Offaly U20 hurler Cathal King in attendance at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny as oneills.com, leading online sportswear retailer, with the GAA are delighted to announce the third year of their U20 GAA All-Ireland Hurling Championship sponsorship deal. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Over the last couple of months, many of the brightest pupils in Offaly hurling have been put through an accelerated programme of learning.
Senior team manager, Johnny Kelly, promoted a clutch of players from the county U20 panel, with Cathal King the top boy of the class during a League campaign that saw him start four matches in midfield and make a good impression in them all.
Others like Adam Screeney, Dan Bourke, Donal Shirley, and Dan Ravenhill also featured prominently, and will surely take valuable lessons back to an U-20 panel preparing to begin the defence of their Leinster title.
It’s going to be a busy few months for them because the Joe McDonagh Cup will follow quickly on the heels of the group phase of the U-20 championship, but King isn’t fazed by that prospect.
This generation of talented young Offaly hurlers are an ambitious bunch, and every competition they now enter is an opportunity to raise the bar and put the Faithful County back on the map as a hurling force again.
“There are a lot of lads driven in the dressing-room,” he says. “There is no messing, there is no one going out doing it half-arsed. We are all in it together and we are all doing it properly. We want to go places. We don't want to be still stuck in Joe McDonagh for the next five or 10 years.
“I'd love to be up in Division 1 and Leinster championship, and actually competing in games, not just being up there and trying to avoid relegation back down to Joe McDonagh. I'd love to get up there and start pushing and really try win games and get games under our belt.
“I suppose when you hear so much about it from older people back over the years and you see old videos of what went on when Offaly were on top and they were winning, it just makes you want to be there and to go through it again. That's what's kind of driving you to get there as well."
The taste that these young Offaly hurlers have already gotten of the big time has made them hungry for more.
Sean Walsh of Waterford in action against Cathal King of Offaly during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group A match between Offaly and Waterford at Glenisk O'Connor Park in Tullamore, Offaly. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile.
Reaching the 2022 All-Ireland Minor Hurling Final and last year’s All-Ireland U20 Final electrified a county desperate for a return of the glory days.
"It's unbelievable really when you see the amount of fans and people who actually come out to support you,” says King.
“When you are going well, it's nice to see everyone coming out to give their support. It's some feeling and it gives you some buzz.
“It does drive you on to want to do well for them as well as yourself. The scenes after the Leinster final last year, you could never even imagine it. It was mad."
“We got a taste of it last year with the Leinster final and now you just want to chase that feeling again. You want it back again and we're hungry again this year."
Offaly finished with just one point from five matches in Division 1A of the Allianz Hurling League, but King believes it was a positive campaign from a collective as well as personal point of view.
They competed well in most of their matches, and he got more game-time than he expected which accelerated his development as a senior county hurler.
“Ah yeah, I'd say we were happy enough,” he says. “ Our aim was to be competing with these teams that you could say are a level above us at the minute. The aim is to be competing and I think we did compete with most of them, apart from the Cork game.
“We could have got two wins if you look a the Wexford game and even the Clare game last weekend. You could have come out with two wins and you'd be very happy then with the League. I'd say it wasn't too bad and it's something to build on.
“I wasn't really expecting to be getting as much game time in the League alright. I was happy enough to be there and be training but if I'm there I might as well push on and try to get places.
“Most of the lads are a lot bigger than I am and a lot of the U20s. But you kind of get used to that as well. It's a lot more physical. It's nearly harder to get frees and harder to win frees and stuff like that too so you have to get used to it. I'm used to it now, alright.”
Adam Screeney of Offaly during the 2023 O’Neills.com GAA Hurling All-Ireland U20 Championship Final match between Cork and Offaly at FBD Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary. Photo by Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile.
The experience should stand him and the other young guns in good stead for the Leinster U20 campaign which begins on Saturday, March 20, when they travel to play Dublin.
Most of the starting XV that reached last year’s oneills.com All-Ireland U20 Final are still underage again this year so Offaly should be very competitive.
But King is wary of the extra weight of expectation on Offaly's shoulders this year and the challenged posed by a tough Leinster Championship group that includes Galway as well as Dublin.
“There's lots of us still around alright,” he says. “We had a great year last year but we know again this year that it's not going to be simple at all either.
“Last year we kind of went in under the radar a bit and teams weren't fully prepared for us or whatever. I think this year it'll be a different story and teams will be out to get us. It'll be nearly double the effort it was last year to get back there again.
“We're taking it one game at a time and at the minute we're preparing for a tough game up in Dublin. It's never easy go up there. We're just trying to go up there and get a result.
“Galway as well are a very good team. We were lucky enough to beat them last year, they were missing one or two. This year now it'll be a different story, they'll be out to get us.”