NO TIME NOW
Farrell brings experienced stars back early to see off Faithful
GAA O’BYRNE CUP
Offaly 0-13 Dublin 2-12
Instead it was a tour de force from Seán Bugler and Ciarán Kilkenny that proved the difference. The former hit four points from wing back, while Kilkenny was the orchestrator in chief throughout, particularly in the second half when Dublin were playing into the teeth of a bitterly strong wind.
Goals from Tom Lahiff and Warren Egan at either end of the second half clinched the win, and after the game, Dublin boss Dessie Farrell said he was happy to have a mixture of youth and experience for the season opener.
“Generally, Dublin players have been on holidays when the O’byrne Cup was going on” he said.
“Obviously things have changed this year, we’re no longer the All-ireland champions. There is that challenge for us to blood some new players and on a day like this, it’s probably unfair on the young lads to throw them all in together, it’s better to have a few of the elder lemons around the place.”
Overall, not too many of the newer players did enough to suggest they’ll be in the mix by the time the Allianz League rolls around. Alex Wright was lively at wing forward while Lee
Gannon put in a very impressive shift at corner-back, with both players adding their name to the scoresheet, but there were a lot of areas of the field where Offaly were in control.
Their full back line held their direct opponents scoreless from play, while Rúairí Mcnamee, Jack Bryant and Anton Sullivan were prominent at the other end of the field.
“We have to take the positives, but we can’t ignore that we had enough possession to win the game and we didn’t” said Offaly boss John Maughan (below, with assistant Tomas O Se). “Whether it was the sight of the blue jersey or not I don’t know, but we’ve a couple of areas on the pitch that we have to try and solve before the league”