Lee Pearson of Offaly in attendance at the launch of the Tailteann Cup 2024 at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
It’s a testament to Lee Pearson’s leadership qualities that Offaly Senior Football manager, Declan Kelly, has made him team captain at the age of 21.
Kelly, of course, knew what he was getting, because Pearson was a key performer for the 2021 All-Ireland winning U-20 team that Kelly also managed.
Pearson also captained the Offaly minors in 2019, so he’s clearly he’s made of the right stuff, and you can see why managers like the cut of his jib when you spend some time in his company.
You want your team captain to be positive by nature and have a natural self-belief, and Pearson ticks both boxes.
He sees no reason why Offaly can’t win the Tailteann Cup this year, and has even bigger ambitions for his inter-county career to come.
“Ultimately you want to become one of the better teams in the country, that has to be a realistic ambition,” says Pearson.
“You look at some of the counties who have done well and gone up through the divisions and you're looking at them and thinking to yourself, 'well, why can't we be one of those teams'.
“So, yeah, a personal goal of mine is definitely to be part of an Offaly football team that's one of the best in the country.”
When the Tailteann Cup first came into being in 2022, there were perhaps unsurprisingly some doubters as to how much of a buy-in it would get from the teams involved considering the ultimate fate of the Tommy Murphy Cup.
Lee Pearson of Offaly in action against Colm Basquel of Dublin during the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship semi-final match between Dublin and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile.
Three years on, it’s now clear the Tailteann Cup is here to stay such has been the positive reaction to it from players and supporters alike.
“There's huge buy-in in Offaly anyway,” confirms Pearson. “My first year on the senior panel was in 2022 and that was the first year of the Tailteann cup so for the likes of lads my age and younger we just know no different.
“This is the Championship for us and is the competition we've been targeting from the start of the year. We knew we had a tough draw in Leinster obviously with Laois in the first round and we were then rewarded with a shot against the Dubs here in Croker.
“In the back of our minds it was probably always that we were going to be playing in the Tailteann Cup, so it's definitely a competition we were targeting.”
After a slow start to the year that saw them lose their first four League matches, Offaly’s form graph has moved in an encouraging direction.
They won two and drew one of their remaining League games to avoid relegation from Division 3, and then produced a big performance in the quarter-final of the Leinster SFC to beat Laois.
That, of course, was followed by a 20-point reverse to Dublin in the Leinster semi-final, but the margin of defeat wasn’t really reflective of Offaly’s endeavour.
Pearson doesn’t believe there will be any hangover from it either, because it’s easy to compartmentalise a defeat against the best team in the country.
“Anything against the Dubs would have been a bonus and you obviously learn a lot when you play against the Division 1 teams,” he says.
“You see the physical and tactical level that you need to get to so we would have taken a lot from that game in terms of tactics, fitness, and strength. We know we need to up things ourselves.
“It makes you have a look at yourselves more than anything. A lot of those Dublin players have nine or 10 years of hard S&C and tough pre-seasons and gym sessions under their belts and that's a level we can aim to get to over the next few years, especially as we have a young enough panel and so haven't probably had the time toget all that work done yet.
“But that will come in the next few years hopefully.
“We felt like we gave a decent account of ourselves for 60/65 minutes of the game so we're coming into the Tailteann with a bit of confidence.”
Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael Jarlath Burns holding the Tailteann Cup alongside players, from left, Evan O’Carroll of Laois, Niall Murphy of Sligo, Paudie Feehan of Tipperary, Jason Curry of Waterford, Lee Pearson of Offaly, Patrick O’Keane of Wicklow, Darragh Kirwan of Kildare, Barry McNulty of Leitrim, Liam Coleman of Wexford, Josh Obahor of London, Darragh Foley of Carlow, Barry Coleman of Limerick, Paddy Fox of Longford, Dermot McAleese of Antrim, Pierce Laverty of Down and Declan McCusker of Fermanagh in attendance at the launch of the Tailteann Cup 2024 at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
The Faithful begin their campaign with a match at home to London on Saturday that you’d expect them to win.
As more and more players from their All-Ireland winning U20 side start to break through on to the senior team, a successful run in the Tailteann Cup could be just what this generation of Offaly players needs to hothouse their development.
“I think last Sunday against Dublin we had five starters and a few on the bench or extended panel who were involved in that All-Ireland,” says Pearson.
“We probably need to be looking at more of that group breaking into the team at this stage and establishing ourselves. That's three years ago now so it's very much in the past.
“It feels like a while ago now because this is my third season at inter-county level and they're long seasons.
“In the last few years we've had a bit of success at underage and the senior teams are going relatively okay.
“There were obviously periods in the last 10 or 15 years where things weren't going so well. I'd like to think we're going in the right direction.”