Rhode bank on McNamee’s magic to deliver Leinster crown

Pat Daly has admitted that another 1-7 tally isn’t going to be enough to capture the provincial title that Rhode crave.

But the Rhode manager believes that in Offaly county captain Niall McNamee, they have a player who can shoot them to glory.

Rhode will play their fourth Leinster final in nine seasons when they face holders St Vincent’s this weekend.

They’ve lost the previous three and scored just 1-7 in the 2010 and 2008 defeats, while they managed only eight points in the 2006 decider.

Prolific McNamee demonstrated with 0-7 in the Leinster semi-final that he’s capable of dragging them to glory though. And Daly, pictured, is a huge fan. “Niall is, for me, one of the top 10 forwards in Ireland,” said Daly. “He’s a serious player. We train at 8 o’clock and I’d be there at, say, seven. Niall would always be there half an hour before that again, popping balls over the bar. And he’d be the last man popping the ball over the bar at the end as well. He is so tuned in and focused and he brings it to a different level. He has always been that way.

“The first game he played for us, as a senior, he was 17. But I think he got 3-6 from corner-forward in a tournament game. You just knew this chap was special. And he’s the same chap today as he was then.”

McNamee has struck up a terrific partnership with fellow county man Anton Sullivan in the Rhode full-forward line. They scored 1-9 between them against Moorefield in the Leinster semi-final. Before that, the pair tallied 1-8 against Navan O’Mahonys.

“We hadn’t got Anton last year and it became a situation in the county that teams were dropping two or three fellas back on Niall the whole time, because Anton wasn’t there,” said Daly.

“But they haven’t one to watch now, they have two. And the other fella in the corner isn’t bad either, Paul McPadden. He’s young but he’s a good player, so it’s a strong full-forward line.”

It could just be the attacking combination that elevates Rhode beyond that 1-7 barrier and to a famous Leinster win.

“Well you won’t win anything with that sort of tally, 1-7,” accepted the manager. “If we score that again on Sunday, we won’t win it.

“But we’re an attacking team, we don’t set up defensively and we feel we have the forwards to put a score together. So we’ll be going at it that way. If we go down to Navan fearing Vincent’s in any way, we’re in trouble.

“We don’t fear them. They’re a great club team, a massive team, All-Ireland champions. But we don’t fear them. If we did, there’d be no point going down.”

Offaly’s hurling champions, Kilcormac-Killoughey, also reached their provincial final. But the success of Offaly clubs isn’t mirrored at county level, where their senior teams are struggling badly at present.

“You go to any football league match with Offaly involved and there wouldn’t be 200 people at it,” lamented Daly. “It must be very demoralising for lads.

“The likes of Niall McNamee, you’d pay money to see him but he goes in and there are only 200 people looking at it. Not that it would worry him.

“In the club hurling final last weekend, Ballyhale Shamrocks had roughly 200 or 300 at the match, of a 4,500 crowd. So probably 4,000 were from Offaly. That’s the hurling end of it.

“Even for ourselves, against Navan O’Mahonys and Moorefield, there were 3,000 in Tullamore for a club game. I’d like to see that support get behind the county too and lift the lads.”