It will be 20 years to the day next Friday since Offaly began the defence of their last All-Ireland title with an 11-point win over Wexford.
Depending on how things go in Tralee today, they could be relegated to the third tier of hurling, something which didn’t even exist back then.
Indeed, the Joe McDonagh Cup, which they play Kerry for their survival in today, is named after the man who was GAA president at the time and had presented Hubert Rigney with the Liam MacCarthy Cup the previous September.
The equation is simple: victory for Offaly would see them stay in the competition for 2020 with Kerry suffering relegation. Anything less and Offaly will go down while Kerry stay up.
It is the biggest game in the county’s history. They may have competed in seven All-Ireland finals from 1981-2000 but defeat in any of those games didn’t present a scenario anything nearly as bleak as what it would today.
Failure to win would mean that, under the current structures, Offaly couldn’t compete in the Leinster Championship again until 2022 at the very earliest.
Offaly, now with Joachim Kelly in charge, have lost every must-win game they’ve been involved in over the past 12 months to bring them to this position so there couldn’t be any great optimism that that will change today.
However, Laois bored enough holes in Kerry last Saturday to suggest that they are just as vulnerable. Offaly get a very hesitant vote to save themselves.
The other game today, between Westmeath and Laois in Portlaoise, is essentially a dress rehearsal for the final.
Laois are already assured of their spot, while Westmeath will only be denied if they suffer an unlikely 20-point defeat, coupled with Kerry beating Offaly.
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