Offaly goalkeeper Alan Mulhall pictured at the Bord na Móna Leinster GAA Series 2017 Launch.
By Cian O'Connell
The Ruislip cold was biting when Offaly's Allianz Football League journey under Pat Flanagan commenced.
On a damp and blustery Sunday afternoon in west London back in February 2015 Offaly did enough to eke out a win that was more about character than craft.
Promotion was secured from Division Four and this year in Division Three Offaly offered glimpses of their potential.
Goalkeeper Alan Mulhall remains a significant influence for the Faithful County and the Walsh Island clubman is adamant that Offaly are developing.
"The goal would be the same as last year: to get promoted from Division Three," Mulhall says about Offaly's Spring target.
"We probably had our best finish in a number of years in that we lost out on score difference, we had the same amount of points as Clare. We just lost out on score difference which was a sickener because we know where we dropped them points. We can nearly trace it back to shots taken because I think there were only two points in it which kept us out of it.
"So that is our target, to get focused on the League. The League is a reflection of where teams are. There is nobody in Division Four or Division Three by accident, that is where we are, as part of our growth we are looking to get out of Division Three. We see ourselves as being good enough to be in Division Two.
"In the Championship we just couldn't get that equaliser against Westmeath, we were doing all the pressing, all the pressure after a bad start.
"If we had got that equaliser with 10 or 15 minutes to go I think we could have pushed on, but in fairness to Westmeath they held out, they kept driving on. When you look up the Westmeath team are all over the place, they are going back and going forward so it is hard to pinpoint where the attack is going to come from.
"We have learned a lot from last year, but it was good to get that Leinster win in from when we beat Longford. We will be hoping to go a step further this year."
Offaly manager Pat Flanagan.
During the winter months Mulhall, Leinster GAA Provincial Games Manager, thought long and hard about his own inter-county future.
"I'm probably on my last legs at the minute, I was 34 in September, I had a lot of thinking to do about whether I was going back or not," Mulhall admits.
"I had a chat with Pat and a few of the lads. I think there is something coming in Offaly, I'm going back to try to drive it on as much as I can.
"Offaly have taken a step this year in that the under 21 management and senior management are effectively the same management. They have two of the senior selectors and another selector from the minor last year, they are coming together to look after the under 21s.
"We are all going to be training together, Dave Hare is looking after the minor, under 21, and senior strength and conditioning. Physically we are trying to develop a pathway and now football wise the lads have a good link with the guys in the minor. Unless there is a steady flow it doesn't happen."
Walsh is encouraged by the work that is being carried out at underage level throughout the province. "No, it is just at senior level," Walsh says about Dublin's recent dominance.
"I've Louth, Meath, Kildare, Longford, and Westmeath, they are my five counties. The structures in those counties are excellent at the minute. The Development Squads are all on their programmes, they are all bringing in as many players as they can.
"Currently we have a cross county initiative that we are trying to push. Liam O'Neill is Chairing the committee, I'm part of that committee myself. We have asked County Boards to free up February and March to let us run an under 13 and 15 league for the whole province so lads can get a chance to play against each other rather than the monotony of playing the same teams in a League, Championship, and Cup competition.
"They are getting to play teams from outside so you could be looking at Portlaoise, Portarlington, Athy, Monastervin, Baltinglass, and Kinnegad, something like that in the one group.
"It would be good for the lads, the gap isn't there. All our Development Squad competitions that we run, Dublin are losing matches, Kildare are losing matches, Meath are losing matches, it is fairly competitive."
