Offaly hurling is on ropes after their latest mauling

Inside Track with John McIntyre

Even the grimmest of forecasts for Offaly’s chances in last Saturday’s Leinster hurling championship quarter-final against Kilkenny wouldn’t have imagined a rout on such a humiliating scale. It was awful to watch as the Faithful men were simply crucified in an embarrassingly one-sided affair at Nowlan Park.

We all knew that Offaly would struggle to avoid a heavy defeat, but the final scoreline of 5-32 to 1-18 underlines how much Brian Whelehan’s charges were out of their depth. Even deploying a sweeper from the off in young Kevin Connolly couldn’t stop the haemorrhaging as Kilkenny ruthlessly took them apart in a shocking mis-match.

Frankly, the warning signs were there for much of the spring. Apart from an unexpected draw against Limerick, Offaly’s league campaign unfortunately served to underline the county’s ongoing decline as a serious hurling force. Ultimately, they had to overcome Kerry to prevent dropping to the third tier and that was only achieved after surviving some early scares.

Just 12 months ago, Offaly had rattled the Cats in Tullamore, but a couple of early goals had given them unexpected momentum while it also signalled the start of Kilkenny’s worst championship campaign in 15 years. Still, just five points separated the teams at the finish and it appeared there was some hope for Offaly, especially as they went on to also fight honourably in a qualifier battle against Waterford.

Ollie Baker subsequently stepped down as team manager, but the County Board’s attempts to find a successor did not go smoothly with approaches to several individuals eliciting little interest. Whelehan, Offaly greatest player of all-time, thought he was about to take charge of the county’s minors only for officials to offer the senior post to the Birr clubman.

Having cut his coaching teeth with Galway clubs Castlegar and Kiltormer, Whelahan knew what he was letting himself in for. He isn’t long retired from the club scene and would have been acutely aware of the lack of talent coming through, but his passion for Offaly hurling remained undiminished. Yet the team’s tribulations in the league and some heavy recent defeats on the challenge game circuit must have left him with a sense of foreboding ahead of the clash with Kilkenny.

Basically, Offaly no longer possess enough quality players in their ranks or else veteran Rory Hanniffy, a great servant down through the years, would never have been pressed into an emergency full back role. The Offaly players and management would have tried to convince themselves that they had a chance, but privately they all must have been aching at the prospect of being wiped off the field.

Only for some brilliant reflex goalkeeping from James Dempsey, sterling defensive resistance from Cathal Parlon and Hanniffy, and a fine haul of 1-10 from the excellent Brian Carroll, Offaly could have lost by 40 points. It was that bad. They just couldn’t match Kilkenny’s physique, power or quality with Colin Fennelly and Eoin Larkin going to town on an evening which showed the home team have rediscovered then energy which was lacking from last year’s campaign.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.