Offaly escape to top tier but bigger bouts await

NHL DIVISION TWO FINAL: Offaly 1-13 Wexford 0-13WITH A championship rematch just four weeks away, it may be the true value of this result will only be seen in time. Early next year, to be exact when Offaly are back mixing it with the big boys of hurling, and Wexford are wondering if they'll ever get back there themselves.

That was the prize at stake, the one golden ticket to Division One for 2010, although it was difficult for either manager to dwell on that right now.

“That’s one book closed,” said Offaly’s Joe Dooley, “and we’ll get ready for the championship now”.

Wexford manager Colm Bonnar was also thinking more short-term: “Of course, we’re disappointed to be down in Division Two again. This is a game we really wanted to win. But we’ll just have to deal with it, and refocus now for the championship.”

The game itself was no classic, but the pressure situation didn’t help. Offaly got on top early on, leading by seven points after 15 minutes. Wexford gradually chipped away at that lead, and although they reduced it to two points with 10 minutes remaining, they just couldn’t crack Offaly who emerged as deserving and relieved winners.

“It wasn’t the prettiest spectacle,” added Dooley, “but we worked hard, particularly our back line. David Kenny was outstanding, and so was David Franks. But everybody played a part. We’d a good start, but came under pressure there at the end. Thankfully we held out. It’s never easy winning these kind of games.

“We’ve a lot of young players coming through and, with all due respect to the teams there, you don’t fully test them out in Division Two. This means that irrespective of how the championship goes we’ve a good league to look forward to in the spring.

“I don’t think Wexford should be in Division Two. I think that’s been fairly well publicised at this stage, that both Offaly and Wexford should be in Division One.”

Dooley is nursing a promising Offaly team. They may be still some distance from Kilkenny and Tipperary territory, but they’re going in the right direction.

Defensively, they were impressive, Franks and Kenny for sure, but also Kevin Brady and the ever-reliable Ger Oakley.

They had a good spread of scoring forwards also. Derek Molloy and Brian Carroll both hit three from play, Shane Dooley struck five frees, and Daniel Currams finished off the game’s only goal on 10 minutes, tapping in a long ball from Brian Carroll, when Malachy Travers and Dermot Flynn should really have controlled the situation.

Wexford did respond well to that, outscoring them 0-7 to 0-3 over the next 15 minutes. Paul Carley was doing well with placed ball and Stephen Banville and Andrew Shore chipped in as well, but Dooley then tagged on three late frees for Offaly to give them a 1-11 to 0-8 advantage at the break. Truth is Wexford hadn’t really started playing and they had the wind at their backs to come.

The goals, however, just wouldn’t come and that ultimately was their downfall. In fact they hardly got a sniff of one. David Redmond and Travers hit a couple of inspiring points, and Diarmuid Lyng hit two nice sidelines, but even one goal could have swung it their way. Offaly went 23 minutes of the half without a score and clocked up 15 wides and that certainly explains Dooley’s relief at the end.

They have to travel to Wexford for the Leinster championship quarter-final in four weeks’ time, and while Offaly have the advantage for now, it won’t mean much when the ball is thrown-in: “Sure, it gives us some incentive,” said Dooley, “but it gives Wexford some incentive as well. A result like this works both ways.

“But we’re all the time trying to bridge that gap on Kilkenny and Tipperary, to compete with them, and we’re not too far away, to be honest. You can’t just bring a team along overnight. It does take three or four years.”

Wexford spent the last 10 minutes fairly frantically searching for the elusive goal, and probably could have done better with the few late possessions that they got. But with Offaly’s defence in such determined mode there was nothing giving in that section of the field.

Bonnar then could have few complaints in the end: “We’d a poor start, sure, and it took us a while to settle. It was 1-5 to a point, and we were struggling to get back into it. In fairness, Offaly did the job on us and deserved to win it. They just shut us out, and we didn’t get the goal chances. That made a big difference.

“We didn’t score enough today to win. Simple as that. But this was a game played on its merits. There was no championship match in the back of our minds. We wanted to win as much as Offaly.

“We had set our goal to go back to Division One. I think Wexford need to be in Division One.”

Sometimes, then, you don’t get what you want or what you need.

OFFALY: B Mullins; D Franks, D Kenny, P Cleary (0-1, a free); J Rigney, G Oakley, R Hanniffy; K Brady, B Murphy; B Carroll (0-3), J Brady, D Molloy (0-3); S Dooley (0-5, all frees), J Bergin, D Currams (1-1). Subs: C Parlon for Currams (59 mins), C Mahon for Murphy (72 mins).

WEXFORD: D Flynn; M Travers (0-1), P Roche, A OConnell; M Jacob, S Nolan, R Kehoe; D Redmond (0-1), C Kenny; D Lyng (0-2, sidelines), A Shore (0-1), P Carley (0-4, three frees, one 65); R Jacob (0-1), S Banville (0-2), P Kenny (0-1). Subs: S Doyle for Kenny, T Waters Carley (both 46 mins), D Stamp for Nolan (61), P Atkinson for Banville (70).

Referee: Ger Hoey (Clare).