Faithful on a mission to keep hurling tide rising

The Offaly senior hurlers are the top of a tree with increasingly sound roots.

The Offaly team huddle before the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group A clash with Kilkenny at UPMC Nowlan Park last month. Pic: Tom Beary, Sportsfile

LAST Saturday morning at the Faithful Fields, the 2024 Offaly development squads were launched. Or to put it more accurately, the Faithful future was launched.

Across U14, U15, and U16 in the two codes, 241 youngsters were identified and invited to join the development squad system. All bar three took up the invite. Offaly is a rising tide and every youngster is looking for a seat on the boat.

Addressing the next generation at the county’s Kilcormac base, Offaly chairman Michael Duignan said he could only dream of a day like Saturday when he got his feet under the county board table five years ago.

Duignan wasn’t just alluding to player appetite. He was referencing the county’s 14 full-time Games Promotion Officers on the ground in schools, clubs, and who’ll link in heavily with the development squads. He was referencing Chris Coombs, Offaly GAA’s head of medical who is based at the Faithful Fields. He was referencing Colin Kenny, Offaly GAA’s head of nutrition. And he was referencing Gary Flannery, Offaly GAA’s head of performance.

“I would like to think our players are as well looked after, if not better, than anywhere else in Ireland. And I would think this overall structure that we have here is probably at the very top of the tree, as well,” Duignan told Midlands103 when discussing the development squad launch.

At the top of the local tree are the Offaly seniors. That’s where those 238 development squad participants want to wind up.

The Offaly senior hurlers currently find themselves in a most difficult Allianz League Division 1 Group A. Throwing in at the beginning of last month, the expectation was that Johnny Kelly’s charges would suffer the same fate as two years ago.

What happened two years ago?

Offaly lost all five of their Division 1 outings by an aggregate total of 83 points. That’s an average losing margin of 17 points. They were hammered Sunday after Sunday.

This year has been far less chastening. 2024 has seen them competitive. 2024 has provided evidence of a closing gap.

Kelly laments that they didn’t take both points on their visit to Wexford Park. He laments that they didn’t better protect their six-point interval lead away to Kilkenny last time out.

The new manager doesn’t see any conditioning gap between Offaly and the Tier 1 counties they are trying to pull up alongside. Offaly, he says, have placed huge emphasis on physical preparation over the last two years, leading to his belief that “I don’t think there is a gap between an Offaly player and say a player in Tipperary or Cork”.

If not in strength and conditioning, then where are the areas where improvement must be found to cross the bridge to the Liam MacCarthy counties?

Kelly’s reply harks back to the importance of what went on last Saturday morning.

“It is more than just internal to this group. It will take Offaly a number of good underage teams coming through in quick succession because you will need a conveyor belt of players to sustain what we are trying to achieve at senior level.

“The development squads meeting of around 240 players was a massive statement of intent by all involved. There are green shoots and hopefully that will continue.”

Of the 25 players used across their opening three League games, seven - Mark Troy, Sam Bourke, Cathal King, Dan Bourke, Dan Ravenhill, Charlie Mitchell, and Adam Screeney - were part of last season’s Leinster U20 winning team.

“Cathal King is someone we have been very pleased with. He has stepped in at midfield and, at times, in our defence. Adam Screeney got his first start against Wexford, Dan Ravenhill got his first full start against Kilkenny. Dan Bourke is another we think can make the breakthrough.

“These guys have added a great bit of impetus to what we are doing. Having said that, we are mindful that they are still young. It is about getting the balance right, having open conversations around their training load with the U20 management, and behaving in the right manner; that is the key to progressing these lads on further.”

Nearly everyone on the outside looking in doesn’t see Offaly adding to the solitary League point they accumulated in Wexford Park.

“We’d love to get some points from one of the two games. If we could get one win, it would be a great boost ahead of the Joe McDonagh. The chances of that happening are viewed elsewhere as slim, but we have a confident bunch.

“We do know the teams (Cork and Clare) we are facing are all top class and could do real damage to us, but we are hopeful that we will give a good display against Cork this weekend and see where that takes us.

“There was probably disappointment with how some of the games went towards the latter end of last year. There is a real drive and players are on a mission this year.”