Offaly U20 manager Leo O'Connor. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
By Kevin Egan
From the outside looking in, Offaly look like they’re riding the crest of a wave, with a golden generation of hurlers set to play in a third consecutive oneills.com All-Ireland U-20 hurling final on Saturday evening in Kilkenny.
Eleven of the Faithful County team that started last week’s Leinster final clash with Dublin were part of the 2022 minor side, suggesting that this is one exceptional crop.
Manager Leo O’Connor takes a different view, suggesting that as was the case when he was involved as a coach and manager with various underage Limerick teams during the 2010s, Offaly are destined for better things, but that it will come from a steady flow of younger hurlers coming through, as opposed to just this one team.
“I’ve no doubt that Offaly will be back at the top table, getting to Leinster finals. And once you get to that level, it takes on a life of its own,” is his prediction for the county’s future.
“Look at this year’s minors, who won a lot of games this year but then were ultimately unlucky to lose to Wexford in a Leinster quarter-final. They didn’t take any big scalps, but you could see that these guys are developing in the right way.
“Offaly will get four or five guys out of that team. We’ll work with them, improve their athletic ability, ensure they are physically strong, and they’ll get there.
“I was here (at Faithful Fields) last Saturday morning, I watched Offaly play Kilkenny U-15 hurling, and you could feel the buzz about the place.
“Adam Screeney’s brother Aaron is there, you see so many of the traditional names coming through. The importance of the combined schools team every year is a big thing, to have lads playing A hurling. I know some of them are B schools and C schools, but the A hurling level that they get the experience of that.”
Leo O'Connor pictured managing Limerick in the 2011 All-Ireland U21 Semi-Final against Galway at FBD Semple Stadium. Barry Cregg
As Limerick continue their drive towards five-in-a-row, the team is largely built on hurlers that passed through O’Connor’s coaching in his time working with his native county.
From a teenage Declan Hannon with the Munster U-21 champions of 2011 through to Cathal O’Neill, who was part of the U-16 group that O’Connor coached in 2017 before taking his talents to Offaly, consistent production was the name of the game.
“You had 2011, then in 2013 when we were beaten in an All-Ireland semi-final, 2014 beaten in an All-Ireland final, 2015 beaten in a quarter-final, 2016 reach an All-Ireland minor final.
“The one word there that I’m constantly using is being beaten, but yet in 2018 we won a senior All-Ireland, and now they’ve won five All-Irelands in six years.
“The hunger, the energy that was here in Kilcormac last week, it was brilliant. The whole package, you can’t take your eye off the bottom and you can’t keep thinking that it’s going to come right at senior level. It’s all part of a process that needs to be right at every level, and there’s good guys in place at underage level in Offaly.”
However, for all the satisfaction that he, and Offaly supporters, take from the renewed signs of hope at every level, the importance of getting a win on Saturday isn’t escaping his attention.
“Okay, it’s three Leinster titles, but it’s back to back defeats to Munster teams in All-Irelands. We spoke about the importance of beating Kilkenny and we did that in the Leinster semi-final, but now it’s about getting another monkey off our back and beating a Munster team in an All-Ireland. We have beaten a Clare team in a semi-final, but we haven’t beaten any Munster team in a final.
“Every year when we come in, we say that we turn out the lights on our terms. On Thursday night we’ll turn out the lights here in the Faithful Fields for the third year in a row. But I just feel that this group of players and what they’ve put into it – the guys before them, and the guys after them – I just feel that we need to leave Kilkenny next week with that Celtic Cross, because that’s what it’s all judged by. I’m not putting pressure on anyone, but we judge ourselves by a very high standard, that’s throughout the panel. It’d be a shame if we left without that All-Ireland.”
