For the first ten minutes of this afternoon's Allianz Hurling League Division 2A final in Portlaoise, it felt like history was beckoning for Kildare hurling.
While the Short Grass County spent the decade of the 1970s hurling in Division 1B and played in a number of league quarter-finals, they travelled to MW Hire O’Moore Park today hoping, perhaps even expecting, to reach the top tier of the competition for the first time in their history.
And in that opening spell of the game, they were utterly rampant. Gerry Keegan’s goal was right out of the top drawer, their large crowd of supporters were in full voice, and Offaly were on the rack as the Lily Whites fired in 1-4 on the bounce, after conceding the first score of the game.
The breeze favoured David Herity’s side in the first half and Rian Boran, Cian Boran and Cathal McCabe all made it count with wonderful points from distance, with their complete control of Offaly’s long puckouts giving them the ammunition.
Yet despite all their injuries, Offaly found something more, and ultimately no-one could dispute that they were worthy winners of this league final, and full value for their return to the top tier, following their relegation in 2022.
Their comeback here was based on three key factors. Once they recovered from their initial shell shock, they produced a defensive master class, with Ciarán Burke, Ben Conneely, Jason Sampson and Adrian Cleary (sweeper) all delivering outstanding performances.
They used the ball efficiently, playing through the lines with accurate hurling that kept the ball away from the tackle, and both Eoghan Cahill and Cillian Kiely came up with some huge scores to get Offaly back into the game, however Kildare will regret the third factor in Offaly’s revival, which was their own dreadful inaccuracy.
A final wide count of 11 is not a standout number in its own right, but eight of those were in the first half, and a huge number were from what could only be described as very high percentage chances.
Offaly got back to within a single point before Kildare rallied again to lead by 1-11 to 0-11 at half-time, but for the first 25 minutes of the second half, the Faithful county were utterly dominant, particularly at the back.
They put the Kildare forward line on lockdown, holding them to just two points in that time, while rattling off ten of their own.
The introduction of Charlie Mitchell, who played in the U-20 championship yesterday, gave them a strong focal point at full forward, while Cahill, Kiely and David Nally all registered some outstanding scores.
With their promotion hopes fading, Kildare mounted one last rally, inspired by a wondrous score on the run from Rian Boran, while David Qualter also made a serious impact off the bench, firing over two good points.
The nervousness levels in the crowd reached a new height when the lead was cut to two points and while Brian Duignan made life fractionally comfortable for Offaly with the last score of the game, there was still time for Simon Leacy to win a ball in a ruck and drive at the Offaly defence, earning a free on the 20 metre line.
Kildare goalkeeper Paddy McKenna got good power on his strike, but his Offaly counterpart Stephen Corcoran was able to make the save and clear his lines with the last play.
Offaly: S Corcoran; D Maher, B Conneely, C Burke; K Sampson (0-02), J Sampson, D King; J Keenaghan, C Kiely (0-04); D Nally (0-03, 1 sl), J Clancy, A Cleary (0-02); E Cahill (0-11, 6f, 1 ’65), S Dooley (0-01), P Clancy.
Subs: C Mitchell for Dooley (h-t), P Delaney for J Clancy (45), B Duignan (0-01) for J Clancy (48), L Langton for Keenaghan (67)
Kildare: Paddy McKenna; Simon Leacy, Niall Ó Muineacháin, Cian Shanahan; Paul Dolan (0-01), Rian Boran (0-02), Conan Boran; Johnny Byrne (0-01), Cathal McCabe (0-02); Cian Boran (0-02), Gerry Keegan (1-00), Declan Flaherty (0-03); Brian Byrne (0-01), James Burke (0-04, 3f), Cathal Dowling.
Subs: Jack Travers for Dolan (50), Mark Delaney for Flaherty (59), John McKeon for Shanahan (62), David Qualter (0-02) for Burke (63-65, temp), David Qualter for Cian Boran (65)
Referee: Thomas Walsh (Waterford)
