Offaly captain Lee Pearson would love to get his hands on the Tailteann Cup at Croke Park again this summer. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
By Paul Keane
The day that Offaly won the Allianz League Division 3 final in March, beating Kildare at Croke Park, joint manager Mickey Harte acknowledged that they were still unlikely to compete in this season's All-Ireland SFC.
They would need to reach the Leinster final to do so and with then holders Dublin on the same side of the provincial draw, Harte figured that it was 'very unlikely' that Offaly would get there.
Chances are that the ambitious Tyrone man was already eyeing up the Tailteann Cup and a potential title charge at that stage though, truth be told, we weren't sure exactly how the players felt.
"You'd always hear that kind of thing, 'Oh, Offaly don't perform well in secondary competitions'," said Offaly captain Lee Pearson. "And it is probably something we're conscious of, it is something we really do want to change. I wouldn't say it's for lack of effort or lack of engagement with the competition, it just hasn't been going our way over the last couple of years."
The funny thing is, Offaly were one of the first counties to really embrace the opportunity for success in football's second tier championship.
From their first six Tailteann Cup games, they won four, drew one and lost just one, contesting a semi-final in the inaugural 2022 campaign.
An alternative way of looking at it is that they lost their next five games, bowing out at the preliminary quarter-final stage in 2023 and bottoming out with three defeats from three in last year's group.
It wasn't until last weekend, when Offaly beat Wicklow, that they finally stemmed the tide of defeats and picked up a win in the Tailteann Cup, their first since the Round 1 defeat of London in 2023.
You couldn't imagine Harte, or joint Offaly manager Declan Kelly, who guided Pearson and a clutch of current senior players to All-Ireland U-20 success in 2021, allowing them to sulk after their provincial exit.
"Definitely, ultimately you see it as another route to get back into the primary competition which is the Sam Maguire," said Pearson. "We finished top of Division 3 this year but we always knew in the back of our minds that that wasn't going to guarantee you entry into the Sam Maguire.
"So this is definitely a huge opportunity to get into that competition. And look, we're going to be playing Division 2 football next year and you've got to be up at the top end of that division to be guaranteed a place in the Sam Maguire competition. So this definitely is a great route into that competition.
"This is our All-Ireland championship competition, that's very much been the message. We're in the Tailteann Cup for a reason, because we haven't proven or we haven't reached the level it takes to compete in the Sam Maguire just yet. By all means it's something we're going to go after."
Lee Pearson celebrates after his side's victory in the Allianz Football League Division 3 final match between Kildare and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Buoyed by the momentum from that win over Wicklow, Offaly will travel to take on Waterford at Walsh Park this Saturday.
Pearson reported a good mood and a positive vibe in the camp, a world away from the disappointment of last year following those Tailteann Cup losses.
"We had some disappointing defeats last year for sure," accepted defender Pearson. "But it's quite a young panel as well. The lads have that extra year of experience now.
"There was a bit of a shake up in the backroom also. We brought in a bit of expertise in Mickey and Luke (Bree) and obviously Declan has stuck around. He knows the players really well and he would have worked with quite a lot of us at U-20 level so he knew how to get the best out of us.
"That combination between Mickey and Declan and Luke, and obviously that bit more experience in the squad, has definitely stood to us."
Offaly moved forward into the Tailteann Cup campaign without veteran performer Nigel Dunne. The 35-year-old stepped away and hung up his boots after the Leinster championship defeat to Meath, principally because of ongoing ankle trouble.
"A great servant to Offaly GAA," said Pearson. "One or two others stepped away from the panel for one reason or another but we've retained most lads. So we're going forward with pretty much a full squad bar one or two."
