Champions turn on style

A record crowd of 52,307, sunny weather and soaring levels of anticipation for next month's Guinness Leinster hurling final were the most positive features of yesterday's semi-finals double bill at Croke Park. Two one-sided matches and what looked like the last rites for Wexford's popular All-Ireland winners of 1996 were the balancing consideration.

Offaly were in tremendous form and look to have positioned their ageing team with its painfully limited resources firmly on track to mount a formidable defence of their All-Ireland title.

Yesterday they were sharp and economical and combined power and touch to overwhelm opponents who kept the match singing until half-time.

Wexford weren't able to sustain the challenge and a disappointed Rory Kinsella confirmed afterwards that he was stepping down after a five-year involvement, including the last three year as manager.

The team's touch hadn't been as good as Offaly's and it deteriorated as the match began to flow against them.

Furthermore their defence - and full-back line specifically - was uncharacteristically leaky and lacking in authority. That led to a concession of three first-half goals which ground down their early ebullience.

Had they kept out one of those goals or even conjured up one of their own, the match might have turned out differently. Instead Offaly pressed home their advantages remorselessly and outpointed Wexford 0-11 to 0-5 in the second half.

Both teams switched around a bit beforehand. Wexford's changes had been expected, restoring Martin Storey to centre forward and Rory McCarthy to the wing. Offaly swapped Johnny Pilkington back to centrefield with Paudie Mulhare going to the wing.

Early exchanges meant that Wexford were already chasing the match from an early stage. Two goals in two minutes set the tone. In the sixth minute, John Troy - who went on to have a fine match at full forward, giving Ger Cushe his hardest afternoon in a few years - took possession from Brian Whelahan and turned in on goal and finished emphatically.

There was an element of luck to the second goal. The ball squeezed out from a ruck of players in front of goal to where Michael Duignan, also in tremendous form despite a fortnight's absence injured, was handily positioned to convert to the net for a 2-1 to 0-2 lead.

Wexford's response was impressive and formed their best phase of the match. Their forwards swarmed around Offaly's defence and created plenty of space and opportunity. Four unanswered points cut the deficit to a point. Paul Codd was in his customary unerring form from dead-ball awards. He went on to convert seven frees and didn't miss one until the final quarter.

They were also getting enough from centrefield where Adrian Fenlon was mostly in charge with support from Robert Hassey. Rory McCarthy gave Kevin Martin - one of Offaly's three starters to fill a vacant position after a fitness test - plenty to think about on the wing.

Ger Oakley - a point which settled him down after some hesitant early striking - and Johnny Dooley stretched the lead before a further three points levelled the match. Codd was involved in two of them, from Storey and McCarthy, and scored the third. Just before he did there was an opportunity for Wexford to raise a green flag.

Gary Laffan's shot came back off the post and Larry Murphy came rushing in on the rebound only to fail to connect when trying to kick the ball into the net. It ran for Tom Dempsey who nearly made amends before the cover swallowed him up and Brian Whelahan cleared.

The extent of the loss was underlined in the 30th minute when Joe Dooley finished off a smartly constructed attack by driving the ball to the net through the Wexford cover. The veteran was in dazzling form and ended the afternoon with 1-5, 1-4 from play.

It was acknowledged in both dressingrooms afterwards that the opening phase of the second half had been crucial. Five points wasn't an enormous deficit and the first half had been a lively affair. A couple of early scores would have set up Wexford nicely.

Instead they waited 12 minutes for a score by which stage Johnny Dooley had pushed Offaly further in front. Goals weren't looking very likely and the whole effort seemed to deflate. Of the forwards only Gary Laffan was winning the personal battle and as a unit, all the old failings re-emerged.

Rather than hold their position, the attack was drawn into the centre and at times adopted a singlefile formation down the middle of the pitch. Laffan did create one chance for Murphy but the Cloughbawn man looked like he was applying for planning permission to rise the ball before the cover closed him down.

Ryan Quigley added a bit of spark to centrefield and added a couple of points after coming in for the final quarter. But by now, Wexford's resistance had collapsed. Offaly drove over some fine points from play and also managed to give a run-out to some of their other panellists.

Billy Dooley defied medical opinion to come on for the final quarter and score two points. John Ryan came on for his first competitive match in nearly three months and hit a point as well as receiving a nasty head-injury.

Although there was no dressingroom discussion of the topic, this was an at times a hair-raising match with some reckless pulling and a couple of players lucky to stay on the field. Fortunately the lack of poison between the teams stopped hostilities really getting off the ground.