Offaly 'boys became men' with Leinster hurling triumph

Offaly minor hurling manager Leo O'Connor believes his side's Leinster minor hurling final victory in front of 12,500 supporters at MW Hire O'Moore Park was a night that saw 'boys become men’.

Connor’s charges ended a 22-year wait for an Electric Ireland Leinster minor hurling title with a 0-21 to 0-13 victory over Offaly.

Having overcome both Wexford and Kilkenny on the way to the Leinster decider, Offaly started slowly but produced a stirring second-half display to book their place in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

Speaking to TG4 afterwards, Connor paid tribute to his young side and the way in which they performed in the biggest game of their lives, to date.

"I’m absolutely over the moon for these lads," he said. "I know what they’ve put in and I know how hard they’ve worked to get the reward tonight but it’s only one step on the ladder.

"There’s an All-Ireland semi-final to come and it’s absolutely brilliant for the county but we’ve got to get the boys back in and get them grounded and we’ve got to go again.

"That’s what it’s all about, when these opportunities become available to you, you’ve got to take them."

Now that Offaly have ended the long wait for provincial silverware, O'Connor is eager to see them go on to even greater heights this year.

"We said it to them, boys become men tonight and tonight’s the night where a lot of them matured and grew up a hell of a lot.

"There’s a lot of them doing their Junior Cert, they’ve a big June to come ahead of them.

"One swallow never made a summer, there’s other things to be done later in the year and we’ve a break of three or four weeks now and we’ll look ahead to that."