Proud manager was always confident Offaly's “Offalyness” would drive them home

WITH just over fifteen minutes left of Monday's thrilling Leinster Minor Football Championship final in Newbridge and Louth leading by five points, Offaly fans not only began to accept defeat but were doing so with grace, content in the knowledge that their young team had performed and had been very competitive.

It looked to all extents and purposes that the game was slipping from the grasp of a very brave Offaly side and that Louth would fulfil their dreams of an unprecedented Leinster Minor, U20 and Senior Football Championship treble.

Fortunately, the Offaly players and management were reading from a different script, they kept driving, chasing, trying to do the right thing and it yielded a spectacular dividend in a dramatic 2-20 to 3-14 win.

Manager Roger Ryan never thought the game was gone and always believed they could rally. He had saw them snatch late wins against Laois, Wicklow, Meath and Kildare and insisted:

“I knew if we brought it to the last five or six minutes and we were in the game, we would do it. I was actually quite calm myself on the sideline, I was in no way excited. I knew when they got that point to go a point ahead, there was about three minutes on the clock. I knew we would get another point or two.

“I just felt it was coming and the big boys on our team all stood up to the plate when it counted. But these boys are doing that since they were nearly the height of a grasshopper or whatever the saying is. They are good lads, they are good characters and they are a very close group as a whole. All 32 of them hang around together and pal around. It doesn't matter if you are from Edenderry or Ferbane, them boys are friendly and they are good friends. They have good camaraderie and they stick together. I knew if we would get to the last few minutes we would take it.”

With a few minutes to go and Offaly chasing down a four point deficit after a Louth penalty had opened up a 3-13 to 2-14 gap, Ryan and coach Nigel Dunne could be seen on the sideline instructing the team to be patient, to hold onto the ball and wait for their openings.

The Shannonbridge man explained: “I felt we were forcing one or two plays. It is frantic out there. We just felt, get calm. We had good set plays and we just needed to get boys involved, not to be playing at a million mile an hour. We needed to not force the issue and I felt that if the chance came, the boys would take it.

“I can't credit some of them enough. Young Darragh Stewart coming in and kicking a point off his left. 15 years of age, what a brilliant young fellow. Cathal (Weldon) and Aaron (Daly) absolutely emptied themselves before they were taken off and Cian Duffy came in and done quite well. It was all about the group here with these boys and I felt they would do it for each other and they did.”

Offaly trailed by 0-11 to 1-6 at half time and were happy to be that close as their forwards survived on an increasingly limited supply of the ball as Louth mopped up huge possession in the middle third – winning the vast majority of their own kickouts and a high percentage of Offaly's.

Ryan agreed:

“They won a good bit of breaking ball. I felt our first four or five kickouts went well and we went off script a little but (Tom) Maguire was midfield for them. He is six feet four or five. A fine player. You are never going to keep a guy like him out of the game. He came thundering in. There were a few things we worked on and they weren't coming off but we got reset on our kickouts at half time. I felt they worked a good bit better in the second half and we got to isolate Eoin (Rouse) under the stand. He won three or four vital balls. Strangely enough, we actually went back to our plan A for the last six or seven minutes and it seemed to work. That is momentum, that is desire. Plans go out the window after five, ten minutes of championship football.

“We spoke about that. It is being in there in them championship minutes and when they got to them, I felt we were forcing the game and we were all attack. Louth clipped over one but I felt we would get another couple of chances. A couple of big turnovers came and Cormac Farrell came out with a ball, Tadgh Kelly got his hands on a ball. Brilliant stuff. You need the leaders and they stood up. The full back line is a lonely place so brilliant and Jack (Ryan) then, brilliant.”

Offaly were unstoppable when they scented blood late on. Eamon Maher curled over a delightful two pointer from play to bring them back into it and once again goalie Jack Ryan delivered at the end, firing over two two point frees in injury time to leave Louth with no time to respond. Jack Ryan, a son of a quality Offaly forward from the late 1990s, early 2000s, Donie Ryan, struck spectacular and decisive late two point frees in the wins over Laois, Meath and Kildare. He delivered once again when he got his chance on Monday and Roger Ryan, no relation, smiled:

“Jack is Jack, he nails them every night at training. He has worked really hard on his ball striking over the years. You go down to the pitch in Doon most nights and he is probably in it practising and it paid off tonight.”

Jack Ryan has made mistakes this year. He was blessed not to concede a late penalty after a misplaced kickout in the dying moments against Wicklow and he got caught a fraction off his line for Louth's first goal in Newbridge – the Louth goal wasn't really a big mistake as such and Oisin Reidy was going for the point but the Doon man still had to brush himself off immediately and forget about it.

His manager spoke about this.

“We have a goalkeeping coach, Eoin Carberry from Rosemount and he is working with Jack and Max (Kruger, the sub goalkeeper) all year long. We would be working on that side of things as much as the other attributes. It is a very lonely place in goals. You can make a mistake and be the hero or the villain but we score together, we concede together. We win together and we lose together. That is what you have, the tightness of the group. He let in the goal, he got up and we won the next kickout which is vital.”

After heavy defeats by Dublin and Louth in the first two games, Offaly have embarked on an extraordinary journey, improving with every game.

“There was brilliant support there tonight. Guys in clubs putting on buses. You can't beat it. Five minutes to go, there was a good Louth contingent directly behind us and they were just silent. You could just feel the (Offaly) crowd coming across and you were going, jaysus we are going to do this. They bring you home. We spoke at half time about utilising that crowd to bring you the rest of the way. It is good but we have a game in three weeks time against Mayo and I'd like to think we are not finished yet.”

The way Offaly finished and destroyed their opponents at the death brought back golden memories of the Offaly football teams of the 1970s and '80s, the hurling teams of the '80s and '90s. Ryan described it as an “Offalyness”, a new word that he is very proud to have invented.

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“It is a blast from the past but there are huge links within that group. There is grandfathers and uncles and sons of great Offaly people and players and then you have people who have no connection. They are every bit as Offaly as the next lad. I did an interview with TG4 before the game and I said there is an Offalyness to these boys and that is what we had. You would imagine I have invented a word but it is one we spoke about at the start of the year, an Offalyness. Bringing that pride, passion, never say die spirit back into the jersey. That is what it is all about. It is about the Offaly jersey and every kid wanting to wear it now. That is what we really want to do.”

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