For twenty minutes Offaly were competitive enough to suggest that they might be capable of giving Waterford a headache or two in this afternoon’s All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship qualifier tie at Bord na Móna O’Connor Park in Tullamore, but when the Munster county found their groove they proved far too good for their hosts and ran out 1-35 to 0-14 winners in front of 4,159 spectators.
A fiercely strong breeze blew from the Arden Road end of the ground and favoured Waterford in the opening half, but neither side used it too well in the early stages, instead working the ball through the phases, taking full advantage of the extra defenders operating at both ends of the ground.
Two Offaly sweepers and a seventh Waterford defender meant that both back lines had three extra bodies to counteract their attacking counterparts and that lead to a cagey enough opening quarter, in which twelve points were equally shared between the two sides.
A mounting wides tally for Waterford was part of the reason why they failed to put distance between themselves and their hosts, but Offaly too showed some good intelligence on the ball and picked out some clever intermediate range passes, creating openings that turned into Shane Dooley scores from frees.
James Mulrooney’s point after 18 minutes was their only score from play in the opening half an hour, but that won’t have been too much of a concern for Faithful manager Kevin Ryan, who earlier in the week spoke of how all his team were looking to do was to avoid a heavy defeat.
When Waterford found their rhythm however, they were utterly superb, and it became clear that a heavy defeat was very much on the cards.
A close-range score from Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh was the first of eight points in a row for the Déise men in the space of just ten minutes, as Offaly’s error count, the strength of the breeze and their effervescence of the Waterford attackers became a factor.
The inaccuracy that plagued Waterford in the early stages was nowhere to be seen as Austin Gleeson, Maurice Shanahan and even De Búrca got on the scoresheet, De Búrca hitting the target with a monster strike from inside his own ’45.
The strength of the wind was even further in evidence in the 33rd minute when a puckout from Stephen O’Keeffe dropped right into the Offaly penalty area and with a quick catch and strike, Shane Bennett was able to flash the ball underneath James Dempsey for a goal that pushed the lead out to double figures.
Gleeson, Jamie Barron, Darragh Fives and Shanahan all added further points for Waterford to make it 1-18 to 0-8 at the break and while Offaly would have hoped to have fared better with the wind in the second half, they never looked like making any inroads against a Waterford side that was growing increasingly dominant in every phase of the game.
Players spilled through from the midfield and half back to fire over points from all angles as Waterford piled on the misery on an Offaly side that was utterly unable to compete.
Derek McGrath didn’t make life easier for the home side by emptying his bench and introducing an array of hungry young players eager to secure their place next week.
Colin Dunford, Jake Dillon and Tommy Ryan all scored with their first touch and while goalkeeper James Dempsey pulled off a few heroic saves in the Offaly goal, he could do nothing but watch as Waterford went on to secure a 24-point win.
***
Offaly: J Dempsey; B Conneely (0-01), D Shortt, P Camon; S Gardiner, A Treacy, D King; P Murphy, S Ryan; S Kinsella (0-01), J Bergin (0-03, 0-02 frees), J Mulrooney (0-01); O Kelly (0-01), S Dooley (0-05 frees), E Nolan (0-01).
Subs: E Grogan for Treacy (ht), S Cleary for Dooley (ht), M Cleary for Nolan (54), P Geraghty for Kinsella (54), P Guinan (0-01) for Murphy (58)
Waterford: S O’Keeffe; N Connors, B Coughlan, S Fives; D Fives (0-01), C Gleeson, Philip Mahony; J Barron (0-03), K Moran (0-02); M Walsh (0-01), A Gleeson (0-06), Pauric Mahony (0-11, 0-07 frees, 0-01 ’65); T De Búrca (0-01), M Shanahan(0-02), S Bennett (1-00).
Subs: C Dunford (0-02) for Walsh (48), J Dillon (0-01) for Shanahan (48), S Daniels for Moran (52), T Ryan (0-01) for Bennett (55), P Curran (0-04, 0-02 frees, 0-01 ’65) for Pauric Mahony (59)
Referee: Alan Kelly (Galway)
