IT’S FUNNY HOW things work out.
28 years ago, Leo O’Connor was on the Limerick team stunning by Offaly in the ‘five-minute’ All-Ireland final.
Trailing by five points with time quickly running out, Faithful posted 2-5 in a dramatic finale to take the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
Limerick’s famine since 1973 went on.
Now he’s in charge of an Offaly minor side looking to end a run that goes back to 1989 without an All-Ireland at the grade.
O’Connor retired after the 1994 campaign, finishing up his career with a host of accolades. He reflects on his career without regrets, even if he never won the Holy Grail.
Ultimately, it’s the relationships and memories he values most over medals. That’s a message he’s keen to get through to the Offaly U17s as they prepare for today’s All-Ireland decider against Tipperary.
“Time passes by. It waits for no-one. I look back on my playing career and enjoyed every bit of it. It’s something I’ll always look at with fond memories to say that I did get the chance to play in an All-Ireland senior hurling final.
“I was lucky enough to win an All-Ireland minor and U21 medal. I won a National Hurling League medal and Munster championship medal.
“Offaly turned us over in the ’94 in All-Ireland senior hurling final. These are days that you live for, these are the days that you turn around and are able to tell your children in years to come (that you were involved in).
“They’re things that will never leave my head. And especially with the people I played with as well.”
He names out some former minor team-mates that he went on to share the field with Limerick at senior level. Men like Ger Hegarty, Pa Carey, Anthony Carmody and Anthony Reardan.
“When we meet each other, we’d always stand up and talk to each other,” says O’Connor. “We don’t have to be in each other’s ears constantly. But there’s a bond there.
“Okay, we all appreciate the good days, but it’s the memories that come out it.
“I keep referring to the Offaly lads, they’ll be able to look each other in the eye in 20 years time and know that they played together.
“Some of them will achieve a lot, others will probably go the education or whatever the case may be. They’re friendships you build upon when you play inter-county hurling and they’re things you’ll never forget.”
For that 1994 All-Ireland, O’Connor’s own clubman Eamonn Cregan was in charge of the Offaly team. After the game, Cregan cut an emotional figure in his TV interview.
He was highly charged, delighted to see Offaly win but distraught that his native county had been denied an All-Ireland.
Cregan, one of Limerick’s greatest ever hurlers, hails from Claughaun, the same club as O’Connor.
“To me he’s my ultimate hero. I won a senior hurling championship with Eamonn in 1986 as an 18-year-old.
“I spoke to Eamonn inside in the Limerick dressing room in 1994. I met him the following night at Limerick’s homecoming, he came down to Birr to the Offaly homecoming and came on down home. He was there when we came back to Limerick down to the Courthouse in Limerick.
“I’m a Limerick man, Eamonn is a Limerick man. It hurt Eamonn. I’m lucky in the sense I’m not playing against my own county. That’s something that Eamonn dealt with very capably and humbly.
“For me it was an honour to play with Eamonn Cregan. I played with exceptional hurlers in Limerick. They’re something you’ll never forget. It’s humbling.”
O’Connor was brought in with the Offaly minors as coach in 2019, before taking over as manager the following year.
He could draw on his considerable experience in Limerick’s underage set-up over the previous decade. In 2011, O’Connor’s U21 team featuring current seniors Declan Hannon and Graeme Mulcahy won the Munster title.
Four years later, he led a minor side containing Kyle Hayes, Seamus Flanagan, Peter Casey, Oisin O’Reilly and Conor Boylan to the Munster final.
“You could tell there was a bunch of players coming through,” he says.
“In terms of the way Limerick have dominated over the last four or five years, could you see that happening then? No you couldn’t, but you knew the potential was there.
“There’s a very similar potential there in Offaly.
“I think there are in the region of seven to eight players over the last three years that will go on in the next four or five years and play a huge part in Offaly getting back and playing MacCarthy Cup level.”
Using Hayes and Casey as examples, O’Connor points out the importance of the strength and conditioning programmes they’ve been on since their days in the Limerick academy.
“I’m going to touch on one subject as regards Kyle. He always had the hurling ability. He was a tall, thing, gangly young fella back then. But with the strength and conditioning he got, it’s not just something that happens overnight. It’s a period of time where the complete package comes together and you develop a Kyle Hayes and Peter Casey.
“Peter Casey was a small minor. He’s developed his physical strength and he’s really strong on the ball, very hard to dispossess. So from that point of view, Limerick are the benchmark as regards how they’ve developed over that 10 year period.”
He’s on the record in stating that Offaly is on the way back as a hurling county.
The structures that are in place, plus the performances at minor level over the past three seasons have fuelled that belief.
In 2019 Offaly lost all their games in the Leinster championship. Then the wheels started to turn. In 2020 they lost to a strong Kilkenny outfit in the Leinster final. The same Cats team lifted All-Ireland U20 glory last month.
Last year Kilkenny turned them over by four points in Parnell Park. This season, Offaly claimed Leinster title and ended a 32-year wait for an appearance in the All-Ireland decider.
“You judge yourself against the better counties. In Leinster, without a shadow of a doubt, Kilkenny are the kingpins. We have performed and we’ve performed really, really well (against them). Then you look at this year’s team. There’s three teams.
“The current Limerick team was built up over a seven or eight year period where they were constantly getting players. And they’ve been building momentum at senior level and it’s something that can only be admired.
“It’s something that I feel Offaly had the capabilities of getting back certainly playing MacCarthy Cup and competing against Kilkenny, like they did in the 80s and 90s. Because that’s what they were built upon back then.
“I think there are in the region of seven to eight players over the last three years that will go on in the next four or five years and play a huge part in Offaly getting back and playing MacCarthy Cup level.”
“It’s creating a buzz in Offaly and it needs to continue. It’s building blocks to get up to where they long to be.”
