Ground rule for playing to strengths

Brian Whelahan's Diary: Reflections on the win over Laois, a tactic that has gone from the modern game and preparing mentally for big matches.

Tale of the unexpected

I didn't think we'd be as comfortable against Laois. They couldn't have had a better preparation as regards beating us in the league at home and we were still without Rory Hanniffy, Barry Teehan and myself. We had a few players back from the league meeting but I was surprised Laois weren't in better form.

The game was put back maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Laois had already done quite a rigorous warm-up and had been out on the field early anyway. The throw-in was put back so we went back into the dressing-room. They stayed out so they were out maybe half an hour before the match started. That's quite a long time and the mind does start to wander and lose its focus when there's nothing happening.

Something that was forgotten last week was that this was Offaly's first win in the Leinster championship in nearly four years.

The thumb (latest)

The hand is getting stronger. I can take part in training now which is a big help. There's only so much running you can do. You're very limited in the ball work you can do and at this time of the year the ball is moving a whole lot quicker. After four weeks the pace of the ball and your touch have to be back up to speed. It's just going to take time.

We had a practice game against Clare last week. That just showed how off the pace I was, fumbling a lot and the control wasn't there. I've trained a couple of times since and it's starting to come back. The sharpness isn't there at first. It's like coming back into training after the winter season. You expect things to happen and they don't.

There's still a bit of restriction on the thumb. The ligaments are still getting stronger. When you're in plaster they shrink a little bit from being in the one position. More physio, more movement and more use tends to loosen them out. The extra week will be very useful for me, just as it will be quite hard on Westmeath or Dublin if they pick up an injury out of next Sunday's game.

Losing ground hurling?

We've put the league behind us. Everyone knows it was a disaster but it's championship time and that's always been our main focus. Hurling the long evenings now, everyone has a spring in their step. It's fantastic being able to hurl every evening with the sun shining.

Mike McNamara brought in Michael Duignan to help out at training. It's brought a bit of freshness. He came in and looked at what we were doing and said he wasn't going to do much different from what we were doing already except maybe add a bit more sharpness, to try and get us to meet the ball a lot quicker because we're not the biggest team in the world and the quickest way to get the ball from A to B is ground hurling.

It's part of the modern game that has gone. I remember my father when we'd be watching matches when I was young and a lot of his generation would be saying "overhead striking is gone".

Over the last number of years ground hurling is nearly gone as well. It's a possession game now, all about taking the ball in hand and forwards running at backs using their physical presence. That's fine when you're a big, strong team that can ward off challenges from backs and ride a tackle.

But we've a smaller team, a lighter team and you have to play your strengths.

Mind games

The last two or two and a half weeks before a match is when it really starts. The match isn't a month away, it's not two months away. Each day you're counting it down and thinking "Jesus, we're here. There's not much more training we can do."

I used to travel on the road a lot. I'd just turn off the radio and bang, you're into a mode of thinking about a match for maybe an hour. Then I'd get out to do a bit of business but as soon as I got back in, I'd be back in the zone. No matter how many matches you play, if you're not nervous before a championship game there's something wrong - you haven't paid it as much respect as you should have.

Before the Laois game the players were out doing a warm-up and I was in the dressing-room. There was great excitement because a big crowd had turned up expecting a humdinger. Even the delay added to it. I'd be worrying about different things in a situation like that. When you're playing you're fully focused on what you have to do and you're hoping that the rest of your team-mates are on that same wavelength.

When you're not playing you're thinking about the whole team's performance, worrying about little things, like, has the goalie his cap on a sunny evening - the sort of thing you know has already been taken care of but which worries you still.

Dublin: a cautionary tale

In 1991 we won the league without putting much effort into it, training maybe one night a week. We were beaten by Down at one stage of that league. Anyway in the quarter-final we were down to play Waterford. They were under new management - I think it was Joe McGrath.

There was a lot of excitement down in Waterford that year: a new management, a new ethos whereas we'd only scraped into the play-offs. We went to extra-time and the two teams stayed out on the field. I'll never forget walking by their group and hearing how confident they were with the amount of training they had done and the preparation they had put into the league.

We came out and blew them away. Then in the semi-final we beat Tipperary 1-7 to 0-7, which will show you how tight that was. Michael Duignan actually got the goal to win the game. It was hugely important to a young Offaly team. Then in a dour final we beat Wexford, who had about 70 per cent of the possession but hit a huge number of wides.

We thought we were the bee's knees. Dublin were in the first round and then Kilkenny who we'd beaten quite comprehensively the previous year. But Dublin had beaten Wexford the same year and the warning should have been there.

When we went out they hit us and we had no answer to them. They knocked us out on the May 26th. It was just unbelievable to be out of hurling before June. I remember going to Kilbeggan races the following day. It was a lovely Monday evening and I was saying to myself, "what am I going to do for the summer?"