Babs Keating describes his appointment as Offaly's new hurling manager as "something out of the blue". At a time when he was contemplating "the quiet life", he was surprised to receive a call from the Offaly County Board.

"As far as I was concerned, it was over for me, facing the reality of a nice quiet life, walking the beach with the wife. Two years ago, Laois asked me to give them a two-year stint and I gave in and did my best. When my time with them was up, I said: `well that's it' ."

Keating had just returned from a business golfing trip in Dubai at the weekend when Offaly contacted him. "I met with the Offaly executive and we discussed the whole aspect of managing the Offaly hurling team for an hour only the other night. I wouldn't have accepted the job if I was not prepared to give it my best shot," he said.

A forthright Keating admits that he did not feel any particular sense of delight when he was invited to meet the Offaly Board. He explained: "It might well be considered as a glamorous situation being manager of a county team at the moment. Sure, it's glamorous on Leinster final day, or Munster final day, or on All-Ireland final day, but I can tell you there are a lot of hard miles for the manager of the Offaly team living in Dublin and training in Birr, Bannagher or Tullamore.

"Before arriving with the finished product, the team that I would like to think would represent Offaly in next year's championship, there will be a lot of hours to be spent on the road and on the training ground.

"It's the same for all the successful counties, for Paidi (O Se) and Ger (Loughnane). They have to winter well and produce their product in the summer."

The Offaly job will be Keating's fourth venture into management. Previously, he had spells in charge of Galway, Tipperary and Laois.

He acknowledges the current strength of Offaly hurling and agrees that he is inheriting a good squad. There is the general perception in Offaly that under John McIntyre, the team seemed to promise more that it achieved.

Keating's perception is that there is very little between the medium teams and the ones at the top. "As far as hurling at the moment is concerned, there are not two goals between the medium and top teams." He cites this year's championship to support his belief. "Wexford beat Offaly by two points, Offaly beat Laois by a point, Wexford won the Leinster final, they didn't get on well against Tipperary, but they endured a lot of misfortune in that game. The comparison with this is that they (Wexford) beat Kilkenny in the Leinster final and Kilkenny ran Clare to two or three points.

"In my view, there is not two pucks of the ball between five or six teams," contends Keating.

In the broader sense, Keating is happy to be associated with Offaly. "It's good to know that in all my years as a player and as a manager, areas where you can have conflict with other counties, as I have over the years, I was always more friendly with the Offaly people in Dublin than with most other associations."

Keating will meet the Offaly players within the next few days and Johnny Pilkington is one of the key men around whom Keating will be plotting his strategy.

Pilkington said yesterday that he is satisfied that Keating "has a good CV" and added that he would be interested in sitting down and listening to what he has to say.

The Birr midfielder is one of a number of people in Offaly who were surprised to learn of Keating's appointment given "the numerous names that were being bandied about" over the past few weeks.

"Offaly has the talent to win another all-Ireland. You're talking here about players like Brian Whelehan, Johnny Dooley, John Troy, Joe Errity and Hubert Rigney. They're all fellows on the 26-27 mark, coming into the prime of inter-county hurling," said Pilkington.

"The manager's job will be to pull them together and bring them on as a team. So it's up to the players after that if they want to win another All-Ireland."

Pilkington, by all accounts, is also a very useful scrum-half with the Birr rugby team.