Offaly minor football team announced for championship opener

THE Offaly team has been announced for this evening's Leinster Football Championship opener in Dublin's Parnell Park.

It includes just two players who played in last year's sensational Leinster Minor Football Championship winning campaign. Tullamore man, Patrick Duffy, a defender last year. is named at midfield. His club colleague Darragh Stewart, a very influential impact sub last year, will lead the attack from centre half forward.

Incidentally this duo are the only dual players on the squad and they played in last Sunday's run away Leinster Minor Hurling Championship win over Carlow. There could have been other dual players but neither management would have wanted many as there is a very packed, busy schedule of games in the coming weeks. Shamrocks' Keith O'Rourke and Edenderry's Joe Furey are among the players who would have been on the radar of the minor football management but they are concentrating on hurling this year – both are young and are still minor next year when they will be asked to play both codes.

There is other links with last year's minor football squad, who recovered from a poor start to win the Leinster title, staging a series of fantastic late recoveries in big knockout games. Centre back, Cathal Carroll is a brother of last year's full back Tomas Carroll, Erin Rovers while sub Hugh Kelly is a brother of last year's centre back Tadgh – the Kilclonfert duo are sons of Offaly senior football joint manager Declan Kelly.

Offaly are drawn in group 2 with Dublin, Westmeath and Longford. They are at home to Longford on Tuesday, April 7 and travel to Westmeath a week later. The top three teams from groups 1 and 2 qualify with the third placed team into a preliminary quarter-final, the second in a quarter-final and first into the semi-finals. Wexford, Wicklow, Kilkenny and Carlow are in the weak group 3 and the top two from this go into preliminary quarter-finals.

Tullamore have six players on the starting team with Clodiagh Gaels, Ferbane, St Rynagh's, Erin Rovers, Clara, Ballycumber, Edenderry and Daingean all represented.

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Tonight's game is a repeat of last year's first round when Dublin travelled to Tullamore. Offaly made a flying start but Dublin then ran riot, winning by 5-10 to 3-7. Offaly looked to be at nothing when this was followed by a heavy beating in Louth but they scraped out of the group in third place thanks to a tight win over Laois. They then embarked on a remarkable adventure, beating Wicklow in a preliminary quarter-final in extra time and followed up with great late wins over Meath, Kildare and Louth to capture the Leinster title.

Their never say die spirit and youthful honesty captured the imagination of supporters and Offaly went close before eventually running out of road against Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

There is no real expectation around this year's minor team and they instead come in a vacuum with Offaly having a decent team with prospects emerging next year. After last year, however, no one will be writing Offaly off, the target is to get out of the group and to take it one game at a time – Edenderry's Adrian Farrell is a new manager this year with last year's boss, Shannonbridge's Roger Ryan having gone up to the U20 team.

OFFALY: Ryan Casey (Tullamore); Cormac Staunton (Clodiagh Gaels), Oran Kenny (Ferbane), Jake Conlon (Tullamore); James Slevin (St Rynagh's), Cathal Carroll (Erin Rovers), Stephen Murrihy (Tullamore); John Carroll (Clara), Patrick Duffy (Tullamore); Evan Daly (Ballycumber), Darragh Stewart (Tullamore), Jamie Harvey (Tullamore); Oliver Goulding (Edenderry), Paddy Burns (Daingean), Dara Waldron (Ferbane). Subs – Max Kruger (Gracefield), Noah Foran (Edenderry), Finn Coleman (Shamrocks), Robbie Minnock (Daingean), Oisin Pender (Edenderry), Hugh Kelly (Kilclonfert), Sean O'Shea (Shannonbridge), Sean Monahan (Edenderry), Shane Lawless (Daingean).