Why Offaly are football's big backdoor flops
ON the night of the Leinster final, former Meath footballer Bernard Flynn was pleading with the Offaly players on the Sunday Game to be sensible and avoid the temptation to "have a sup".
But by the following evening the party was in full swing. Preparations for their next match got underway with a swift border incursion across into enemy territory.
The draws for the fourth round of championship qualifiers were already known when the first cars pulled into the square in Portarlington and the Offaly players filed into Pádraig Dunne's bar and restaurant.
What better way to put their Leinster final defeat to Dublin behind them than to go to an establishment owned by a former Offaly midfielder for a spot of lunch on the Monday afternoon.
Any passing Laois supporter would have taken delight at the sight of Offaly players and their entourage revelling in the forecourt of Dunne's premises on the warmest evening of the year, as if their season was done and dusted.
With the scalps of Westmeath, Kildare and Wexford hanging from their belts and a sense of respectability from the day before, there may have been an element of contentment to savour.
A surge up football's order of merit has already been secured, taking Offaly back to a more rightful position, closer to the top 10 than they have been for some time.
But any sense of security Laois fans extracted from that sight would be misleading. The draw has taken care of that. For the first time in six years, an Offaly team is looking forward to a qualifier match with some relish.
When the balls rolled, the other three beaten provincial finalists would have been keen to avoid a Laois team that had already taken care of All-Ireland champions Tyrone and a resurgent Meath team.
Not Offaly. They needed neighbours to give them sustenance. Anyone else and the inevitable qualifier drift would have taken hold.
The memory of that Laois smash and grab raid in a Leinster quarter-final in June 2005 was still stinging when Ciaran McManus reflected on its impact earlier this year. No defeat has hurt them as much. Within days, three players had left the squad and Offaly football was careering towards one of its worst championship defeats in memory against Carlow.
McManus summed up the devastating impact of Ross Munnelly's game-breaking goal. "I think the manner of the defeat against Laois was a big physical and psychological rap for the team. It's very hard to get over that type of game, in that Offaly were certainly on top and beaten by a goal in injury-time.
"Footballers are not immune to disappointment and depression and frustration. When you get a hammer blow of that magnitude, it takes a bit more than a swim in a swimming pool or a talk with your girlfriend or father to get it out of the system."
Getting provincial championship defeats out of the system in time for qualifier games has proved a consistent problem for Offaly teams. Few counties have embraced the football qualifier system as badly.
In eight qualifier games since 2001 they have won just three, and one of them was a 4-15 to 0-10 rout of minnows London in 2002.
They have fallen on the swords of Louth (2001), Roscommon (2003), Wexford (2004) and Carlow (2005), reflecting a malaise and disinterest beyond the parameters of their own province.
Paul O'Kelly who managed the team in 2003 before being ruthlessly despatched, has his own theory on why Offaly consistently "bomb out" in the qualifiers and have only made it as far as the third round once.
"Offaly invest so much belief and almost spiritual attachment to the provincial championship that when defeat does come, it is totally devastating," he says.
"Every year an Offaly team will genuinely believe that they have a chance of winning a Leinster title. And that belief is summed up by the number of narrow defeats the team has suffered in provincial championship games.
"It was a goal in a replay against Laois in 2003 when I was there, a disputed point in 2004 against Westmeath, Ross Munnelly's goal last year and before that there were two-points defeats to Dublin and a replay defeat to Kildare. So all these defeats have had impact and the supreme effort invested cannot be replicated," figures O'Kelly.
Significantly, their only qualifier success has come at the expense of the only neighbouring county they have played in the series, Kildare in 2004.
This qualifier malaise is something the management has been attempting to address all season in the wake of last year's defeat to Carlow and now, with the right draw, they expect a response.
The team selection suggests a 'going for broke' attitude, with Ciaran McManus posted to centre-forward where his goal threat could well pin Tom Kelly down, and Colm Quinn re-introduced to potentially strengthen the half-forward line.
Colm Keys
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