After the boys of summer are gone

GAELIC GAMES:Offaly shocked and thrilled their way to hurling success, KEITH DUGGANtalks to those involved in both past glories and future promise

IF THE All-Ireland championship was judged by boxing criteria, then Offaly would be the shining light of modern times. What county can match their pound-for pound record in both hurling and football – three senior All-Irelands in pigskin and four in hurling, all won since 1970 and cherry picked when the population of the county was around 60,000.

It is staggering in its audacity.

That is why something feels wrong about tomorrow’s scenario in Croke Park which sees the Offaly hurlers – the ultimate boys of summer – trudging up to the capital as hangdog outsiders against a Dublin team whose league heroics have given a fizz to the early season.

Offaly know the treachery of league success better than most. They have always worn their mistrust of the league as something of a badge of honour.

Of course, 1991 was the conspicuous exception when Offaly surprised everyone, including themselves, by qualifying for a league final and then, just for the heck of it, winning the thing against Wexford.

They were riding high on the back of three Leinster titles in succession and a trilogy of All-Ireland minor titles in 1986, 1987 and 1989. This was a team featuring Brian Whelahan, Johnny Pilkington, an assortment of Dooleys, Hubert Rigney and Martin Hanamy.

Winning a league medal was a nice warm-up to what promised to be a 12th Leinster final appearance in a row. A few weeks later, they were turfed out of the Leinster championship.

By Dublin. That was the beginning and end of the Offaly love affair with league hurling.

“The shoe is on the other foot now,” says Noel Russell, the Birr hurling man who has been involved with many Offaly minor sides. “It is a complete reversal of fortune in just 20 years.”

Russell was one of the younger members among the 8,500 people who watched Offaly win its first ever Leinster title in 1980 – a huge shock against Kilkenny.

“We went up there more in hope. To be honest, the feeling was that it was great to get there.”

That victory was a beginning of a sensational 20-year run in which Offaly seemed capable of treating the summer championship to electrifying displays whenever the mood suited them.

Decades had passed filled with preaching about the fragility of hurling and sporadic attempts to promote it in weaker counties, while glorying in the omnipotence of Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary.

And then Offaly seemed to magically start winning things just because they fancied it. But it was never that easy or inevitable.

“You hear people running down teams, but what gives people the right to think we should be up with Tipperary every year. Like, that early 1980s team led to the minor success of 1986, ’87 and ’89 but we have only won a (Leinster) minor title since and that was in 2000. Most of the 1990s team came from those minor teams.

“And it was significant that they beat Kilkenny, Cork, Tipp and Clare in those finals. It wasn’t like we had a handy run through. But Banagher Vocational School was winning All-Irelands, Birr Community School was winning titles. And that is what the bulk of those players came from.

“Now it was a seriously talented generation – the Pilkingtons, the Whelahans, Daithí Regan, John Troy. Most of the players from 1994 and 1998 were on those school teams.”

And the thing was, Offaly made it seem and look so easy.

They never got too worked up about things, which was one of the reasons why their brief period in the care of Babs Keating resulted in such a spectacular clash of world views. Nothing summed up the carefree attitude that Offaly men had towards the game than Johnny Pilkington in a famous interview he gave to this newspaper in September 1998 – the eve of Offaly’s last outrageous All-Ireland sweep.

Brian Whelahan, later wing back on the Team of the Millennium, but in that final recovering from ’flu, was pushed up to the forwards and duly scored the clinching goal minutes from the end. They got it done.

“The whole idea of it is actually ridiculous,” Pilkington remarked before that final. “Training in muck and dirt. A big chunk of life for a little chunk of metal while the organisation is making millions. It’s a so called amateur game with a professional approach and nothing but a clap on the back or a knife in the back at the end of it.”

And if the words sounded slightly blasphemous, then Pilkington was being happily contrary. Still, it was in line with the general Offaly philosophy that the game should be a part of life rather than the whole of life. And the idea that Offaly never really bought into league hurling took root during the years also.

But even now, reading Offaly on the fact that they were relegated to Division Two in the league is a dangerous business.

“Realistically, we wanted to stay in Division One,” says Shane Dooley, the Offaly captain tomorrow. “But we always had an eye on the championship and I suppose we felt we had the job done after beating Wexford. And we left the Waterford game behind us as well. So we have ourselves to blame.

“But going to Division Two is definitely a drawback. No disrespect to teams in Division Two, but you need to be playing Division One teams to stay sharp. Like, Offaly are probably not in the top tier at the minute but it wouldn’t take much.”

There is also a practical reason while Offaly never particularly shone in the league, Dooley believes.

“You are talking about the population of Offaly being a disadvantage and that is true. But the other side of that is we don’t have the same facilities for winter training that other counties might have. We struggle to get into the season. But when the good weather comes around, that is when our training picks up.

“We are probably geared towards the championship, but we aren’t getting the results we should be. We need to push on a bit more a small bit.”

The idea that Offaly can shrug off league form like a blanket is not just nostalgia. They came extremely close to beating Galway last year. Russell was working with John McIntyre when Offaly went to Thurles in 2007 and came close to shocking Tipperary in a qualifying match that would have put them in an All-Ireland quarter-final.

Nonetheless, the touchstones of success are becoming more distant. Russell listened as Johnny Pilkington gave a chat to youngsters in Birr not so long ago about his minor days. Afterwards, a thought occurred to him.

“I said, Johnny, those lads weren’t born when Offaly won those minor titles. And that is the thing. No hurler from 15 or 16 down now can even remember that 1998 team winning the All-Ireland.”

And no Offaly minor team has won a provincial title since 2000. It is a long time. As a hurling man, Russell is delighted with the strides Dublin hurling has made, but he can’t help but think of the inequality between the counties.

“From what I hear, Dublin have between 40 and 50 full-time coaches. Offaly has three for hurling and football. The GAA probably poured massive resources into Dublin and they were dead right. But now they need to look at Wexford and Clare and Offaly – when is the last time these counties were winning minor titles?”

Shane Dooley can remember those Septembers when Offaly captivated the country with their fearless habit of winning big games. Even if he didn’t, he couldn’t escape it given the feats of his fathers and uncles.

“Yeah, it is the reason why I and everyone my age wanted to hurl with Offaly. And I suppose the young players now don’t have that to look up to. But there is good young players coming through now too and the important thing is to look after them.”

Dooley admits that his team are outsiders against Dublin tomorrow. “Very much so. We ourselves are looking forward to the game. I don’t think our supporters are all that confident. But we were written off before the Galway game last year and we showed plenty of resilience. Being favourites never sat well with Offaly anyway.”

And that’s the thing. Offaly always seemed like a law unto themselves. Their rise seemed so magical and natural that people didn’t begin to realise that just how precious it was until it began to wane.

Offaly flowered in hurling against all expectation and perhaps there was a collective failure not to safeguard that and do something more to nurture it rather than just leave the Offaly men to their own mysterious ways.

“We were privileged to have those years from 1980 to 2000,” Russell says. “And Birr won All-Ireland club titles as well in that time.

“So it was wonderful There was always something to go to. And no more than Offaly, Birr are in transition now. But on a day, an Offaly team can do anything. I would never rule anything out.

“There does seem to be a slight air of pessimism. You speak to some people and they are saying they might not go. But we are the Faithful. We do believe.”