“EVERYONE SEEMS TO forget that a certain goalkeeper should have been sent off before half-time. We just did not get the breaks and you always remember the games you lost.”
Former Offaly midfielder Ciarán McManus is recalling a key event during Offaly’s last Leinster senior football final appearance in 2006. The opposition? Dublin. And the goalkeeper guilty of the offence he alludes to? A young Stephen Cluxton. The Parnells man swamped McManus’ teammate Cathal Daly with a frontal charge to prevent an almost certain goal.
The sides were locked at six points each at the time, with half-time approaching. Had Daly been permitted the space to take a shot from close range, the game could have panned out differently.
Offaly could have been lifting their second Leinster title in just under a decade after their 1997 success. Instead, Daly’s move was halted and Cluxton evaded a red card. McManus’ midfield partner Alan McNamee was later dismissed with two yellow cards, and Dublin pulled clear to win by nine points.
It’s difficult to comprehend a time when Dublin weren’t the imperious masters of the Leinster football championship that they have since become. It’s even harder to imagine a scenario that Cluxton would handle with anything less than the calmness of a monk.
This was an era when Dublin didn’t win every year. Laois were Leinster champions in 2003 and Westmeath lifted the cup in 2004 after a replay against Laois. Dublin conquered the province in 2005, but only managed to beat Laois by one point in the final. In short, teams could lay a glove on Dublin in those times. And even beat them on occasion.
“We went in level at half-time but nowadays, the goalie definitely wouldn’t be on the pitch for the second half,” McManus says. “Yes, we needed everything to go in our favour, even at that time, to beat Dublin [and] I’m not being naive about that. But at the same time, we had a great first half, and we went in downbeat because we should have been up.
“Things went against us in the last five minutes, and a couple of key decisions. We missed some handy frees. And we lost Alan McNamee five or 10 minutes into the second half, and that was it then.”
Offaly returned to the latter stages of the Leinster championship the following year, reaching the semi-final against the same opposition. This time the margin was even tighter but the outcome remained the same. Dublin marched onto the final with a 1-12 to 0-10 victory.
Despite those back-to-back losses against the Dubs, McManus never felt the men from the capital were beyond Offaly’s reach. The same goes for any other team he encountered during his inter-county career.
“Every time you put an Offaly jersey on, no matter how bad things are going, you always think there’s something you can do on the day. In all my time with Offaly, I never went into a game . . . no matter how much of an underdog we were, you always felt you could do something.
“It’s weird, I know but the people around you expect something and that pressure is on you all the time. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes [it doesn't]. But in all my time playing, I never went out thinking, ‘We’re done here,’ ever.”
A young Niall McNamee illuminated the stage in those two games, flinging over points from tight angles for Offaly, while also bringing the Dublin defenders for a dance around their home patch in Croke Park. And it wasn’t just McNamee that Offaly players could deliver the ball into.
“We had Thomas Deehan in there as well and people would forget him. They had a great combination there for a couple of years. They were really our go-to men on the inside line. Thomas didn’t play half as long as he could have. We didn’t get to a Leinster final by fluke; we had good players and worked well.
“We just didn’t have the squad depth to keep it going.”
After 2007, Offaly started drawing blanks in the provincial championship. Today is the first time in 16 years they will feature in the Leinster semi-final. This time, Louth will provide the opposition as the Wee County continue their uprising on the back of an encouraging Division 2 campaign.
Offaly have a spring in their step, too. Last Sunday, they defied expectations when they prevailed against Meath just weeks after the sudden death of their manager Liam Kearns. McManus didn’t quite see that result coming, but momentum is a valuable currency in high-stakes football. Maybe they might get another go at Dublin in Croke Park.
“I didn’t go in with massive expectations, I have to say,” McManus notes about the victory over Meath. “The last game I saw before that was the Down match, which was a disaster, so I wasn’t extremely hopeful to be honest.
“It’s great to see how tight they are, and that’s a credit to Liam and what he has set up there. We had success in the U20s a couple of years ago, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. It’s going to take a good while for Offaly to be really back. I still think we’re a good bit away.
“[But] it’s great for the young boys and girls coming up, to see Offaly win like that. That’s huge. I actually think it’s bigger for the underage rather than anything else.”
“As a player, you probably want the game the next day. I know they picked up a couple of knocks. To give yourself the best chance, you probably need two or three weeks between these big games but I’d say the squad is delighted to have the opportunity on Sunday.”
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