Competitive display the first target as Offaly hurlers make return to the big time

OFFALY will make a very welcome return to the big time next Sunday when they take on red hot favourites Cork in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship quarter-final.

A very big crowd of over 10,000 Offaly supporters will be making the journey to Thurles and that is no more than the squad and management deserve after a tremendously tough journey throughout this decade.

They will be travelling far more in hope than confidence and Offaly's victory chances are very much in the long shot category but that is almost immaterial at this stage of the team's development.

It has been an amazing decade for Offaly and at the turn of the 2020s, no one could have anticipated that they would now be playing a game of this magnitude.

Offaly's emergence as a hurling force in 1980 transformed the game at national level. They won All-Ireland senior hurling titles in 1981, 1985, 1994 and 1998 and were a breath of fresh air as they broke up the traditional old order of Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary – along with considerable assistance from Galway and, later, Clare.

Well beaten by Kilkenny in the 2000 All-Ireland final, Offaly's decline set in rapidly as the golden generation from the 1990s drifted over the hill. They stayed at a level for a while but their descent towards rock bottom gathered pace in the 2010s, hitting top speed in the second half of the decade.

Relegation from the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship had been coming and finally happened in 2018 but the instant drop out of the Joe McDonagh Cup into the Christy Ring Cup came as a huge shock to everyone in the county.

Failure to win the third tier Christy Ring Cup in 2020 was an even harder pill to swallow. With Covid restrictions in pace, there was only a handful of people in Newry to see Offaly beaten by Down on a penalty shootout and thankfully, that proved to be their rock bottom.

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The climb back up the ranks started when the Christy Ring Cup was won with real ease in 2021. There were tough lessons in the Joe McDonagh Cup for a few years. Offaly never got going in the in 2022, exiting in the group stages. As the county focussed on the emerging U20 hurlers, they improved in 2023, making the final but suffering an agonising one point defeat by Carlow. A year later, they were a fraction too strong for Laois in the final and returned to the top flight with a 2-23 to 0-26 win.

The Joe McDonagh Cup finalists went into All-Ireland senior hurling preliminary quarter-finals in those years and Offaly received a hard lesson from Tipperary in 2023, destroyed by 7-38 to 3-18. They were much better against Cork in 2024, losing by 4-25 to 3-19, albeit without ever looking like winning.

Kilkenny's Michael Fennelly was the manager in the Christy Ring Cup years with Portumna man Johnny Kelly a coach. After the 2022 season, Kelly became manager and has steered Offaly hurling very efficiently since then, with considerable help from a large, very capable back room team.

Offaly's achievements at underage hurling in those years changed the entire outlook. Since the end of the 2010s, people with their fingers on the pulse knew that a very talented group of young hurlers was progressing up through the development squad system and they reached the All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship final in 2022, enduring a heartbreaking defeat to a last gasp Tipperary goal.

They reached the All-Ireland U20 hurling final in 2023, Cork proving too strong and in 2024 they finally fulfilled their potential, getting revenge over Tipperary in a thrilling final in Kilkenny. Those teams inflamed the county with thousands of supporters travelling to the big games, creating a ticket crisis for some of them.

It did not take long for those players to be given their head at senior level and several will play in Sunday's quarter-final. From the 2024 All-Ireland champions, Liam Hoare, Ter Guinan, Colin Spain, Cathal King, Shane Rigney, Conor Doyle, Dan Bourke, Adam Screeney and James Mahon all featured in Offaly's last championship win over Kildare. Ruari Kelly, Brecon Kavanagh, Donal Shirley and Dan Ravenhill have all seen action this year but have been hit by injuries – Ravenhill will be in contention for a place on Sunday.

Shirley had nailed down a place in defence when his season was ended by an unfortunate cruciate injury at a training weekend in Waterford while Charlie Mitchell's season came to an end when he had to have a heart procedure following Offaly's draw with Kilkenny.

Mitchell had missed most of the season after an earlier heart issue but had come back very well and his absence will be one of the great motivating factors for the team on Sunday.

Offaly would not be where they are now without those young 2023-2024 U20 hurlers – the county could do with a second good underage team developing to really become contenders again but that is a story for another day.

Equally, however, they could not be where they are without the older more experienced generation. Despite being only in his late 20s, Ben Conneely is the father figure of the team, long one of the best hurlers in Offaly and in the form of his life in the heart of the defence – if Offaly compete on Sunday, he could very well be in the All-Stars equation.

Offaly supporters also owe a debt of gratitude to a cohort in between the U20s and Ben Conneely. Killian Sampson and the Durrow trio of Ciaran Burke, Ross Ravenhill and Brian Duignan had to do serious work on their conditioning and physicality to get to where they are now but they did it and the younger hurlers just could not prosper without their influence.

Birr sharpshooter Eoghan Cahill also deserve a special mention. While remaining on the panel, it looked like the end game was in sight for his county career as he became an increasing peripheral figure. He got his chance when Adam Screeney was injured for the Kilkenny game and has took it spectacularly. He scored 0-15 that day, two from play, 1-12 with 0-4 from play in the season defining win over Wexford and 0-13, 0-4 from play, in the closing win over Kildare.

Screeney was back for the Wexford game but Cahill was left on frees and has really stepped up to the plate. Long one of the best finishers in Offaly, he has brought a new level of work rate to his hurling and that has transformed him.

With Mitchell so unfortunate to be out, Cahill's form is a bonus and Screeney remains a generational talent, the one man that Cork will be targeting on Sunday but now with the knowledge that they can't give Cahill space or he will punish them.

Many players have come to their milk over the course of the season, making significant improvements as it progressed.

As expected, Offaly did not survive in Division 1 of the National Hurling League, with six successive defeats against Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Galway, Limerick and Cork.

There were green shoots in every game apart from the last one against Cork who beat them by 6-26 to 0-20 in Pairc Ui Caoimh.

In 2025, Offaly's target in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship was simple: survival, and they managed that with a closing win at home to Antrim.

The bar was raised in 2026 with Dublin and Wexford the targets. Offaly drew with Dublin in their first game and had plenty of chances to win. Galway were too strong in Salthill but Offaly's season turned with an unexpected draw at home to Kilkenny. It was Offaly's first time to get a positive result against Kilkenny since their 1998 All-Ireland final win – Kilkenny may be in decline and subsequently failed to qualify but it gave a massive boost to everyone involved.

It would also have been in vain if they didn't take Wexford the next day. Ironically, it was one of Offaly's most nervous displays this season but they showed great character to finish powerfully and win by 2-21 to 2-15.

It left them needing to beat Kildare and Dublin to beat Kilkenny to qualify for an All-Ireland quarter-final. Offaly had no bother in Newbridge and with Dublin delivering in Parnell Park, they were back in the promised land.

They face a Cork team who are desperate for an All-Ireland. They haven't won one since 2005 and were in control at half time of last year's final but suffered an awful defeat against Tipperary. They had a great opportunity against Clare in the 2024 decider but lost by a point and there is massive pressure on their shoulders.

Limerick just got the better of them in the recent Munster final and Cork have a real spot light on them. Most hurling lovers should want to see Cork win an All-Ireland but some of the comments of manager Ben O'Connor means that neutral support is very thin on the ground for them.

Offaly will have that neutral support on Sunday but that won't make a blind bit of difference. It won't be any help to Offaly and it won't transfer to Cork if they do record their expected win.

Offaly have been on an incredible journey this decade and every step has been taken in the right order, at the right time.

Offaly will be dreaming of a shock and All-Ireland success but you can't make a rational case for this happening at the moment. In terms of physicality and athleticism, Cork are a glowing example of where Offaly have to get to.

The first target for Offaly is to be competitive, to hang into the game for as long as they can and see where that takes them. The squad won't be settling for this but most Offaly supporters would settle for a defeat in the region of ten points – and if it was down to single digits, that would be a sign of progress.

The possibility that it will go north of that is a real one and if that happens, so be it, Offaly can still be hugely proud of what they have done this season. Sunday's game will be a great occasion for Offaly people and there is genuine excitement in the county about being back on the big stage.

There is a long standing statement about a team's chances being “slim to none”. That phrase should not be used for Offaly, there is always some sort of a chance at this level and make no mistake about this: Offaly have a very good hurling team with quality throughout the field. There is no denying the reality, however, that their prospects are much closer to the slim than the good and Offaly are in bonus territory.

Cork will more than likely advance to the All-Ireland semi-finals but Offaly hurling is back in a good place, with the potential of more to come, and that will do nicely for the moment.