O'Byrne Cup semi-finals:If the O'Byrne Cup has failed to ignite much excitement so far things certainly heat up this weekend with two glamour semi-finals - or at least for this time of year. Dublin travel to Aughrim tomorrow to face Mick O'Dwyer's Wicklow ("Bring on the Dubs," he says), and Offaly renew their intense local rivalry with Laois in Tullamore on Sunday.
For Offaly manager Pat Roe it's a significant game on several counts. So far he has faced third-level colleges - whose very presence in the competition he'd opposed - and it's also the first outing against his native county, which at one stage he was also rumoured to take charge of. And Offaly, who won the inaugural O'Byrne Cup in 1954, clearly wouldn't mind winning back the title after an eight-year absence.
"We're still just trying out a lot of different players," says Roe, "picking and mixing between matches, and this is another chance to try out new players. We've been doing a lot of training as well and the real focus is on getting our starting 15 in place for the first round of the league in just over two weeks' time.
"But yeah, the fact we're in the semi-final now we'll make the most of it from here on, in whatever way we can. The league is approaching fast now and matches like this definitely help in the preparations."
Roe, who took over in Offaly from Kevin Kilmurray, was one of the first managers to speak out against the presence of the third-level colleges in the O'Byrne Cup and similar pre-season competitions, believing they don't always offer the best opposition, and instead are more concerned about their preparations for the Sigerson Cup.
Somewhat ironically, both UCD and DIT forced the best out of Offaly in the two earlier rounds, with UCD up by a goal at half-time in round one, and DIT also holding up well last Sunday, although eventually losing by eight points. Roe's apparent apathy towards those games was underlined by the fact on both occasions he put his team through a training session beforehand.
"Well, no," he adds, "I'm still not a fan of them being allowed in. Having said that, the two college teams we did play still served us reasonably well. You find the college teams are actually quite fit at the moment as they're getting ready for the Sigerson Cup. But they're still no substitute for going out against intercounty teams. And that's why Sunday's game will be a big step up for us."
Laois, as usual, already look like one of the fittest teams in the county, with their new manager, Liam Kearns, so far proving a smooth replacement for O'Dwyer. They easily disposed of Kildare and dug deep to beat Louth, although Roe is not getting involved in any talk of either local rivalry or the fact he's facing his native county.
"No, that's completely immaterial to me. It doesn't matter to me if we're playing Kerry or whoever, I'm just focused on getting my team right. We have uncovered a few new players. Ken Casey, who was a minor last year, has done well for us. And we have eight of the under-21 panel training with us at the moment."
Casey will start again at corner forward, where he scored two goals last Sunday, while five changes from their last game sees Nigel Grennan, Seán Casey, Aidan Keenaghan, Seán Ryan and Thomas Deehan come into the side at the expense of Eoghan Byrne, Shane Sullivan, Karol Slattery, Scott Brady and PJ Ward.
The Dublin footballers, meanwhile, make two changes for tomorrow's O'Byrne Cup semi-final with Wicklow in Aughrim, which has a 2pm start. Team captain Colin Moran has recovered from the flu which forced him to miss last Sunday's quarter-final victory over Westmeath and is selected at centre back, while up front Kevin Bonner will start at full forward having failed a late fitness test on his hamstring last Sunday. The two players dropping to the bench are Barry Cahill and Donnacha Reilly.
Wicklow will have a full-strength panel with three players having returned from a holiday in Lanzarote. Paul Earls, John Slattery and Gary Duffy were part of the St Patrick's club entourage that left for the Spanish resort last Sunday, their reward for winning the 2006 county title, but returned home three days early.
Earls has been Wicklow's top scoring forward so far, with five points from full forward when beating Wexford last Saturday. Slattery is the current captain while Duffy a substitute. Also returning home was Gerry Farrell of St Patrick's, now acting as one of O'Dwyer's selectors.
OFFALY (SF v Laois): K Meehan; G Rafferty, J Quinn, N Grennan; S Casey, A Keenaghan, J Keane; K Hogan, K McManus; S Ryan, N McNamee, T Coughlan; T Deehan, N Coughlan, K Casey.
DUBLIN (SF v Wicklow): S Cluxton; P Griffin, N O'Shea, C Prenderville; C Goggins, C Moran, G Brennan; D Magee, D O'Mahony; D Murray, D Lally, D Connolly; D O'Callaghan, K Bonner, C Keaney.
