Hanniffy eager to put Tribe on trial

Hectic times for Rory Hanniffy.

On the GAA front, Hanniffy the hurler is preparing tirelessly for tomorrow’s Leinster semi-final assignment with Galway. On the professional front, Hanniffy the barrister, is busy plying his trade on the Midlands Court Circuit in advance of the summer break.

Hanniffy hopes to be busy again during that summer break in service of his county. But first they must overcome their Connacht neighbours in Portlaoise who have been at their inconsistent best so far in 2012.

“It’s always the way with Galway, you never know how they’ll perform, but they do have match-winners and if they turn up [to play] they’ll be very, very difficult to beat.

“We have to presume they will — unfortunately the likes of Joe Canning do regularly turn up! He’s an exceptional player, you just have to look at the scoring stats since he made his debut. Watching him will be a full-time job.”

Galway’s notorious inconsistency was evident again in this year’s league, evident even in their quarter-final win over Westmeath when they scored 5-19 but conceded 4-12. But the Offaly players aren’t reading too much into such statistics.

“I’m not surprised they found it tough in Mullingar against a Westmeath team improving all the time. You have to be conscious of the fact that Galway are in a state of change, bringing in young fellas who know how to win. And as ever they have a huge number of quality players available.”

What of Offaly then? Their quarter-final victory was very different to Galway’s, a low-scoring encounter against a higher-ranked team, holding off a late Wexford charge to win by two points.

In that game Offaly had looked much the better side for three-quarters of the game, had built up a nine-point lead by the 52nd minute (2-12 to 0-9), then were left hanging on at the end.

“It’s always going to be close between Wexford and Offaly — you’re not going to dominate the whole game but we’re disappointed we let it get to that stage. We invited them on in the second half which I wouldn’t be happy with. Fortunately we did enough in the end, got the win. There was a county final feel to it, that kind of a day. The Galway game will be different.”

And that, says Hanniffy, is the main point — in the championship every game is different.

“Every championship game stands on its own, every five minutes within a game stands on its own. Westmeath, for example, was a tricky game for Galway but they got over it and I’m sure they’re not reading a huge amount into that now. They’ll see us as a different challenge, different problems, different prospect. What you have to do in championship is keep winning and keep improving; if we don’t improve from the last day we won’t win, and that would apply no matter who we were playing. Form is important but winning even more so and getting on a winning run. No matter who you are or who you’ve beaten, you want to play better the next day. The tempo is stepping up with every game, you have to keep improving with it.”

Of concern for a lot of Offaly supporters is the fact that they have become so reliant on one man, Shane Dooley, for the bulk of their scoring.

Dooley had 1-8 from their 2-12 against Wexford while Galway had eight different scorers against Westmeath. Offaly could do with a more even distribution of the workload among the attack, surely? “To be honest I don’t give a damn where the scores come from, as long as we’re winning,” is Hanniffy’s reply. “Shane is one of the best forwards in the country, as is Joe Canning, and they’re the free-takers, so it’s only natural they’re most likely to do most of the scoring. You do need a lot of threat in various areas, that’s only logical — it doesn’t matter how good one player is, if he’s on his own any defence will cop on to him fairly quickly. But I don’t believe we’re over-reliant on Shane — it might look like we are, but we have plenty of others who can chip in. Brian Carroll for example has a great track record over the years. But as long as we have one of the best forwards in the country we’re going to use him.”

We’ve dealt with inconsistency, we’ve dealt with the unpredictability of championship, we’ve dealt with fire-power. There’s one thing, however, that Offaly definitely have in their favour – they’re a more settled side than Galway, who were still chopping and changing even against Westmeath.

The same 15 who started against Wexford named again, and done before anyone else this week, no names from left field.

“I don’t think we can use the ‘we’re rebuilding’ excuse anymore,” he grins. “Most of us have been there a while. There are youngsters on the team and on the panel but most of those were brought in by Joe Dooley. We certainly have the experience, we now have to put it to good use. There’s a big prize on offer, a Leinster final; the last time we got there (2004) we played Wexford and just didn’t perform, we weren’t happy with that at all. I’d just love to get back at it. A provincial final in Croke Park, that’s a goal to aspire to.”

Analysis

In Galway v Offaly encounters, despite looking stronger on paper, the Tribesmen never find it easy to get over their near neighbours. Galway seem to hold the aces in tomorrow’s Leinster SHC semi-final but consistency is their achilles heel. They ran up a big score against Westmeath, but conceded four goals.The question exercising their fans is which Galway will take the field? Tomorrow could be a shoot-out - from play and frees - between Joe Canning and Offaly’s Shane Dooley. Discipline is vital in all games but particularly in a local derby. Committing silly frees hands opponents a vital advantage. Offaly need to supply Dooley with suitable ball and even then he will have to escape the attentions of the tight-marking Fergal Moore. Denying Dooley possession is the key for Galway. Good defence is vital for any win. Galway’s full backline is always a concern. Full back Kevin Hynes has come to this position via a circuitous route and has little experience of this specialised position. A competent, disciplined display by Hynes and the defence as a whole - rather than anything spectacular - would be a good signpost for the future.

- Donal O’Grady