Offaly U-20 hurlers on high alert for Dublin ambush in eagerly anticipated Leinster Final

With hype mounting and excitement reaching fever pitch, Offaly U-20 hurling manager Leo O'Connor will be putting his charges on the highest state of alert for Wednesday's Leinster final against Dublin in Portlaoise.

Offaly are well used to dealing with these type of situations over the last couple of years but Wednesday will be new territory for them to an extent.

Against Laois in the Leinster minor final in 2022 and Wexford in the Leinster U-20 hurling decider last year, Offaly travelled in a very optimistic mood but supporters didn't really know what to expect on either occasion.

They were also underdogs for the All-Ireland minor and U-20 finals in 2022 and 2023 but now find themselves warm favourites and this places the management and team with different challenges.

Offaly are justifiably favourites and there will be an acute sense of disappointment if they don't retain their Leinster title but this game is laced with danger with no shortage of hurdles to surmount and holes to fall into.

As Offaly come down from the high of a tremendous win over Kilkenny in the semi-final last Wednesday, it won't be simple to dust that off or to get themselves back up to the same levels of intensity.

No matter what anyone says and with the best will in the world, there is a difference between playing Kilkenny and Dublin and this is an absolutely treacherous banana skin for Offaly. Any signs of complacency or lethargy will be punished and Offaly are sitting ducks for this one.

It will take another mammoth effort to qualify for a second successive All-Ireland final. Offaly are certainly capable of that and there is no doubt whatsoever that they have the ability to win this one but they have to get their game up to the same level that they have for all their other big ones over the past two years.

It is a great time for this group of young hurlers and the support they are getting is creating lifelong memories. For the first time since the 1990s, there is magic in the air again around Offaly hurling and there are generations of people who have never witnessed that.

It is fantastic to see the excitement of young people at games and the joy older people are getting from watching an Offaly hurling team perform so well and compete with such realistic title prospects.

As manager Leo O'Connor said after last week's win over Kilkenny, one team alone won't transform Offaly at senior level. They need another outstanding young team coming up behind them to return as a genuinely competitive top tier team. That team has not emerged onto the scene yet but there is hope surrounding the future that wasn't there three years ago and that is down to this young group of players.

They have a burning desire to win an All-Ireland title and need to do that to ensure their legacy. They were heart breakingly unfortunate to lose to Tipperary in the 2022 All-Ireland minor final while there was no hard luck story in last year's All-Ireland U-20 final defeat by Cork. Offaly competed very well in the first half but when it went into the business end of affairs in the second half, there was no disputing the superiority of Cork.

Reaching that All-Ireland final was a bonus for Offaly. Members of the 2022 minors were surrounded by excellent older hurlers and it was “ahead of time” for the youngest team members. Most expectations will surround Offaly in 2025 but they have once again oozed quality again this year and a very realistic chance has opened up for them.

First they have to beat Dublin to stay on the road and that is a big ask for them. Offaly beat Dublin by 1-18 to 2-14 in the first round of the group stages. They were 1-13 to 0-8 clear nine minutes into the second half but didn't put Dublin away when they were waiting for the knockout punch and were almost caught at the end.

Offaly were quite fortunate to get out of Parnell Park with the win but the game didn't really matter as every team in tier 1 was assured of qualification, irrespective of results. A draw with Galway in their second game meant that Offaly were runners up and had to go the quarter-final route. Again, Offaly should have won but these games were all about match practice, sharpening up, getting going and they served them well.

They have upped the ante considerably in the knockout stages. They were excellent as they ran riot against Laois in the quarter-finals and flirted with disaster when beating Kilkenny by 2-17 to 2-16 in the semi-finals but that was still a massive result for them. Kilkenny had beaten Offaly well in minor three years earlier and it is a sign of the progress that Offaly have made since then that they not only went in expecting to win but duly grinded out the result.

Dublin deserve complete respect and have some quality hurlers. They were resoundingly beaten, 4-14 to 0-10, by Galway in their second group game but turned the tables spectacularly in the semi-final last week, winning by 4-17 to 0-20. That was a serious turnaround and shows how immaterial the group games were.

The knockout stages have served Dublin really well. They destroyed Westmeath by 1-31 to 1-14 in the preliminary quarter-final and had a great 0-18 to 0-14 win over Wexford in the semi-final.

Dublin are a very different proposition than they were in the group stages, much more dangerous and Offaly will be under no illusions about the task facing them. They also know that Dublin will set up defensively, pulling a sweeper back to make space very tight for Adam Screeney and the Offaly forwards.

Offaly have to cope with one big thing that Dublin don't: huge hype. That could be an advantage to Dublin. There was over 8,000 in O'Connor Park last Wednesday evening, the vast majority supporting Offaly. There was less than 1,000 people at the Dublin-Galway game.

A crowd of over 10,000 is expected in Portlaoise for this final and 8,000 plus of them will be from Offaly. That is extraordinary interest in a provincial U-20 decider and a team but is a symptom of two things: The ravenous hunger of Offaly people to witness success and the fact that this team is a joy to watch.

The Offaly team was not selected at the time of writing but there will be very few changes from the side that started against Kilkenny. With Dan Ravenhill out with a hamstring injury, Offaly have a fairly settled fifteen at the moment. The only dilemma facing management is which of the Kavanagh brothers, Leigh or Alex to start in attack – Leigh has started recent games but is a more natural defender while Alex has done well off the bench.

This game has the potential to go wrong for Offaly, and be under no illusions about that. Dublin will not be far away but Offaly have a great chance of retaining their Leinster title. Every step of the way, this team has turned up and performed. The day could come when that doesn't happen and that potential is there for this one but we expect that Offaly will get their focus right, their intensity levels up to what is needed and to play with their usual pace, work rate and verve. They know from the group stages that they have what it takes to beat Dublin, that man for man, they do have a better team than them. It is all about performing, however, and another huge display is required but Offaly supporters could be in for another evening of joy and great memories.