Long way from Parnell to Croke these days.

[Lone Shark]

If you were to set out from Parnell Park and walk to Croke Park, assuming like most Offaly supporters you were reasonable well versed in the basic layout of Dublin 1 and Dublin 3, you might find it would take you a half an hour, or perhaps even forty five minutes on a warm summer day as you stroll gently along in the heat. Certainly it would take an individual with a considerable aversion to exercise to try and claim that it’s a long way.

Or alternatively, it is conceivable that a group of men, perhaps the most exercised men in the county, would say that it is a long way – those men being our county footballers. Certainly what we’ve seen from the Offaly footballers so far this summer has been a long way from what looked likely as they walked off the field after that humiliating defeat to Dublin in the league last March. Rumours abounded at the time about the team being in “heavy training”, however these rumours were duly scotched and dismissed as smokescreens. The truth was it was just an awful performance and at the time it was hard to conceive of a resurrection of fortunes.

Now fast forward on four months and how different the vista looks. Indeed in stark contrast our hurlers, where league promise appears to have ended in championship failure, for our footballers league despair has turned to championship joy.

However when looking at what we’ve achieved so far, it’s important to put it into context – in terms of performance, it’s not as if we have been playing any huge amount better than in previous years – we’ve just been winning. The truth is that Leinster is filled with teams like ourselves – teams that could on any given year be found in either division one or two and depending on which, would be among the favourites for relegation or promotion respectively. The same could be said of ourselves, Kildare, Meath, Westmeath and Wexford. In the last few years we’ve played well against many of those teams, only to find ourselves on the end of some ill fortune, despite arguably having had the better of the match in many cases. This year, we’ve taken on three of these sides, sides which could beat or be beaten by Offaly in any given year. All three victories have been merited, however none of the three by any stretch of the imagination could be interpreted as a comprehensive win. Margins of four, three and four points have been a fair reflection on games where we’ve had the better of things, but only by a fraction. Granted the standard of opposition has been stepped up with each subsequent test, though never yet by as much as the amount of improvement that will be required to take out the free flowing Dubs in a week and a bit.

This should be borne in mind before we develop a bandwagon of our own – best leave that kind of carry-on to our urban counterparts. The results so far have been hewn out of the talent that we always knew was there, but allied to a new found mental fortitude that hitherto had been all but eradicated from Offaly football. Collectively, the team has recovered from dubious red cards, early leads being wiped out and most of all sustained weaknesses in certain aspects of the game, and despite all this continued to play good effective football, with none of the long barren spells laced with wides that were once our unfortunate hallmark.

Individually too, the mental strength has been impressive. Most notably Ciarán McManus was the subject of a grossly unfair barrage of jibes from the Sunday Game analytical team early in the year, a harsh assessment that was clearly based on very occasional viewing of his recent form rather than consistent appraisal. Where once the Tubber talisman would have gone out with fire in his eyes for the next few games and looked to prove all and sundry wrong by doing the job of three men, he instead played like one very good one, getting through countless miles at midfield, winning hard ball and laying off good deliveries into the forwards rather than looking to take it all on himself, and he’s been doubly effective for that.

Our corner forwards too have found a steely edge – since the days of Claffey and Brady we’ve fielded a succession of young players in the corners, always talented but often prone to the classic corner forward’s dropped head. In the Kildare match in particular, we saw McNamee exquisitely finish a perfect penalty after three minutes of play acting from Kildare heightening the tension, while in the same game Thomas Deehan finished a superb goal towards the end, and this after he had been largely shut out of the game up to that point. Confidence unaffected, he took his chance when it came with all the swagger that one associates with the younger generation of Clara GAA!

Most notably, the tenacity of our back line has been very impressive – all the more so when one factors in the long list of absentees that they’ve had to deal with. The same absentees will find their places very hard to get back should they choose to return , as relatively raw players like Nigel Grennan and Paul McConway have been revelations, alongside the always impressive Karol Slattery. As a unit they’ve now conceded one goal – from a penalty – in three games, and as long as we continue along these lines, we’ll always have a chance in any game we play.

Are they suddenly going to win Leinster? Maybe, maybe not. Are they potential All Ireland winners? Almost certainly not. But are they good competitors doing us all proud with committed displays worthy of the county? That they most certainly are – so much so, I’ve almost forgotten about last March. Parnell Square was it? Park Lane Park? Darndale Park? Can’t quite remember …..

[The Biff]

[azoffaly]

Does this mean Kilmurray will be talking to the Independent again?

[Lone Shark]

Does this mean Kilmurray will be talking to the Independent again?

I'm sure he'll be only to talk to his adoring public once again. Who could frown in the face of such adulation?

[The Biff]

Do you really think the Dubs will be able to see their "media ban" through? The pressure on them from all the various hacks and contacts will surely be relentless; I cant see them holding out for two weeks, and especially not in the run up to the final itself.

This could well back-fire on them. I cannot see the press being happy to rely on more full-pagers on Ciaran Mc (there was another one in the Sunday Tribune yesterday) and profiles of our new Dynamic Duo in the corners. But its in Dublin that they will want to sell the papers and the bandwagoners dont want to read about "bogmen".

"She wont hold Captain, I dinna 'hink she ken tek annae moor"