Bond hails his walking wounded

Only a year on but a universe away from the slightly embarrassed atmosphere of last year's winning dressing-room. Then Johnny Dooley's late goal was an act of such larceny that the Offaly fellas were looking around the place as if half-expecting the guards to arrive.

This time around the performance was excellent and the win as emphatic as anyone could expect of All-Ireland champions in a big match. For manager Michael Bond, the season had started almost as well as it finished last September.

His team had ridden out a plague of injuries and kept itself afloat when Wexford were dominating the match. Three quicksilver goals tilted the balance of the match before half-time to such an extent that the second half fizzled out into a non-event.

"The team was very resilient," said Bond. "We were always going to use 18 players; we'd have used 21 if we could. Kevin (Martin) was about 60 per cent right, Michael (Duignan) about 80 per cent.

"Wexford were the better team in the first half, doing to us what we were supposed to do to them. But it changed about at the end of the first half. Joe Dooley had a tremendous game."

This tribute to last year's remarkable veteran who earned himself an All Star in his mid-30s was deserved. Now only a few years off being able to compete in the veterans' All-Irelands, the eldest of the Dooleys rifled in 1-5, all from play with the exception of an exquisite sideline puck.

Casting his eye forward to the Leinster final, a repeat of last year's provincial and All-Ireland finals, against Kilkenny, Bond appraised the competition awaiting Offaly.

"There's an awful lot of good teams out there at the moment but we aren't going to hand back the McCarthy Cup that easily."

Michael Duignan had overcome a hamstring injury to play a stormer at corner forward and chipped in a goal for good measure. He was keeping a sense of proportion about Kilkenny.

"We'll be going out to win it but if we don't, it won't be the end of the world," he said. "We'll still be going all out to beat Kilkenny but we won't be over the top about it."

His build-up to the match had been less tense than had been thought when all those distress signals were issuing from Offaly throughout last week.

"I knew on Thursday that I'd be fit," he said. "I had three sessions with Alan Kelly during the week and he sorted it out. At one stage it was so sore that I couldn't put any weight on it but I never felt a twinge all day."

Another late inclusion was Kevin Martin who also had to come through a fitness test. He had endured a fairly trying first half before the trend settled in Offaly's favour.

"I got through the game okay but I was a bit sore at the end. Rory McCarthy had me in difficulties twisting and turning. It was a hard game to get into. Brian Whelahan was saying that to me afterwards. We kept going but were a bit patchy. The couple of goals got the confidence going and I was glad to see John Ryan come back off the bench and get a good point."

Duignan agreed that the match had been difficult for a while but had realised shortly into the second half that Wexford were spent.

"We struggled in the first half but got the goals at the right time. Once we held them for the first 10 minutes after half-time, the fight went out of them. There was six points in it for those 10 minutes and that broke their hearts. There was pressure but you won't score goals against our defence by lobbing high balls in on top of them."