The way they're playing, they can only be beaten when they have 12 players
The snobs look down on Division 4, but anyone who has watched their county slaying rabbits in early spring knows how effective it can be for nourishing self-confidence.
Offaly did lose one match in the League in Pearse Park against fellow promotion chasers Longford. They went down by three points. But that doesn't begin to tell the story behind a gargantuan moral victory. You see, Offaly played much of the second half with twelve, yes twelve, players. It wasn't until the final minutes of the game that Longford kicked on to victory.
In the League final they met Longford again in front of a packed Hogan Stand premium section in Croke Park. The midlanders were hampered this time by having to face fifteen Offaly men for the whole duration of the game.
In the event, this proved too much for them. Offaly strolled to victory, ramming in four goals.
This Offaly bunch mean business.
Achieving the improbable
It hasn't been a vintage century for Offaly thus far. Certainly not when compared with the closing decades of the previous one. But such is the power of the GAA Nostalgia channel, otherwise known as TG4 on a Sunday evening, that we are all aware of the glorious exploits of the Offaly boys of the 70s and the 80s.
The young lads now reaching senior footballing age have been reared on such clips. Those endless repeats of Seamus Darby plucking the 'high, lobbing, dropping ball' out of the air can't be without their inspirational effect.
To paraphrase a man by the name of Padraig Pearse, the seeds sown by all those clips of the 1982 final should be coming to their miraculous ripening any time soon.
Pat Flanagan's boldness
Some have interpreted Pat Flanagan's call for Dublin to leave Croke Park as an admission that Offaly can't compete with the Dubs. However, for various reasons, not least the fact that we have to come up with three reasons to say why Offaly are going to win the All-Ireland, we are going to interpret his intervention in that never-ending debate as a sign of boldness.
He and Offaly are determined not to take anything lying down...
