Cork to bring curtain down on great year for Offaly hurling
BARRING a miracle, Cork will bring a sensational year to a close for Offaly hurling when they travel to Tullamore on Saturday for the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship preliminary quarter-final.
Shocks do happen and once in a blue moon, truly freak results occur but you certainly can't make any case for Offaly prolonging their season any longer.
Cork are red hot favourites and if they really go for it, they could win by a substantial margin but even if that happens, it will in no way detract from or diminish what has been a fantastic year for the county.
The hurlers have achieved their two big goals for the season, capturing the All-Ireland U-20 Hurling Championship and winning the Joe McDonagh Cup.
The All-Ireland U-20 win has set the county alive with excitement while the return to the Leinster championship and the top flight in senior hurling was every bit as important in its own way. They came through a titanic struggle against Laois in the final last Saturday, somehow finding the reserves late on to score the final three points in a 2-23 to 0-26 win.
Offaly will be very much putting their best foot forward on Saturday. They are very proud players and will be determined to give the very best account of themselves that they can.
It is unlikely that it will translate into a win. Last year, Offaly received a very bad beating from Tipperary in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final. That came a few days after a devastating loss to Carlow in the Joe McDonagh Cup final. This year is different in that Offaly have won and they should be in a much better frame of mind but they still have a short turnaround to come down from that high.
They enjoyed their Joe McDonagh Cup win and rightly so. They partied and celebrated in Tullamore on Saturday evening and in Shinrone on Sunday after a homecoming was held there. There was nothing wrong with them celebrating in this way. The Joe McDonagh was their holy grail, their big target and winning it represents a great transformation from losing a Christy Ring Cup semi-final back in 2020.
However, if they had serious aspirations of winning an All-Ireland, even a little bit of belief that they could oust Cork, their celebrations would have been tapered on Saturday evening and would certainly not have carried on into Sunday.
The luck of the draw has not been kind to Offaly. Last year, they faced the third placed team in Munster after losing the Joe McDonagh Cup final and this year, the reward for winning is a match against the third best in the same province.
Offaly would fancy their chances a lot more against Wexford, even if they would be very much underdogs.
Against Cork, it looks like the only point of debate is what their winning margin will be. The odds from the bookmakers reflect this. Offaly are 20-1, Cork 1-100 and the handicap is 17 points.
That is fair enough and if Cork really want to and start running in goals, they could exceed that 17 points.
The question is will they want to. Last year's victory didn't do Tipperary any favours and Cork don't need to do that to Offaly. Of course, they have to win and they should try and kill the game off early but that is all that is needed.
It will be interesting to see how Offaly perform. They need to hit the ground with great intensity and not concede early goals. They will be trying to stay competitive for as long as they can and see what happens. A realistic aspiration for Offaly is to keep the margin of defeat down to around ten points but even if that doesn't happen, it doesn't matter.
Offaly want to compete at the top level but this game will almost certainly be a bridge too soon for them. The year has been a success no matter what and it will be a massive shock if players are not returning to their clubs next week.