New Offaly manager Stephen Wallace reckons the building blocks are in place to lift the Faithful County out of the "dumps".
The Kerry native has taken over a team that barely survived in Division 3 last season, with their fate going down to the last kick of the ball in their final league game against Laois.
Deep into stoppage time a long shot from their near neighbours drifted wide, some claimed it was over.
Had it be given and secured a draw for Laois, Wallace would be starting life as a senior inter-county manager from Division 4.
That fact is not stopping him from targeting a spot in the second tier this year.
"If promotion isn’t an aim, we’re only codding ourselves," Wallace told the We Are Offaly podcast.
The former Kerry Junior manager took over from Pat Flanagan, who had wanted to extend his three-year tenure.
He had helped Offaly to their first Leinster championship win in nine years, over Longford in 2016, but the board opted for a change.
What might have served as warning sign for Wallace, an outsider, would have been the experience of the last two hurling managers in the county.
Tipperary native Eamonn Kelly and then Waterford’s Kevin Ryan both took charge and left after one year each.
The county's hurling review committee resigned en masse in protest at perceived county board intransigence towards their recommendations.
Wallace says he has received assurances that he and his backroom team will get the support they need.
"There’s no hiding the fact that Offaly are a little bit down in the dumps the last couple of years," he said. "[Change] won’t happen overnight.
"The county board have said no to nothing yet in terms of the systems, processes, platforms we’ve put in place. They seem to be paddling the canoe in the same direction.
"We’re trying to get Offaly a platform where they can compete with a level playing field with the other counties.
"If they are good enough football-wise, that’s another issue. In terms of proactivity the review committee and the county board have been top class."
Wallace will be working out of the Faithful Fields, the new training centre just south of Tullamore.
Offaly teams of the past never had a dedicated facility like this, sometimes being forced out of the county to train. The Ardfert man believes this is a vital building block.
Faithful Fields a hive of activity with over 900 children taking part in mini games @gaaleinster @officialgaa pic.twitter.com/DdceGzeyiU
— Official Offaly GAA (@Offaly_GAA) September 23, 2017
"Every young player in Offaly should want to come into the Faithful Fields and if they’re coming in you’ve a chance," says Wallace, who will be preparing his team for a Leinster Championship date with Wicklow in the summer.
"You’ve got to have something to aspire to and I think by making the senior team project a bit sexier to these guys we’ll see the benefit of it in a few years’ time.
"At the end of the day we’ll be judged on the games of football we win by the fans and the media but all I’m concerned about is the 26 or 28 lads who want to come in here and put Offaly number one and make the Offaly senior football team attractive to the development squads that are coming in.
"It won’t happen overnight, we can’t pluck footballers off a tree.
"We’ve got to work with what we have. There’s a promising Under-21 team that were in a Leinster final last year."
If you don't think Seamus Darby's goal is worthy of your vote, maybe you will be swayed by Eugene McGee's turtleneck #Irelandsgreatest pic.twitter.com/YsNj4HFeD4
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 9, 2017
