Leo O'Connor believes will take time for underage success to seep into senior level

Offaly are a work in progress, nonetheless a development that has captivated their people, their 20,000-plus contingent in the 25,825 crowd on Saturday a further indication of their love for them.

TIME AND DEVELOPMENT: The Offaly captain Dan Bourke lifts the James Nowlan Cup after the oneills.com GAA Hurling All-Ireland U20 Championship final. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

o'neills.com All-Ireland U20 final: Offaly 2-20 Tipperary 2-14 

Over 90 minutes after the final whistle on Saturday, an Offaly father and his two young sons’ patience was rewarded as they finally landed their fish. “They weren’t going without Adam Screeney’s autograph,” he smiled.

Heading out into the balmy night intoxicated by the county’s first U20/U21 All-Ireland title, the same supporter couldn't go without citing a remark Dónal Óg Cusack made about Offaly five years ago. That in going down to the third tier of the league in 2019 they had found their level.

Marking that nadir, Cusack on “The Sunday Game” compiled Offaly’s roll of honour by decade. “Outside of the two decades of the 80s and 90s, Offaly have only won one U21 Leinster title. They have achieved zero in every other decade.

“It gives me no pleasure… I always associate Offaly with the great hurlers and that lovely unique style of the hurlers of the 80s and 90s. It gives me no pleasure to call it out, but it could be argued what when you do look at this table that Offaly have gone back to their mean.”

The graphic Cusack compiled went back to the 1920s when the U21/U20 championship only commenced 60 years ago (if you allow the indulgence, this writer’s uncle Joe Fogarty scored two of Tipperary’s eight goals when they beat Wexford in the inaugural final in Nowlan Park).

After two Leinster U20s, one Leinster minor and this sparkling All-Ireland U20 crown in the space of three seasons, there will be a school of thought in Offaly that life has come quick at Cusack especially when some of the county’s “loudest voices” who he claimed had “not been helping the Offaly cause” were likely integral to these successes.

The kernel of Cusack’s point, that Offaly’s classification as a traditional hurling county, is premised on a couple of generations is difficult to dispute, though. But in this bunch of young men they have another glittering group emerging.

And that’s all Offaly are doing right now – emerging. Beat Laois in Saturday’s Joe McDonagh Cup final to complete the sweetest seven days and not only might Cork outnumber their proud phalanxes in Tullamore the weekend after next, they are likely to outgun them too.

They are a work in progress, nonetheless a development that has captivated their people, their 20,000-plus contingent in the 25,825 crowd on Saturday a further indication of their love for them.

Their reluctance to back the seniors in similar numbers feels like they’re playing a waiting game for this fledgling flock of theirs to mature. And as their Limerick native manager Leo O’Connor insisted on Saturday used the example of his town county, it will take time.

“To be very realistic about it, I think it’s going to take three to four years before these guys are at their full strength. They all have to develop and that’s the most important thing. I worked with Limerick for 10, 11 years and I know what it takes.

“I remember 2008, 2009 with development squads in Limerick and it took 10 years to get back up. We won a Munster championship with Limerick in 2011 with Declan Hannon and all those lads. It took until 2018 for them to really mature.

“Fair enough, Limerick won a Munster senior hurling championship in 2013 but, as I said during the week, 2013 Limerick were beaten in an All-Ireland semi-final, 2014 beaten in an All-Ireland minor final, and it took time for the thing to come through. That’s what’s going to happen in Offaly.

“There’s guys ahead of this team that were involved last year. They’re there and we’re going to work hard on them again. It’s a matter of development, development, development, and I can’t emphasise it enough. No one swallow made a summer so it’s a work in progress.” 

In Offaly’s Division 1A game against Cork in Tullamore in March when Alan Connolly scored his first hat-trick of the season in a 27-point hammering for the home side, Adam Screeney barely touched the ball and was replaced early in the second half.

For such an incredible talent who is still a teenager, it will eventually come right but in the under-age grades it has been done so for three years now. In Kilkenny on Saturday, he mightn’t have been his usual electric self in general play but his precocious composure over placed balls, scoring 11 of them, was a constant in Offaly’s victory.

O’Connor spoke afterwards of defeat in a third All-Ireland under-age final in as many years being unacceptable to this Offaly group. And they played like failure wasn’t an option. Darragh McCarthy’s early penalty goal for Tipperary in a cagey opening quarter didn’t faze them and their four-point lead at half-time, 0-12 to 1-5, was hardly flattering.

Tipperary registered 10 second-half wides, six of them coming in a third quarter, when the game seemed to have slipped from them in the 46th minute as Shane Rigney’s ball was allowed to bounce before going into the net – Barry Egan had done well to distract the Tipperary cover.

Senan Butler and Offaly captain Dan Bourke exchanged goals before Tipperary rallied with five of the next six points to come within a score of their neighbours. However, Offaly’s finish was flourishing and Screeney’s last free was followed by sealing points from Colin Spain and Ruairí Kelly.

Tipperary manager Brendan Cummins gave his dues. “Offaly were always that bit ahead of us as they went through the game. The lads battled really hard, which we’ve been doing all year. We just couldn’t get our noses in front to put them under little bit of pressure.

“I think that little bit of experience they had from last year where they had nine or 10 of the group that played in an All-Ireland final, down the home straight you could see that in them.” 

Learning lessons at U17, giving lessons at U20, as GAA president Jarlath Burns declared about them on Saturday night. Offaly are finding their level.

Scorers for Offaly: A. Screeney (0-12, 8 frees, 3 65s); D. Bourke (1-3); S. Rigney (1-0); B. Egan (0-2); C. King, C. Spain, R. Kelly (0-1 each).

Scorers for Tipperary: D. McCarthy (1-5, 1-0 pen, 0-4 frees); S. Butler (1-1); C. Foley (0-3); O. O’Donoghue (0-2); C. English, S. O’Farrell, C. Martin (0-1 each).

OFFALY: L. Hoare; R. Kelly, B. Miller, J. Mahon; T. Guinan, B. Kavanagh, D. Shirley C. Spain, C. King; S. Rigney, D. Bourke (c), C. Doyle; L. Kavanagh, B. Egan, A. Screeney.

Subs: A. Kavanagh for B. Egan (50); E. Burke for C. Doyle (54); D. Ravenhill for L. Kavanagh (60+2); D. Hand for S. Rigney (60+3).

TIPPERARY: E. Horgan; P. O’Dwyer, A. O’Halloran, C. O’Donnell; J. Collins, B. Currivan (c), M. Cawley; S. O’Farrell, A. Daly; C. English, C. Martin, C. Foley; D. McCarthy, O. O’Donoghue, S. Butler.

Subs: J. O’Callaghan for M. Cawley (49); J. Egan for C. Foley (inj 50); S. Rowan for A. Daly (60).

Referee: S. Stack (Dublin).