O'Connor ends seven year reign with Offaly underage hurling teams

AN era in Offaly GAA has come to an end with the decision of Limerick man Leo O'Connor to step down as the county u20 hurling boss, ending seven years of management with underage teams in the county.

O'Connor has brought tremendous success to Offaly, guiding them to the All-Ireland U20 Hurling Championship in 2024. He was the manager when Offaly suffered a devastating late defeat to Tipperary in the 2022 All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship and his promotion to U20 manager the following year represented a natural progression.

Offaly were beaten by Cork in the 2023 All-Ireland U20 hurling final and O'Connor has played a pivotal role in the progression of an outstanding generation of young hurler in the county.

A member of the Claughaun club, he was a sub on the Limerick team that lost to Offaly in the 1994 All-Ireland senior final and managed his native county to a Munster U21 hurling title in 2011. He was brought into Offaly in 2019 to work with young underage hurlers and soon became minor manager.

Offaly were beaten by Kilkenny in the 2021 Leinster minor hurling final and a year later they won the title. The U21 hurlers created a wave of hysteria as they captured the imagination of the Offaly GAA public in 2023 and 2024, with thousands attending their games.

They finally fulfilled their potential in 2024, capturing a championship that had been a notable absentee from Offaly's roll of honour.

Several of that team were still underage in 2025 but with medals in their back pockets, Offaly didn't get going and were eliminated by Dublin. It had been expected that O'Connor would step down after that but he served one more year in 2026, when a much more limited team reached the Leinster quarter-finals but were resoundingly beaten by Kilkenny. His decision to opt out now was widely expected.

O'Connor is likely to have ambitions of managing the Offaly senior hurling team and would be on the short list of contenders whenever Johnny Kelly's term ends. Kelly has not made his intentions known yet for 2027, however, the decision will be his to make after Offaly took an important step forward when drawing with Dublin and Kilkenny and beating Wexford in the Leinster championship to finish third and qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Cork handed them a bad beating in the All-Ireland quarter-final but the Offaly County Board will almost certainly reappoint Kelly if he seeks another year. The Portumna man has a lot of mileage on the clock in Offaly, having come in as a coach with Michael Fennelly in 2020 and then taken over as manager in 2023.

It is a gruelling job and it remains to be seen if Kelly has the appetite to go again – if he does opt out, it is far from certain that O'Connor will get the job.

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All of that, however, will only become a source of speculation if Offaly are seeking new manager and Leo O'Connor steps away at the moment having made a huge contribution to a county, and striking up a real bond with it.

It means that Offaly are now in the hunt for U20 hurling and senior football managers, where Mickey Harte and Declan Kelly ended their reign last week. There is the possibility of another change in minor hurling where Coolderry man Brian Carroll has served two years while minor football manager Adrian Farrell (Edenderry) and U20 football manager Roger Ryan (Shannonbridge) are odds on to be back for 2027.