Cork midfielder Ethan Twomey is taking nothing for granted as the Rebels head to Tullamore this evening to face an Offaly side rejuvenated by eight days of glory.
The Faithful County celebrated wildly as their heavily-backed Under-20 side took All-Ireland honours at the start of this month and their seniors followed it up just over a week later by claiming the Joe McDonagh Cup at the expense of Laois.
Reaching the final of the latter secured an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final spot and it's not always been the kindest of rewards for Joe McDonagh teams, but the St Finbarr’s youngster is cautious about the challenge of a county that has really puffed its chest out.
"You can see the last few weeks, they won the Joe McDonagh against Laois, a great game of hurling. They have some unbelievable forwards, very fast, very skilful," Twomey told RTÉ Sport’s Marty Morrissey.
"The U20s then, they’re unbelievable. They’ve been coming for the last three or four years really. Excellent pace, excellent skill.
"It’ll be a massive challenge Saturday night. Home crowd, Offaly will have an advantage there. They're going to bring a massive crowd. There’s a football game [Cork v Tyrone] on as well before so Tullamore will be packed."
The Rebels are overwhelming favourites to set up a quarter-final date with Dublin as their own resurgence continues.
Munster defeats to Waterford and Clare had left their season on the brink of disaster, but a stirring win over Limerick, when Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s foundations were shook by a red wall on the terraces, and a 4-30 tally against Tipp not only kept them alive, but marked them down as genuine Liam MacCarthy Cup contenders.
"The first game against Waterford didn’t go to plan, we lost the first two games obviously to Waterford and Clare," Twomey continued.
"We were disappointed after that but we had faith in ourselves that we could bounce back.
"We did it before in 2022, bounced back after we lost the first two games, and we’re delighted with the last two games. Obviously a lot to improve on but we’re delighted to be out of the Munster championship.
"We didn’t get out of the group last year so that was something we aimed for this year and job done."
Offaly played in last year’s preliminary quarter-final stage after their Joe McDonagh final loss to Carlow, but it was a chastising experience as Tipperary hit them for an incredible 7-38.
Faithful County captain Jason Sampson played that day and felt the humiliation like everyone else, but he has been buoyed by their recovery this season.
That started back in the league where they earned a draw with Wexford and put in good showings in losses to Kilkenny and Clare on their return to Division 1.
It continued then into the summer with that U20/McDonagh double that has allowed optimism to waft through Offaly hurling once more.
"It’s going to be a massive challenge, we know that ourselves, but we felt in the league we were really good in a lot of our games, really competitive back up in Division 1, and the Cork game [a 5-28 to 0-16 loss] was probably the one game where we let ourselves down.
"Hopefully we try and right a bit of that and try and get as competitive as we can."
Whatever today’s outcome, Sampson said it has been a special month to be involved with hurling in the county.
"The eight days there between the two finals was really good.
"We were on second so it was a hard act to follow, the U20s, but we did. We got a great bounce of energy off the lads, they came back in training the Tuesday night and they were all bouncing around the place."
Watch an All-Ireland Football Championship double-header, Armagh v Galway (1.45pm) and Dublin v Mayo (3.45pm) on Sunday on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch The Saturday Game this weekend from 10.50pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
