Key players face few weeks on sideline as Offaly hurling manager takes Galway defeat on chin
Offaly were "architects of own downfall" - Kelly
OFFALY manager Johnny Kelly had some frustrating news on their injury situation when he spoke after Sunday's 2-26 to 1-18 loss to Galway in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship in Salthill.
Brecon Kavanagh, Cathal King and Dan Ravenhill all missed the game after going off injured in the first round draw with Dublin. King wore a protective boot as he pucked around at the game and Kelly expects them to be out for three to four weeks – that will probably rule them out for the next round against Kilkenny on May 9 and leaves them in a race of time to be fit for the big showdown with Wexford a week later.
“They're out for quite a while. They'll be three, four weeks, depending on rehab and things like that”,” said Kelly who did not use their absence as an excuse for Sunday's loss.
“So again, no excuses. We brought in guys there today, who did really well. And again, we just used the panel as much as possible and as good as possible. So yeah, unfortunately those three guys will probably be out for the foreseeable future.”
Sunday game was a very mixed bag by Offaly, who dug deep to limit the damage and fought the whole way to the final whistle but Kelly did not attempt to dress things up when asked to assess it.
Considering the way the game went, an eleven point defeat was not too bad for Offaly as Galway could very easily have exceeded 5-30 – goalkeeper Liam Hoare made a string of great saves while Galway missed a few handy chances.
Offaly were in bother when they trailed by 0-13 to 0-10 at half time after playing with a stiff first half wind. They hung on grimly for as long as they could and Oisin Kelly's goal left them trailing by only four points with just over fifteen minutes left. In theory, Offaly had some sort of chance but in reality, Galway were always going to win and they duly pulled away in the closing quarter.
After their very encouraging draw with Dublin in the first round, Offaly found the going tough at times. They came up against a very in-form team who had destroyed Kilkenny in the opening game and they were too strong for Offaly. There were positives in terms of their work rate and fighting spirit and they produced flashes of very good hurling but Offaly also contributed to their own problems.
Their touch was not as good and their hurling not as clinical as it had been against Dublin. Balls that stuck in the first round spun loose into Galway hands in Pearse Stadium and Offaly certainly contributed to their own problems as Galway generally punished errors.
Portumna man Kelly did not shy away from this aspect, admitting that they “could have been beaten by more” and that they were the “architects of their own downfall” in some ways.
“We were cut open there and I think a lot of handling errors, missed passes. A real nervousness about our play again, sort of a throwback to what we were at there a few years ago. That's there all the time so we must look at that again now.”
Kelly was disappointed that Offaly didn't ask more serious questions when Oisin Kelly's goal brought the gap back to four points.
“We had the ball here in our own half back-line/midfield and we persisted with trying to play the ball through the line We had separation between our half back line and our full-forward line and at that stage we really needed to put the ball back in there again. And we tried to tread it through the middle, we got turned over. And Galway got the scores on the back of that. So that was the disappointing part of that.
“We mismanaged that period of time when we got back to four points. But then again, it's a top-class team, Galway. They brought in a couple of really good hurlers and Conor Cooney finished the ball brilliantly, a slight mistake from us at that stage but overall we'd probably be a little bit disappointed. But we look forward to two weeks' time.”
He had no issues with the refereeing display of Thomas Gleeson.
“I think in fairness to Thomas Gleeson, he had a good game. We'll always be arguing a split decision one way or the other. If you think it's a small bit off, you'll shout it at the time but when we look back on reflection, I think maybe those were frees. Certainly, Galway were very physical and a couple of our guys came out the wrong side of that at times. Ruari Kelly and a couple more. But look at it overall, it's a learning curve for Offaly.”
Offaly now focus on Kilkenny in Tullamore on Sunday week – the Cats bounced back from their bad first round defeat in Galway with a convincing win over Wexford on Saturday. They have Wexford at home after that before concluding their group campaign against Kildare in Newbridge. Five points is a possibility for Offaly but Kelly stressed:
“We'll have to improve if we're going to get those results And to be honest about it, that's what we will have to do. If we're going to close the gap between, say, Galway. I would say that Galway are a bit ahead of everyone else at the minute. Now look at Kilkenny putting in a really powerful performance again yesterday against Wexford. So they seem to have got their mojo back again. So they're going to be a really, really difficult opponent. And their gander is us up as well. o we've had all to do now for two weeks' time.”