Captain happy with position Offaly are in but knows there are tougher battles ahead

THREE games into the Division 1B league campaign and Offaly are sitting on top of the table with five points out of six.

At the start of the year everyone involved would have taken that scenario but they know there are tougher battles ahead with away games to come against both Dublin and Waterford, but Offaly have put themselves in a good position to challenge at the top of the table and confidence is growing with every performance.

Ballinamere's Ciaran Burke has taken over as Offaly captain this season and the full back is very happy with how Offaly have gone so far and is looking forward to the challenges ahead.

“Absolutely, at the start of the year we would have targeted the first three games to try to get off to a good start and put ourselves in a good position to try and chase promotion. Obviously in two weeks time the Dublin game will be another step up, it will be tough up in Croke Park, but we're delighted to bring some positivity around the group, building on three good performances going into another game now.”

The team have improved with every game and Ciaran notes that that is “the benefit of having three games in a row, you learn, you play again, you can go to training and work and improve on areas that let us down before and that's the benefit of having three good games in three weeks. You learn a lot about yourself and the team when you are playing those competitive games. You can do as much training as you want but having those competitive games is huge for this group.”

They drew with Carlow in the first game but he said it was a game that could have been lost as well. “Carlow probably had our number in the last few years but that game could have gone either way. We had done a lot of hurling but probably weren't clinical enough but it was the first competitive game of the year, so you would take a draw, we could very easily have lost it, so I wouldn't have been overly disappointed with the result. We just had to improve for the Laois game, which we did, and we improved again today.”

He agreed it was a difficult week for everyone after the death of Shinrone hurler Joe Cleary, a number of whose team mates are on the Offaly panel. “We would all have hurled against Joe and for the community in Shinrone it was a shock and sad loss. Brendan touched on it before the game that there are bigger things going on in life rather than hurling and we were the lucky ones to go out there today and represent Offaly and try and bring a bit of joy to the community in Shinrone and Offaly,” Ciaran said.

Offaly got a run of scores before half time in Sunday's game, moving from two points up eight minutes before the break to go in leading by 10 points and he said that was important “because it was a strong enough breeze today so to build up that bit of a lead going in to half time, those scores were massively important. The first 10 minutes we struggled to get into the game but once we got our game plan implemented we settled down on the ball and got the ball into Brian and Charlie and Dan inside, who could do the damage, and thankfully they got the scores today.”

He said he wasn't that surprised that Antrim didn't come more at them in the second half as he said they targeted a good start to the second half. “We kind of targeted it at half time that we would make a good start to the second half. The Carlow game we couldn't really push on, and in Laois we did the same where we came out after half time and really pushed on, so we were targeting that and we pulled away then.”

He said it will be important for them to have a break this weekend. “Definitely, especially with the boys involved in Fitzgibbon, it's been a tough few weeks for the likes of Donal Shirley, James Mahon, Colin Spain, so it is important that we have a down week and then we can build it back up into Dublin, Westmeath and Waterford.”

Those games against Dublin and Waterford will be tough tests to come but “that's where you want to be, that's where you want to test yourself. That was the aim to get back up to Leinster Championship and Division 1B and be competitive because that is where you are going to learn about this group and see where we're at. That's where we want to be, we all enjoy playing in these high pressure environments and it's great to be looking forward to these challenges.”

With five points on the board, they probably won't have to be looking over the shoulder at the threat of relegation and Ciaran said that means they “can go out and try and express ourselves more and play with that freedom and not be looking over your shoulder worried about relegation and can look forward.”

“We've trained hard, our fitness levels have gone to a new level this year and that helps you enjoy your hurling more when you are fitter and have more energy about you. Training has been very good with the likes of Martin and Brendan and Seamie and Barry and training has been top class and we're constantly try to push ourselves and improve every day we go down to the field and that's where the confidence comes from,” the captain said.