New Offaly boss Johnny Kelly targets return to Division 1

FRESH START: New Offaly hurling manager Johnny Kelly, Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

New Offaly manager Johnny Kelly says winning Division 2A and returning to the top flight of the Allianz Hurling League is his immediate priority.

Experienced Kelly has stepped up from a backroom team role with former manager Michael Fennelly to take the reins outright for 2023.

Speaking to Midlands 103 radio, the man who enjoyed club successes with Portumna, Coolderry and Borris-Ileigh said that he took the job because he felt 'there's more to do' and he 'wasn't prepared to leave it at that and walk away'.

But restoring Offaly to the top tier of the game remains a giant challenge, as their relegation from Division 1 following a play-off defeat to Antrim earlier this year highlighted.

"I would be ambitious enough and say that yes, if we can get a proper S&C programme going and improve our consistency around our hurling and speed up our game then yeah, we'd be hopeful that we can get back up to Division 1A again," said Kelly.

"This is why we're there, we're competitors. One of the goals would be to win Division 2A, get back up there and bring players with us and have consistency of performance really, that's what we're after."

Kelly felt it wasn't all doom and gloom earlier this year when Offaly, who later failed in their bid for Joe McDonagh Cup honours, suffered the drop.

"My opinion is that you do need to be playing these top teams but what didn't work really I think was the number of games we had to play between January and say, March," he said. "You're talking about I think nine games in 11 weeks which is a heavy workload for a young and relatively inexperienced panel and that certainly didn't work.

"But we could see green shoots towards the end of the league. We had good performances against Clare in Tullamore and also against Wexford in Wexford Park.

"Getting the balance right between the large number of games and exposing players to the likes of that environment in Division 1A is probably the way to go."

Liam Sheedy and Eamon O'Shea were initially linked with the Offaly job though officials eventually turned to Kelly.

"There's more to do," he said. "Obviously we were disappointed with the way things ended last year so I just wasn't prepared to leave it at that and walk away. Hopefully we'll improve as the year goes on. I'm really looking forward to the challenge ahead.

"Last year, and it's not an excuse, we did have a number of injuries at critical times and it never really allowed us to have a consistent team and a settled team at certain stages. Look, there'll be no excuses on that front, it's our job to improve."