Johnny Kelly: 'The journey is only beginning'
Offaly manager Johnny Kelly during the Joe McDonagh Cup final match between Laois and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
By Kevin Egan
Offaly’s up-and-coming generation of young stars might have been the talk of the country over the past week, but senior manager Johnny Kelly shifted the focus onto some of his veterans after the Faithful County claimed the Joe McDonagh Cup, ending their six-year exile from the Leinster SHC in the process.
“I have to talk about the Ben Conneelys, the David Kings, Jason Sampson, Cillian Kiely, and I’m leaving out a couple of guys there. These guys have soldiered down through the years, they’ve been to places all over the country. What they’ve done for Offaly today has been outstanding, and not just today” Kelly said in Croke Park, as he reflected on his team’s 2-23 to 0-26 win in a fixture that continues to throw up memorable and thrilling contests.
“It’s been over the last number of years, it’s not easy to keep coming back in every October in the mud, the wind and the rain and face into another challenge. For that alone, I’m entirely grateful to the effort they put in, and how they supported me over the last two years.
“I’m just happy for the older guys who went to Ballycran, who went to Castlebar, and to previous management teams who put their shoulder to the wheel and it didn’t work out. It’s been a long, hard road, but I hope the journey is only beginning.
“It was hugely important for Offaly that we put back-to-back wins together. Obviously the U-20s was a brilliant last weekend, but to do the senior today has copperfastened everything that everyone is doing in Offaly over the last two, three years, and maybe before that. Everyone in Offaly needs to take a bow today”.
Kelly cited players such as Kiely, who returned to the panel this year and has been a rock for the team at centre back, and Oisín Kelly, who bounced back from consecutive cruciate ligament injuries, one in each knee, to come off the bench and score what proved to be a vital goal at the start of the second half.
“To get Cillian back on board was absolutely vital to Offaly’s chances of regaining Liam MacCarthy hurling, he’s such a big, stout-hearted guy” said Kelly.
“Oisín, being such a proud hurler who lives for the game, it absolutely devastated him. I can’t speak highly enough of him and his display today when he came in. He’s a huge threat, he’s a big man, but above all else he’s a really quality Offaly man”.
Kelly spoke of his belief in the Joe McDonagh competition, while also citing Carlow’s relegation one year after last year’s thrilling final as evidence of the need for more support for what he termed the “squeezed middle”, while he also pointed out that many previous Offaly stars could just as easily have found themselves in a similar situation, if they played under modern structures.
“The nature of it is that the Joe McDonagh came in a number of years ago and unfortunately Offaly found themselves dropped into that pretty quickly. It’s not to say that the previous Offaly teams of the past weren’t outstanding players that will go down in history, but there may have been times in the past when teams would have been in the Joe McDonagh if it was out at that stage. So for these lads who have ploughed that furrow for the last six years and to come back again, it’s been really tough times”.
Laois manager Willie Maher reacts during the Joe McDonagh Cup final match between Laois and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
These were tough times too for Willie Maher and the Laois panel, who were visibly gutted by their failure to push on across the finish line after mounting a fantastic comeback in the final quarter.
“The room was a bit sober, we’re very disappointed” he admitted.
“We left 1-1 at the start of the first half and 1-1 at the second and we were climbing a hill from there. Our players died with their boots on, we really came into it.
“It’s real championship fare out there” Maher continued.
“The surface in Croke Park lends itself to a total hurling game. Offaly are a fine side and have competed unbelievably well. It steps up two or three notches when you get to a final in Croke Park, lads were out on their feet on both sides and still gave us everything. So yeah, 18 wides were a big drawback, but I think we missed a couple of big goal chances that we needed.
"It was probably a replica of the match we played earlier in the year as well, where we came with momentum and got the goals. This time we had the momentum and didn’t get the goals, and Offaly were able to see it out.
"We’ll review it, we’ll have a look at it, but the initial emotion in our dressing room is that we’re devastated, we’re really disappointed and we’ve to pick ourselves up, but it’s not from lack of effort”.
