Waterford midfield switches pay dividends in Offaly rout

Offaly 1-14, Waterfrord 2-18: The previous four league meetings between these two counties were evenly shared, the latter three decided by a goal or less.

Those clashes felt a world away on Saturday afternoon as Waterford were able to concede the first seven points of the match, rack up 22 wides in 70 minutes and still ease past the Faithful County without ever having to go beyond third gear.

“The scoreboard shows that we won by seven, it should have been ten or 11 to be honest” said Waterford selector Dan Shanahan afterwards and the former All Star from Lismore was probably being kind to Offaly even at that.

The opening 15 minutes, when Offaly scored seven times and Waterford failed to raise a flag, suggested that the home side were ready to compete. But Derek McGrath’s decision to move Austin Gleeson and Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh to midfield completely turned the game.

Waterford started to dominate the battle for primary possession and gradually found their range, with Tadhg De Búrca in particularly impressive form at centre back.

Stephen Bennett ignited their challenge with the game’s first goal after 25 minutes and by half time the Déise men had hit the front at 1-7 to 0-9.

Offaly still had the wind to come but they were hugely dependent on Shane Dooley who scored all bar one of their points in the first half. The Tullamore sharpshooter admitted afterwards that the manner of their first half collapse made it difficult for Offaly to find a second wind.

“The damage was done before half time to be honest. After all the hurling we did, to lose a lead like that is mentally a killer,” he said.

Dooley’s goal did pull Offaly back in contention at just 1-11 to 1-10 in arrears, and when Cathal Parlon pointed from his own half moments afterwards, Waterford appeared to be in a battle once more.

However the Munster county duly delivered 1-5 without reply over the next 20 minutes, ensuring the closing minutes were played at a pedestrian pace. Derek McGrath was able to give Maurice Shanahan his first league appearance in over a year late on, but Waterford IT manager Colm Bonnar won’t have enjoyed watching Austin Gleeson hobble off shortly before half time, with Shanahan unable to comfort the WIT boss in advance of Wednesday’s Fitzgibbon Cup final.

“I don’t know for sure, he’ll get checked up, but it’s not looking good“, he stated.

Scorers for Offaly: S Dooley 1-10 (0-8f), B Carroll 0-2, J Mulrooney & C Parlon 0-1 each.

Scorers for Waterford: P Mahony 0-7 (0-6f), M Walsh & Shane Bennett 1-1 each, J Dillon 0-3, C Dunford 0-2, A Gleeson, B O’Halloran, M O’Neill & S Fives 0-1 each.

Subs for Offaly: S Quirke for Bergin (52), C McDonald for Murphy (62), C Mulrooney for Cleary (68)

Subs for Waterford: M O’Neill for Gleeson (31), G O’Brien for O’Halloran (51), S O’Sullivan for Barron (57), Stephen Bennett for Dunford (61), M Shanahan for Pauric Mahony (68)

Referee: James Owens (Wexford)