Offaly hurling manager takes Tipperary defeat on the chin

AS you would expect, Offaly manager Johnny Kelly took Sunday's heavy 5-24 to 1-18 National Hurling League defeat by Tipperary on the chin, not looking for excuses or scapegoats.

Offaly are under no illusions about the challenges in top flight hurling and despite running Kilkenny close in the first round, this defeat and the scale of it was not a surprise.

Offaly fought hard but the game was up at half time when they trailed by 2-12 to 1-10 after playing with a stiff wind. A black card for hard working full back Ben Miller followed by a brilliantly dispatched penalty goal from man of the match Jason Forde more or less sealed Offaly's fate in the first half, even though they got some late points.

That black card and penalty was in the 28th minute when Miller hauled down Andrew Ormond. It was a clear goal scoring opportunity and Johnny Kelly had no desire to highlight that call afterwards.

“We won't hang on any decisions or give out about referees today, we were second best today. A difficult day, but we always knew when we come up to this level, if we didn't have everyone fit and ready to go, we'd have games like this.”

Offaly are down some of their best hurlers in Ciaran Burke, Killian Sampson and Charlie Mitchell at the moment while they also left off other key players for this, including Dan Bourke, Cathal King and Adam Screeney.

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With so many players absent, Offaly really could not contemplate a shock against the All-Ireland champions and Kelly confirmed that they left off some of the players because of them playing Fitzgibbon Cup games.

“That was the reason. You're talking about young fellas that are playing week in, week out, they're playing on Wednesday, playing again on a Saturday or Sunday. So some of those guys would have played four games in ten days, and then we've had a number of those other young fellas, the likes of Donal Shirley, injured on the back of some of those games. That was the reason for going that way.”

Offaly went for strength in a full forward line of Brian Duignan, Ciaran Cleary and Oisin Kelly and it yielded mixed results with them able to win good ball but they didn't always finish from that. Was it a success, failure of in between?

“Somewhere in between, really. There's a bit to do, that's the first time we've tried that sort of thing. It wasn't a ploy that we would actually go with a direct ball like that, but I suppose it lended itself towards that at times. Possibly unlucky that we didn't get another score or two off the side of that. It is something that we may or may not look at again.”

He was asked when Ciaran Burke, Charlie Mitchell and some of the injured players will be back.

“It could be Championship really, yeah, that's long-term injuries for a number of those guys. We'd be hoping towards the end of the league that we'd have a few of those guys back.

 “But again, it's very foolish for us to try and push boys or rush guys back in at this stage. We're just going to try and ride out the storm at the moment and get to a situation where, if we can at all, get everyone fit for the Championship.”

Speaking minutes after the final whistle, he was unsure what way the players were reacting to the loss.

“What the dressing room is like, I don't know. Every individual feels different ways. Overall, I think it's upbeat enough. They do realise that it's a work in progress, that every day you go out and play against a team like that, it's actually a learning experience for some of them. They are quite young, as I said before, but as I said, no excuses.

“It is where you learn and play at that tempo, where else can you play to try and close the gap between the likes of Offaly and Tipperary.”