Screeney and Co. continuing Offaly hurling 'mission' 

WORK TO DO: Kilcormac-Killoughey and Offaly hurler Adam Screeney. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Adam Screeney says Offaly won't fear anyone in the Leinster championship when they return there after seven years in 2025.

The Faithful, who slipped to as low as a Ring Cup semi-final defeat in hurling's third tier in 2020, regained their MacCarthy Cup status by winning the Joe McDonagh Cup in June.

The county also captured the All-Ireland U-20 title and with so many rising stars, of which Screeney is among the brightest, the hope is that they're back to stay at the top level.

Sharpshooter Screeney picked off some sumptuous scores during the Faithful's maiden U-20 triumph and despite being eligible again for U-20 duty in 2025, he is expected to play a key role in the senior's Division 1 and MacCarthy Cup campaigns.

"We don't really feel any expectation, to be honest," said Screeney at the launch of the 2024 Beko Club Champion, an initiative open to all clubs in Leinster.

"It's only really what happens in the camp that matters and there's no one in our camp going to blow you up or knock you down."

The Kilcormac-Killoughey sensation, heading into his second year at UL, said he and Offaly's talented group of young stars have been 'on a mission' for years to win big.

"At U-14, we got to a Tony Forristal Final and were beaten by Tipperary after a long weekend of hurling," he said. "From then on it was nearly a mission for us. Every year you came in there was a task to be done and we felt we had to get there. Thank God we got there."

Screeney, Cathal King, Dan Bourke and Donal Shirley all went from lining out in that U-20 final win to featuring for the senior team the following weekend in the McDonagh Cup final win over Laois.

Offaly were rewarded with an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final outing against Cork though Screeney was unavailable for that match.

Former Offaly player Brian Carroll, speaking on the Smaller Fish podcast, said that Screeney chose to go on holidays instead and claimed that he shouldn't have left.

"I don't agree with it and I'll probably be vilified in Offaly for not backing him," said Carroll at the time. "I just think he was ill-advised on this and it wasn't the best decision to make."

Screeney, younger brother of Offaly senior panel member Jack, played throughout the National League as well as the McDonagh Cup campaigns with Offaly.

"I suppose it's in the past now," he said. "But, on Brian Carroll, Brian was a legend of Offaly before, wore the Offaly jersey for many years and he is entitled to his opinion and I've the utmost respect for that man in the way he carried his career with Offaly and I'd be delighted if I have a career like he had with Offaly."

Pressed on what interventions Offaly tried to make to have him available for the 4-25 to 3-19 defeat to the eventual All-Ireland finalists, Screeney said there were discussions.

"There were loads of conversations had," he said. "I just thought it was the best decision for myself."