Offaly Football: Gavin Cummiskey on the belief in Offaly that they have the forwards to test the best

Offaly manager Kevin Kilmurray believes they will lead the county forward line for a decade. Westmeath, Kildare and Wexford defenders are already having nightmares about them. The Dublin management will spend hours analysing their off-the-ball running.

Niall McNamee and Thomas Deehan have the Gaelic football world at their feet right now. They combined for 2-11 last Sunday to put Offaly into the Leinster final for the first time since 1997.

The goals came from sheer speed of thought. Early balls were whipped inside for the lightning-fast men from Rhode and Clara to react a split second ahead of the Wexford corner backs. Each provided a key pass for the other's goal.

"Me and Tommo are going grand," said McNamee. "Then again, you have to hand it to the guys who are kicking the ball in. Alan (McNamee), Ciarán McManus, all the half backs and half forwards.

"That's where all the hard work is done and it's our job just to put the ball over the bar. Everyone has their own job to do."

With elder brother Alan McNamee responsible for keeping the supply lines open, the movement becomes almost telepathic.

"We're on the same wavelength and he knows where I'm going to go nearly before he looks up."

Matty Forde had a huge influence on the Leinster semi-final, yet McNamee eclipsed him, with 1-5 of his 1-7 coming from play. This is down to the rare ability to gather, turn and shoot before anyone lays a finger on him. "I don't know about being the star forward, I was just glad we got the win. At the start of the year, our goal was to get to the Leinster final, and hopefully we can put in another good performance in two weeks' time. I'm really looking forward to it.

"Tomás (Deehan) put in a great performance and so did the rest of the lads. Everyone had a job to do and they all did it. It was enough to get us through. It was a bit tight towards the end, but we managed to make it.

"We were attacking them very hard, putting a lot of pressure on their defence. They seemed to be getting a lot more frees than us, but when we knocked it long it opened things up a bit more for us."

The way the Leinster draw panned out, with Dublin and Laois on one side, another county was always going to be afforded an opportunity to make an impact on the national stage this summer.

Wexford made the league final last year before troubling Dublin in the championship so they seemed primed to take that next step.

Offaly's direct style denied them the opportunity.

It started with a suspect display against Westmeath. There followed a competent dismantling of Kildare. They went up another notch last Sunday. But aren't Dublin supposed to be the kings of momentum?

"It's huge," said McNamee. "The last couple of years we've been unlucky but you make your own luck too. We were very disappointed not to be progressing further these last few years. We knew we were a better side than we were showing.

"We're not there yet. We've one more game to win."