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Offaly won, which you’d scarcely believe. Even more than that, Offaly went up to Parnell Park, where Dublin normally horse us out of it and bossed them for the evening.
It’s a rare a day you’ll see Offaly make the bulk of the clean catches and win most of the rucks.
And the team that does this usually wins frees when the opponent has no legal means to stop them. And so it was. Dublin conceded a mountain of frees which Cathal Kiely happily banged over.

Possibly the only disappointment was that Offaly didn’t streak away in extra time when they surged 7 points ahead halfway through. Tiredness crept in but Offaly were overly cautious too perhaps. It would have a travesty if Dublin had won it when it was back level with extra time nearly up.

Imagine the pleasant surprise when the referee immediately blew for full time when John Murphy’s free went over. With normal time up he’d done everything bar throwing the sliotar himself to make sure Dublin got back on terms. Everyone expected more of the same.

Dublin’s best option was running at Offaly which they did to great effect at times and they burned Offaly players for pace at times. Offaly were forced into a lot of fouls to cut these runs off. On one occasion after about 15 minutes Offaly looked rattled when Dublin reeled off 5 points without replay. Offaly stuck to the task and spent the next 40 minutes gradually reeling Dublin back to parity.

Congratulations to players and management on a terrific win last night.

Congratulations to players and management! Was glued to Joe Troy on twitter...great excitement! Great to hear there was good support in attendance. Probably the biggest shock since we beat Kildare at U21 level a few years ago in Athy.

Great win. Give a the county somthing to be happy about. Be great to get a crowd vs wexford.

Well done to all great win. Will beat wex to and beauty is top 2 galway n kilkenny cuttin lumps out of each other on other side. Up Offaly

Next Wednesday night in OCP at 7:30pm. Lots of rest and recovery needed for those boys before then.

Brilliant, have won three games on the trot, well done to the team and management.

Hope Kiely is right for the next day? Some performance from him

I would go as far to say it was an heroic performance by the young men and they only went ahead for the first time in the 63rd minute. They really did die with their boots on and if they had of lost I think they’d get the same praise although nobody wants moral victories. There is a serious crop of players available to the management and I read somewhere today that 24 of them are underage again next year which is excellent for their progression. Also the incentive for Offaly to beat Wexford next week is a win will see them into an All Ireland semi final before they would take to the field for a Leinster final. Anyway that’s to much thinking ahead. All the best next week lads ye are a credit to yourself, families, club and county we’re all behind ye.

One thing i dont get is how different the team is now compared to the last 2 years that played minor 2017 and 2018, how were we not able to compete at minor but able to at U20. Was the wrong team/management there the last 2 years or have they done great work and prepared this group of players. I know getting the games against westmeath and Carlow would have helped build momentum but something has changed.I know people develop differently but still cant get it.

Offaly minor vs Laois 2017 that they lost 2-22 to 0-14

OFFALY: Ciaran Flynn (St Ryanagh’s); Luke O’Connor (St Ryanagh’s), Cathal O’Meara (Clara), Aidan King (Carrig and Riverstown); Ciaran Guinan (Drumcullen), Barry Keeley (Seir Kieran), Ryan Hogan (Carrig and Riverstown); Conor Langton (Clodiagh Gaels), Kevin McDermott (Durrow); Aaron Maher (Ballinamere), Oisin Hickey (St Ryanagh’s), David Nally (Belmont); Lochlann Kavanagh (Kilcormac-Killoughey), Aaron Kenny (St Ryanagh’s), Shane O’Toole (Shamrocks). Subs: Joey Keenaghan for O’Toole (26 mins), Hogan (35 mins)

Offaly team picked to play Kildare
1 Ciaran Flynn St Rynaghs
2 Luke O’ Connor St Rynaghs
3 Cathal O’ Meara Clara
4 Aidan King Carrig & Riverstown
5 Ciaran Guinan Drumcullen
6 Barry Keeley Seir Kieran
7 Padraig Cantwell Shamrocks
8 David Nally Belmont
9 Conor Quinn Kilcormac/Killoughey
10 Mark O’Brien Carrig & Riverstown
11 Oisín Hickey St Rynaghs
12 Conor Langton Clodiagh Gaels
13 LochlannKavanagh Kilcormac/Killoughey
14 Joey Keenaghan Clodiagh Gaels
15 Aaron Kenny Capt St Rynaghs

Offaly Minor Hurling Team Announced
Offaly’s Minor Hurling Management Eunan Martin, Eamon Hoctor, Liam Bergin, Hughie Hannon and Gareth Doorley have named their panel to take on Kilkenny in Semi Final of the Electric Ireland Minor Hurling Championship on Saturday 23rd June at 1pm in Bord na Mona O’Connor Park

1 Stephen Loughnane (Shinrone)
2 Aaron Brazil (Shannonbridge)
3 Aaron Flanagan (Clodiagh Gaels)
4 Shane Mulrooney (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
5 Bill Egan (Shannonbridge)
6 Dara Maher (Shinrone)
7 Luke Egan (Tullamore)
8 Evan Houlihan (St Rynagh’s)
9 Luke Nolan (Birr)
10 Cathal Kiely (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
11 Cillian Sampson (Shinrone)
12 Cathal Donoghue (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
13 Ciaran Teehan (Coolderry)
14 DJ McLoughlin (Shinrone)
15 Andrew Walsh (Ballinamere)

Comparing this to the team that played Dublin
Offaly
1. Eamonn Cleary (Shinrone)
6. Conor Butler (Belmont)
2. Dara Maher (Shinrone)
5. Ciaran Burke (Durrow)
4. Ryan Hogan (Carrig & Riverstown)
3. Ross Ravenhill (Durrow)
7. Killian Sampson (Shinrone)
15. Joey Keeneghan (Clodiagh Gaels)
9. David Nally (Ferbane – captain)
13. Brian Duignan (Durrow)
11. Barry Kealey (Seir Kieran)
8. Cathal Kiely (Kilcormac-Killoughey)
10. John Murphy (Ballinamere)
14. Cillian Ryan (Shinrone)
12. Conor Langton (Clodiagh Gaels)

Subs
19. Conor Quinn (Kilcormac/Kiloughey) for Kealey (51)
11. Kealey for Ryan (53)
20. Lochlann Kavanagh (Kilcormac/Kiloughey) for Nally (74)
17. Sean Beatty (Clodiagh Gaels) for Sampson (78, inj)
21. Cathal Brady (Clodiagh Gaels) for Duignan (79)
14. Ryan for Kiely (82)

Players development can happen at different stages. It's never one thing but a combination of issues.

Killeighman wrote:I would go as far to say it was an heroic performance by the young men and they only went ahead for the first time in the 63rd minute. They really did die with their boots on and if they had of lost I think they’d get the same praise although nobody wants moral victories. There is a serious crop of players available to the management and I read somewhere today that 24 of them are underage again next year which is excellent for their progression. Also the incentive for Offaly to beat Wexford next week is a win will see them into an All Ireland semi final before they would take to the field for a Leinster final. Anyway that’s to much thinking ahead. All the best next week lads ye are a credit to yourself, families, club and county we’re all behind ye.

Hopefully the wexford under 20s are caught up in the celebrations down there! It would be a fantastic achievement for us to reach an All Ireland semi final. Does anyone know how this would affect club championships as All Ireland Semis are scheduled for August 4th?

chimbonda wrote:

Killeighman wrote:I would go as far to say it was an heroic performance by the young men and they only went ahead for the first time in the 63rd minute. They really did die with their boots on and if they had of lost I think they’d get the same praise although nobody wants moral victories. There is a serious crop of players available to the management and I read somewhere today that 24 of them are underage again next year which is excellent for their progression. Also the incentive for Offaly to beat Wexford next week is a win will see them into an All Ireland semi final before they would take to the field for a Leinster final. Anyway that’s to much thinking ahead. All the best next week lads ye are a credit to yourself, families, club and county we’re all behind ye.

Hopefully the wexford under 20s are caught up in the celebrations down there! It would be a fantastic achievement for us to reach an All Ireland semi final. Does anyone know how this would affect club championships as All Ireland Semis are scheduled for August 4th?

Wexford will bring a big crowd on Wednesday night. They will be motivated to add another win to add to their minor and senior Leinster titles won yesterday. Offaly need to give their best, looking forward to the game. Talk of All Irelands is a bit premature at present.

I think we need to back the great result v Dublin with one more win otherwise it will be forgotten about it and not much benefit too us.
Hopefully we can.

greenairfield wrote:I think we need to back the great result v Dublin with one more win otherwise it will be forgotten about it and not much benefit too us.
Hopefully we can.

Agreed. Really need to build on that win. Wexford will be on a high and need deflating. Like any Wexford team lads here will have hurled against at club or county level, they will bring a lot of fire and aggression from the dressing room from the off. Hope our men are ready to handle that but be strong yet composed and eventually let their obvious hurling ability shine.

Best of luck to all involved.

greenairfield wrote:I think we need to back the great result v Dublin with one more win otherwise it will be forgotten about it and not much benefit too us.
Hopefully we can.

Really agree with this sentiment.

Following Offaly since 2000 has increased the inherent pessimism within me and I would be quite concerned that this game has the bang of the Limerick game in Round 2 of the NHL last year off it. We're going in on a massive high after a great win over the Dubs and a great crowd will be in OCP full of expectation just looking for something, anything to get behind.

Please God let the performance and outcome be different. A Leinster Final appearance would be some shot in the arm for the county particularly when you analyse the route it took to get there.

Uibh Fhaili Abu!