New Offaly Under-20 hurling manager Leo O'Connor says that while it took time to get over the blow of losing last year’s All-Ireland minor final, he is delighted to continue nurturing the development of the county’s young hurlers.
As a coach on his home turf, he previously guided the Limerick Under-21s to a Munster title in 2011 after they defeated Cork in extra-time in an epic encounter at the Gaelic Grounds.
The highly-regarded Limerick manager led the Offaly minor team to a Leinster title last season – their first in 22 years.
An All-Ireland final appearance followed and they only lost the decider to a controversial, last-gasp Tipperary goal.
But he is back at the helm, this time with the under-20s, alongside his trusted backroom team of Johnny Pilkington, Martin Cashen and Hughie Hannon.
"The club game is now like senior inter-county was years ago, everything has pushed on to a different level"
"For about a month after that final I wanted to hibernate, to be honest," O’Connor tells RTE Sport. "The way we lost the final was tough to take.
"So, for the next month I just kept to myself. But the game draws you back in. After that I really enjoyed going back to club matches. I enjoyed the tail-end of watching my own county win the All-Ireland senior final. I live in Tipp, so I caught club matches there too and in Limerick. I went to watch games in Offaly as well, all the time watching different things and learning different things.
"And you'd pick up lots. The club game is now like senior inter-county was years ago, everything has pushed on to a different level."
O’Connor’s appointment was officially ratified on Monday night by the Offaly board, with Johnny Kelly named as senior team manager, alongside a very impressive backroom set-up, with talk that Eamon O’Shea could yet link up with the set-up at a later stage.

For his part, O’Connor says he will be working with a very good group of young Offaly hurlers and adds that strength and conditioning is an area he will be looking at very closely as the county bids to challenge in the next grade up from under-17.
"I have 46 names in my mind," he says, "I will be working off a panel of 46 guys I have looked at over the course of the club championship and we will be eager and ready to get up and running. There is plenty of hard work ahead."
O’Connor feels that the dynamic of hurling has changed again in the past two years and acknowledges the importance of staying at the epicentre of the game’s evolution.
"Just the pace of it, the dynamics of it, these young guys coming through need pace and buckets of it.
"You still must have all the natural basic skills, the picking, striking and the first touch, but strength and conditioning has gone to a different level again, as we can all see"
"It’s off the shoulder running, it’s any amount of running, and it’s a huge work rate. Those are the necessary requirements for these guys to come through.
"Hurling is a different game now, it’s about getting through the tackle, foraging for breaking ball and bringing that hunger which is needed to even get you to the ball.
"You still must have all the natural basic skills, the picking, striking and the first touch, but strength and conditioning has gone to a different level again, as we can all see.
"You could spot it in that All-Ireland minor final last year, the work rate of both teams was off the scale for a minor game. It was like an under-20 match. But you could see it the whole way through the championship. All the counties have stepped up all because of the academies. They all looked at what Limerick have done and said, 'we need to do this'.
"I met a guy at a club match last weekend and he said that the under-20 grade in Offaly was the area that needed huge attention and support in the next couple of years, and he is right. We have to put in a serious amount of work to keep the good work going."