Offaly camogie manager hoping to finish the job in Croke Park

OFFALY manager David Sullivan is no stranger to Croke Park on All-Ireland final day and he and his management team are hoping that they can use that experience to help the Offaly players in Sunday's All-Ireland Intermediate camogie final against Kerry.

The Lorrha man guided the Tipperary Juniors to the final two years ago, when they were narrowly beaten by Clare, and on a personal level, he also wants to avenge that defeat.

A couple of months after that final David and his management team took over the Offaly team. Offaly had just been relegated from the senior ranks after 13 seasons and were back in the intermediate ranks for the first time since 2010 when they won the title.

Offaly's first season at intermediate level ended in All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Cork who went on and won the final afterwards and David described watching that game as “torture” as he felt Offaly should have been there.

They put that disappoointment behind them this year and won Division 2A of the league earlier in the season and now are looking forward to an All-Ireland final meeting with Kerry.

“It's something we've worked very hard for since November 2023 when we first came in. We drew a line in the sand and moved on from those bad years we had at senior the couple of years previous, and we really attacked last year's championship and I really thought on the day we should have got over Cork and probably got through to an All-Ireland Final last year but I suppose that hurts, it's what drove us this year, it keeps everyone focused, everyone sharp and everyone coming back for another year.

READ NEXT: Soaring Star Grace Teehan hoping Offaly rise to the top again

“I'm really looking forward to it now. It's a massive occasion and it's the first time in 15 years and I think it is something this group of players should really be lauded for, the work they've put in since we met on November 10^th last has really been incredible. The league was a bonus but this has always been our focus and just looking forward to Croke Park now, getting out on that field and getting stuck in and hopefully bringing that Jack McGrath Cup back to Offaly,” the manager said.

“The All-Ireland final day last year was torture because you knew at the back of your mind that you should have been there realistically and it was torture looking at Cork and Kilkenny really. We referenced it in the Antrim game before we went out of the dressing room that we weren't going to have any regrets this year, we had too many last year and that dressing room in Thurles was very disappointed but it was all regrets and we just swore to each other than the last day in Newbridge we would have no regrets. We played like that too. We played like a team that was willing to fight for what was required to get over the line and get to this All-Ireland Final and now we are here and we're ready to go and just counting down the days until we go to Croke Park

“I can't praise the girls enough. Their mindset and their belief that they have shown this year and the want is just incredible and Offaly camogie now has a team that is people can follow and supporters can get behind. They work extremely hard and their application and accountability is second to none and it is a while since the county had that and they have it now with this group of players and long may that continue.”

Playing in Croke Park is going to be a new experience but David said Offaly are used to playing in big grounds. “Croke Park is different. We were there as a management in 2023 with Tipperary juniors and we have experience of it and we are trying to navigate the girls over the last few weeks of what to expect and the day itself. It probably helps that we have been there before but you can look at it both ways. The Kerry girls have probably been there two or three times with winning club All-Irelands with Clanmaurice and winning a National League with Kerry. That's irrelevant on the day, it's all what happens on August 10^th. We've been lucky enough to get in here to O'Connor Park on a regular basis, which is fantastic for Offaly camogie and we've been in Semple Stadium, the Athletic Grounds in Armagh, Chadwick's Wexford Park, and Newbridge this year, we've been in a lot of big stadiums and that big stadium experience is there. We've played in a lot of big grounds in the last two years, so that won't faze us on the day. It is just settling the nerves now and getting the heads right because we have all the work done, we have the hurling and the fitness and they are hurling really well and they are full of confidence but it is just trying to keep the trains on the track for the next few days and just making sure everyone is focused and ready to go.”

READ NEXT: Hurt from last year's semi-final defeat is driving Offaly on this year

Overall 2025 has been a good year for Offaly but the manager said there were diappointments as well. “The biggest disappointment of the year was the middle of the year. We played against Wexford in the Leinster senior championship and got to within four points of them but we never really showed up which was disappointing for the group as we really had targetted maybe making a Leinster senior final and we kind of felt that we might be able to go and have a real cut at Wexford but it never really materialised. Then we went up to Antrim a couple of weeks after and we were out of the game for 45 minutes but then we had a brilliant spell for 10-15 minutes that got us back level but we ended up losing by two so there was a rocky patch in the middle of the season where we had to question ourselves and each other. But from the Meath game in Trim, we put in a great performance that day and since then we have never looked back. Our performances have been getting better and better,” David said.

“The league was something we really went after. We spoke at the start of the year that we hadn't won a league since 2004 and we hadn't won an All-Ireland since 2010, so we attacked every competition with the intent to try and win it. The Leinster championship didn't work out but the league obviously did in fantastic fashion against Derry and we're 50% there in terms of a chance of winning an All-Ireland and at this moment that's all I can ask of the girls is to be there and have that chance,” he added.

The manner of their semi-final win over Antrim pleased him. “I've been harping on to the girls all year about unity and togetherness and it's very difficult when you get so many girls from different clubs in and they want to kill each other for half a year trying to win a county championship and trying to bring that unity and togetherness and I have spoken to them all year about how important it is to have that and I think that shone through in the last few minutes against Antrim when we were under the cosh. If we weren't together as a group and as a unit I don't think we would have got over the line and Antrim probably would have found a way to level it and maybe won in extra time. But I was very impressed with the togetherness of the group in the last couple of minutes when the pressure was on. They remained calm and they chased in packs and they fought for what they wanted and they wanted to be in this All-Ireland final and to be in Croke Park. We thought earlier this year we might get a chance of that with the league but for the first time in a few years the finals were moved out of Croke Park when we got to it, but it refocused the mind and that opportunity was gone but there is still another one coming in a couple of months time and that was all in our heads the last day as well. It's every person's dream to get to Croke Park and run out on All-Ireland Final day for your county. That disappointment of last year refocused the mind and whatever happened the last day, I don't think we were going to lose and I think in the back of our mind we were always going to find a way to get over the line.”

David and his management team came in at a time when camogie at low ebb in the county. “The biggest thing really was that we were fresh voices coming in. We're all from Tipperary bar one or two, so we were new to this group of girls and I'll never forget the first night we met them in Banagher in November 2023 and I said we're going to win an All-Ireland final and I think some of them thought I was born in a different universe or planet. I don't think they believed it but slowly we drew a line in the sand and moved on from everything that had happened previously. We asked for a buy in and we've got that. It's immense the amount of work done over the last two years.”

READ NEXT: Offaly GAA rearrange club fixtures to facilitate supporters attending All-Ireland camogie final

For a young man David has a lengthy CV of clubs he has been involved with. “I was with Scarriff Ogonolloe before I went to Tipperary and we won the Munster Senior Club and I was with Davitts in Galway for four or five years and we got to a Galway senior final. I have been with Silvermines in Tipperary. I started in 2007 and I'm still only 38. I love it and especially when you have a group of players that is giving back what you are giving to them, it makes it all worthwhile. I'm living in Portumna and driving from Portumna down to Tullamore is lovely when you know that there are 30 players here willing to sweat blood sweat and tears so it makes the journey really easy.

“Jack and Barney and JP, David Broderick and Ronan, we would all have been in Tipperary together and worked together a long time. We would have hurled together and Jack, my main coach, and myself are the same age and to have that relationship to someone so close, your right hand man, is really important because you have to trust him as well. We don't always see eye to eye on everything but it's great to know that the person standing to the right of you is a person that you trust and know. We played for Lorrha together and would have played for St Rynagh's Community College in Banagher, Paddy Scales would have been my principtal down there, and we won an All-Ireland in 2005.'

David was involved with Tipperary Juniors for just the one year. “They were a quite similar group to Offaly. They didn't get out of the group the year before and were probably looking to fold, then we came along and it's amazing when you get stuck into something and you start to show a bit of belief in players what can happen and that happened in 2023 and we were a bit unlucky not to get over the line, we lost to Clare.

“It's great to get another chance. I get into the car every day looking for another chance to go back there and avenge that in my own head because that place is brilliant and it is the stuff of dreams for everyone but when you are standing in the middle of the field and you are looking up at an opposition team walking up the steps of the Hogan Stand, it's not a nice place to be. As a manager we are chasing the dream of getting back there and finishing this job in our own heads and we are trying to guide the girls through the process to make sure that they don't feel the pain we felt in 2023.”

The manager said he wouldn't be reading too much into Offaly's victory over Kerry in the league earlier in the year. “It was a bitterly cold day, first game of the year, lot of mistakes on both sides, they were missing a few and we were missing a few but I was very impressed with them against Down. Down came down from senior last year and Kerry looked very solid with a lot of good hurlers, Amy Sullivan, Jacqui Horgan, Patrice Diggin, Niamh Leen, Kate Lynch, a few of these girls, they are really talented players and they would make any team in this championship. They are there on merit and haven't lost a game in the championship all year. They avenged their semi-final loss last year as well. They were bitterly disappointed to lose in extra time to Kilkenny. Whoever manages the day best and gets stuck in the most will probably get over the line and hopefully that's us.”

The Lorrha man said there were a couple of changes to the panel this year. “We held on to 16 of last year's panel, some by choice and some by going travelling and stuff like that. We turned over a few players ourselves as you have to constantly move with the times and look at your panel every year. We have got some outstanding senior players back this year, like Mairead Teehan has made such a difference, Christine Cleary, and girls like that you can't beat their experience. Then we were blessed that Roisin Kinsella, Ciara Maher, Aoife Liffey and the younger girls, they all came into our squad and flooded it with youth. Then we brought up four minors after the minor championship and Kate Pilkington has really hit the ground running.

READ NEXT: Camogie star flying the Offaly flag proudly in the county's most infamous border hotland

“I was involved with the minors this year which gave me a better insight into the girls as a coach and it gave me a better idea of the four girls coming in and in fairness they have all played a part. Niamh Sheehy has been very impressive as well. The balance is lovely but the senior players really make it beneficial for the younger girls, they really make them at home. When you have players like Grace, Mairead, Sharon, Christine Cleary, Amy Byrne, if you are a young girl coming into that dressing room, they are young girls themselves but the amount of experience they have had playing for Offaly over the last couple of years, if you can sit beside one of them in a dressing room you will do alright.”

David said the four week gap from the semi-final gave Offaly a chance to prepare. “I think we would have been in a bit of trouble if we had to come down off the high of Antrim really quickly, get a press night in and get back up again, so it allowed the first week back to be nice and calm and relaxed and from the Sunday morning after then we took off in a big way and we've done our hard sessions in between so it is a case of tapering it back down now. The work is done and it is just ticking over now and keeping the girls fresh and hungry and just get on that bus and head up to Croke Park,” the manager said.