Offaly Prove No Match For Waterford

If ever there need showing that there was a gulf in the standards of the top five or six hurling counties and those a step or two below them on the ranking ladder, it was clear to be seen a O’Connor Park in Tullamore this afternoon as Waterford easily accounted for Offaly with a massive twenty four points between them when referee Alan Kelly sounded his full time whistle at the end of seventy minutes.

What this defeat does for Offaly hurling is hard to know. There can be no disputing that they have fallen back a lot since they were at their peak in the 80’s and to a lesser extent in the 90’s, but after big defeats against Tipperary, Galway and Waterford in their last three big games, it is bound to have a lot of people asking many soul searching questions.

For Waterford it was always going to be a no win situation. If Waterford won by a small margin questions will be asked of Derek McGrath and the defensive game he favours, while if Waterford (as they did) won big, people were going to say that it was only Offaly.

Nobody in the Waterford camp will need telling that regardless of who they draw in Monday’s second round draw for the qualifiers, it will be a much tougher test than this game. However all involved in the set up will be happy with this result, getting the defeat against Cork in the Munster semi final out of the system and in doing so put up a very impressive score on the board.

The management team will also be happy that they had twelve different scorer’s on the score sheet on the day and also game time was given to some of those knocking most hardest for a place in the starting team that start most games on the bench all got some match time under their belts, the four forwards sent on all getting their name on the score sheet which will give Derek McGrath and his selectors Dan Shanahan and Eoin Murphy something to think about for next week’s game, especially when you consider that Stephen Bennett who missed this game due to suspension will be back in contention for a place in the side once more.

Waterford played with the aid of the wind in the opening half and turned around leading 1-18 to 0-8, but in the first quarter of this game, the home side made things very difficult for the visitors.

Five times in the opening twenty minutes the sides were level in this game and there was a six minute spell either side of the mid way point of this spell that the home side lead.

However Waterford hit eight points in a row in a ten minute spell to go eight in front from which Waterford looked back and when Shane Bennett cracked the only goal of the game three minutes from the end of normal time in the opening half, the game was well and truly over as a contest.

Pauric Mahony opened the scoring for Waterford with a free in the first minute but it was quickly cancelled out with a similar effort by Shane Dooley. Kevin Moran and Dooley then swapped points before a brace of Dooley points gave the home side a 0-4 to 0-2 lead with 12 minutes played.

Waterford however were quickly back on level terms as Jamie Barron and then Kevin Moran with his second of the game landed scores.

Pauric Mahony edged Waterford back in front only for James Mulrooney to point for the hosts. Mahony and Dooley then swapped scores to level matters for a fifth time on twenty minutes and some might have been wondering at this stage if Offaly were going to really put it up to Waterford, especially when you consider that they would have the wind in the second half.

However, Waterford would up their game a gear or two as Michael Walsh, Pauric Mahony with a hat-trick of scores, Tadhg De Búrca, Maurice Shanahan and Austin Gleeson with a brace of scores all found the range to give Waterford a 0-14 to 0-6 lead which they were full value for with four minutes of the first half plus stoppage time still to play.

Shane Kinsella brought Waterford’s run of scores to an end with a point on thirty two minutes, but from the resulting restart, Waterford net minder found Shane Bennett with a long delivery and the Ballysaggart man made no mistake in putting the sliotar past James Dempsey.

Credit must go to the Kinnity Club man in the home goal as without him the margin of victory would be much bigger for Waterford as he made a number of good saves throughout the game to keep the tally of green flags waved to the minimum.

Waterford pressed on with points from Austin Gleeson and Jamie Barron before Emmett Nolan pointed on thirty five minutes, and in stoppage time Waterford tagged on two further points through Darragh Fives and Maurice Shanahan to go in at the break leading by thirteen points.

Points from Joe Bergin, Oisin Kelly, Austin Gleeson and Pauric Mahony were swapped at the start of the second half but Waterford were soon back in the swing of things.

A brace of Pauric Mahony points was followed with a single response from Ben Conneely which saw Derek McGrath begin to empty his bench.

Jake Dillon was not long on the field long when he pointed after which Mahony put over a ’65 and then Colin Dunford another of the Waterford subs used in this game pointed.

Mahony and Gleeson added to their already impressive tallies on the day, before Darragh Fives and Joe Bergin swapped scores.

Thomas Ryan another of the Waterford subs brought in got his name on the score sheet with thirteen minutes to go and two minutes later Patrick Curran another of the Waterford subs brought in for Mahony and took over from the Ballygunner man on free taking duties got his name on the score sheet.

Bergin and Dunford swapped scores before Curran and Pauric Guinan did likewise but this was to be the home sides last score and in the time that remained Patrick Curran put over another three points and Austin Gleeson hit one to give Waterford the most comfortable of comfortable of wins.

Waterford: Stephen O’Keeffe; Shane Fives, Barry Coughlan, Noel Connors; Conor Gleeson, Tadhg De Búrca, Philip Mahony; Jamie Barron, Kevin Moran; Michael Walsh, Austin Gleeson, Pauric Mahony; Maurice Shanahan, Shane Bennett, Darragh Fives. Subs: Colin Dunford for Maurice Shanahan (49), Jake Dillon (De La Salle) for Michael Walsh (49), Stephen Daniels for Kevin Moran (52), Thomas Ryan for Shane Bennett (55), Patrick Curran for Pauric Mahony (60).

Scorers: Pauric Mahony 0-11 (8fs), Austin Gleeson 0-6, Patrick Curran 0-4 (2fs, 1 65’), Shane Bennett 1-0, Darragh Fives, Colin Dunford, Maurice Shanahan, Jamie Barron, Kevin Moran 0-2 each, Michael Walsh, Tadhg De Búrca, Jake Dillon, Thomas Ryan 0-1 each.

Offaly: James Dempsey; Ben Conneely, Dermot Shortt, Pat Camon; Sean Gardiner, Aiden Treacy, David King; Sean Ryan, Joe Bergin; Paddy Murphy, Shane Kinsella, Emmett Nolan; James Mulrooney, Shane Dooley, Oisin Kelly. Subs: Sean Cleary for Shane Dooley (H-T), Enda Grogan for Aidan Treacy (H-T), Michael Cleary for Emmett Nolan (54), Peter Geraghty for Shane Kinsella (54), Padraic Guinan for Paddy Murphy (58)

Scorers: Shane Dooley 0-5 (5fs), Joe Bergin 0-3 (2fs), Shane Kinsella, Emmett Nolan, James Mulrooney, Oisin Kelly, Ben Conneely, Padraic Guinan 0-1 each.

Referee: Alan Kelly (Galway)