Faithful won't risk rising star Ravenhill, says O'Connor

The talented youngster suffered a serious hamstring injury in the McDonagh Cup opener against Laois.

Leo O'Connor has guided the county's U-20s to back-to-back national finals. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Offaly look set to be without rising star forward Dan Ravenhill for their All-Ireland U-20 and Joe McDonagh Cup hurling finals.

Leo O'Connor has guided the county's U-20s to back-to-back national finals and they will face Cork or Tipperary at UPMC Nowlan Park on Saturday week.

The Faithful seniors will play Laois the following weekend at Croke Park in the McDonagh Cup decider.

Talented Ravenhill began both campaigns but suffered a serious hamstring injury in the McDonagh Cup opener against Laois and hasn't featured since.

Asked if Ravenhill could feature in the All-Ireland U-20 final, O'Connor shook his head.

"I doubt it, calling a spade a spade," said O'Connor. "Dan has a long-term injury. I'm not going to risk him because the lad has a bright future ahead of him. There's no way we're going to risk Dan's health.

"We could fast track it and try to see what happens but at the end of the day, it's just risking his long-term future for short-term gain."

O'Connor guided Offaly to a successful Leinster U-20 title defence on Wednesday evening, beating Dublin in front of over 15,000 in Portlaoise.

Offaly won't lack motivation for the All-Ireland final, whoever they play, because this group of players have plenty of history with both Cork and Tipp.

Offaly lost to Cork in last year's All-Ireland U-20 final, with Ravenhill scoring 1-4 in that encounter.

And many of the same players lost the 2022 All-Ireland minor final to Tipperary by a single point.

"This is our third Leinster final on the trot with most of this group," said O'Connor. "There were four or five players ahead of them at times and four or five behind. But it's a lot of the same lads and there are 11 of the current starting 15 that are underage again next year.

"That's huge, the experience they're gaining. There are six of them on the senior panel and they're in the Joe McDonagh final as well. It's all learning, learning and pushing on."

Even without Ravenhill, Offaly will be hopeful of scoring a famous U-20 win on June 1, their first ever at the grade.

Adam Screeney and captain Dan Bourke, two more county seniors, struck 0-13 between them and oozed quality in the midweek defeat of Dublin.

Senior manager Johnny Kelly may omit the U-20 contingent for this weekend's McDonagh Cup clash with Down, given that it's a dead rubber from Offaly's perspective.

"There's no need for them to go really," said O'Connor of the trip to Ballycran.

O'Connor, who scored for Limerick in the 1994 All-Ireland senior final loss to Offaly, is fully committed to the Faithful now himself. Looking ahead to a huge fortnight or so of action, the former Limerick U-21 manager said it's a positive time for Offaly hurling.

"The important thing is that it's Offaly that we're talking about here," he said. "We're not talking about (prioritising) the U-20s, or the senior team. It's Offaly. And it's about getting back up. I went through this with Limerick. From our point of view, it's all development, development, development and thankfully the results are coming."

Whoever wins tonight's Munster final will meet a determined and fully focused Offaly in Kilkenny city.

"We've been pushing them all along to try to get into the mentality that Wednesday night was an All-Ireland semi-final," said O'Connor of the Leinster decider. "Because we've got to get back there again and try to put the wrongs right."