Offaly won’t be phased

By Kevin Egan

Last Thursday, Offaly GAA held a press briefing regarding this Sunday’s Electric Ireland All-Ireland Minor Hurling final at the county’s training centre, the Faithful Fields, in Kilcormac.

The following night, the 2022 Offaly senior hurling championship got underway, and the biggest game of the weekend was the clash of Birr and Kilcormac-Killoughey, which took place just five miles down the road in Rath.

At both venues, there were plenty of Offaly jerseys being worn by younger supporters, which is hardly surprising. What was striking however was that it felt like at least three quarters of them bore the name of the county’s new sponsor, Glenisk, even though those jerseys have only been on sale a few months.

There’s no masking the fact that after a dreadful couple of decades, the buzz is back in Offaly GAA. Last year’s Under 20 All-Ireland football title felt like the start of a new era, and now the minor hurlers are aiming to replicate that achievement, having already won the county’s first provincial hurling title at any grade in 22 years.

Perhaps most remarkably, their most recent wins over Dublin, Laois and Clare weren’t an ambush. Manager Leo O’Connor was headhunted due to his involvement with Limerick’s underage development over the past decade, and straight away he tried to bring the same mentality to a county that in hurling terms, stopped living in Limerick’s world a long time ago.

“We’ve taken this team on a tour of Ireland this year,” said O’Connor.

“We have played Cork, Tipp, Galway, Limerick twice, and we’ve gained experience. Every day’s a school day, and these lads embrace that.

“Our Leinster quarter-final was a really tricky fixture against a good Antrim team in Dowdallshill (Co. Louth) the field wasn’t good, and the lads adapted and thrived.

“Then it was the other extreme against Laois and Clare, thousands of supporters on perfect pitches in Portlaoise and Thurles, and these guys don’t let anything phase them,” he added.

Unphased, calm, considered. The same adjectives could easily be used to describe Johnny Pilkington, who was drafted in by O’Connor this year to add his unique personality to the mix.

The Birr man, who was part of the 1987 Offaly minor team that beat Tipperary in an All-Ireland final, then also played in the memorable U-21 final between the two counties two years later, is not one for overstating what he adds to the group.

“I’m trying to give these lads tips in what to do, but then, I ask myself did I listen to anybody either?” he asks. No doubt a few of his coaches from all those years ago might be quick to answer.

“Really most players don’t so they go out and do their own thing. You’d love to be able to tell Dan (Ravenhill, captain) don’t be shooting from the wings all the time but if you tell him that he’s not going to get the inspirational scores. You just do your own thing and develop as a player”.

Both men refer to the traditional divide between hurling’s aristocracy, which includes Tipperary, and counties like Offaly. Pilkington recalls how that 1987 minor defeat didn’t sit well with one of his former UCD colleagues.

“I was sitting with Conal Bonner after that match, though I didn’t know who he was at the time. He was there for the whole entire senior match, ‘I can’t believe ye beat us, I can’t believe ye beat us’. Eventually I just said ‘ye weren’t good enough, get over it’. I met him in UCD then. Same bloody thing, ‘can’t believe ye beat us’. I met him on holidays then in France about five years ago. Same thing. I never mentioned ’89 of course”.

In his view, it’s not in the nature of this particular Offaly panel to pay much heed on the tradition aspect, though O’Connor is a little bit more wary of the same thing.

“Traditionally the big three have been Kilkenny, Cork, Tipperary. I live in Tipperary, so I see the traditions that they have and how proud they are” he said.

“They are things we use in a dressing room to drive these boys on and get them over the line. I don’t know how many All-Ireland minor hurling titles Tipperary have won and nor do I care as on Sunday it’s going to be us against them and it’s going to boil down to sixty minutes. That’s’ it”.

And how will that 60 minutes go?

“If we do the things right the way we want to do them and get our own house in order, I think this Offaly team has a lot to bring forward,” O’Connor added.

What says Johnny, about his own role, and that of the players?

“From a management point of view, the team we will pick to start will be wrong, because it always is. As long as we are right at the end of it then and we have the right team on it then.

“I don’t mind losing but I hate performing badly. I think in a lot of situations if they play well at all it takes that sting out of it. If you play well what can you do? Hopefully it won’t affect them and they can go out and hurl to their ability and I think they have that willingness and drive to do that”.