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Mission accomplished. Well done to all involved.
Nobody should be surprised by how Antrim really put it up to Offaly. Their whole year was geared towards winning this match. Some of their other Leinster displays were rope-a-dope.
Likely the decision to choose a big ticket manager happened once they sussed they'd be meeting a stronger opposition in the 5th place play off this year.

Lets not crib about the flaws of today, once the prospect on Antrim getting close arose, Offaly responded exactly as needed. That's important too.

Today wasn’t pretty, but Offaly have achieved their primary target for the year. And league promotion is a bonus. So this has been a good year.

We probably underestimated the effect the tension of the occasion would do. That, the weather and the sending off. Hate 15 v 14, but O’Connor had to go for his impression of Peter Clohessy on Olivier Roumat all those years ago.

One thought – would Offaly have held out for the win two years ago? And if the answer is ‘no’, then today is a measure of the development of that team in that period.

And for those fearing withdrawal symptoms as Offaly exit the championship, there’s still an Offaly interest.

London – managed by Neil Rogers and coached by Eoin Kelly – are in the Christy Ring cup final against Derry next Saturday.

Fell over the line in the end, but it was never going to be any other way.
I had work colleagues from Clare, Kilkenny and Tipperary telling me ‘ah ye will win handy, 10 or 12 points’.
Offaly V Antrim does not work like that.
They completely nullified our spare man for large swathes of the game, which is a credit to them.
Once the rain came after half time, we didn’t score for 20 odd minutes.
I thought we were very slow on the line to make the changes, which has always seemed to be the case.

Does anyone know if there’s any chance of the fixtures changing next year, whereby Wexford wouldn’t be handed 2 points by Kilkenny the last day and we wouldn’t have a de facto relegation final?

For next year, we will have Adam Screeney, Ter Guinan and Eimhin Kelly back.
Brecon Kavanagh, Ruairi Kelly, Ben Miller, James Mahon and Eoin Burke will be a year older and more developed and ready to push on.
Hopefully Shane Rigney is also ready to step up, I believe he declined an offer to go in this year.
Adrian Cleary is also back in the country and one who would fancy a call-in, if he shows form throughout the club championship.

faithfulfanatic wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 8:11 am I thought we were very slow on the line to make the changes, which has always seemed to be the case.

Yes, and there seemed to be a lack of faith in the bench, and pity we didn't use the inconsequential games against Waterford and Wexford to give fringe players game time. However, Cahill still came up with the goods, so all's well that ends well I suppose.

faithfulfanatic wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 8:11 am Does anyone know if there’s any chance of the fixtures changing next year, whereby Wexford wouldn’t be handed 2 points by Kilkenny the last day and we wouldn’t have a de facto relegation final?

They should change, but may be reluctant to break the formula. On the last day they have:
- A de-facto Leinster semi-final between Dublin and Galway. Or, a Leinster runners up play off.
- A local derby. It's a massive deal for Wexford anyway. They set their watches by Kilkenny
- A relegation play off.

The Leinster championship gets a lot of negative comment and I'd say they don't want a final day, where the Leinster finalists and relegated team is already decided.

Bord na Mona man wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 9:29 am

faithfulfanatic wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 8:11 am Does anyone know if there’s any chance of the fixtures changing next year, whereby Wexford wouldn’t be handed 2 points by Kilkenny the last day and we wouldn’t have a de facto relegation final?

They should change, but may be reluctant to break the formula. On the last day they have:
- A de-facto Leinster semi-final between Dublin and Galway. Or, a Leinster runners up play off.
- A local derby. It's a massive deal for Wexford anyway. They set their watches by Kilkenny
- A relegation play off.

The Leinster championship gets a lot of negative comment and I'd say they don't want a final day, where the Leinster finalists and relegated team is already decided.

If it does remain the same, am I correct in saying we will have Dublin, Wexford and Kilkenny at home with a trip West and a sojourn to Portlaoise or Newbridge?

I won't lie, I found that very stressful yesterday. I take the point that there were always going to be nerves involved, but watching as we went from a position of complete control after 45 minutes (six points up, a man up, a strong wind behind us) to having the contest in the lap of the Gods 20 minutes later with a point between the sides felt like that old adage of the slow motion car crash.

It was all the more painful because it's all very well to say that players will naturally be nervous and drop deeper out of a sense of trying to prevent disaster, but that's when it's on the management to try and change the game, either through a change in tactic, a change in personnel, just any kind of signal that we need to do things a bit differently here. Sure, you'd love to see a player take the game by the scruff of the neck and we had a couple of individuals who put their hand up, mainly Shirley and Mitchell (how good was that point from the sideline to end the drought?)

Why I find it particularly unforgivable is that we all watched the same movie script play out 12 months ago in the Joe Mac final. We had the game more or less won against Laois, and then point by point, we were reeled in, largely because there were a couple of forwards who were just having no impact on the game. It's left to the last few minutes before management finally looks to the bench and as soon as they do, it makes all the difference.

Mitchell's late point in each of the two games was similar, Killian Sampson comes up with a big score in both games, and in both matches a sub who is brought on too late shows why changes were needed earlier. It was Jack Clancy against Laois who got involved and scored a vital point, it was Eoghan Cahill yesterday with that wonderful pass for the late goal.

For what it's worth, I take the point that our panel is not that deep. Offaly will never have a huge pick like Cork, Galway or Tipp, and operating without players like Eimhin Kelly, Ter Guinan and Adam Screeney restricts the options even further. But even so, we got to the 67th minute having made one injury-enforced change, and that was in a game where Brian Duignan started with a well-taken goal but then wasn't playing well, and where neither Jason nor Killian Sampson seemed to be able to make the ball stick. It's not a slight on any of those three men to say that they've had better days for Offaly in the past, and it would have been worth trying something different. Maybe it would have made no difference - being honest, Clancy didn't really impact the game when he came on - but you have to try something when what you have isn't functioning as you need.

And yeah, we don't have massive depth, but neither do Laois, who on Saturday in Carlow made their fourth sub earlier than we made our second one. James Duggan, the fourth sub, scored 1-1, including the injury time goal that sent them to the Joe Mac final.

Also, part of the reason why it feels like our bench is light is because we're not used to seeing these lads, they haven't had a chance to get up to speed this year. Out of the 10 outfield players on the pine (plastic!) yesterday, I would consider three of them to be out-and-out backs (Mahon, Cantwell, Miller) and one more would either be a half-back or a defensive midfielder (David King), who certainly could be used in plenty of situations, but I don't think he'd be your first option for a game where we were sitting too deep and playing with fear.

That leaves six - Eoghan Cahill, Brecon Kavanagh, Eoin Burke, Jack Clancy, DJ McLoughlin and David Nally. Out of those six players, just one (Nally) started a game in 2025. Three of them have never started a competitive senior game for Offaly, and without going back and adding up all the minutes, I'd say at least four had less than an hour on the field IN TOTAL all year long.

And whatever about the recent debate about whether or not to go all out and win against Wexford, there were plenty of times during the year when there was a clear and obvious chance to give lads a bit more of a chance to cut their teeth, or play their way into form. Our first sub against Antrim (not including Sam Bourke replacing an injured Pádraig Cantwell midway through the first half) was with an hour played, long after the match was won. Against Waterford in Walsh Park, out of that six above, David Nally started, Eoghan Cahill came on after 62 minutes, Eoin Burke came on in the second minute of added time. There were plenty of other games where the result was either known before the final whistle or else not all-important, and still the same core group was left on the field, more or less in its entirety.


There was other tactical stuff too. I applaud the fact that we didn't fall into the trap of firing over a rake of potshots from distance all year long, and that our first option was always to try and create space in the forward line and to give chances to Duignan, Mitchell, Ravenhill etc., who are our best scorers. But you need some element of mix and match. Antrim kept a sweeper for most of that game yesterday, which meant we had two men over in our half. That alignment should have created more chances to work the ball out and use the wind to get clean shots from the midfield area.

Now okay, your conversion rate goes down when shooting from out that far, but you only need to hit one or two and then it forces Antrim to honour that threat, and to push out. And if Charlie Mitchell was left one-on-one with any defender yesterday, including Paddy Burke who I think is a top class player, he was beating them. He was in sensational form, best game he's had all year by a distance. Instead Antrim could sweep in front of him, knowing that we would send the ball that way anyway, and that points from range were not in our arsenal.

It's like American football, where even if you're much stronger at running the ball versus passing, or vice versa, you still need balance, or else you're too easy to defend. I was trying to think back and I don't recall one shot from distance at any stage in that long 20-minute scoring drought.


Now it's Monday, it's done, we've escaped. That's good news, but that shouldn't be used as justification for not having a long, deep and hard examination of what we can do better for 2026.

There'll be little or no crossover with U-20 next year, and a young group will be a year stronger and fitter. We've the ideal run of fixtures with three home games and a road trip to either Portlaoise or Newbridge that will still be a very winnable game, and if Galway decide that our game won't be a big draw and they play it in Athenry instead of Salthill, it'll possibly be the best fixture list we could hope for, with no long road trips at all, barring the potential for Newbridge traffic on a Saturday. The league will be a serious learning curve and that should stand to us, while Lee Chin can't go on forever doing what he's doing. When he reverts to just being a very good forward instead of his current Hurler of the Year form, it'll be like Galway with and without Joe Canning, it'll take a long time for the rest of the forward line to develop after spending so long in his shadow.

It's all set up perfectly for us to go well, but we have to look after our own business too, which means properly reviewing everything that happened this year and making sure that we're not just saying to ourselves that we got promotion in the league, we survived in Leinster, therefore everything is going the right way.

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 2:16 pm I won't lie, I found that very stressful yesterday. I take the point that there were always going to be nerves involved, but watching as we went from a position of complete control after 45 minutes (six points up, a man up, a strong wind behind us) to having the contest in the lap of the Gods 20 minutes later with a point between the sides felt like that old adage of the slow motion car crash.

It was all the more painful because it's all very well to day that players will naturally be nervous and drop deeper out of a sense of trying to prevent disaster, but that's when it's on the management to try and change the game, either through a change in tactic, a change in personnel, just any kind of signal that we need to do things a bit differently here. Sure, you'd love to see a player take the game by the scruff of the neck and we had a couple of individuals who put their hand up, mainly Shirley and Mitchell (how good was that point from the sideline to end the drought?)

Why I find it particularly unforgivable is that we all watched the same movie 12 months ago in the Joe Mac final. We had the game more or less won against Laois, and then point by point, we were reeled in, largely because there were a couple of forwards who were just having no impact on the game. It's left to the last few minutes before management finally looks to the bench and as soon as they do, it makes all the difference. Mitchell's point in the two games was similar, Killian Sampson comes up with a big score in both games, and a sub who is brought on too late shows why changes were needed earlier. It was Jack Clancy against Laois who got involved and scored a vital point, it was Eoghan Cahill yesterday with that wonderful pass for the late goal.

For what it's worth, I take the point that our panel is not that deep. Offaly will never have a huge pick like Cork, Galway or Tipp, and operating without players like Eimhin Kelly, Ter Guinan and Adam Screeney restricts the options even further. But even so, we got to the 67th minute having made one injury-enforced change, and that was in a game where Brian Duignan started with a well-taken goal but then wasn't playing well, and where neither Jason nor Killian Sampson seemed to be able to make the ball stick. It's not a slight on any of those three men to say that they've had better days for Offaly in the past, and it would have been worth trying something different.

And yeah, we don't have massive depth, but neither do Laois, who on Saturday in Carlow made their fourth sub earlier than we made our second one. That fourth sub scored 1-1, including the injury time goal that sent them to the Joe Mac final.

Also, part of the reason why it feels like our bench is light is because we're not used to seeing these lads, they haven't had a chance to get up to speed this year. Out of the 10 outfield players on the pine (plastic!) yesterday, I would consider three of them to be out-and-out defenders (Mahon, Cantwell, Miller) and one more would either be a half-back or a defensive midfielder (David King), who certainly could be used in plenty of situations, but I don't think he'd be your first option for a game where we were sitting too deep and playing with fear.

That leaves six - Eoghan Cahill, Brecon Kavanagh, Eoin Burke, Jack Clancy, DJ McLoughlin and David Nally. Out of those six players, just one (Nally) started a game in 2025. Three of them have never started a competitive senior game for Offaly, and without going back and adding up all the minutes, I'd say at least four had less than an hour on the field IN TOTAL all year long.

And whatever about the recent debate about whether or not to go all out and win against Wexford, there were plenty of times during the year when there was a clear and obvious chance to give lads a bit more of a chance to cut their teeth, or play their way into form. Our first sub against Antrim (not including Sam Bourke replacing an injured Pádraig Cantwell midway through the first half) was with an hour played, long after the match was won. Against Waterford in Walsh Park, out of that six above, David Nally started, Eoghan Cahill came on after 62 minutes, Eoin Burke came on in the second minute of added time. There were plenty of other games where the result was either known before the final whistle or else not all-important, and still the same core group was left on the field, more or less in its entirety.


There was other tactical stuff too. I applaud the fact that we didn't fall into the trap of firing over a rake of potshots from distance all year long, and that our first option was always to try and create space in the forward line and to give chances to Duignan, Mitchell, Ravenhill etc. But you need some element of mix and match. Antrim kept a sweeper for most of that game yesterday, which meant we had two men over in our half. That should have created more chances to work the ball out and use the wind to get clean shots from the midfield area. Now okay, your conversion rate goes down when shooting from out that far, but you only need to hit one or two and then it forces Antrim to honour that threat, and to push out. And if Charlie Mitchell was left one on one with any defender yesterday, including Paddy Burke who I think is a top class player, he was beating them, he was in sensational form, best game all year by a distance. Instead Antrim could sweep in front of him, knowing that we would send the ball that way anyway.

It's like American football, where even if you're much stronger at running the ball versus passing, or vice versa, you still need balance, or else you're too easy to defend. I was trying to think back and I don't recall one shot from distance at any stage in that long 20-minute scoring drought.


Look, it's done, we've escaped, there'll be little or no crossover with U-20 next year, and a young group will be a year stronger and fitter. We've the ideal run of fixtures with three home games and a road trip to either Portlaoise or Newbridge that will still be a very winnable game, and if Galway decide that our game won't be a big draw and they play it in Athenry instead of Salthill, it'll possibly be the best we could hope for. The league will be a serious learning curve, and Lee Chin can't go on forever doing what he's doing.

It's all set up perfectly, but we have to look after our own business too, which means properly reviewing everything that happened this year and making sure that we're not just saying to ourselves that we got promotion in the league, we survived in Leinster, therefore everything is going the right way.

Very good summation. I'd agree completely. I thought yesterdays performance was poor with food for thought.

I don't think it's any harm to write off yesterday's game, first year up, pressure on, relegation play off and from what I understand a number of players were sick in the week leading up to the game.. the result was all that counted.. I'd be looking at more of what we did against wexford and dublin and accepting that we are working towards Galway and kilkenny more long term which is a big ask. This match mentioned with similarities to Laois last year, the main and only important similarity in these matches are that they were very high pressure for a talented offaly team and we won them both, probably not something we would have done or in fact hadn't done in a good number of years and having come from the third tier not so long ago playing a team thats had an opportunity to establish itself but didn't but still clung on for a few years, we're the first team to come up and knock back for a while and when we played them in the league, there was a big difference.. Had there been no threat of relegation we'd have played with freedom and beaten Antrim with comfort, we're a better team and with continued good work will step on from those situations over the next couple of seasons.. also we won by 5 points, ok we got scores late on and all that but I don't think the game was every really at big risk, Antrim made the most of their purple patch which they happened to have at a decent stage of the game. Again I would say the fact that Antrim this year and Laois last year crept close at the finish we saw the game out and while we all want to improve, all I'm suggesting is we take the positive in that given where we've coming from and what we have coming through. The year has been a huge success, promotion in the league and don't think it's entirely accurate to say we "survived" , we were competitive against the tier 2 leinster teams as I call them and the appearance of "survival" was only the way the fixtures were set up which needs to change by the way!

Fingers crossed

faithfulfanatic wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 11:33 am If it does remain the same, am I correct in saying we will have Dublin, Wexford and Kilkenny at home with a trip West and a sojourn to Portlaoise or Newbridge?

Plain of the Herbs wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 6:20 pm Fingers crossed

faithfulfanatic wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 11:33 am If it does remain the same, am I correct in saying we will have Dublin, Wexford and Kilkenny at home with a trip West and a sojourn to Portlaoise or Newbridge?

I see plenty of dissenting voices on socials regarding the annual last round dead rubber between Kilkenny and Wexford.

I expect the rounds to change but not the venues.

We got over the line and despite Antrim playing a lot of the better hurling we left a lot of chances behind us.
Antrim let themselves down as Davey felt that they would bully us into submission. Some poor decisions by their players cost them dearly and they were lucky that they werent down to 13 by half time.
Shocking that with 6 pts up with all the advantages including little or no Antrim support, we fell over the line. Anyone who didnt think that the game wasnt in the melting pot when a point up with time nearly up is nuts.

We have no faith in the bench and that was clear and I was scratching my head wondering how lads who were so clearly underperforming were not replaced with fresh legs.
How come we hit ball after ball down on the Antrim sweeper. Fuck it, we had a sideline with 10 mins to go around 50 metres out under the stand maybe and we chipped it into 2 Antrim defenders to allow defence clear unopposed.
It was nervewracking stuff and back to the type of hurling that I would hope we had left behind.

Great to have stayed up and there are reasons to believe that we will progress from this but we definitely need some experienced older players to committ to the panel and hopefully add to the skills and entusiasm of the youth.
But it has been a decent year and at the end of the day the result was all that counted but there will be plenty of scratching of heads at the display. The amount of fumbling of the ball and hitting/passing the ball to ankles was shocking at times and we got the breaks to get over the line.
So enjoy the break, and please God we'll have a full squad to work with for much of '26.

we got the job done sunday but were very poor. which is better than playing well and losing! remember in the good times we struggled regularly to beat antrim or down in semi finals. we dont handle the mantle of favourites well what ever is in the psyche of offaly players. our team will be older wiser and hopefully stronger and injury free next february. and ready to walk up another few steps on the road... maybe one of our clubs could win a leinster and maybe an all ireland to keep us entertained up to christmas!!

well done to players and backroom team a brilliant year with getting up to division 1 and staying in the leinster championship which was the big one. with a bit of luck we could have got 3 wins and with the players a year older and a few to come in next year i think offaly will be well up the table next year. roll on 2026