 29-year-old car salesman.

"In Leinster you'll always have the likes of Dublin, Meath and Kildare there or thereabouts. For teams like Offaly and Laois say, you need that underage structure to be right. Laois and Westmeath have shown what success you can get from that.

"We won our last Leinster title in '97 with a lot of lads who had won our last Leinster U-21 in 1995. Why we didn't kick on from there, I don't know. We had a nice mix of experience and youth back then but after the league win in '98 we didn't move on from there."

Last year's Division Two title aside, Offaly's cupboard is threadbare since that league success in '98.

If they are to change that any time soon, they will do it the traditional Offaly way. Kevin Kilmurray won't have it any other way.

"Kevin likes the traditional catch-and-kick game," says Kelly.

"He's good with tactics and that side of things as well, but if a guy can catch the ball and kick it up to someone 60 yards away, Kevin would rather that than five hand-passes to get the same result.

"He likes to see lads get their shoulders in there as well, which is another traditional side of Offaly football.

"He wants lads to stand up and be counted and none of us has any problem with that.

"Kevin's one of our own, he's done it all with Offaly and he has had the respect that he deserves from day one with us."