The winds of change are blowing around Offaly football. Mickey Harte didn't hang about in sprinkling the trophy-winning stardust, with the Division 3 title secured with victory over Kildare in March at Croke Park.
Championship ambitions soared as a result, but losing to Meath halted that momentum somewhat - the Royals displaying spectacular accuracy outside the arc and aided by a strong breeze to overturn a 10-point deficit – yet the Tailteann Cup offers a realistic shot at silverware and a guaranteed route into the All-Ireland series.
Easing past Wicklow in the opening round was just the start they required, particularly given the Faithful County's recent struggles in the competition.
A preliminary quarter-final defeat in 2023 was followed by failure to get out of the group stages 12 months later, losing to Down, Limerick and London in a campaign to forget.
Captain Lee Pearson can’t pinpoint why they have failed to fire the past couple of years - the team captain played in all seven games - but acknowledges the secondary football competition is one they need to target.
"I wouldn't say it's for lack of effort or lack of engagement with the competition, it just hasn't been going our way," the 22-year-old defender told RTÉ Sport. "We never really got going. Look, we’d be hoping for a different approach this year.
"We see it as another route to get back into the primary competition which is the Sam Maguire.
"We’re going to be playing Division 2 football next year and you’ve got to be up the top end of that to be guaranteed a place in Sam, so it definitely is a great route into that competition.
"This is our All-Ireland Championship competition, that's very much been the message. "We're in the Tailteann Cup for a reason, because we haven't proven or we haven't reached the level it takes to compete in the Sam Maguire just yet."
A final year Economics and French student at Trinity College, the team captain says there is a great energy within the panel, with youth being given its chance and Harte putting his stamp on the group.
The retirement of Nigel Dunne means the oldest on the panel is 28, while having a three-time All-Ireland winning manager in alongside Declan Kelly is already bearing fruit.
Pearson was as shocked as anyone when the news broke, but feels the partnership of the joint-managers is serving the team well.
"There's substance to what he says I suppose. If he comes out with something, the lads really listen and buy into it. He has a really good way with words as well and a really good way of phrasing things. I suppose that comes with the experience too."
A win at Walsh Park on Saturday against Waterford will assure them of progress and from there it will be Harte plotting another way back to Croke Park.
