Offaly ready to savour Croker

ALLIANZ FL DIVISION 4 FINAL

Typical of that new breed is Offaly senior football manager Emmet McDonnell. Just 34, this is Emmet’s first year managing at this level. Last season he led St Mary’s of Edenderry – the school in which he’s a Leaving Cert honours maths teacher – to All-Ireland A colleges glory.

Going directly from there to inter-county should have been a major leap but it hasn’t turned out that way. In fact it’s been seamless.

“I was involved with St Mary’s for the last five or six years so I knew a lot of the lads, knew the potential that was there. It was just a question of getting the preparation right, all we’ve done is try to create a professional setup and the players have bought into it completely. It hasn’t been difficult, really.

“If you want success you have to be professional now, at any level. At colleges level you’re coming across the likes of Jack O’Connor, Colm O’Rourke, Brian Talty on the sideline, all top coaches and managers. The college competitions are now gone very tactical and while it’s a big step-up to senior county management, I haven’t found that to be the case on the tactical side at all.”

A Westmeath native, still living in Kinnegad with whom he soldiered until last year, Emmet is realistic enough to know the size of the job he has taken on in Offaly. The heady days of the early ’70s and ’80s are gone and Offaly have won nothing since the league title in 1998. Nevertheless this remains a proud football county.

Last year was something of a nadir, demotion to Division 4, Emmet the third manager within the calendar year.

“It’s 2007, a Leinster semi-final, since Offaly were in Croke Park and we’ve spoken about this among ourselves. Fellas like Brian Darby, one of our more experienced players, he’s 27 and has never played in Croke Park.

“That’s something we were targeting from early in the year, to get to a league final and a date in Croke Park. We have Kildare there in the first round of the Leinster championship, June 1, and for players who have never played there before that’s a very difficult thing to do. It’s a very different venue, a massive pitch. That’s why this Saturday is a win-win situation for us. We’re already after getting promotion to Division 3 but we’re also getting a game in Croke Park.”

He added: “Offaly won two games all of last year. One O’Byrne Cup and one league. This year we’ve already won ten. You try to get competitive, get used to winning, then you can start to open up a bit and hopefully we will.

“We’re looking forward to getting to Croke Park and playing open football and that’s the way Limerick like to play anyway.”