Dooley resigns as Offaly boss to give ‘new voice’ a chance

OFFALY senior hurling manager Joe Dooley last night announced his resignation from the position.

However he insisted that the standoff with the county board over the treatment of his team at O’Connor Park, Tullamore earlier this year was not the reason for his decision.

Dooley, one of the county’s most decorated players, said: “I have four years done. It’s a big drain on your time and as property manager with the ESB, travelling all over the country from one corner to the other, anywhere from Cahirciveen to Buncrana, I already have a very busy day job.”

Dooley admitted the O’Connor Park controversy, in which Dooley and his players were refused admission on a number of occasions “didn’t help”.

But he added: “You’d overcome those problems. You just keep going and we did for the last three years. My term was up last year and they asked me to stay on, which I did, hesitantly. It’s a huge, huge commitment. We had 100 training sessions this year and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. We’ve brought the players to a very good level, they’re united and committed but they probably need to hear a new voice, someone to bring them the extra mile.”

Despite the controversy, Dooley managed to coax a superb performance from his team against Cork in the qualifiers on Saturday last, losing by just one point at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Coupled with an earlier fine performance against Dublin in the Leinster championship in what’s been an injury-hit season, this leaves Offaly in a good position for the coming season.

Now, says the outgoing manager, very careful consideration should be given to the choice of his successor.

“The average age of the team this year is 23; against Cork the last day, we were missing probably five of our first eight top-choice defenders, guys like Michael Verney, Paul Cleary, James Rigney, while Stephen Egan only lasted 10 minutes. And still we could have won.

“The key thing now is to get someone modern. There’s great unity in the team, a strong and good bunch of lads. Offaly must get the right man now to take it forward, a progressive manager, not someone who will take things back to the dark ages.

“We’ve had a run of poor results at underage, we need to look at improving the whole structure of hurling in Offaly. We’re a small county and a good team will only come in cycles.

“But we seem to be off the pace at underage at the moment, and slipping back.”