League performances crucial in big year for Offaly hurling

WITH promotion back to the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship secured after a few years in the doldrums, Offaly hurlers are facing into an exciting 2025 season.

The competitive action gets underway next Saturday with a home game against Carlow in Division 1B of the National Hurling League in Tullamore.

Retaining status in the championship top flight is the big priority for manager Johnny Kelly this year and the league will be a very important stepping stone for them.

With Kilkenny, Galway, Dublin, Wexford and Antrim awaiting them, Offaly will be thrown among the lions in Leinster and they could badly do with some decent league performances.

They follow up Saturday's opener with Laois away, Antrim at home, Dublin away, Westmeath at home and Waterford away. In many ways, it is an ideal fixtures schedule for Offaly. It pits them against tier one counties in Dublin and Waterford as well as Antrim, who are also in the Leinster senior championship. Then you have Carlow, Laois and Westmeath. They get to see where they are and if they can pull off an upset against Waterford and Dublin and they have other games where they will have a great chance of winning.

Getting promotion from this division will be difficult and the first priority for Offaly is to make sure they stay up. If they were fit to get to the final and get promotion, it would be a massive boost but at the moment, it is all about competing as well as they can.

Offaly are likely to be without forward Adam Screeney for most of the league. Screeney is trying to sort out a groin injury and the priority is to have him right for championship action later in the year.

Screeney is one of a number of players who will be very busy in the peak championship months of the year from March through to the end. He will be a key figure for both Offaly U20s and seniors and a very delicate balancing act will be required by the two managements.

While Offaly will have an excellent chance of retaining their All-Ireland U20 crown, staying up in senior is a huge focus and it will take plenty of work to ensure players are not overloaded and pick up injuries.

All of that is down the road and at the moment, the National Hurling League is the only game in town.

Offaly got a small taster of the lie of the land when they played Kilkenny in a challenge game on Saturday in Faithful Fields. With Kilkenny publicising the fixture on their social media accounts, there was a much bigger crowd present than normal for a challenge and they were treated to a good game of hurling.

Kilkenny fielded a number of their well known players and Offaly competed very well in the first half. They battled hard, picked off some good scores and a Charlie Mitchell goal helped them into a half time lead of four points.

In the second half, however, Kilkenny found an extra couple of gears, scoring a couple of goals as they pulled away for a facile win, 5-23 to 1-17. There was plenty of positives for Offaly and they didn't need a challenge game to tell them about where the bar is at the highest level.

Sunday's game is a big one for Offaly and it is one that they could really do with winning. Carlow pipped them in the Joe McDonagh Cup final in 2023 and there has been little between the counties in recent years.

Carlow only stayed for one year in the Leinster championship and they will give Offaly a definite indication of where they are and how they are going. They are capable of making a winning start.