Richie Hogan flattered by comparisons to Offaly boy wonder

"I certainly wasn't half as good as he is now at that age."

Thu, 30 May, 2024 - 07:15

Paul Keane

Kilkenny great Richie Hogan says he's flattered at comparisons to Adam Screeney, insisting the Offaly phenom is better now than he was when coming up through the Cats ranks.

Screeney has been a revelation again for the Offaly U-20s this season and has guided them to back-to-back All-Ireland finals.

Offaly will face Tipperary at Nowlan Park on Saturday evening having already trained there last Sunday after the Leinster SHC game between Kilkenny and Wexford.

It's understood that Screeney, who has modelled himself on the similarly slightly built Hogan, has been battling a cold but is expected to be fully fit.

"I certainly wasn't half as good as he is now at that age," said seven-time All-Ireland winner Hogan at the launch of the 2024 Electric Ireland GAA minor championships.

"He's an incredible player, his touch, his change of direction and his bravery.

"Every time he gets the ball he wants to create something, he wants to go for goal, he wants to take on the whole team.

"He was incredible last year for the U-20s and he's been brilliant this year. I hope that Offaly are able to produce...well, they won't produce many of his standard but I hope they're able to produce five, six, seven more teams over the next kind of 10, 15 years so that he can be a real presence.

"He's one of the players that I'm really looking forward to seeing in a couple of years when he's fully filled out and when Offaly are back up in the Leinster championship. He's an outstanding player, seems like a really nice fella as well. I heard he trains really hard."

Pictured is former Kilkenny hurler, Richie Hogan, at the launch of the 2024 Electric Ireland GAA Minor Championships. Picture: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

The fear in Offaly is that Screeney's relatively slender frame mightn't hold up to the demands of top level senior inter-county hurling. Hogan isn't convinced about that. For his last All-Ireland final win in 2015, the five-foot-seven-inch Hogan was among the lightest on the Kilkenny panel at 12-stone seven pounds but still won an All-Star.

"No, no, I don't buy that," said former Hurler of the Year Hogan of concerns about Screeney's size. "He'll be an outstanding player. If he keeps going the way he's going, he's going to be an outstanding player. There are no guarantees, obviously. There's been other brilliant players at his age who haven't made it but I wouldn't have any issues with his size or with his strength or with his build.

"A lot of the same things were said about Tommy Walsh. He's one of the greatest to have ever played hurling and great players will find a way to play the game on their terms and he (Screeney) has his strengths, which are incredibly good, so I wouldn't see that as being an issue at all."

Meanwhile, GAAGO analyst Hogan has defended the broadcaster following criticism that too many games are being placed behind its paywall.

"I would be hugely in favour of it, not because I am on it but genuinely I would be hugely in favour of it," said Hogan of GAAGO. "We want the games on TV. In fact, the Kilkenny/Carlow game would not have been covered ever by RTÉ and everybody knows that, that is the reality.

"It is a very complex issue but I know their hearts are in the right place in the GAA from a broadcasting point of view."