Faithful hero Dooley fears it’ s along road back for current crop

IT’S the week of the All-Ireland quarter-finals but that has nothing to do with why Offaly hurling is in the news.

Another year has passed which once again saw the Faithful battle along in hurling’s backwaters. Their only victory in the championship came against Westmeath while they were outclassed by Waterford and Galway. The league was no better as they managed just a single win against Kerry.

Earlier this week manager Kevin Ryan moved on, citing a lack of support, meaning that in 2018 the Offaly hurlers will be looking at a third manager in as many seasons.

It means everyone connected with Offaly hurling is downbeat. Even before Ryan made his announcement, Offaly legend Joe Dooley didn’t hold much hope for a revival in the near future.

“We’re not in a good place to be honest, we have slipped a lot from the ‘90s and the early to mid 2000s,” Dooley said last week.

“I suppose we have to go back to the drawing board, we have taken our eye off the ball big time at underage level and at schools level and I would say even at county board level.

“We have brilliant facilities now. A great stadium at O’Connor Park and a brand new training facility but we don’t have a great team, whereas before we had great teams and didn’t have great facilities.

“That fact has been acknowledged and steps have been taken to address the situation.

“It’s hard on the current guys who are playing hurling and football in Offaly. They are putting in as much work and effort as the successful counties, knowing deep down probably they are not going to be winning Leinsters or All-Irelands at the moment.

“It’s a tough time to be involved and you have to admire the players who are sticking with it and wearing the jersey and continuing to put in the effort. It’s not easy.

“I think we have accepted we are where we are and we just need to do something about it.”

Dooley’s admiration for the current squad of hurlers, which includes his son Shane, is clear. He also accepts he was fortunate to play for the county at a time when they were regularly competitive in the province and beyond.

“I started in early 1982 and up until 2000 we were nearly in an All-Ireland or a Leinster final every year and that came from good schools teams in Birr and in the football as well they were very successful during that time.

“I always equate Offaly to a small club in any county. We are never going to be up there all the time, we just don’t have the numbers or the population.

COUNTIES

“Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary; they are big counties and they are hurling from top to bottom and they are always going to be there or thereabouts.

“We’ll only come with a team every so often and then we are going to have a down period and come back again hopefully with a new generation down the road.

“At the moment we are in a valley and we need to get out of it. It’s not going to happen any time soon.”

Dooley reckons there’s little in the Offaly underage system coming through at the moment and believes he’ll be lucky to see an upturn in fortunes in his lifetime.

“We have players at the moment to be competitive and we are better than we are actually playing if everybody really put their shoulder to the wheel and got involved.

“But to get back to winning anything major I’ll be lucky if it happens in my lifetime I’d say now. It’s going to take a good number of years.”