New Offaly senior hurling manager sets sight on promotion and Joe McDonagh Cup

JOHNNY Kelly is very clear about his targets as Offaly senior hurling manager. The new boss has resisted the temptation to provide cliches about his early goals – instead of talking about making improvements or leaving the county in a better place than they were when he took over, he is very definite about what he wants to achieve.

When it was suggested that a minimum requirement for Offaly would be to reach the Joe McDonagh Cup final in 2023, the Portumna man quickly responded:

“It is not a minimum. You are here to win, that's it. We could do the cliched stuff and say we want to improve our performance, we want to do this or that. At the end of the day, we need to win. We want to win Division 2 and the Joe McDonagh Cup. That's is why I am here and why I get involved in teams. It is not to compete, it is not to improve. It is to do all those things but ultimately it is to win the competitions we are involved in and progress up.”

A coach with Michael Fennelly for the past three years, Kelly is now taking on his first role as an inter-county manager. He comes into the job with vast experience at club level. He has won All-Ireland club titles with Portumna, a Munster club championship with Tipperary's Borris-Ileigh and he was manager when Coolderry won the Offaly senior hurling title in 2015.

He has been involved with Roscommon before and went for the Galway senior hurling job on a couple of occasions but didn't get the nod.

His qualifications to be Offaly manager are beyond dispute but his appointment did raise initial questions as he had been very much part of Michael Fennelly's backroom team for the past three years and the County Board had decided to jettison the Kilkenny great this year.

They had initially hoped to appoint a high profile Tipperary duo in Liam Sheedy and Eamon O'Shea but these plans didn't come to fruition and Kelly was appointed as the manager some weeks ago. The initial approach did cause him some soul searching as he had worked with Fennelly and one of his first actions was to ring him.

"It does inflate the team but everyone there has a role to play and they do add value. Yes, it has changed greatly over the years. Even at club level, that has moved on to where counties were five-six years ago. It has become a bit of an arms race and it has gone that direction but that is the nature of it and sport continuously evolves. We have to evolve with that.”

He agreed that he didn't expect to be the new Offaly manager after the County Board decided a change was necessary. “Possibly not. Three months ago, we were all very disappointed with the way it ended up but I am in the position now, delighted to be there and really looking forward to it.”

Was there reluctance to let your name go forward because of your time with Michael?

“I worked with Michael and he really brought a lot of professionalism to the Offaly set up and did a lot of excellent work. It was difficult in the initial stages to get my head around it but I spoke with Michael Fennelly and he had no issue with that going forward. At that stage, I cleared the road to talk to Michael Duignan and the County Board to see what their plans were. Once it became aligned and clear, I was ready for it and to push on Offaly as much as I can.”

Would you have went for it if Michael was against it or felt he was being hung out to dry?

“I don't think that was the case that he was hung out to dry. I wasn't privvy to the conversation that went on at that stage. It seemed this was a completely different set up they were looking for and obviously when they approached me, it was a few weeks after Michael had stepped down. My conscious was clear moving forward that I had the backing of Michael and the previous management group.”

In many ways, it has worked out well for Offaly and Kelly. There is continuity there and the manager is fully familiar with the players and emerging talent in the county.

“There is continuity and I know the players. I had spent time here in the club scene back in Coolderry. Recent experience of being involved is an advantage and it should help me going forward. Not only with Offaly but also the teams they play. It is a real advantage that I am not just going into the Joe McDonagh Cup knowing the Offaly players but I also have a handle on the Kerry players and the other teams. I have an understanding of the opposition as well and hopefully that will stand to me.”

He is keen to praise Michael Fennelly for his work over the last three years. “Overall there was progression and as I said, what a brilliant setup Michael put together. I know Michael will have a bright future in management. From an Offaly perspective, there was progression. It stagnated a bit through covid, injuries and whatever but overall, it was progression.”

Kelly agreed that last year was difficult as Division 1 of the National Hurling League proved too big a step up and they were relegated while the biggest disappointment was not making the Joe McDonagh Cup final after a defeat by Carlow.

“The area we really needed to push on in was the area we got to last year, Division 1. We went from three Walsh Cup games straight into Division 1 hurling and you had five games basically in five weeks. Maybe 9 games in 11 weeks and that was a steep learning curve and one we would hope to have learnt from and act accordingly this year. There was progression but more to do.”

He was asked about Offaly's form in the Joe McDonagh Cup and the claim that their demise against Carlow was not a surprise to anyone who saw them win a high scoring shootout in Tralee a week earlier.

“I suppose. Kerry are a quite good team and Offaly had played really well that day at different stages of the game. It was a really important win in a fixture that hadn't always gone well for Offaly over the previous few years. All in all we were in a good position coming out of Kerry. The fact that we played a week later, that final game against Carlow was disappointing and there is no other way to say it. We were all bitterly disappointed that it ended there and it was one of the reasons I accepted the challenge to come back to Offaly again. I felt there is more in this group. It certainly didn't show the potential of the players and the group as a whole, how far they could go. It was extremely disappointing and we hope to push on this year and go a step further.”

A former Galway minor and U-21 hurler, he got into injury trouble early on as three knee operations drew the curtain down on his career around the mid 2000s. With a hurling fire still burning in his belly, he quickly got involved with a phenomenally successful Portumna and this was the start of the next part of his hurling life. He has earned a reputation as an outstanding coach but states that he didn't have a burning ambition to be a manager. “It was never something I sought out or had any real designs on.”

He is, however, revelling in the challenge. “I have a good backroom team. There is a marked difference between a manager at inter-county level and a manager at club level. At club level, I would have been manager and coach. I would have been very hands on in that department. At inter-county level, I will be very hands on but there will be a good bit of delegation. I have a good strong backroom team built with guys I trust and know for years in different environments. These are people I trust to bring Offaly forward. Really professional guys. Yes I will have a hand on the hurling side but leave these guys to their jobs and make sure everything is done at 100%.”

He was asked about the different managerial style and set up he will bring from the last three years.

“I don't think there will be anything different. Even if Michael was here, we would use the experience of last year to better our pre-season training and whatever. Some of the things were taken out of our hands with injuries and the nature of the pre-season last year. It is very condensed around December-January. That was a lot of games last year for a team going from Christy Ring straight to Division 1. It was too many games initially. A lot of the injuries we had at the start of last year came from a really crammed, tight pre-season. We need to learn from that and act accordingly. That would be our initial thoughts. We will have a look around systems of play and see can we bring in extra guys into the fold and hopefully move on and have better performances basically.”

Kelly has put a strong looking managerial package in place. Coolderry's Barry Teehan is a selector and former Galway goalkeeper Colm Callinan is a coach and selector. Borris-Ileigh man Martin Maher is the head coach while another Borris-Ileigh man and former Tipperary hurler, Brendan Maher will be working with the squad on mental skills preparation. Galway man, Brian Roach is over strength and conditioning and other people will be enlisted to look after or help out with physiotherapy, strength and conditioning and nutrition.

They are all people he worked with before and he spoke about the importance of this. “The people I have around me are the people I know from before. The backroom team can be inflated if we wish but everybody there is going to be working really hard. There is no one on that backroom team who won't be substantially involved and working really hard through the weeks and months ahead. That is to be expected and they will deliver.

“It is vital really. In any set up you have to be able to work with people you trust and get on with. That you know can do the job. It is absolutely vital everyone on a backroom team is pulling in the one direction and that we are all in zync. These are the guys I trust and these are the people I want around. I am delighted they have all said yes.”

While there will be a lot of people in the Offaly senior hurling management and back up support staff, it is small compared to some counties. He was asked about the necessity of such big packages and the difference from years ago when a manager looked after almost everything and he could have just two older selectors leaning over a fence.

“At the highest level, it is necessary. It is all about professionalism and preparation of teams does take a lot of different areas to get right. When you sit down, I am very much of the opinion that less is more but there is no way out of this. You do need a serious backroom team when you are involved in an inter-county set up. It can be over inflated at times in different places but the run of the mill is you do need expertise in areas of physiotherapy and the medical side of things, strength and conditioning, hurling coaches. The whole mental side of the game is vitally important. We have seen how there has been massive advances in that. And sports science. It does inflate the team but everyone there has a role to play and they do add value. Yes, it has changed greatly over the years. Even at club level, that has moved on to where counties were five-six years ago. It has become a bit of an arms race and it has gone that direction but that is the nature of it and sport continuously evolves. We have to evolve with that.”

It was suggested that Offaly may need a more practical message about working hard and training hard at the moment than one top heavy with science and theory.

“The science and the fitness goes hand in hand. You can't have one without the other. It is important that the balance is struck. We will look to advance all areas, not just s and c. It is vitally important we act accordingly, learn from the last number of years and push Offaly forward. We can't stay still. We have to make gradual improvements. We need to get more resilient in all areas not just s and c. There is great work being done there but unfortunately injuries and the nature of jumping up to Division 1 was a steep learning curve.”

He was delighted to see Offaly minor hurlers play so well last year as they went so close to an All-Ireland title.

“It is vitally important that there is a good strong culture there and a good conveyor belt of players. That was an exceptional minor team last year but the trick for Offaly is to continue that and have consecutive good minor and U-20 teams as a consequence. There is probably a view out there that the senior job is probably a stop gap until these guys come through which is maybe the case but I don't see that as my role. My role is to work with the seniors and drive these guys forward so that when thse minors come through in two or three years time, that they have aspirations of playing in a Leinster championship.”

He agrees that Offaly will need a concerted run of producing competitive underage teanms if they are to get back to the top table, though he did wonder:

“That is a really talented group of players and they have all bright futures ahead of them. It takes more than one team to make a senior team but I have seen it before where there is a bunch of really committed seniors there and maybe it will be enough where you bring everything together. Offaly is a small county population wise and it would be better if there was an extended run of minor teams in Offaly competing at the top level which feeds up the line and makes everything more competitive.”

At the moment, however, Kelly's only focus is on forming a panel and getting ready for training in the coming weeks. He has been meeting many players individually, making sure that they are working on their fitness or doing what is needed to recover from injuries. Oisin Kelly is on the road back from a cruciate, though he received a set back for Belmont in their senior hurling semi-final defeat by Shinrone. However, he expects to have him back playing next year and veteran forward Shane Dooley is also committed to giving it another year.

New players will be drafted in and older ones could be asked back. He has noted the performances by Shinrone and Kilcormac-Killoughey players and some of them could be back. Shinrone full forward Ciaran Cleary had a huge influence on their triumph but he needs to ascertain his travel plans.

Kelly has been given a three year term but is not looking beyond this year. “Our short term goals are to imrpove and learn from last year. We want to look at winning Division 2A and winning the Joe McDonagh Cup.”