Disappointment the spur as Offaly hurlers regroup

They lost the most delicately balanced hurling game in years by a point. They ended up in the more testing qualifier group, with just six days to prepare for their first game. And they've lost their captain through injury. Yet the Offaly hurlers aren't looking for any sympathy.

In fact listening to midfielder Gary Hanniffy it's as if Offaly's pain could yet bring out the best in them. As disappointing as it was to lose to Wexford on Sunday, there's no point in sitting around feeling sorry for each other. Feel sorry for captain Brendan Murphy, whose knee injury sustained late in the Wexford game will rule him out for three more weeks - but the rest of them are simply getting on with it.

"The fact is we were the ones beaten on Sunday," says Hanniffy, "and it's up to us to turn it around. It's a quick turnaround, yeah, but the GAA have a busy schedule to fill this time of the year.

"And look, it's almost a professional game these days. Physically we should be able to do it, and mentally you should be as well. A couple of years ago it would have been the end of our championship. So it's up to every individual player to get the heads right again for this Saturday."

Being drawn in the more difficult qualifier group along with Clare, Limerick and Dublin also means there's no time to lose in looking ahead. Dublin are up first in Parnell Park on Saturday, and while that's a game Offaly are expected to win, Hanniffy is taking nothing for granted - especially after last Sunday.

"It's a game we have to win, simple as that. We've never played particularly well against Dublin, especially in Parnell Park (Offaly won by a point last year). We had also billed the Wexford game as an important one for Offaly. While we had regenerated things over the winter, that was the game that would have shown real progress for us. Maybe we'd put some pressure on ourselves, but hopefully it will be another learning experience for us.

"And we were very low afterwards. We'd built up a real head of steam and definitely expected to play better than we did. We did have a fair share of possession, and we just couldn't take our scores. But we've a chance to turn it around. The fact is there was one point in it on Sunday. The last ball dropped to a Wexford guy and could have easily dropped to an Offaly guy. It was that finely balanced."

Manager John McIntyre was practically speechless with disappointment after Sunday's defeat. The loss of Murphy with a medial-ligament knee injury adds further concerns about a forward line that could hit only 0-8 against Wexford, and only 0-2 in the second half, but again Hanniffy is staying positive.

His brother Rory takes over the captaincy for Sunday, and he's confident the team performance will improve. "Sure John was devastated," he adds, "but there wasn't much he could say. We just didn't perform like we had all year. He couldn't have done any more for us, so it was up to the players in the end. And as a team we just didn't come up with it.

"The likes of Joe Bergin and Brian Carroll would regularly get scores for us. We were getting shots in and some went narrowly wide. It happened to both sets of forwards in fairness.

"But then some of the wides were almost explicable, scores that players would normally put over with both eyes closed. In any sports you get days like that. But I think we're definitely better than last Sunday, and it's up to us now to prove it."