Cormac Egan of Offaly celebrates with joint-manager Mickey Harte after the Allianz Football League Division 3 final match between Kildare and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By Paul Keane
It wasn't something he necessarily shouted from the rooftops but when Mickey Harte first arrived in Offaly last August he saw potential. Title winning potential.
Confidence may have taken a blow following a fruitless Tailteann Cup campaign last summer but the raw materials, Harte felt, were in place to achieve something special.
This, afterall, was a team backboned by a core of players who'd won an All-Ireland U-20 title in 2021. Seven of the team that he and joint Offaly manager Declan Kelly named for today's Allianz League Division 3 final win over Kildare - captain Lee Pearson, Rory Egan, John Furlong, goalscorer Cormac Egan, Cathal Flynn, Jack Bryant and Man of the Match Keith O'Neill - all featured in that U-20 final defeat of Roscommon.
So Harte always felt days like today were a possibility.
"I did, I'm kind of like that anyway," he smiled. "But I didn't necessarily announce it to anybody. In my own head and heart, I said this team is good enough to get out of this division. We said that when we went to Louth as well, we said they were good enough to get out of Division 4, we believed they were good enough to get out of Division 3, and now they're consolidating themselves in Division 2, which I'm glad to see.
"If you didn't have the aspiration to improve, then you're going in to just create a team for a division and think they're happy to stay there. If you're happy to stay where you are, you generally don't (progress), you go backwards. So if you're not moving up and forward, you're moving backwards and I don't really think that's a great idea."
Offaly joint-manager Mickey Harte, left, and Offaly joint-manager Declan Kelly, second from right, with Offaly players, from left, Jack McEvoy, Jordan Hayes and Dylan Hyland after the Allianz Football League Division 3 final match between Kildare and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Joint manager Kelly said that claiming a precious piece of silverware in Croke Park validates the efforts of a core of Offaly players.
"It does," maintained Kelly. "Obviously promotion was key but when there's a final at stake in Croke Park with a cup on the line, it's great to come out of it. We don't get up here that often and to get a cup at the end of the day, it's great. For the players it's great and for the county it's great. We'd a good support on hand and we've the hurlers down in Cork next Sunday. There's a good following, there's good backing around the county. To give everyone days like today is great for the county."
Offaly will still need to reach a provincial final to qualify for the All-Ireland SFC. That's because of Down, who won the Tailteann Cup last year, suffering relegation from Division 2. Harte, referencing the fact that Offaly would potentially have to beat Dublin to reach a Leinster final, offered a grim prediction.
"It's a very unlikely event, put it like that," he said of the county qualifying for the Leinster final. "Who we have to play to get there, it seems very unlikely that we'll get that route so it seems like we won't be there. Look, that's a pity, it would have been great to be there. But the rules are the rules."
Kildare manager Brian Flanagan blamed their failure to take enough of their chances - they scored 19 times from 38 shots - for the defeat.
"We had enough (chances), we created enough," he said. "That's been something throughout the league, in all our games, including the two or three that we lost, we had enough chances to win. The shot creation and chance creation is not the issue for us, conversion on certain days has been. But we'll fix that and I think the players are very aware of it and working very hard."
Kildare were missing a number of players for the Division 3 decider and Flanagan gave an injury update ahead of their Leinster SFC opener against Westmeath on April 12.
"I think we're in a good position today coming off the field in that Kevin Flynn got back on the field, Darragh Kirwan got back on the field, Paddy McDermott has got back on in the last two games," said Flanagan.
"So we're in a good position in that regard. Ben McCormack picked up a knock last week. It wasn't overly serious but we just didn't want to be silly with the Leinster championship just around the corner so he'll be fine for two weeks. Daniel Flynn will be back training fully next week. Other than that I think we're not in a bad position."