Offaly at last on the road back?

It was great to see an Offaly hurling team play in the manner they went about their business on Saturday night at Semple Stadium in their qualifier against Waterford.
In the end they were beaten by two Eoin Kelly goals conceded in the first half, both of which came after errors by the defence.
However, it has been six or seven years since I have seen an Offaly team hurl with the skill, pace and intelligence which characterised their play on Saturday.
Granted they faced a Waterford team which is seriously under performing but in fairness to Offaly they denied Waterford's big half forward line the room to make much of an impact on the game.
Offaly are a young side and you have to hope that Joe Dooley's men can continue to improve over the next couple of seasons.
Lads like Shane Dooley and Derek Molloy in the half forward line really took the game to the Waterford defence while Brendan Carroll weighed in with nine scores with a couple of crackers from play.
Veteran Ger Oakley was a rock in the heart of the defence while midfielders Brendan Murphy and Rory Hannify got the better of the exchanges on the night.
The two lines where Offaly did struggle all night was in the full back and full forward lines.
Eoin Kelly saw off a succession of markers and they just couldn't hold him.
Mullane tore holes in them in the first half too though to their credit the Faithful men eventually curtailed him but they struggled all night and never looked secure..
Up front Joe Bergin struggled to get into the game and while Carroll was doing damage by drifting out the field by and large the full forward line got little change out of the Waterford defence.
Some of Offaly's link-up play and stick work on the night also bodes well for the future.
The fact that they were level going into the last ten minutes is testament to their fighting spirit as they never let their heads drop after conceding two first half goals and Waterford only managed to draw away as Offaly visibly tired in the closing stages.
They will become physically stronger with more games at this level and this intensity and they answered the question I raised earlier in the week about the gap closing between the Munster and Leinster sides except for the Cats of course.
This is the end of Joe Dooley's first year in charge of a rejuvenated Offaly let's hope they can continue to make progress.