Survival the name of the game as ambitious Offaly set sights high

OFFALY will be setting their sights much higher but survival is very much the name of the game as they begin their Leinster Senior Hurling Championship campaign in Tullamore next Saturday.

Dublin are the opposition in a game that will dictate so much for Offaly in the coming weeks.

This has been Offaly's big target from the start of the year, a huge game as they bid to raise the bar and move towards the next level.

Offaly achieved all their objectives last season. Promotion to Division 1 of the National Hurling League was a real bonus and a win over Antrim saw them retain their status in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship.

Offaly were never likely to stay up in Division and a lengthy injury list did not help them. Ciaran Burke and Charlie Mitchell missed the entire campaign, Killian Sampson was out for the early rounds. Donal Shirley did his cruciate at a recent training weekend in Cork and this means that his season is over. This is a devastating blow as Shirley had settled in very well at this level.

Offaly just can't afford to be down players of this stature and it all means that they enter the championship cauldron with a lot of uncertainty surrounding them.

It has also increased the pressure on the players and manager Johnny Kelly and a lot of this is out of sync. Everyone in Offaly would love to see them back as a top force, able to compete with the big powers but the reality is different. Offaly are not there yet and are very much a work in progress. The average age of the squad is 22 and the most experienced player, Ben Conneely is only 28 – he has so much hurling played that you would think he was a few years older.

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There is a bit of a deficit in that crucial mid 20s age group as Offaly quickly bed in their 2024 All-Ireland U20 winners. Some of these players have tremendous potential but they are still developing. They don't have the physicality yet that their counterparts in Limerick, Cork etc have and that will take a few years.

Relegation from Division 1 was not a surprise. In fact, it would have been a big surprise if Offaly had stayed up and that was never on the cards. There may have been times in games, most of the game against Cork and the second half against Tipperary, when Offaly's work rate appeared suspect. That, however, may be harsh on the players – both those games got away from them and sometimes when that happens, it is impossible to halt the slide. It happens a lot of teams at Offaly's stage of development when they come up against top counties in football and hurling and we shouldn't over analyse these displays, other than acknowledge that they show how much road they still have to travel.

There were also positives in the league campaign as Offaly gave some decent displays or had good spells in some games. They competed as well as we could have hoped for against Kilkenny, Waterford and Limerick, though it would have been a big boost to have sneaked a result somewhere.

The reality is that Offaly are not a top tier county at the moment and All-Ireland glory is well out of reach. Leinster is in a transitional phase with Kilkenny declining and even a provincial crown is very unlikely – at the moment, Offaly are very unlikely to beat Galway or Kilkenny in championship fare.

It means that the bar is set a bit lower than this and Offaly have Wexford and Dublin in their sights. They have to be able to beat them if they are to take the next natural step in their progression. They have competed very well against these counties in recent years, gone very close to big wins. They beat Dublin in the league last year and lost by just three points in the championship in Parnell Park. They drew with Wexford in the 2024 league and also lost by three points in the championship last year.

The gap has narrowed dramatically between them and they are now very realistic targets for Offaly. A few months ago, there was real optimism that Offaly could take one of those scalps. Taking one of them out is crucial for the continuing emergence of Offaly hurling but that early optimism has not transferred into confidence. Instead it is a hope that there could be a very big performance and a great win in Offaly.

That is very possible but as things stand, Offaly's chances are a small bit less than 50-50 in both those games. After Dublin, Offaly are away to Galway, at home to Kilkenny and Wexford and away to Kildare.

It is a great help that they have Dublin and Wexford in Tullamore. Their chances of a big win look to be more realistic against Wexford than Dublin at the moment, though Offaly know they can compete with the Dubs. Dublin, however, are further down the line than Offaly. They shocked Limerick in the championship last year and got promotion to Division 1 this year. They are moving well and are favourites for the first round.

Offaly should be very competitive against them and it will be interesting to see how they perform. The big requirement for Offaly is to stay up and it is very possible that their final game against Kildare will determine who goes back to the Joe McDonagh Cup.

People shouldn't under estimate what Offaly have done in the last few years, coming out of the Christy Ring Cup and getting back into the top tier. A step back to the Joe McDonagh Cup would be a disaster and this possibility can't be ruled out. Offaly would be expected to beat Kildare but a winners' take all knockout tussle is always fraught with danger. Even if Offaly did beat Dublin or Wexford, they could find themselves in the predicament against Kildare.

Last year, Offaly need what they needed to do when beating Antrim to stay up. They won't be able to get away with relying on beating the previous year's Joe McDonagh Cup champions to stay up – Antrim had won the McDonagh Cup in 2022 with Offaly taking it in 2024 – every year. At some stage, they will run out of road with that and get caught but it will do for the moment. For this year, however, survival will be enough and hopefully, Offaly will be able to get up to and bypass Dublin and Wexford in the next couple of years.

Saturday's game against Dublin is far from a free shot and a good, competitive performance is vital. A win, however, would be a great bonus to Offaly and they have nothing to lose, to some extent. They will give it a real go and see where that takes them.