Leinster Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Final

Galway v Offaly, O’Moore Park, 3.30.

By John Harrington

The simplistic form line doesn’t make good reading for Offaly going into Sunday’s Leinster SHC Semi-Final against Galway.

Their opponents defeated Westmeath by 17 points in the Quarter-Final, the same Westmeath team that beat Offaly by 14 points in the Round Robin phase of the Leinster Championship. Things were looking very bleak for Offaly at that point on May 1st, but they’ve rehabilitated themselves with consecutive wins over Carlow, Kerry, and Laois.

Despite that run of three consecutive victories, according to former Offaly player Michael Duignan there’s not a lot of optimism in the county they might pull off a shock against Galway on Sunday.

“There’s a better slant on it than there was,” he said. “But it doesn’t cover up all the cracks. There’s probably a good few lads that could be better. And maybe that will convince them the year wasn’t a total disaster. You can’t take it for granted that they won’t all play well on Sunday. The spirit seems to be good.

“The Offaly forwards are potentially very good on their day. But it’s all small steps and trying to rebuild and maybe create an environment that players want to be part of. But they’re up against it. Looking at Galway, they look very sharp. I always rate Galway very highly because of their Championship form. They’re not far away from Kilkenny over the last number of years.

“They’re arguably in the top two or three, even though they’ve been kind of forgotten about this year. On their day, they have possibly the best forward line in the game. So a tough one for Offaly.”

The Galway forwards certainly did look sharp in their win over Westmeath when they scored 3-27, of which 3-22 came from play. Joe Canning was a man on a mission, and he was ably assisted by players like Conor Whelan, Jason Flynn, and Cathal Mannion.

Davy Glennon and David Burke were totally dominant in midfield, hitting six points, and if they can get on top in the middle third again on Sunday it could be a long afternoon for Offaly.

On the flip side, if Galway read too much into the bookies odds and believe they’ll win this easily, then it may not be so straightforward because at the very least you would expect Offaly to rise to the occasion and produce a big effort.

Galway manager Micheal Donoghue isn’t the complacent type though, and has warned his team to respect the challenge the Midlanders will bring.

“With regards to Offaly, similar to the Westmeath game, where their season has been up and down it has been more on the up in the last couple of weeks in terms of they having good wins under their belt. And you know yourself, winning breeds confidence,” says Donoghue.

“So, look, we will give them the absolute respect they deserve and we will be going up there totally tuned into our own game and that is all we can do. As I said, we are very mindful of the tradition and rivalry and what they can bring to the table. So, we are 100% totally focused on this game.”