1994 All-Ireland SHC Final

OFFALY 3-16 LIMERICK 2-13

By John Harrington

The 1994 All-Ireland SHC Final between Offaly and Limerick has gone down in history as The Five-Minute Final’.

It remains the most extraordinary late comeback ever witnessed in an All-Ireland Hurling Final as Offaly came from five points down with five minutes to play to ultimately win the game by six.

It was a heart-breaking loss for a Limerick team that had dominated most of the match, but the manner in which Offaly contrived to win it testified to the character as well as ability that made them such a potent force in the 1990s.

For the Dooley family, in particular, it was a special day.

They scored 2-11 of Offaly’s 3-16 total and were centrally involved in most of the key moments of the match.

“Coming up to the match we weren't overconfident, but we were confident enough,” recalls Billy Dooley.

“We were after having a hard campaign. We beat Wexford and we beat Kilkenny who were All-Ireland champions at the time. Then we beat Galway in an All-Ireland semi-final.

“Limerick had come from Munster and Munster hurling at the time probably wasn't as strong as Leinster, really. Kilkenny had won the two previous All-Irelands and Leinster hurling was probably a bit stronger so we would have given ourselves a good chance coming into the match.

“That was a good Limerick team, though. They had a lot of good hurlers and we would have always felt sorry that some of them didn't win an All-Ireland, to be honest.”

Offaly didn’t just finish the match strongly, they got off to a flier too when Joe Dooley scored a goal after just four minutes.

“I went into the game with a broken wrist which wouldn't have been widely known,” the eldest Dooley sibling told GAA.ie

“My training was seriously curtailed in the run-in to the match but I took painkillers and got it strapped up in the hope I could get through as much as the game as possible.

“My mindset was that I needed to get into the game as quickly as I could because there were a lot of young fellas on the team. The likes of Johnny, Billy, and a few others, so I felt it was up to me to sort of make sure the day didn't pass us by, or, me by, at least, for a start.

“Johnny took a penalty after three or four minutes and I said to myself, 'Ill be the first in after it, anyway, whatever happens'. Luckily it worked out, I was the first in, and got the goal from the rebound.”

Limerick quickly recovered from that set-back and quickly grabbed the goal by the scruff of the neck.

Inspired by Damien Quigley who scored 2-3 from play, they led by six points at half-time and looked certain winners until those fateful last five minutes.

The game turned when Billy Dooley won a free around 23 yards from goal.

His brother Johnny backed himself to go for broke and drove a low shot through a thicket of Limerick defenders on the goal-line to the back of the net.

Offaly won the ball back again from the resulting Limerick puck-out and went straight down the field to score another goal as substitute Pat O’Connor fired the ball home when he pulled first time on a bouncing ball.

Limerick goalkeeper, Joe Quaid, was criticised unfairly by some after the game for taking the puck-out too quickly after the Dooley goal, and it’s an accusation that still grates with him.

“The one thing I will always put my hand up for that day was the initial free that Johnny Dooley scored a goal from,” Quaid told GAA.ie.

“For some reason, I left an extra man back into the goals that day which I would normally never do. I'd normally have two to the left and two to the right of me and I'd take the middle.

“I knew he was going for a goal and I think Mike Nash came in behind me and said, 'Joe, move over a small bit.' I took a half a step to the left, the ball wasn't hit that well, and I though the boys would handle it but it went in. If I had stayed where I was I would have stopped it. I didn't take much notice of it though because we were still up by two or three points at that stage.

“Ger Hegarty was free out on the wing 80 yards from goal and I put it into his hand. It was probably the most accurate puck-out I ever hit. There wasn't a mention of a quick puck-out all day or night until some b**********s rang in to the Sunday Game and say the puck-out had been taken too quickly and then straight away it was latched onto.

“There was nothing wrong with the puck-out, but I will take the blame for the other goal. Most definitely I should not have left anyone else in beside me.”

Offaly had caught fire now. Johnny Dooley and Joe Troy landed points and then Billy Dooley, incredibly, hit three points in less than two minutes from pretty much the same spot out by the right side-line.

He was so busy driving nails into Limerick’s coffin that he was visibly struggling to catch his breath.

“Yeah, I suppose, I was,” laughs Dooley. “It was a good complaint to have, wasn't it! You could be standing there with the ball at the other end of the field and it wouldn't be much good to you.

“You'd often see that in games. When the tide turns the ball sometimes just seems to follow you. The goal Johnny scored from the free kicked it off and then Pat O'Connor got a very good goal just after that.

“John Troy scored a point I think as well. It all just fell into place. The minute Johnny got that goal the whole thing turned around. Limerick just lost their structure.”

Joe Dooley had been substituted in the second-half so watched the madness unfold from the Offaly dug-out and could hardly believe what he was seeing.

“It was unreal, to be honest,” he said. “I was disappointed to be taken off because I had a goal and two points scored and felt I was doing okay.

“It looked like the game was gone from us, and, in fairness, only for Johnny's goal, that turned everything.

“Then, obviously, the second-goal coming so quickly afterwards. Then everybody realised that we could win this thing.

“I suppose Limerick had the complete opposite reaction. They wilted completely under the pressure when that happened.

“Even after the two goals they were still only a point down with three minutes to go. But the energy went out of them and the opposite happened for Offaly. It was a great win for us.”

Considering the nature of the win, it was no surprise that the Offaly supporters celebrated with the gusto they did.

Hundreds of them had climbed the fence before the end, and when the final whistle eventually blew the pitch was quickly thronged with Faithful County supporters.

“There's some satisfaction when the final whistle goes in an All-Ireland Final,” says Billy Dooley. “It's a special feeling. We were beaten in 1995 so I know how it feels to lose an All-Ireland Final too.

“It was only after we lost in '95 that I really started feeling for Limerick. They had an All-Ireland Final in their hands and just let it slip.”