A marshy old February Sunday in Birr and little has changed. Galway danced sprightly from the traps, cracking scores which perhaps deserved a grander setting and Offaly, the All-Ireland champions, fretted fecklessly through the afternoon, ghosts of those players who came from the dead late last summer.

A goal and six points from the Athenry prodigy Eugene Cloonan rendered the admission price worthwhile and, in general, Galway fizzed with the kind of skill and enterprise that has seen them marked as early contenders on many previous seasons. Afterwards Galway manager Mattie Murphy was half smiling but still cautious.

"Ah, you've got to put it in perspective. It's a long way from the last Sunday in July, you know. Offaly will be a different kettle of fish in July. We are happy with the way we applied ourselves, there was good oul' spirit. But we missed a good few scores and weren't quite direct enough - but we haven't gone out on the field yet to do any kind of ball work," he said.

This performance did little to undermine the legend of Galway's capacity for producing an infinite stream of darling hurlers. Kevin Broderick and Cloonan spun webs along the left wing; Ollie Canning came in late in the second half, shimmied past Barry Whelahan and nailed a sizzling goal; and the Kerins brothers, Mark and Alan, played with an apparently psychic understanding.

Although at times the forward unit lapsed into that old habit of sinful over-elaboration, there was for the most part a refreshing crispness about their style. The full-back line delivered plenty of long speculative ball, with Brian Feeney particularly influential from deep, and Cathal Moore and Mark Kerins provided a fulcrum for the Galway attack which has been missing in previous years, except for the lone efforts of Joe Rabbitte, who sat out the first half of this match on the bench.

As for Offaly? Well, they were on the field too, after a fashion. They kept in touch mainly through the dead ball wizardry of John Troy, who converted all of their first-half total of three points.

Galway had forged a tally of 1-5 at the break, the goal coming after Stephen Byrne dallied under a dropping ball from Pauric Walsh, leaving time enough for Cloonan to pounce and convert.

Offaly never got any momentum going. Their half-back line, which marshalled affairs in the big theatres last summer, were left stretched and beleaguered for most of the match.

Brian Whelahan sauntered up field just the once, to take a pass from Paudie Mulhare and rifle a 65metre point. Johnny Pilkington darted about with little impact and his midfield partner, Ger Oakley, retired early. Of the forwards, only Troy cut a dash.

Early in the second half, he whipped over two frees in as many minutes to leave the scores at 0-5 to 1-5 but no sooner were notions of a shoot-out formed than Galway were out of sight. Cloonan made space and curled a point, popped a free and took a pass from Kerins before hooking another score. Whelahan's solitary point and a free from Troy kept Offaly interests alive in the remotest sense but Galway were carving them open, blazing wides for every score.

They ended the contest when Alan Kerins knocked a ball behind Barry Whelahan which Ollie Canning collected and drilled past Byrne. That left the score at 0-7 to 2-8 with 14 minutes remaining and the rest was just statistics.

Afterwards, Mattie Murphy declared that his supposed fatwah on the media was all nonsense while Offaly's Michael Bond announced that he may never converse with the press again, so incensed was he with a Sunday newspaper article. And it's only February.

OFFALY: S Byrne; S Whelahan, H Rigney, Barry Whelahan; Brian Whelahan (0-1), K Martin, N Claffey; G Oakley, J Pilkington; Johnny Dooley, D Regan, P Mulhare; J Ryan, J Errity, J Troy (0-6, five frees). Substitutes: K Farrell for Dooley (42 mins); M Rigney for G Oakley (45 mins); N Murphy for S Whelahan (50 mins).

GALWAY: K Devine; R Walsh, B Feeney, V Maher; R Walsh, L Hodgins, P Hardiman (0-1); N Shaughnessy, N Kenny; A Kerins, C Moore, K Broderick (0-2); F Forde, M Kerins (0-2), E Cloonan (1-6, four frees). Substitutes: J Rabbitte for N Kenny (43 mins), O Canning (1-0) for F Forde.

Referee: W Barrett (Tipperary).