Martin Stackpoole of Kerry and Pat Camon of Offaly pictured at the official launch of Joe McDonagh Cup at Croke Park in Dublin.
By Kevin Egan
It started in 2004, with a league game against Laois in Birr.
An Offaly team that hadn’t lost a competitive game to their neighbours in 18 years (hadn’t lost a competitive home game in 30) fell short by a point in a crucial game that condemned the Faithful County to relegation to Division 2 of the National Hurling League, where they would take on teams that they had rarely if ever crossed swords with before.
That defeat was seen as a low watermark for a county that competed in an All-Ireland final just six years before, and since then there has been a steady succession of new low points for the midlanders.
Championship defeats to Laois and Westmeath, heavy beatings at the hands of more traditional powers, and then two significant setbacks (another relegation to Division Two and relegation to the Joe McDonagh cup) in the last year and another (a minor championship defeat to Kildare) taking place last week.
Now, another unfortunate milestone looms. This Saturday Offaly will travel to Austin Stack Park in Tralee for a Joe McDonagh cup clash with Kerry, and anything less than victory will see them replace either Meath or Down in the 2020 Christy Ring Cup.
With ten counties hurling in either the Leinster and Munster championships and five more playing in the Joe McDonagh cup, that would effectively see them ranked in the bottom half of all counties in the country when it came to hurling – arguably the lowest point they county would ever have known since the 1940’s and 1950’s, if at all.
To put that in context, other teams in next year’s Christy Ring competition include London, and either Armagh or Sligo (this year’s Nicky Rackard finalists). Were Offaly to be placed in a group with any of those, it would be their first ever competitive meeting with those sides, following on from the Spring when they will play Mayo for the first time ever. Those will or would be famous occasions for Mayo/London/Armagh/Sligo hurling, but equally they will be difficult to digest for Offaly supporters.
Shane Dooley of Offaly shakes hands with John Griffin of Kerry after the 2016 Leinster GAA Hurling Championship Qualifier between Offaly and Kerry.
Given the county’s illustrious history, there has been a huge amount of focus on their decline, with comparatively little on the state of play in Kerry. As former player John Griffin points out, the stakes are just as high for the Kingdom.
“The Joe McDonagh cup has got a lot of exposure in the last few weeks and a lot of that has been about the decline we’ve seen from Offaly in recent times, but a loss on Saturday would be catastrophic for whichever county loses” he told GAA.ie.
“Kerry have put a lot of work in for a number of years and in my opinion they are a Joe McDonagh team. Given the quality of players they have it’s a great competition to be in, and it is their level. Lots of the games in the last few weeks have been very close, even last week Kerry conceded a lot of goals but they were a good match for a good Laois side for long periods. For the development of Kerry over the next few years, it’s very important to hurl in this competition. It’s a natural progression for the players, they need to play at Joe McDonagh level for the next few years”.
“It’s a pity that there has to be a loser on Saturday. Even from a supporter’s point of view, it’s more enticing for supporters to come in and play teams like Laois, Offaly and Antrim, so Kerry need to be able to have those sort of occasions and events here in Tralee, to try and bring young supporters out and get them hooked on the sport.”
A look at the respective panels would also suggest that Kerry are possibly in a better position to remain competitive in the second tier for the foreseeable future. Shane Conway’s exploits in the Fitzgibbon Cup with UCC drew a lot of attention to the Lixnaw player’s talent, while other young hurlers like Jordan Conway, Jack Goulding, Evan Murphy and Gavin Dooley are very much on an upward curve, with no end of potential to make an impression at a high level.
Offaly veteran Joe Bergin remains a key player for his county.
Offaly, in contrast, started the Antrim game with key players like Shane Dooley, Joe Bergin and Colin Egan all now into their 30’s, and regardless of the result this Saturday, replacing players of that calibre in the next few years will be a tough challenge for the county.
Griffin certainly feels that this Kerry team has a good age profile, and that a lot of effort has gone into making this happen – he’s very keen to see a positive result on Saturday for that reason.
“They’ve brought a lot of new players onto the panel this year so there are efforts to get lads up to a higher level and I don’t think the drop back down would do them any good” he said.
“There are lads playing Fitzgibbon Cup, a lot of lads on that Kerry team are comfortable at this level, and higher. In hurling, things don’t happen overnight where you can just put a lot of effort into one competition and then be prepared, it takes years. Kerry have put in huge work for years to get to this level and for Kerry hurling in general it would be great to get this result on Saturday”.
Great for one side, disaster for the other, regardless of what way it plays out. The era of round robin competitions is very much upon us in intercounty hurling, but be in no doubt that if you like your games to come with a substantial dash of championship edge, Tralee on Saturday is the place to be.
