Clara GAA club members Daniel Stoyanov, Isaac Ryan, Dylan Dunne, and Dylan Deehan Kavanagh pictured after Offaly's victory over Kildare in the Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Football semi-final.
Electric Ireland Leinster minor football championship semi-finals
Louth 2-17 Dublin 1-8
Offaly 4-9 Kildare 1-16
By Paul Keane
These are boom times for Louth football.
Fresh off the county's historic Leinster U-20 breakthrough, and just days out from contesting a third senior final in a row at Croke Park, the Louth minors have now qualified for their provincial decider.
It's Louth's first final at the grade since 2017 and they will bid for a first title since 1953 when they take on Offaly in the May 19 showpiece.
Nobody can question Louth's credentials after going into Dublin's back yard in Naul and coming away with a 12-point win.
Jack Martin and Tom Maguire struck the goals for Louth though it was Connell Kelly that really stood out.
The son of former Louth senior player and manager Colin Kelly struck 11 points, including three eye-catching two-pointers.
Louth were just a point up at half-time, 1-8 to 1-7, and might have felt a little disappointed with their lot at that stage.
They'd burst out of the traps and put 1-3 on the board before Dublin had even scored, only for the hosts to haul themselves right back into it.
Cillian McCabe struck Dublin's 21st minute goal after a free was taken quickly and in-form forward Mo Salami added two points.
But Louth hit the gas again after the break and took over entirely, outscoring Dublin by a whopping 1-9 to 0-1 in the second-half.
Caoilinn O'Connell scored Dublin's only point of the second-half while Kelly put on an exhibition of long-range score-taking for Louth at the other end.
Kelly hit two two-pointers in the second-half and four other singles while Andrew O'Reilly was also on the mark for them.
Meanwhile, Offaly produced a strong second-half performance too to advance beyond Kildare in Tullamore.
Cian McNamee grabbed 13th and 20th minute goals for Offaly to leave them 2-4 to 0-3 clear at that stage.
But a strong Kildare response that included a Pauric Carty goal and a series of points from Hugh Martin put the visitors 1-10 to 2-4 up at half-time.
A two-pointer from Carty in the 39th minute stretched Kildare's lead to five points at that stage.
But Offaly were inspired in the final 20 minutes or so, a third goal from Ruairi Woods reducing the gap to a single point and Cian Duffy's 54th minute major left the home side 4-7 to 1-13 ahead.
The scores were tied at 4-7 to 1-16 deep into stoppage time when Jack Ryan booted a two-pointer that ultimately separated the teams in a frantic finish at Glenisk O'Connor Park.
It will be Offaly's first minor final since 2020 and they will shoot for a first title since 1989.
