Cork quality should shine through

Offaly came to Cork last year as no-hopers against a team that had hammered Laois the week before (10-20 to 1-13) and were desperately unlucky to be beaten by a point, albeit against a side that played most of the game with 14 men after Pa Cronin was red-carded.

The Midlanders cursed their luck in front of the posts and also came up against an inspired Donal Óg Cusack in goal.

Offaly return to Cork this evening and, again, supposedly as no-hopers. But this is an Offaly team brimful of talent, loads of experience and with something to prove, up against a precocious Cork side still on a steep learning curve. Anything could happen here.

Offaly already have two good championship games under their belts, a heart-stopping win in the rain and the gales against Wexford before a bit of a trimming from Galway on a drier sod. In both those games they will have learned much about themselves and as a result they have made a host of changes with three new faces on the starting 15, backs/midfield/forwards all rearranged. I think they look stronger as a result of those changes.

Their most dangerous line is up front, the trio of Shane Dooley (one of hurling’s marquee forwards now), Joe Bergin (enigmatic but, on his day, a match-winner) and the experienced Brian Carroll (proven scorer). The challenge for Offaly is to feed this line, but even more, to feed them quality ball. If they manage that, this could be their day.

Against Tipperary, Cork took their game up two or three levels from the poor display in the league final against Kilkenny. Can they do that again here, now that the spotlight is off? That’s the challenge for Jimmy Barry-Murphy and his management team. Again there will be presumptions made here, that because it’s in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, because they were able to do it against Tipperary, they’ll be able to do it again.

Not necessarily so. This young team is still learning, still trying to gel, still adapting to each other’s game. I’m going for a home win on the basis of that display against Tipperary, the quality shown, but as happened last year, a win only by the skin of their teeth.

Verdict: Cork