By John Harrington

The Offaly hurlers won two memorable All-Ireland Finals in the 1990s, but you could make an argument that neither was their greatest victory of the era.

Because when you take into account the considerable context of the achievement, their victory over Clare in the 1998 All-Ireland semi-final replay is hard to beat.

It was the third match of a dramatic trilogy that took on a life of its own and was the moment that Offaly side went from being a good team to a great one.

They’re now commonly regarded as gifted mavericks. A uniquely skilful team who achieved great things by doing it their own unique way.

But had they not defeated Clare in that 1998 All-Ireland semi-final, then the Offaly team of that decade wouldn’t have the prominent place in the history of hurling they do now.

To repeat, context is everything, so before examining the nuts and bolts of Offaly’s eventual victory over Clare in Semple Stadium you need to rewind even further, back to the to their 3-10 to 1-11 defeat to Kilkenny in the Leinster Final.

The then Offaly team manager, Michael ‘Bab’s Keating, never one to sugar-coat his opinions, declared after the match his players had been guilty of “running around like sheep in a heap”.

The Monday after the match Offaly midfielder Johnny Pilkington fired a few rockets back at Babs when interviewed by Irish Independent journalist, Liam Horan, and by the Tuesday Babs was gone.

The little known Michael Bond came in to replace him, and at that stage no-one was predicting Offaly’s year might eventually have the glorious crescendo it ultimately did.

“After the Leinster Final we'd parted company with Babs Keating and Michael Bond came in out of the blue,” recalls Joe Dooley, taking up the story.

“Then my brother Johnny got his jaw broken in a challenge game against Kilkenny and we just looked to be a in a really awful place.

“But then we just got going. We changed our style in training, we went with a more direct first-time hurling style, and did an awful lot of ball-work. We had previously done a lot of heavy training under Babs Keating and Johnny Murray.

“We got over Antrim in the All-Ireland quarter-final and then we had two weeks of a break to the first Clare game. We had put in so much hard work all year and we were starting to enjoy our hurling again so we said we'd have a right good rattle off Clare.

“Clare were All-Ireland champions and going for a third All-Ireland in four years and were also double Munster champions. They were the best team in Ireland at the time but we were looking forward to having a right cut off them, which we did.”

Clare, in fact, were quite fortunate to survive the first match of the trilogy, only snatching the draw late on with a free that was softish for the times.

The first replay was a very different match entirely, though.

Offaly arrived late after their bus was stuck in traffic and that disruption to their preparations seemed to take a toll because they were run ragged by Clare in the first half of the match.

The Banner County led by 10 points with 22 minutes to go and seemed set for victory, but Offaly gritted their teeth and steadily fought their way back into the contest.

Goals from Billy Dooley and Joe Errity had helped pare the deficit to three points before referee Jimmy Cooney infamously called a premature halt to proceedings with two minutes of normal time still to play.

Offaly supporters staged a sit-in protest on the pitch which prevented the scheduled All-Ireland U-21 B Final between Kerry and Kildare from taking place, and by the following day a third replay was ordered by the GAA’s Games Administration Committee.

“We had a fair idea within a couple of hours there would be a third match,” says Dooley.

“Even before we left the stadium and looked out at the field and it was full of Offaly people, like the GAA were in a very difficult position. 

“They were going to have to give us the replay because there would have been pickets the following week if we had been thrown out. 

“We had a meeting that evening in the Spa Hotel among the players and management and we had decided that we'd train the following evening. Some were saying we didn't know whether there was a match or not and others were saying, 'Well, I'll be there anyway', and this kind of thing. 

“My recollection is that we got the official word the following morning that there was going to be another replay and we trained that evening.”

The nature of the reprieve didn’t just put an extra pep in the step of the Offaly players, it energised the whole county for the third match in the series.

There was a real sense that the players and supporters were very much in this together now.

“Without a doubt,” says Dooley. “It's like anything in life, the supporters now really felt they had an ownership of the team and were making their own contribution to the thing and we fed off that as well. It was working both ways.

“We went from our supporters being luke-warm about the team before the first match against Clare to now being really up for it. I think we sold 14 or 15 thousand tickets in Offaly for the game in Thurles which was a record at the time.”

The third replay got the sort of build-up befitting of an All-Ireland Final in the media in the days coming up to the match.

The day itself was a scorcher and that combined with the fact that the game was taking place in the more intimate surrounds of Thurles rather than Dublin only added to the carnival atmosphere.

“It was a really warm day,” recalls Dooley. “We were in Hayes Hotel before the game for a cup of tea and when the bus came into the square in Thurles it was absolutely jammed.

“It was like there was a concert on and everyone was banging the side of the bus as we went down and into the hotel.

“And we could hear all the noise outside when we were inside having the cup of tea. It wasn't a great place to be, to be honest, but we actually fed off it a bit. We were sort of up for it then.

“Having had a reprieve from the week before we were on a bit of a high, I suppose. We went down to Thurles the week before the match and everybody was in good form.

“Because we had a lot of heavy work done earlier in the year we were in good condition now and we had the hurlers. It was just to get the mood right and everybody going in the right direction and that's what happened.”

Dooley himself would be the game’s most decisive contributor.

He scored the first two points of the match to give Offaly the fast start they craved, and ended up with a final tally of five from play.

At the age of 35 and the twilight of his career, he delivered one of his greatest ever displays in an Offaly jersey.

“In all my career I was never hitting the ball as sweet,” says Dooley.

“We went down to Thurles on the Wednesday evening before the match and we spent nearly all the session on shooting practice at both ends of the field.

“I couldn't hardly find a place on the field that I couldn't hit the ball over the bar from, no matter what angle it was or which side of the field. I was just in that sort of zone.

“I had trained very hard that year as well and on the day then I was lucky the ball just ran for me. Sometimes you could do the same work and nothing would happen for you. I just felt good about it and enjoyed the occasion which is the most important thing.

“I just felt it was a day to be savoured and enjoyed and it just worked for me on the day.”

Offaly were the better team on the day and eventually won by three points, but Clare fought bravely to the bitter end and might even had found a way to win had Stephen Byrne not pulled off a series of crucial saves, including one as late as the 70th minute from a Fergal Hegarty shot.

“Yeah, Stephen pulled off a few great saves near the finish,” says Dooley.

“Everybody just put their shoulder to the wheel on the day really.

“Clare never really had a chance all day but then they had a couple of snap chances near the end and Stephen pulled off a very good save.

“Everybody played well, the whole team played well. I was lucky to get the few scores but everybody played well on the day.

“We owed Clare a beating too after 1995, so it was payback really a little bit as well.

“To this day people always want to talk to me about that match in Thurles.”

Not surprisingly, Dooley doesn’t mind indulging them.

1998 All-Ireland SHC semi-final second replay

OFFALY 0-16 CLARE 0-13

Scorers for Offaly: Joe Dooley 0-5, B Whelehan 0-3 (2f, 165), G Hanniffy 0-3, J Troy 0-1 (f), J Pilkington 0-1, B Dooley 0-1, J Erritty 0-1, Johnny Dooley 0-1.

Scorers for Clare: J O'Connor 0-5 (4f), D Forde 0-2, S McMahon 0-1 (f), J Reddan 0-1, O Baker 0-1, P Mulhare 0-1, N Gilligan 0-1, A Daly 0-1.

OFFALY: S Byrne; S Whelehan, K Kinahan, M Hanamy; B Whelehan, H Rigney, K Martin; Johnny Dooley, J Pilkington; M Duignan, J Erritty, P Mulhare; B Dooley, J Troy, Joe Dooley. Subs: G Hanniffy for P Mulhare (28 mins); J Ryan for J Troy (53 mins); K Farrell for B Dooley (61 mins).

CLARE: D Fitzgearld; B Quinn, B Lohan, F Lohan; L Doyle, S McMahon, A Daly; J Reddan, O Baker; J O'Connor, F Tuohy, A Markham; N Gilligan, G O'Loughlin, D Forde. Subs: F Hegarty for F Tuohy (28 mins); D Scanlan for G O'Loughlin (49 mins); C Clancy for D Scanlan (59 mins).

Ref: D Murphy, Wexford.