Youthful Project Offaly has Harte, soul and style

Sure, he'd already won league titles on five occasions, across all four divisions and three different decades, whilst in charge of Tyrone, Louth and Derry but this, lest anyone has forgotten, was an Offaly team not just beaten by London in the Tailteann Cup last May but hammered.

So nobody was rushing to the bookmakers with the mortgage money to tip Offaly for promotion, let alone to claim the Division 3 title.

They took the silverware in style though, displaying enough chutzpah, youthful running and, crucially, quality to suggest that they are some way from reaching their ceiling.

Kildare have their limitations - as 19 scores from 38 shots underlines - but Offaly still cut a dash and they will surely give troubled Meath or Carlow their fill of it in a Leinster quarter-final tie on April 13.

Cormac Egan, whose 56th minute goal went a long way towards killing off favourites Kildare, was among seven players in the Offaly lineup that also played in the county's 2021 All-Ireland U-20 final win over Roscommon at Croke Park. This is a winning group of players then, something Harte identified very quickly after coming on board.

"I didn't necessarily announce it to anybody but in my own head and heart, I said this team is good enough to get out of the division," said Harte. "We said that when we went to Louth as well, we said they were good enough to get out of Division 4, we believed they were good enough to get out of Division 3. And now they're consolidating themselves in Division 2, which I'm glad to see.

"If you don't have the aspiration to improve then you're only going in to create a team for that division, being happy to stay there. And if you're happy to stay where you are, you generally don't stay there - you go backwards."

The problem for Offaly is that even if they beat Meath or Carlow, they're unlikely to reach a Leinster final with Dublin probably waiting at the semi-final stage. Down are guaranteed an All-Ireland series place as Tailteann Cup holders but they were relegated from Division 2 this season and they will effectively take the place of the Division 3 winners - Offaly.

"It's a very unlikely event, put it like that," said Harte of Offaly reaching the Leinster final. "Given who we have to play to get there, it seems very unlikely that we'll get that route so it seems like we won't be there. Look, that's a pity, it would have been great to get there but the rules are the rules. As they transpire, it doesn't favour us at the minute."

It's the same situation for Kildare though if they beat Westmeath on April 12 they will fancy their chances of picking off Louth, Wexford or Laois in a semi-final to reach that provincial final bar.

Mind you, Kildare might be as well off in the Tailteann Cup. They too have a young group - 17 of the 33 players they've used in this year's league campaign featured in either the 2018, 2022 or 2023 All-Ireland U-20 finals - that may benefit from a second year in the Tailteann Cup.

On paper, they have a terrific set of forwards but it hasn't been adding up to enough victories with score execution and conversion consistently a problem.

Alex Beirne had an opportunity to draw this game with a post-buzzer two-point attempt but it flew wide. And a draw would have flattered the Lilies who struck seven second-half wides, hit a post, dropped a point attempt short and wasted a terrific 41st minute goal opportunity when Darragh Kirwan was clean through.

They were missing Daniel Flynn and Jimmy Hyland admittedly but still expected better.

"The shot creation and chance creation is not the issue for us," said Flanagan. "Conversion on certain days has been."

Offaly deserved their 1-10 to 0-10 half-time lead, Jack Bryant's early goal, a stunning finish to the top corner of the Kildare net, separating the sides.

Harry O'Neill pulled a Kildare goal back after the restart, palming in from close range, but while Flanagan's crew had enough possession to push on and overwhelm Offaly, their accuracy didn't match their ambition.

Offaly, meanwhile, kept plugging away with timely scores and caught fire with 1-3 between the 55th and 61st minutes, Egan stroking 1-1 and Man of the Match Keith O'Neill the other two points, to effectively finish it.

Offaly scorers: J Bryant 1-3; C Egan 1-1; K O'Neill 0-4; J Hayes (tp), D Hyland (1 free), S Tierney (tp) 0-2 each; D McDaid, C Flynn, J McEvoy 0-1 each.

Kildare scorers: A Beirne 0-5 (3 frees); H O'Neill 1-0; D Kirwan 0-3 (2 frees); C Burke (tpf), J McGrath 0-2 each; C Dalton, R Houlihan, C Bolton, N Kelly, P McDermott, D Swords 0-1 each.

OFFALY: P Dunican; L Pearson, R Egan, A Bracken; C Egan, J Furlong, D McDaid; J McEvoy, J Hayes; K Higgins, C Flynn, K O'Neill; D Hyland, J Bryant, S Tierney.

Subs: R McNamee for Hyland & A Leavy for McEvoy (68).

KILDARE: C Burke; B Byrne, M O'Grady, D Hyland; H O'Neill, J McGrath, R Houlihan; K Feely, C Bolton; C Dalton, J McKevitt, R Sinkey; C Hagney, A Beirne, N Kelly.

Subs: P McDermott for Hagney (26); D Kirwan for McKevitt (h/t); D Swords for Sinkey (49); K Flynn for O'Grady (54); R Burke for Houlihan (58).

Ref: K Eanetta (Tyrone).