Injury problems for U-20 hurlers as Offaly teams face into hectic week

OFFALY GAA supporters will have no shortage of entertainment this week with all six county teams out in championship action on successive days,

It is an extraordinarily packed schedule as the championship season moves into top gear. Most interest will naturally surround the senior hurlers and footballers who occupy centre stage at the weekend while the u-20 and minor footballers and hurlers are also out.

The senior hurlers will begin their championship campaign in the Joe McDonagh Cup with a home game against Laois this Saturday. They will enter it with confidence flying after a fine win over Kildare in the National Hurling League Division 2 final on Sunday.

Offaly did very well to win promotion back to Division 1, finding their best form in the 25 minutes after half time as they won by 0-24 to 1-18. They have a packed itinerary of games with fixtures against Kildare again, Down, Carlow and Kerry after the Laois opener.

Offaly also face a huge game in the Leinster Senior Football Championship on Sunday as they travel to Pearse Park to take on Longford. With Dublin and Kildare on the opposite half of the draw, there is a real opportunity there for Offaly, Longford, Meath, Westmeath and Louth to reach a Leinster final.

Offaly edged out Longford in the National Football League Division 3 in Longford recently but this is a real 50-50 game and there will be very little separating them.

The U-20 footballers play Dublin in a must win game on Tuesday in O'Connor Park. This game was originally fixed for Faithful Fields in Kilcormac but has been moved to Tullamore with an earlier throw in of 6.30pm to allow it to finish in daylight hours. They endured a gut wrenching defeat against Wicklow last week and were staring an early exit in the face: they needed to beat Dublin and Louth to account for Wicklow to scrape through.

The minor footballers enter the championship cauldron this Wednesday with a journey to the Kildare training grounds in Hawksfield to face the home side. Laois and Longford are also in Offaly's group with Laois at home on April 12 and a gap to the final game against Longford on April 27, also at home.

The attention turns to hurling after Wednesday. The hurlers certainly had a good weekend with the senior, U-20s and minors all winning. The U-20s travel to Trim to play Meath on Thursday evening and a win should ensure qualification out of a group that also includes Antrim. With a number of last year's minor team on board and an emerging senior star, Charlie Mitchell leading the attack, Offaly have the makings of a good team.

They did what they had to with an ultimately comfortable 2-22 to 1-17 win over Westmeath last Saturday and will be hoping to rattle a big gun.

The U-20s do have injury problems. Corner back Ruari Kelly broke his hand in the early stages of Saturday's win and it looks like he will be out for the campaign while Dan Ravenhill will definitely miss this week's game and probably the next after a hamstring tear. A win in Meath will put Offaly through and they probably won't risk Ravenhill against Antrim in their final group game, if they get their expected win to qualify here. Ravenhill had a prolonged spell on the sidelines with a groin injury late last year and will be hoping this is only a temporary setback.

Manager Leo O'Connor was not jumping through hoops at Saturday's display, remarking: “It was a result. We felt we made a good few mistakes and did not hurl as well as we expected them to hurl. It was a very stop start performance. We started well and went very well early on in the second half but we stopped then and let them back into it. We were fifteen points up but it didn't flow. There was no continuity, no fluidity.”

The Limerick man added: “Injuries may take a toll. We will be trying to get game time into them and will hopefully perform in the quarter-finals.”

Brecon Kavanagh, Dan Ravenhill, Shane Rigney, Conor Doyle and Adam Screeney started from last year's exciting minor side and O'Connor was happy with the way they stepped up. “These guys have ambition and they want it. A lot have worked hard and put up weight over the Winter through strength and conditioning. Some of them are strong enough for this level.”

The minor hurlers made a satisfactory start with an easy 1-15 to 0-6 win over Kerry on Saturday but will get a much more accurate indication of where they are with a game against Wexford in Birr on Good Friday. After losing to Dublin in the first round, the win over Kerry gets Offaly through but they will be wary of Wexford. Wexford beat Kerry by 5-21 to 0-8 in the first round and Offaly will be hoping to be competitive against them.