By Kevin Egan

Offaly, and manager Declan Kelly, are determined to make the most of their Eirgrid All-Ireland U-20 football final opportunity in Croke Park this Sunday.

After slaying Leinster giants Dublin and 2019 champions Cork to reach a fourth ever national decider, the Faithful County face Roscommon for the first time in this grade, looking to add to their only other success in 1988.

In the last three years, Offaly have been denied at provincial level by Kildare (twice) and Meath but after finally getting a shot at Leinster glory against Dublin, the midlanders seized their chance.

“With the group themselves, they had an ambition to win a Leinster,” stated manager Declan Kelly who has overseen the county’s U-20 (and U-21) footballers since 2018.” That was within the squad, they felt they had the potential to win a Leinster title. 

“The way we would have spoken about the All-Ireland series is you might get only one shot at it. If you lose at senior level, you have next year to come back. But at U-20 level, you don’t because lads move on. 

“So we said if we get out of Leinster, we’ll put our best foot forward and give the All-Ireland semi-final a rattle against Cork and see where it took us.”

They were tested in their first two games of this campaign, edging past Wexford by 1-10 to 1-9 before managing one extra white flag in the Leinster semi-final win over Westmeath in Mullingar.

“The way the first two games went,” added the Offaly boss.  “Our record against Wexford; two years ago, we played them in the minor and a bit like that, we fell over the line by a point in Enniscorthy. We knew going down there, it wasn’t going to be easy.

 “In Mullingar, I suppose being a local derby; we just got out the right side of it and obviously ended up in a Leinster Final. The general feeling is they thought they’d be good enough to contest and potentially win a Leinster, which was fair enough when you consider that they went to Newbridge and Longford and picked up very good away wins.”

The country took notice when they defeated Dublin in the Leinster Final three weeks ago. Despite conceding three goals, they registered 15 points for a three-point victory with forwards Jack Bryant and Morgan Tynan sharing 10 of those.

And to show that result wasn’t a one-off, they did the goal scoring against Cork the next day. Bryant was to the fore, striking 2-4 (bringing his championship tally to 3-20 in four games) as they ran out 3-10 to 0-14 winners.

“The one thing you would always say is we conceded three (goals) against Dublin,” added Kelly when asked whether defence or attack will be the key focus of preparation ahead of the weekend. 

“Realistically if we concede three goals against Roscommon on Sunday, you’ll probably need to score three yourself. And that’s an area that you will always look at. Where are you conceding scores and where can we try to work hard to stop that happening? 

“Against Cork, when they got a run at us there (and) they got it back to two points, we had probably a few chances there to maybe break their momentum. It didn’t happen and we were hanging on a little bit.

Despite being neighbours, Roscommon and Offaly don’t have a rich history of competitive battles and while the Connacht champions were in All-Ireland Finals in 2012 and 2014, Offaly ended a 16-year wait for the Leinster title against Dublin.

“The fact that they’re not in Leinster, we don’t come across them often,” continues Kelly. “We don’t come up against Roscommon from a competitive aspect that much. We probably would have a bigger rivalry with the likes of Westmeath, Kildare, Laois.

However, Roscommon enjoyed the bragging rights in June following a two-point challenge match victory in Kiltoom. They’ve struck 12 goals in four outings so far and while Offaly’s manager is aware of the danger, he insists their preparation won’t be at the expense of playing their own game.

“It’s probably a combination of both. Obviously, you will look at how the opposition set up and how they play. But we don’t really get too engrossed in the opposition really. 

“You look at yourself and try to play to your strengths because if you concede possession, the good teams, they’re going to hurt you. Our mantra is try to get on the ball ourselves, try and impose our game on the opposition. 

Offaly’s game has delivered when required on their way to first All-Ireland Final appearance in 33 years. And they’ll hope that determination and belief from within the squad will end a barren period for their fortunes with a second All-Ireland football crown.