Whelahan: Future out of my hands

After exiting the hurling championship with a 20-point reversal, Offaly manager Brian Whelahan insisted he wants to remain in charge for another year, but conceded it will be down to the Offaly County Board to make that call.

“Of course (I want to stay), I’m an Offaly man. But at the end of the day that’s not for me to decide,” said Whelahan.

“It’s all about Offaly hurling, at the end of the day. Taking the next step and putting in place the proper structures and I think this year was the start of it.

“We teamed up with Athlone IT at underage level. That’s going to take five or six years for that to be seen on the ground and it’s a process. But you deal with the players you have and they give you everything,” he said.

Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald came out to bat for Whelehan too and insisted the Offaly public and his county board should give their greatest ever player a bit of a breathing room.

“Brian Whelahan is a hurling man. He eats, sleeps and drinks it, but he can’t do it all on his own. You can’t blame him if it’s not going right,” said Fitzgerald.

“I think people should give Offaly a bit of a break. They did alright in the league. I think Brian is doing a lot of work and he needs to get as much help as he possibly can off the powers that be in Offaly. They need to back each other.

“We hit a little patch in the mid-2000s here. We went through a tough time but we built it from underage and we came strong again. It’s important to start it from underage but it’s important that everyone is on the same page.

“I don’t know exactly what’s gone on but I think hurling needs Offaly to come back.”