The last thing Offaly hurling needs is another reminder of how far they’ve fallen from the so-called top table, although Sunday’s Leinster semi-final may well provide it. If those championship scoring stats are anything to go by then staying within 30 points of Galway might be a fair return.
Offaly have experienced a mild revival since losing their opening round-robin game to Westmeath by 14 points, the same Westmeath team who then lost to Galway by 17 points in the Leinster quarter-final: that doesn't necessarily transfer to the margin of defeat expected in Portlaoise on Sunday, although Offaly's former two-time All-Ireland winner Michael Duignan certainly fears for the worst.
‘Better slant’
“They’re up against it,” says Duignan. “Beating Kerry and Laois, since the Westmeath game, has put a better slant on it, but it doesn’t cover up all the cracks. There’s probably a good few lads that could be better. And maybe that will convince them the year wasn’t a total disaster. You can’t take it for granted that they won’t all play well on Sunday. The spirit seems to be good.
“But looking at Galway, they look very sharp. I always rate Galway very highly because of their championship form. They’re not far away from Kilkenny over the last number of years. They’re arguably in the top two or three.
“On their day, they have possibly the best forward line in the game. So it’s a tough one for Offaly. But we are where we are. It’s all small steps and trying to rebuild and maybe create an environment that players want to be part of. So it’s about rebuilding from a low base.”
As for how Offaly found themselves in this position – 18 years after he was part of their last All-Ireland win, in 1998 – Duignan has a few theories: “In fairness, in all the criticism of Offaly, there is a lot being done right. Not everything is being done right. I think we’re lacking a bit of leadership at the top, and we’re lacking ambition. But there are a lot of people putting in a lot of work at club level.
“We have to improve at underage level. To me, it’s that age between 14 and 17 where our players aren’t developing. It’s not so much that they’re falling away. It’s that they’re staying playing at a level.
“And I think our secondary school system is where we’re falling down. The physical and hurling maturity that you should develop at that age is not happening in Offaly. Certain clubs are trying to do it. But you see in a lot of successful counties that it’s teachers that are over them. It’s teachers that are involved in development squads.”
Offaly haven’t beaten Galway in the championship since 1994, the same year Duignan won his first All-Ireland, and that, he admits, is “a bit depressing”.
“It’s not just a lost generation, it’s a couple of generations. This is our last-chance saloon because if we slip any further we’re in big, big trouble. I don’t think we can get back out of it.”
