Dual players way to go for Offaly, reckons Lowry

Shane Lowry’s allegiance to his native Offaly is almost as well-known as his golfing exploits and the Clara man believes the county’s hopes of resurrecting a glorious past would be improved if they returned to the days of the dual player.

The 2009 Irish Open champion looked on from the stands last Sunday as the hurlers went down bravely to Kilkenny in Tullamore and was also in attendance a week before when the footballers fell four points short of Kildare.

Both defeats were treated as moral victories, given the low ebb at which the two codes have rested in recent times, and the son of 1982 All-Ireland winner Brendan Lowry believes a county of limited resources requires all hands on deck.

“They just need a bit of confidence and I personally think there should be a few dual players there as well. (Lee) Chin from Wexford is doing it and that is a credit to him and there are definitely a few hurlers there who are good enough to play football for Offaly and vice versa.”

At least four of Ollie Baker’s hurlers — Colin Egan, Conor Mahon, Daniel Currams and Sean Ryan — have featured for the footballers in the past while Tullamore’s Shane Dooley is considered one of the top club players in the county.

The potential crossover of services is less obvious on the football panel but Lowry’s point, although unlikely to happen, demonstrates yet again the stools between which so many counties so often find themselves falling.

He took in the Kilkenny game beside Brian Whelahan and declared the first quarter was just like watching the Birr great and his cohorts in their 1990s prime but the standard of Offaly and Kildare in the football left him unimpressed.

“They get a lot of stick back home. They put in as much effort as any other team and I have seen that. I know quite a few of the lads and I went down one night and gave them a talk. That’s just the generation they are in.”