Kilmurray cuts a restrained figure amid jubilant scenes

ONE look at the Offaly players as Jimmy White blew the final whistle yesterday was all anyone needed to realise how much this win meant.

They hugged and danced and jumped for joy as the Kilkenny hurlers sped onto the field but Kevin Kilmurray cut an altogether more restrained figure minutes later.

A no nonsense character at the best of times, Kilmurray wasn’t going to get carried away just because Offaly had qualified for a Leinster final.

After all, this is a man who has two All-Ireland medals from his time as faithful servant in the early 70s.

He won’t disguise the importance of this win though. Not after all the bad luck and rounds of managerial musical chairs that have dogged his county since their last taste of provincial success in 1997.

Said Kilmurray: “It’s important for football. Offaly have a great tradition of football but we have been on a downhill slide for the last two or three years. We were very unlucky but we have caught the rub of the green this year.”

It’s 17 years since the county last won a provincial minor title, 11 since their last U21, but Offaly have been finding the odd nugget of gold amidst such barren underage yields.

Only two of yesterday’s team — goalkeeper Padraig Kelly and midfielder Ciaran McManus — were on board when Tommy Lyons brought the county their last senior title nine years ago. Youth has been given its head.

Nowhere has that approach reaped more dividends than in the displays yesterday of their two corner forwards Niall McNamee and Tomas Deehan who accounted for 2-11 of their 2-15 tally.

“As well as that the team is maturing,” said Kilmurray.

“They have put a few things behind them and things are going well. The wonderful thing about football is if you keep playing at the top level you are going to improve.”

The Offaly manager was quick to shift some of the praise onto his men further out the field.

It was that mainline through to the full-forward line that allowed Offaly score two goals in the opening half hour with a third denied only by an outstretched Wexford arm on the goal line.

“I would attribute that to the outfield players, the way they’re able to get the right balls in at the right time. The two lads are talented players.

This year they’ve shown that talent. They’re only, what, 20, 22 years of age so they should have 10 more years in the Offaly jersey.”

Journalists being journalists, holes were picked in the Offaly performance.

The game lost all of its shape in the second period and Offaly’s reliance on their two young corner-forwards may be a cause of concern against a better side than Wexford. Like Dublin for example.

If Kilmurray was worried, he wasn’t showing it.

“It doesn’t really matter to me who gets the scores. Some of the scores we got today were awesome. Some of them were scrappy and that’s the way I want it.”

And so to Dublin. The final in two weeks time will be the first between these two counties in 23 years.

Kilmurray is happy to let Paul Caffrey’s men deal with the hype though. Few teams treat big reputations with the same disdain as Offaly do.

“All you have to do is pick up the colours and see the spreads and the colour,” said Kilmurray of the Dubs. “They bring great colour to the game. Fair play to them. They bring 70,000 people to Croke Park and that’s great.

“We have two weeks hard work. They’re good. They’re there by right. We’re looking forward to it.”