February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
If Anthony Daly’s team came through this examination comfortably enough, Kilkenny will be at least two steps up in quality. Smarting from their Leinster final loss to Wexford, Offaly never got going.
“I don’t think we realized the damage that defeat did to morale and confidence,” manager Mike McNamara said.
The absence of the injured Brian Whelahan didn’t help either.
Niall Gilligan with an impressive 2-7 was a thorn in Offaly’s side and there were strong performances from Seanie McMahon and Colin Lynch, while Tony Griffin added a third goal to the total.
“We know we’ve an Everest to climb against Kilkenny,” Daly said. “But we’re hurling coming into the third week in July and that’s good for us. A lot of people had written us off after losing to Waterford, so we’ll go up there and take them on.”