Offaly manager coins new word in emotional interview as Louth march halted
Offalyness. The team's manager Roger Ryan blurted out the word in an emotional post-match interview with TG4's Micheál Ó Domhnaill but it was a phrase that had framed the team and management's approach all year as they hunted down a first provincial title at this grade since 1989.
It was very much an against-the-odds triumph as Offaly suffered defeats in the group stage to both Dublin and Louth but regrouped to beat Laois, Wicklow, Meath and Kildare before turning the tables on the Wee County, who were chasing an unprecedented Leinster clean sweep having already taken the senior and under-20 titles.
Having trailed by four points after Cillian McQuillan netted a 52nd minute penalty, Offaly stormed back to win by three with each of their last three scores two-point efforts from midfielder Eamon Maher along with two frees from distance from goalkeeper Jack Ryan, as the manager hailed the grit that chimed with the county's fighting spirit of old.
'It's unbelievable, it's unbelievable,' said Roger Ryan. 'I said to you before the game if we took this to 10 minutes to go, we'd win and I knew, even when Louth got the penalty, I knew these boys have character and Offalyness that you can't buy.
'I'm so proud of them. So proud of every one of them. I'm so proud of their parents, their clubs. This is a massive day for Offaly - '89. Two players out on the field's dads played the last time.
'I'm emotional now, I'm ecstatic for every football person in our county. We soldiered long without winning a whole lot. I'm on a rant now but it's just so great.'
Ó Domhnaill then picked up on the popular Shannonbridge man introducing 'a new word to the English language', to which Ryan replied: 'Offalyness is a word. It's one that's in our dressingroom. It's wrote down on a piece of paper at the start of the year.
'We met as a management team the first of September and I wrote a word called Offalyness on it and the boys looked at me and they knew what it meant and that's what we want to try and instil in these young men and I think we've done alright at that this evening. I'm just so happy.'
Offaly now go on to meet Connacht runners-up Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final next month as they bid to reach a first semi-final since 2005. Their only All-Ireland minor football title was in 1964, with eight of that side featuring as they made the senior breakthrough seven years later.
All is not lost for a talented Louth side either, as they will face Connacht champions Roscommon in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
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