Cork hurlers renew rivalry with underdogs Offaly

WITHOUT wishing to tempt fate, there is a strong chance that Cork will make it two Allianz HL Division 1 Group A wins on the trot on Sunday whey they travel to St Brendan’s Park in Birr to take on Offaly (2pm).

The Faithful County are back in the top flight but endured a tough start as they lost out to Galway last weekend on a 4-22 to 0-17 scoreline. While the expansion of Division 1 into two groups of six means that there are opportunities for the counties just outside the elite – Carlow, Westmeath, Offaly, Antrim and Laois – to take on the big boys, it remains very difficult to penetrate the glass ceiling and the promotion and relegation from Division 1 to 2A can have a musical chairs-like feel.

Obviously, Cork can’t take the hosts’ challenge lightly and, given the noises from the camp before the start of the league and in the wake of last Saturday’s win over Clare, it’s unlikely that there will be any complacency and the positive start to the year will be maintained.

Of course, Offaly were once of the main competitors nationally and remain the last county to win the Liam MacCarthy Cup for the first time, with their 1981 title coming just a year after their maiden Leinster senior title.

FIRST

In that regard, it’s hardly surprising that the centenary All-Ireland hurling final in Thurles in 1984 should be the first championship meeting between Cork and Offaly, as the Rebels atoned for defeats to Kilkenny in the previous two deciders.

That it took 15 years for them to meet again in the championship, in the 1999 All-Ireland semi-final, was more of an eyebrow-raiser but Cork’s period in the doldrums for much of that decade coincided with Offaly’s purple patch in Leinster. In any case, another encounter at the same stage the following year helped to redress that statistic.

Both of these games were high-quality affairs despite there being a complete lack of goals in them.

The underdogs won as the All-Ireland champions were dethroned each time, Cork triumphing by 0-19 to 0-16 in ’99 while Offaly were winners on a similar scoreline, 0-19 to 0-15, in 2000.

That latter match could be regarded as Offaly’s last big championship win, its only real competition a 10-point victory in 2008 over a Limerick side that had reached the previous year’s All-Ireland final.

Since 2000 – when they failed to repeat the highs of the Cork win as Kilkenny easily saw them off in the final – they have struggled as the stars of the 1990s shuffled off the intercounty scene without a conveyor belt of talent to replace them.

In a county where the pick is concentrated on a small area, it is always going to be difficult to produce players of such a high standard on a regular basis. In any case, we in Cork are all too aware of how difficult it is to achieve underage success and then harness it – and that with a far larger playing population

While the Offaly have never won an U21 All-Ireland, the 1980s provided three minor titles in the space of four years – 1986, 1987 and 1989 – with the graduates from those wins going on to backbone the successful 1990s senior teams. That is proof, if ever it was needed, that success at senior level has the trickle-down effect of lifting a county’s morale, while also providing a stream of talent to progress and do well at senior – the kind of virtuous circle any sporting organisation aspires to.

Both the Leinster minor and U21 hurling titles were won in 2000, but the county has failed to add to either tally since then. 

They reached the provincial minor final in 2007, 2008 and 2016 while 2020 were their first time back in the decider at what is now known as U20.

The appointment of Michael Fennelly was a positive one and the league promotion and Christy Ring Cup win of 2021 were green shoots. Even so, whatever happens in the current league campaign, they will face a battle from Kerry and Carlow among others in trying to come out on top in the Joe McDonagh Cup as they seek a place back in the Leinster championship.

While life in Division 1 may turn out to be a difficult experience, ultimately it should stand to them. For Cork, though, Sunday should be about focusing on and then dealing with the task at hand in a professional manner.