Kildare's good record against Offaly means nothing on Sunday

Perhaps it says something about me, but when I see that Kildare have beaten Offaly thirteen times in a row it fills me with dread rather than comfort. Eventually the worm turns and particularly when it appears to be an upwardly mobile one.

Let’s deal with the stats first. Kildare and Offaly have met 83 times dating back 120 years to a Croke Cup encounter at Jones’ Road in 1905. Kildare have 49 wins and 8 draws with Offaly winning 26. Kildare won 0-11 to 0-3 in that first clash and would cement their early superiority over the King’s County with seven more successive wins over the following 35 years.

It wasn’t until a Leinster Quarter Final in 1940 that Offaly finally got the upper hand over their neighbours, who by then were football royalty with four All Irelands to their name. It only took a World War (aka The Emergency) for the Faithful to finally overcome their hoodoo, winning by 2-6 to 0-8 in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise.

If they did so beforehand, Offaly would never feel inferior to Kildare again and their three wins in the only Leinster Finals the sides have contested, in 1969, 1971 and 1972, prompted a period of twenty years when Kildare were largely the subservient partner in the rivalry.

The Mick O’Dwyer years changed all that, but only briefly, and even then there was no one happier to lower Lilywhite colours than the 1999 version of Offaly who brought Kildare crashing down to earth after their heroics of the year before.

Paul Donaghy, writing in this paper, described a Kildare team who were “stripped of their eastern aura by a tri-coloured team on winged feet and with slick hands who startled even their own with a superlative performance to shorten the Lilywhite summer.” Kildare gained their revenge the following summer in the semi-final but the rivalry was red-hot at that stage and it was only a replay and a remarkable display of sustained shooting brilliance that saw O’Dwyer’s side through to the final.

It was shaping up to be ‘one of those days’ when first a Brian Lacey slip was punished by a Colm Quinn goal and then, with the game only 22 minutes old, that pesky wasp Vinny Claffey flicked into Ciaran McManus’ path for goal number two.

People remember the comeback that was to follow in the Leinster Final that year, but we’d already had a dry run. Five minutes before half-time Eddie McCormack, who was in sparkling form, kick-started a remarkable period of football that ran until the 27th minute of the second half during which Kildare kicked a dozen points without a single reply from the tricoloured men.

Two years later we needed a replay again before coming out on top in Nowlan Park but Offaly are not a county for lying down and over the first few years of the post-Dwyer era they re-asserted a dominance of sorts over us, winning three times in a row; in a Division 2 semi-final in Portlaoise and an All Ireland qualifier in Newbridge, both in 2004 and two years later in a Leinster Quarter Final in Croke Park where the McNamee brothers Niall and Alan scored crucial goals to add to one from Thomas Deehan. A ‘blood sub’ controversy sparked talk of a replay but nothing doing said the Leinster Council.

Remarkable to think that was the last time Offaly beat Kildare. 21 years on they bid to end that thirteen game losing streak in all competitions. Kildare’s average winning margin was 6.5 points over that time although Offaly kept the gap to two points in an All Ireland Qualifier in 2015 and the O’Byrne Cup in 2016, both in O’Connor Park.

That the sides have only occupied the same league division once previously over that 21 year period illustrates the difference in status that developed between the counties. Since the leagues changed to the current four-division structure in 2008, the Faithful have only had one season (2022) in Division 2 and without wishing to be uncharitable that was ‘only’ on foot of a shortened Division 3 South promotion campaign the year before due to a certain virus.

Offaly have generally flip-flopped between Division 3 and 4 while Kildare were oscillating between the top two divisions over the same period. We did of course drop to the third tier previously for a year and that brought about our only league clash of late, Kildare coming out on top by 1-12 to 1-8 in Newbridge in 2016.

Remarkably the top three in that Division 3 campaign were Kildare, Clare and Offaly and as we come to the last two rounds it is that trio plus Laois that are contesting promotion once more, though Fermanagh and Antrim technically retain a chance if they were to win their last two games.

Offaly as a county are on a clear upward path with their hurlers now up to Division 1A on the back of an Under-20 All Ireland and their footballers, having also won an under-20 national title in 2021, starting to make waves under the joint managership of Declan Kelly and Mickey Harte.

Their winning run came to an end against Fermanagh in controversial circumstances and a few eyebrows were raised at how close Leitrim got to them in Ballinamore two weeks ago. But there they sit alongside Kildare at the top of the table on eight points with Laois and Clare, who meet on Saturday night, two behind.

It was all going far too swimmingly for Brian Flanagan and Kildare before Ennis but for the second away game this season a sluggish start gave them a hill to climb and perhaps the effort of (seemingly) scaling that mound told as they let Keelan Sexton in for that late goal.

Lessons will need to be learned, and it’s something that the thoughtful Brian Flanagan has always been good at. One thing is for sure, Offaly will have no fear despite 21 years of pain. And with M Harte on the sideline, there’ll be no lack of effort either for what promises to be a seismic clash on Sunday.