This Offaly resurrection is built to last
STRONG FOUNDATIONS: Daniel Hand of Offaly in action against James Hegarty of Clare. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
As he walked off Croke Park in 1994, shellshocked and distraught after Offaly had ambushed Limerick in the space of a little over five minutes, Leo O’Connor could never have imagined that nearly three decades later, he would be a key figure in yet another Offaly resurrection.
Unlike 1994, when everything changed for Limerick and Offaly in the blink of an eye, the Faithful County’s return to relevance in both football and hurling is an ongoing process, and a gradual one.
For 20 years, Offaly didn’t win a Leinster title in football or hurling, at minor, senior or U-20/U-21. Then last year’s U-20 footballers ended that drought in spectacular fashion, and now O’Connor is in his fourth year at the helm of the Offaly minors, and on Sunday he hopes to guide the county to their first Tom Markham Cup since 1989.
It’s been quite the emotional journey for the man who had his best shot at a Celtic Cross taken away by the Midlanders.
“When you are driving out here in Offaly at night time, you think of all the things that happened and the poignant moments in life. Five minutes to go, you are five points up in an All-Ireland final. I remember Gary Kirby taking a free, I just looked at the umpire and asked what’s left in it? Five minutes he said. Eight minutes later, Offaly had scored two goals and five points,” he recalls.
“The big black hole opened up, Limerick fell into it. Eamonn Cregan was my own club man, I won a senior hurling championship with Eamonn Cregan in 1996 as an 18-year-old. Eamonn talking to Derry O’Donovan, another Claughaun man, who trained Offaly that day. There’s just things that happen for a reason, and I certainly learned more from losing that day in 1994 than I would have from winning."
O’Connor never imagined that his education would eventually take him back to Offaly, and to his current position, where he aspires to follow in Cregan’s footsteps and manage an Offaly hurling team to All-Ireland glory.
When former Offaly chairman Tommy Byrne and coaching officer Martin Cashin headhunted him to take over this team, they weren’t thinking All-Irelands either. They saw what was happening in Limerick, and wanted to sprinkle a little bit of that stardust on the local scene in the Faithful County.
Regardless of how Sunday’s game goes, O’Connor argues that what’s happening in Offaly is a model for other counties to follow, and that this year’s team won’t be a one-off.
“I’ll be very straight - I’d be very disappointed if it doesn’t sustain” he said.
“Look at what we’re in (Faithful Fields) — four fields, absolutely perfect. You’ve O’Connor Park. You’ve Birr. The way it works in Limerick is they have their Saturday morning from eight o’clock to one o’clock. Each development squad comes in for an hour and a half and there’s an overlap of a half an hour and when coming towards tournament time in July and August, they come in on a Wednesday night for eight weeks before it. That’s not major resources.
“Offaly have this ready-made already. Everything is self-contained, you have your gym, you have your ball wall, you have your training fields, you have your astroturf there. Everything is self-contained here, so it’s a matter of organising this and putting the right structures in place and, as I said, making sure that the right people are involved in the underage teams coming up.
“There isn’t as many players as there might be in Limerick or Tipperary, but there’s enough hurlers to get them through the system, work them through the phases. The strength and conditioning has been vitally important.
“Everyone talks about the strength and physique of Limerick, and I saw the Kilkenny U-20 team that beat Limerick in the All-Ireland U20 final. The physique of that Kilkenny team struck me, and 11 of those played in the 2020 Leinster final against us only 12 months ago, the fourth of July last year.
“The Timmy Cliffords, the Billy Drennans they all played last year. I know it was a year across Covid but you see the way Kilkenny are able to do it. Why can’t Offaly do it? I actually think the right process is in place now.”
“Offaly need to take credit for what has been achieved. Say if you get three off of 2020’s team, three off of last year’s team and you probably get four or five off this year’s team. There’s the bones of an U20 team for the next two or three years and one that will be very well able to compete."
And on Sunday?
“If we do the things right the way we want to do them and get our own house in order, I think this Offaly team has a lot to bring forward to Nowlan Park,” was his careful consideration.
When it comes to Offaly hurling, Leo O’Connor’s 28-year-old lesson to presume nothing is still embedded in his mind.
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