Offaly hurlers to go for win in Wexford with one eye on Antrim

OFFALY are caught between a rock and a hard place as they prepare for round 4 of the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship with a trip to Wexford on Saturday next.

It is a big game for Offaly and one where their chances of a huge win are much greater than they were in their last two games against Galway and Kilkenny.

Those went more or less as expected with Offaly shipping two heavy beatings but there is no big fallout from them. The more realistic among us knew that this was always possible against Galway and Kilkenny. Kilkenny was always going to be a bridge too far in Nowlan Park while Offaly got Galway at the wrong time, a week after they malfunctioned against Kilkenny and had a major point to prove.

Back in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship for the first time since 2017, it is all boiling towards what many expected and feared: a winner take all relegation shootout with Antrim in Tullamore in two weeks time.

Offaly destroyed Antrim in the National Hurling League on their way to promotion back in February but that result has nothing do do with anything now. Antrim were a mile off the pace that day and will be a much different challenge now. The impression that Offaly in the championship has been the big focus for Davy Fitzgerald and Antrim the whole year is impossible to avoid.

With three rounds played, Kilkenny and Dublin are top with six points, Galway have four, Wexford two and Offaly and Antrim are pointless.

Antrim are travelling to Galway next and you can bet your bottom euro that they will be writing this off as a game they won't win and will be putting all their eggs in the Offaly basket. They will be expecting Wexford to beat Offaly, even though they won't be analysis that too much and it is way out of their control – but they will be anticipating meeting Offaly in a winner take all relegation shootout in Tullamore on Sunday, May 25.

Offaly, however, won't be writing the Wexford game off. They were very close to beating Dublin in the first round when they played well enough to win but were overturned late on. The initial target for Offaly in the top flight is to close the gap on and then pass out Dublin and Wexford. That is achievable for them as the outstanding generation of young hurler begin to find their feet but it can only be done if they are playing them in the championship.

That is far from set in stone and no one in the Offaly set-up is under any illusions about how perilous their situation is and how real the possibility of relegation is. It is very much on the table and the difficulty Offaly face is that a win in Wexford Park could provide the springboard to safety but they could pull it off with a huge energy cost, be sitting ducks against Antrim a week later and still be relegated.

If Offaly were to beat Wexford, it would firmly propel the Slaneysiders into the relegation mix. Offaly and Wexford would then be tied on two points – Wexford host Kilkenny last and there is a possibility of three teams trying on two points and scoring difference deciding who drops back to the Joe McDonagh Cup.

No matter who wins between Offaly and Wexford, Offaly are still going to have to beat Antrim to secure their status. Even if Offaly beat Wexford, they will still be on icy ground.

Kilkenny are at home to Dublin next and a draw or win there will guarantee a Leinster final place. They could have nothing to play for against Wexford and in such a situation, it is very common for the team who has to win to beat the team with nothing at stake, even if it would be very different in a high stakes game.

At the same time, a win on Sunday would mean a lot for Offaly. Kilkenny would still be favourites against Wexford and if three teams did tie on two points at the end of the day, it would put them in pole position for staying up. If scoring difference did come into the equation, it would only count from the scores of the three teams tied, in this case Wexford, Offaly Antrim – Offaly haven't played either yet while Wexford's winning margin over Antrim was 11 points.

And of course, scoring difference won't matter if they do beat Antrim. Wexford have plenty of incentive for Saturday. The top two go into the Leinster final with the third placed going into a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final. The Leinster final looks to be down between Kilkenny, Dublin and Galway and while Wexford are now outsiders, they still have designs on third place and will be targeting six points and seeing where that brings them.

Either way, they will want to win on Saturday and take relegation off the table. They are favourites to do so, they have performed at a higher level than Offaly in recent years and they were a lot more competitive against Galway than Offaly, even if the losing margin was ten points.

It is all a learning curve for Offaly at the moment and the squad deserve patience and time. They can be very proud of what they have achieved, where they have come from and they are ambitious about where they can go. A win is a possibility in Wexford and they almost took them when drawing there in the league a couple of years ago. The gap is not that big and can be bridged in the short term but the conundrum facing Offaly is that a win here does not guarantee safety and would mean very little if they do drop down.

Offaly have a lot of pride, they will want to perform and they will want to win. They will go about their business in a professional way and select their strongest available team – where the whole situation could come into play is if players sustain knocks that they might ordinarily try and run off, even if there was a price to pay a week later. If the game does begin to slip away, the stakes of the Antrim game have to be on the back of their mind.

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It is just hard to know but Offaly are not a whole lot different than Antrim in one respect: all their eggs may not be in the one basket but a lot of them are and it is the May 25 clash in Tullamore that will define the year for both teams.