GAA: Offaly take on Laois in Championship
Offaly take on Laois in the curtain raiser at Croke Park hoping to go one better than last year’s defeat of the then reigning All-Ireland champions Meath and a subsequent replay loss to eventual Leinster winners Kildare.
Since their surprise provincial win in 1997, the Faithful county have always been dark horses for the champions, and in their second championship under Padraig Nolan they will be hoping to make an impact this year.
They had a quiet and unspectacular league campaign, beating the weaker sides to preserve their Division One status, and almost made the play-offs due to the foot-and-mouth restriction placed on Tyrone.
Laois, meanwhile, did not have the luxury of a solid league campaign.
Relegated from Division 1B after a series of tame losses, they are not fancied to achieve anything tangible in this year’s championship.
The momentum from their minor and Under-21 successes of the mid-1990s has been well and truly lost and the promise now looks unlikely to ever translate to senior level.
As well as their problems in the league, a number of player defections hurt the panel even more.
Hughie Emerson, Derek Conroy, Kevin Fitzpatrick and the Kelly twins Stephen and Tom, left for one reason or another, fuelling rumours once again Laois will not be at optimum levels this summer.
However, the absentees do mean Colm Browne is left with a committed bunch of players, and they will need to be against Offaly.
A vast improvement is needed from their last match, a four-point win over minnows Wexford, in the preliminary round.
The consensus is that had Wexford some better forwards on the day, they may well have won.
In the end, Noel Garvan, Ian Fitzgerald and David Sweeney upped their performace level to spur the team to victory, but it was a patchy performance.
For this game, they welcome back Colm Parkinson to the full-forward position.
Parkinson, formerly a half-back, missed the Wexford game through injury, but returns to bolster the O’Moore county attack.
It means former Dublin hurler Shane Cooke drops back to the bench, with Brian McDonald shifting to corner-forward, where he finished the previous match.
Offaly introduce four newcomers to championship football in left corner-back Ger Rafferty, left half-back Karl Slattery, midfielder Alan McNamee and left half-forward Gary Comerford.
Rafferty takes over from James Brady who was injured in a recent challenge match against Cavan.
The full-forward position has been left vacant pending a fitness test on Sean Grennan, who is struggling with a groin injury.
