Cahill and Kiely point Faithful to League final glory

For the first ten minutes of this afternoon's Allianz Hurling League Division 2A final in Portlaoise, it felt like history was beckoning for Kildare hurling.

While the Short Grass County spent the decade of the 1970s hurling in Division 1B and played in a number of league quarter-finals, they travelled to MW Hire O’Moore Park today hoping, perhaps even expecting, to reach the top tier of the competition for the first time in their history.

And in that opening spell of the game, they were utterly rampant. Gerry Keegan’s goal was right out of the top drawer, their large crowd of supporters were in full voice, and Offaly were on the rack as the Lily Whites fired in 1-4 on the bounce, after conceding the first score of the game.

The breeze favoured David Herity’s side in the first half and Rian Boran, Cian Boran and Cathal McCabe all made it count with wonderful points from distance, with their complete control of Offaly’s long puckouts giving them the ammunition.

Yet despite all their injuries, Offaly found something more, and ultimately no-one could dispute that they were worthy winners of this league final, and full value for their return to the top tier, following their relegation in 2022.

Their comeback here was based on three key factors. Once they recovered from their initial shell shock, they produced a defensive master class, with Ciarán Burke, Ben Conneely, Jason Sampson and Adrian Cleary (sweeper) all delivering outstanding performances.

They used the ball efficiently, playing through the lines with accurate hurling that kept the ball away from the tackle, and both Eoghan Cahill and Cillian Kiely came up with some huge scores to get Offaly back into the game, however Kildare will regret the third factor in Offaly’s