DAN Ravenhill sent the game’s last puck over from 100 yards to beat Dublin – sparking wild celebrations as well as Joe Canning’s memory.
Offaly were aided by a red card to Conor Burke as they reeled in the Dubs at Croke Park by 0-27 to 1-23.
That moment reminded Canning of a painful memory from his playing days[/caption]
However, they still deserve huge credit as they continue their wider upswing as they sit atop Division 1B with seven points from their four outings.
While recapping the match’s dramatic finale, Galway icon Canning harked back to when he fell agonisingly short in a similar situation.
The RTE analyst quipped: “I could’ve done with him in 2018!”
The Portumna man was of course referring to when his late, late free to level things in the 2018 All-Ireland final against Limerick fell short.
In a further call back to bygone day it’s worth noting that seven years ago Offaly came to Croker for the first round of the Allianz Hurling League and recorded a momentous 13-point win.
That win had lots of Faithful County supporters hoping it would
mark the turning of a corner.
Instead it proved to be a false dawn as they were relegated from the Leinster championship that Summer, and relegated to Christy Ring Cup hurling a year later.
This time, it feels like the graph is very clearly on the up for the midlanders.
They are now within touching distance of promotion to Division 1A, after Ravenhill’s heroics in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
The Boys in Blue now face a trip to Waterford next weekend, needing a win to stay in the promotion hunt.
For the next seven days, they’ll have nightmares about how they failed to cash in on a winning position at half-time here.
There were some nice aspects to Offaly’s hurling for that opening 35 minutes, with Oisín Kelly in particular catching the eye with three excellent points from play.
However Dublin’s hurling was slick and precise, and while it was an open game that lacked some of the physicality that both sides might need in the Summer, their use of the ball was excellent.
Conor Burke, Donal Burke, Fergal Whitely and Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing picked off some sublime points to help the Dubs to lead by 0-14 to 0-10, and after shooting eight wides.
He missed one goal chances and hitting the post with another, it could have been so much more.
https://twitter.com/Offaly_GAA/status/1893397227034292632
Speaking after the game, Offaly boss Johnny Kelly said: “We were lucky to be within the distance we were at half-time, given the way that Dublin had completely outperformed us.
“It was just a change of attitude after half-time. Every one of them lifted their performance after half-time.”
For the third quarter, it looked like it wouldn’t be enough.
The Faithful men were excellent defensively, but they weren’t getting the scores they needed, and there was still four in it when Burke fired over a free to make it 0-21 to 0-17 on the hour mark.
TIDE TURNED
Then Oisín Kelly hit another excellent score, Conor Burke struck Donal Shirley off the ball to leave Dublin down a man, and as boss Kelly cited afterwards, Offaly didn’t waste their advantage.
He added: “You have to be able to use that numerical disadvantage.
“It’s very hard to get messages into the players here in Croke Park so the key thing is for the players to take ownership of the
stage, and they did that, getting the last three points”.
It was a sensational finish.
Brian Duignan caught fire, nudging them in front in the 70th minute, only to watch in horror as Donal Shirley’s brilliant block on Ó Dúlaing only resulted in the sliotar falling to Brian Hayes for the game’s only goal.
The sides traded points before Duignan (twice) and then Ravenhill sealed a famous win.
