Dublin hurlers making the most of Parnell Park fortress 

FORTRESS: Leinster titles may be won in Croke Park but Dublin hurlers are making the most of the fortress in Parnell Park. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Leinster SHC: Dublin 1-25 Offaly 2-19

So where exactly should the Dublin hurlers play their home games in the Championship?

Parnell Park is their base, their fortress even, as they displayed again on Saturday evening with a storming finale to pinch the points off a thoroughly game Offaly.

But they won't win any of the big prizes at the compact Donnycarney venue, a ground which has played to their physical strengths over the years. It's down the road at the much more spacious Croke Park where Dublin will need to be excelling if they're to win a first Leinster title in 12 years.

Former manager Micheál Donoghue read it that way too and was happy to play a number of Championship games there in recent seasons. As his full-back Eoghan O'Donnell pointed out at the time, 'Croke Park is where you win All-Irelands', so doesn't it make sense to play and practice there?

The venue was a talking point again ahead of Saturday's Leinster SHC opener against Offaly.

"It's been thrown around there a little bit," said Dublin manager Niall O Ceallachain of the discussion. "But like, we were always going to play these games here, it was never actually on the cards that Dublin would play in Croker. It wasn't an option.

"It wasn't as if we made a decision that it wasn't happening in Croker. Personally, I think the main thing here in Parnell Park is the energy you get from the stand. The home crowd is huge.

"You do hear a bit around teams now wanting to come here and it's probably for that reason. It's a tight stadium and we got huge energy from the crowd in the last six or seven minutes. Like any other county, home venue, home crowd, we get great support and I'd say the lads felt that in the last six or seven minutes."

Dublin supporters in the 5,394 crowd on Saturday evening roared their approval as the favourites turned a three-point deficit entering the 68th minute into a three-point win by full-time.

Substitute Ronan Hayes struck the game-hinging goal, a screamer from left to right across the Offaly goalkeeper as Dublin outscored the Faithful 1-4 to 0-1 in the closing minutes. It was, ironically, Offaly's first game in the Leinster SHC since being beaten by Dublin in 2018 at the same venue and being relegated.

The contrasting styles - Dublin's precise passing and hard running versus Offaly's more direct approach to towering target men like Brian Duignan and Oisin Kelly - made this game and it remains to be seen what Wexford bring to the fight.

They will be fully aware too of the advantage that Parnell Park is to Dublin.

"I'd say it was the energy in the last five or six minutes that got us there," said O Ceallachain of the winning and losing of Saturday's game. "I do think there were periods when the energy kind of wasn't there. There were periods for five or 10 minutes where we let them set the terms, from the energy side of things and the aggression side of things. We need to really minimise those periods now going forward."

Fresh injuries to former All-Star Danny Sutcliffe and Donal Burke were concerning too.

"Yeah, they were both new injuries," confirmed O Ceallachain though he didn't offer any more information.

From Offaly's perspective, it was an encouraging return to top tier Championship hurling, despite the end result. They struggled initially with Dublin's intricate passing game but from the moment Kelly ground stroked to the net in the 14th minute, they traded on equal terms.

Duignan's physicality and movement caused Dublin's rearguard some trouble and Killian Sampson, their second goalscorer, along with Dan Ravenhill and Donal Shirley all stuck out as comfortable at this grade.

So they will rue those closing few minutes and how the game turned, particularly with wounded Galway the visitors to Tullamore this weekend.

"I couldn't fault the effort of the guys," said Offaly manager Johnny Kelly. "They really have grown up over the last 12 months and it's a learning curve again, one that we will bring forward into next weekend.

"The most pleasing aspect is that even though we were beaten, when Dublin did get a run on us we actually refocused and went again. That's a big physical Dublin team and we'd a lot of young fellas out there but we did quite well on the breaking ball and that gave us a bit of oxygen that we needed."

Scorers for Dublin: S Currie (0-9, 5 frees); R Hayes (1-1); D Burke (0-4, 2 frees, 1 65); C Donohoe, B Hayes (0-3 each); C Burke (0-2); D O Dulaing, C Crummey, J Hetherton (0-1 each).

Scorers for Offaly: B Duignan (0-8, 6 frees); K Sampson (1-2); D Ravenhill (0-5, 3 frees); O Kelly (1-1); C Mitchell, R Ravenhill, D Bourke (0-1 each).

DUBLIN: E Gibbons; A Dunphy, P Smyth, J Bellew; P Dunleavy, C Crummey, P Doyle; C Burke, C Donohoe; C O'Sullivan, B Hayes, D Burke; S Currie, D O Dulaing, D Sutcliffe.

Subs: R Hayes for Sutcliffe (23); D Power for O Dulaing & F Whitely for D Burke (h/t); J Hetherton for Whitely (51); A Jamieson Murphy for O'Sullivan (63).

OFFALY: M Troy; B Conneely, C Burke, P Cantwell; R Ravenhill, D Shirley, J Sampson; C King, D King; K Sampson, D Bourke, O Kelly; D Ravenhill, B Duignan, C Mitchell.

Subs: E Cahill for Mitchell (51); C Spain for D King (55); C Kiely for R Ravenhill (58).

Referee: J Murphy (Limerick).