Manager happy that Offaly hurling is on the road but sets sight on Dublin and Wexford

JOHNNY Kelly does not attempt to evade the question or provide generic answers when it is asked. When it was stated last week that taking the scalp of Dublin or Wexford in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship is the natural next step for Offaly if they are to continue moving forward, he was quick to rebuke the suggestion that it may not happen this year.
“They are the targets for Offaly in Leinster. It is important that it happens this year, let's be fair. That is why we are here, we are not here to wave any white flags or take moral victories. This is championship, we want to compete and we want to win games,” said the ambitious Portumna man who is in his seventh season of very active involvement with Offaly hurling – manager since 2023, he was a coach and selector with Michael Fennelly for the previous three years and knows all that there is to know about Offaly hurling.

“There is certainly grounds for optimism. We are very young, very talented so youth moulded in the right direction will shove it up to Dublin and Wexford. We really think we can this year and if we follow the trajectory and progress we have shown from 2020, there has always been a step up every year. It might plateaux for six months or a year and go again. We are at that stage now.

“Staying in Leinster last year was huge. We played Wexford in Wexford and were beaten by a couple of points. We know we are close but being close 12 months ago is not good enough now, we have to try and get over the line in these games.”

Kelly has been there for a gruelling Offaly journey as they got stuck in the third tier Christy Ring Cup for two seasons, winning it in 2021. They lost the 2023 Joe McDonagh Cup final before fulfilling a cherished goal by returning to top flight hurling a year later. They retained their status in 2025 when they also surpassed expectations by winning promotion to Division 1 of the National Hurling League.

As expected, Division 1 hurling was a bridge too far for Offaly and they were duly relegated after losing all their games. A pointless programme would normally deflate morale ahead of championship but not in this case. It was not a surprise and for Johnny Kelly and company, Saturday's Leinster Senior Hurling Championship opener at home to Dublin always occupied centre stage in their thinking.

“The reality is it is a very young panel Offaly have and that is the first thing everyone should be cognisant of. We have an average age of 22 on the team, they have a bit to go yet in their development. That causes its own issues, especially when you have a lot of players involved in Fitzgibbon Cup and freshers at the start of the year,” he reflected.

Kelly accepts this is part of the split season but feels it is particularly tough on a panel with the youth of Offaly while they have also suffered greatly with injuries this year.

He was happy with Offaly's display against Kilkenny in the league, “disappointed” that they didn't get something out of it. He knows they got a “bit of a trimming” against Tipperary after performing well in the first half while he referred to the goal chances they missed in the loss to Galway in Birr and Waterford.

Kelly was happy with the way they competed against Limerick and the one real black spot on their year was the hammering by Cork in their final game. “That took on a life of its own,” he said, stating that he wasn't looking for excuses but they had the “added pressure” of trying to avoid injuries and niggles or a red card.

“There are huge areas of learning for everyone involved, back room team, coaches and players as well but they have worked really hard. Hopefully we will go and get those wins that eluded us in the league,” he said.

From day one, the Cork game loomed as the one where things could go wrong for Offaly. “Cork have this really powerful running game. Dare I say it, this big issue around the handpass and is it a throw or handpass. When a team that powerful and quick comes up against an inexperienced Offaly tea, and the game is played in that manner, it is very hard to stop that Cork train but there are silver linings within that game. We got 20 points, we had over forty shots and controlled large areas of the game. Obviously when the flood gates opened, they opened greatly which was very disappointing. In the 34^th or 35^th minute, there was only two or three points in it.

“We can't escape the fact that not everything has gone the way we wanted but it was a work block of a league. It is parked now and all our attention is on championship.”

He talked about where Offaly were when he came in with Michael Fennelly in 2019. “It did take a bit of time to get in under the bonnet and figure out where things were. A lot of players came in and put the shoulder to the wheel but it wasn't the most attractive place to be in inter-county hurling at the time. I remember Michael struggling trying to get players in. We all tried to get players in and got some great fellows in who put their shoulder to the wheel. There has been steady progress. It has been progress. It is probably not as fast as everyone wants but it is three levels up and when you consider league as well, the formats have changed but we were in 2A and then 1B and now Division 1.”

Offaly visited some hurling back-waters that they had no desire to see: Wicklow in Baltinglass, Sligo in the Christy Ring Cup and Kelly remembers going to the Mayo training centre. “We had to do the rounds, I'd say we are the most travelled county in the country.”

Kelly grimaced when it was said that Division 1B rather than 1 is the right place for Offaly at the moment. “It is but it is worth saying that if circumstances were different and if this current bunch get through the next year or two, once they leave college and become employed and if they stick around, it bodes well for the future. It was no harm to have a go at these top teams in 1A. It is disappointing we were relegated. We wanted to stay up but the reality is we would have had to win three games to do that. Relegation is not the end of the world, 1B is quite competitive. A really good final last week between Dublin and Clare and the counties in it next year will be quite competitive.”

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He was glad to see how they fared against the top counties and took heart from the Limerick and Galway games. “While others mightn't see that, it is where these lads wanted to be and will be in the future, I have no doubt.”

The emergence of a thrilling new group of Offaly hurler boosted things further as they lost the 2022 All-Ireland minor hurling final in devastating circumstances but captured the All-Ireland U20 title in 2024 after losing the 2023 final. A lot of them have been thrown in at the deep end, resulting in the very low average age of the team and Kelly has seen the downside of this with the way Cork were able to over power them.

He also mentioned demographics, Offaly being a dual county and their small pick compared to Cork, Galway, Tipperary and others. “These are huge counties that have this conveyor belt of players. It is difficult for Offaly to match this first and foremost.”

He was asked about the need for Offaly to back up that U20 squad with a second outstanding group coming behind them. “They will but it is a consistency of approach that is needed. You don't always have to have winning teams. If you look at Limerick and Cathal O'Neill and Adam English coming through, Aidan O'Connor, they are not coming on the back of successful minor, U21 campaigns. It really is important that Offaly utilise every player in the county because with limited resources, you have to be resourceful. Getting the most out of every single player, backroom member, coach, everyone has a role to play. There is great work at all ages and it is encouraging to see so many young lads still turning up here year in, year out. Yes they get beatings but they get up off the canvass and box on. It is great for their resilience. The truth is it is no harm to get a good crop of players every couple of years that can compete in the Leinster championship, win minors or U20s. If it happens, great and if it doesn't, you would hope that within those groups, you get a couple of gems coming through.”

He talked about the way hurling is played at the moment, the way the game has evolved and modernised. “The way teams are passing the ball and their running game. It is a power based game. You need crash barriers of men in the middle third of the field to stop lads or they will break through you. There is a lot of talk about referees and they have a very hard job to implement all the rules. If they did implement all the rules, I don't think we would have a game, it would be too stop-start. There is a lot that goes on in the modern game of hurling that wasn't there five or ten years ago. It will take a bit of time for these young fellows to understand that.”

Kelly has also witnessed the tactical side change, the importance of puckouts and restarts determining so much. “Game management is huge and you have to have on field leaders. On the day of games, we really have very little influence once the game starts. If you haven't your work done before hand, it is our fault but if the work is done before hand and players are unable to to switch in game to different strategies and formats, it can hurt you. There is a huge body of work and learning that young fellows coming into a senior set-up have to go through. We have an intelligent bunch here at the moment and I would be very hopeful for the near future as opposed to long term.”

On the stress of management

He is happy that Offaly's skill levels are close to where they need to be and that the deficits are in physicality, which they are working hard on. “They are all good stick men but you need much more than that,” he said, referring to strength and conditioning being “so vital”.

“All aspects of preparation are gone to a different level. You are right, Offaly were guilty in the past of not being up to standard skill wise but also physically they weren't there either. That is no disrespect to anyone, it is just that the game took off in a few of these counties. It went to a different level and we are playing catch up to a large degree.

“That was recognised by Michael Duignan, Dervill Dolan and those lads that came in. They recognised that something had to change. There is good people there at the moment who are striving really hard to make it better and improve Offaly's lot. It is a long road and we are on it but we have a long way to go.”

The County Board have given him what he wanted in terms of backroom team and coaches. “It is a hard gig now, it is not easy. We have to come in the gate at Faithful Fields four or five times a week, October on and the weather has been brutal. It is time away from families and loved ones and there is a lot of sacrifices the backroom team give. It is a professional setup. Financially, the strain is massive. I know there is a lot of talk in the GAA about our amateur status but this is a professional environment and if you don't have that, you end up back in the Christy Ring again very quickly.”

Kelly laughed when it was said that his complexion is a healthy red at the moment but that he will be white as a ghost in Tullamore next Saturday. How do you do it, the strain and stress is huge?

“It is genuinely not easy. Anyone who has managed or coached a team at any level, maybe even U12s on county final day, it is tough. You have to be well able to handle the strain. A lot goes into it and you invest so much of your own energy. We get attached to the group and the county. We just want the best for them and with that, comes pressure. You have to be able to deal with that. If the management team can't deal with that, how do we expect players to be mentally strong enough for games.

“There is days when we have been disappointed with performances and we looked back and said, maybe the anxiety was too much. You have to be very conscious of that side of the game. It is not just about preparing physically and tactically, it is about preparing yourself psychologically and mentally rehearsing the challenges ahead. We are on that path now and we have to be ready for the championship.”

He is very aware that this strain is even bigger on players, who are also affected by what people say about them and social media comments etc.

There isn't much fun in it for players, is there?

“No. You have to be highly motivated and sacrifice a lot to be an inter-county hurler. It is not for everyone,” he said, stating that it is a help that the young players have got a taste of success at underage level. “It fuels them but it is difficult to come in time and time again, particularly when the weather is bad and you have to go out on the field. It is hardship, it really is. We all love the game but all these players love Offaly so much and would do anything for each other and the group. That pack mentality is very much here at the moment and it is not easy create that.”

One of his key management things is to make it enjoyable where possible, both for them and the players. “We try and enjoy our training sessions and games as much as possible while being very serious about how we prepare. It is not straightforward, it is a little bit of an art form.”

On Offaly's injuries

Like the footballers, injuries have been a big part of Offaly's season to date. Charlie Mitchell and Ciaran Burke have missed the league campaign, Mitchell after getting tests for a heart issue and Burke with an injury. Burke and Mitchell have both resumed training while James Mahon and Ruari Kelly are still out – testing with the medical personnel will determine availability in the coming days.

Apart from Donal Shirley, whose season is over with a cruciate injury, it is “not as bleak as it was a few weeks ago”.

“That is so disappointing for Donal and everyone in the group because he is such a talented player. We will sadly miss him. Such an innocuous thing, it just happened out of nowhere. It is a challenge but one we hope we are well able for.”

While the injuries have come from a variety of things, load is a major one and he said: “Intercounty players are not getting a break. What you get is a roll on effect from county to club season. Clubs need their players as well but you have players going back to them with underlying issues and niggles that they just can't fix and they play on. They come back to us then and that is when they break down because when we ramp up our conditioning and try and close the gap between ourselves and the Cork's and Limerick's, this is where you find weaknesses. That really does test us.”

He has seen an increase in the volume of hamstring injuries, stressing that they are doing things right and taking guidance from sports scientists re training load. “Everything is being tested but unfortunately, some players are quite disposed to these type of injuries, particularly the really quick players like Ruari Kelly and Ter Guinan. These are explosive players and if they are not 100% on their testing, the danger is that will happen again.”

Then there are the unfortunate knocks like Ciaran Burke getting a slap on his ankle. “They come from all different areas and there is no one source of them. We do our best to limit them and to get them right then and there is huge pressure then on medical staff, led by Mikey Costello here. He is the busiest man we have had for the last couple of months, another great guy. It is a challenge. One thing is the condensed season and the amount of games these fellows have to play from January is way too much. We can't say they are amateurs when we force them to play on a Wednesday with college and a Sunday. You have to ask then, who is the adult in the room!”

He has communicated well with college managers, particularly Frank Lohan in Galway, where Offaly had four players. “It is tough on them and it is tough on us but we are left to our own devices to try and sort this out.”.

Kelly agreed that is does take time for players to develop their own resilience and not be injury prone. “There is that as well. That is the other side of this, you have to be physically developed when you hit senior, to bullet proof yourself to a large degree from some of these injuries. Muscular injuries and playing this time of year is an awful lot different from playing club hurling in the summer where you have hard ground and the ball is moving quicker. In this heavy ground and you have hard hits, there is an awful lot of collisions. The fact that the game goes on for 74 minutes plus and the metrics they are hitting. You are talking about guys who are hitting 10-11k a game and maybe doing over 20km an hour for over 1200 metres. It is seriously taxing and does put a lot of strain on the body.”

On the championship

He confirmed that Dublin and the championship has been the target from day one this season. “It was. We understood it was great to be in Division 1 but the championship was our main objective.”

He was encouraged last year by their win over Dublin in the league even if it was “lucky” while they ran them close in the championship, conceding a last minute goal. That is in the past and he was referred by the way Dublin played in the second half of their Division 1B final loss to Clare. “They are a very strong unit and have probably improved from last year. They will be a stiff challenge for us. We have been diligent in the way we have trained and have grounds for optimism.”

Kelly referred to the different style of hurling played in Leinster and Munster, where it is “largely based around the running hand-passing game” and “all that goes with that, is it a hand-pass or a throw”.

Noting that they play a more traditional game in Leinster, he asked: “Is Munster better than Leinster? It appears so and they are winning All-Ireland's coming out of Munster, less so in Leinster at the moment. For me, it is how the game is played in these different provinces.”

Desperate for a big win over one of the main counties, Kelly is aware that the last game against Kildare could well dictate who goes back to the Joe McDonagh Cup. They survived a similar game against Antrim last year and he agreed that they can't be relying on winning this type of game every year.

“It could come down to that but we don't have a crystal ball. A lot of things can happen to a lot of teams over the championship, not just ourselves. You can get a team that ordinarily would be going well but one or two injuries to key players and all of a sudden they are back in the bunch.”

Galway have emerged as favourites for the Leinster title but he declared: “Where is the true Galway, the true Kilkenny, the true Offaly. We just don't know until the championship starts. That is the beauty and excitement of it. We are hopeful that we have done enough with our players over the last six months that come the 18^th we will give a really good account of ourselves and win the game. After that, we look at the next team up which is Galway. As of now, all our focus is on Dublin.”

Dublin and Wexford were away last year and are at home this year, though Kelly is not sure how big a help this is. “We haven't always had the best days in Tullamore for some reason. Tullamore hasn't always been a happy hunting ground for us but we are steadily getting to grips with that. I don't know why and I have no reasons behind it. It is a really good pitch, a large pitch and it should in theory suit a young mobile team but these games are played in near Winter conditions. There is a gale force breeze out tonight and the forecast isn't great for the next two weeks. All of these things are levellers.

“It is good to have these games at home but it balances itself out from year to year.”

On the battle for goalkeeper and hard calls on players

One of the hardest calls management have had to make this year has been for goalkeeper. Durrow's |Mark Troy has been the regular number one in the past couple of years but 2024 U20 custodian Liam Hoare has played the bulk of the games this year – another outstanding keeper, Shinrone's Eamonn Cleary has been the number 3.

“I have three outstanding goalkeepers. Eamon Cleary has been an outstanding keeper in the club championship, Mark was there last year and Liam is an up and coming talent from the U20 set-up and had a brilliant Fitzgibbon Cup this year. It is difficult but the one thing I will say is the three of them are so close, they are great friends.

“It is not just the keepers, there is so many decisions we have to make as management and I have to go to players and say you are not making it, you are not on the 26 or the 15. They are really difficult. Sometimes I come across as having a hard edge and I have to have that at inter-county level but I do have great empathy for these players. With all the work they put in, it is desperately hard to say you can't make 26. They are tough decisions but we are ultimately here to make our best case of who is going to do the best for Offaly on a certain day. That can change over time as well. They are working really hard and whoever plays, I am sure will have the support of the other two.”

He takes no pleasure in these type of decisions. “I am on both sides of that fence. I am the father of three who play hurling and camogie and I understand the pressures of both being a parent and manager. It is difficult and I understand the pain of the managers they have as well. At the end of the day, we are all very much human and we want the best for all these young people.

“My job is to manage Offaly and get Offaly to win games and at the same time, to be very conscious of players' feelings and how to help them along their journey.”