Offaly hurling manager not happy with 'insane' fixtures schedule

HAVING achieved the first half of his season's ambitions, Offaly senior hurling manager, Johnny Kelly was understandably happy after Sunday's National Hurling League Division 2 final win over Kildare.

“It is the first goal achieved. We didn’t make any qualms about that. We did target the league. We now target the Joe McDonagh. Nothing changes. It has been a fairly arduous league campaign and happy to come out the other side of it victorious,” he remarked after Offaly had a very good second half to beat Kildare by 0-24 to 1-18.

He had seen his side trail by 1-4 to 0-1 early on but didn't press any panic buttons.

“That’s been a trait all year. We haven’t started great but the lads have shown great composure and changes at times make a difference. We changed the formation. Kildare are really tactical. They play a really defensive game and hit you on the run but they have some great hurlers there. We changed it up a bit after about 10-15 minutes and we had our own goal chances and didn’t take them. We were happy enough at half time. We just had to make sure none of the lads were upset by the way the first half had went. We stayed at it, kept plugging away and got the scores in the end.”

He was asked about a man of the match display by Cillian Kiely.

“Cillian is excellent but Offaly cannot afford to lose hurlers of his quality. It’s great see Cillian coming back. There are more guys out there who can commit but it’s not always easy when it comes to inter county hurling. It’s a tough ask and there are lots of sacrifices. These lads put in savage effort. Cillian has been brilliant since he came back in. He has things to work on as do all the guys. Offaly needs every one of those good strong young fellas to put their shoulder to the wheel and if they do then we will have more of the performances that we did today.”

Now Offaly face a crunch Joe McDonagh Cup game against Laois on Saturday and will be seven weeks on the road before they get a week off at the end of April.

“It’s insane to be honest. We have seven games in seven weeks. These are amateur players. We are not going to lean on that excuse. As I said to the guys at training we will fight to the last man. You are in a competition that requires guts and determination and requires everyone to give everything until their last breath. We did that and dring the week we have to get going again and get a good performance next Saturday.

“You try to develop a good spirit and there is a good spirit there. These lads are all from different clubs in Offaly but as one of them said last night this is our club right now. They are really putting their shoulder to the wheel so it’s great.”