Jack Bryant and Keith O’Neill kicked 1-7 for the Faithful
KILDARE 1-18 (1-1-16) OFFALY 2-17 (2-2-13)
Offaly have claimed a first ever Division 3 title in the Allianz Football League with a 2-17 to 1-18 win over neighbours Kildare in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon.
Goals in either half from Jack Bryant and Cormac Egan, along with 0-4 from the boot of Keith O’Neill, did the job for Mickey Harte and Declan Kelly’s side.
Neither side had ever won a Division 3 title before today, with Offaly last competing in a decider back in 2021 when they were comfortably beaten by Derry.
Alex Beirne was Kildare’s go to man with 0-5, but they will be kicking themselves as 12 wides, six in each half ultimately spoiling the game for them
Colm Dalton got the ball rolling with the games opening point after two and a half minutes, but Offaly suddenly took the lead as Keith O’Neill found Jack Bryant and the Shamrocks spotted an open gap through the middle and unleashed a beautiful strike into the top corner, much to the shock of the Kildare back line.
Kildare responded with the game’s first two pointer with a free from keeper Cian Burke, but Offaly responded well through a Jack Bryant point and left them a point in front after seven minutes on the clock.
Colm Dalton brought the sides level, before Cathal Flynn and Keith O’Neill chipped in for identical points to give Offaly a two point advantage. Offaly were motoring along nicely as Jack Bryant was enjoying the freedom afforded to him at GAA Headquarters as he registered another point and Dylan Hyland soon followed with his first, as Mickey Harte and Declan Kelly’s enjoyed expressing themselves early on.
Kildare were enjoying their own territory of space on the Hogan Stand side as evidenced by James McGrath’s fine effort which curled over the bar, which was then duplicated by Moorefield’s Ryan Houlihan and a free from Alex Beirne to bring the sides level for a third time.
Due to the ongoing rule changes, back to back frees were awarded to much of the annoyance of both players and supporters, with Alex Beirne’s close range free giving Kildare the lead on the 24th minute, the first time they led in the game since the second minute.
Offaly would have felt a small bit disappointed not to have taken one or two goals chances in the first half, with Kildare pulling off super last ditch tackles to prevent the Faithful from finding the net on multiple occasions. Daire McDaid tied things up, before James McGrath came up with his second point of the game to restore the Lillywhite’s lead.
Offaly did conjure up their first two pointer just approaching the half time whistle through midfielder Jordan Hayes. Kildare for all their domination in the air, were failing to convert some guilt edge chances, having kicked six wides compared to their opponents only hitting two.
Jack Bryant finished the half with 1-3, before Keith O’Neill kicked his second after the hooter to give Offaly a three advantage heading into the second 35.
The second half started exactly like the first only this time it was Offaly who got the game’s opening point through Jack McEvoy before a high into the square was not dealt with by Paddy Dunican allowing Harry O’Neill the chance to fire the ball into an empty net to bring the gap back to just a single score.
Kildare began to break through the Offaly blanket and had a great opportunity through half time substitute Darragh Kirwan but the Naas man had his one on one attempt saved brilliantly by Dunican, but they managed to level the scoreboard through a fisted effort from Niall Kelly.
The game went into a bit of a stagnation mode shortly after, with both sides not taking their chances and slowing down play in the process, that was until Shane Tierney’s two pointer which was soon followed by Paddy McDermott and Alex Beirne kicking over consecutive scores to leave it just one point with 20 minutes left on the clock.
Offaly were struggling under their own kick outs and Kildare were taking full advantage of this as Alex Beirne’s free levelled proceedings for the sixth time, before Keith O’Neill sent over his third of the afternoon and then set up the onrushing Cormac Egan who managed to squeeze through the Kildare defence and finish confidently to give Offaly some breathing space.
Kildare hit the double digit mark for wides and this was becoming a problem for them as time wore down, with many of their opportunities the type of ones you’d expect them to score given the quality they have in attack, which was the opposite to Offaly as O’Neill kicked his fourth as the Clonbullogue man was having a fantastic second half.
Cormac Egan sent over a point to leave the gap at six heading into the final 10 minutes of play. Darragh Swords and Kirwan produced four points on the bounce and the deficit was down to two with the momentum switching over to Brian Flanagan’s side.
With time against them, Kildare were left attempting to claim a draw which they couldn’t and thus securing Offaly a first ever Division 3 title over their Leinster rivals.
Scorers
KILDARE: Alex Beirne 0-5 (0-3 f), Harry O’Neill 1-0, Darragh Kirwan 0-3 (0-2 f), Colm Dalton 0-2, James McGrath and Cian Burke (2pt) 0-2 each, Paddy McDermott, Ryan Houlihan, Niall Kelly and Darragh Swords 0-1 each
OFFALY: Jack Bryant 1-3, Keith O’Neill 0-4, Cormac Egan 1-1, Dylan Hyland, Jordan Hayes (2pt) and Shane Tierney (2pt) 0-2 each, Cathal Flynn, Daire McDaid and Jack McEvoy 0-1 each
Wides: KILDARE: 12 (6 in first half)
OFFALY: 6 (2 in first half)
Teams
KILDARE: Cian Burke (Clane); Harry O’Neill (Clane), Mick O’Grady (Celbridge), Brian Byrne (Naas); Ryan Houlihan (Moorefield), James McGrath (Athy), David Hyland (Athy); Kevin Feely (Athy), Jack McKevitt (Naas); Cathal Hagney (Nurney), Callum Bolton (Sarsfields), Colm Dalton (Sallins); Ryan Sinkey (Naas), Alex Beirne (Naas), Niall Kelly (Athy).
Subs: Paddy McDermott (Naas) for Hagney (25m), Darragh Kirwan (Naas) for McKevitt (HT), Darragh Swords (Caragh) for Sinkey (48m), Kevin Flynn (Celbridge) for O’Grady (53m), Ryan Burke (Caragh) for Houlihan (58m)
OFFALY: Paddy Dunican (Shamrocks); Lee Pearson (Edenderry), Aidan Bracken (Ballycommon), Daire McDaid (Tullamore); Rory Egan (Edenderry), John Furlong (Tullamore), Cormac Egan (Tullamore); Jack McEvoy (Clonbullogue), Jordan Hayes (Edenderry); Kyle Higgins (Ferbane), Cathal Flynn (Ferbane), Keith O’Neill (Clonbullogue); Dylan Hyland (Raheen), Jack Bryant (Shamrocks), Shane Tierney (Daingean) .
Subs: Ruairi McNamee (Rhode) for Hyland (67m), Aaron Leavy (Tullamore) for McEvoy (67m)
Referee: Kieran Eannetta (Tyrone).