Faithful resurgence: ‘You can’t get an Offaly jersey for love nor money down here’

Both of Offaly's minor teams reached the 2020 Leinster finals, the U20 footballers are an hour from a first All-Ireland at the grade since 1988, the senior footballers are back in Division 2 and the flagship hurlers went through this season with a perfect record, earning promotion in the league and Championship.

Offaly manager Declan Kelly is congratulated by backroom staff member Ciaran Daly after the 2021 EirGrid GAA All-Ireland Football U20 Championship semi-final win over Cork. Picture: Matt Browne/Sportsfile

Declan Kelly describes this as his fourth season in charge of the Offaly U20s though, if we were being fussy, we might call it his fourth season in his second spell as manager.

The Kilclonfert man was technically in charge for a matter of hours back in late 2015 though resigned when he learned that he’d been ratified at a county board meeting without his consent.