We need to get real about Offaly hurling

WHAT is it about GAA people that they’re so reluctant to see anybody relegated?

In the week leading up to the match people were expressing all sorts of reservations. How could it be right that Offaly might be relegated to the Joe McDonagh Cup? Sure where’s the fairness in that when there’s no danger of a Munster county suffering a similar fate?

It’s not a bad point and the suggestion by one journalist that the bottom team in Leinster should have to play off against the bottom team in Munster has a certain amount of merit to it, but the fact remains, Offaly wouldn’t win that game either.

We all – including Offaly hurling people – need to face up to the fact that Offaly are deserving of relegation. After a week of talk about the unfairness of it all, Offaly were hammered out the gate by the Dublin (2-24 to 0-13).

In the Leinster championship Offaly have lost their games by an average of seventeen points. Fair enough they were shafted a little bit by the scheduling – they shouldn’t have been forced to play four weeks on-the-trot – but no amount of breaks could cover for the fact that they’re just not up to it any more.

Offaly hurling needs to accept the reality of its situation. It’s twenty years since their famous victory of 1998. It’s a victory that remains fresh in a lot of people’s minds, maybe too fresh. That’s what we think of when we think of Offaly hurling. You can understand why people would be eager to keep a county like that in the fold.

The trouble is Offaly aren’t that county any more and haven’t been for quite some time.