THIRTY YEARS AGO, Leo O’Connor was togging out against Offaly on the biggest day of his hurling career.
Limerick were in charge of that 1994 All-Ireland final when O’Connor, their only sub used, came on and slotted a first-touch point to push them six ahead.
But what went before was washed away in the ‘five-minute final’. The Treaty heartbreak masterminded by two of their own in manager Éamonn Cregan and trainer Derry O’Donovan.
Both were, like O’Connor, Claughaun clubmen. Cregan and O’Connor even won a Limerick senior hurling and football double together in 1986.
The U21 star, as he was back then, couldn’t have envisaged following Cregan into the Offaly bainisteoir bib and spearheading an underage revolution.
For O’Connor, the connections to ’94 have resurfaced over their run of three All-Ireland finals in three years.
When Offaly supporters packed the Semple Stadium stands for the 2023 U20 decider, the “unbelievable roar” coming down the tunnel brought him back to his seminal moment at Croke Park.
And when a last-gasp Tipperary goal ended their 2022 minor title dreams, O’Connor naturally linked it back to his playing days and that “cruel” comeback.
The road from ’94 to 2024 has been a winding one.
A Limerick man, he manages Offaly, lives in Tipperary, and works in Clare for the Champion newspaper as business development manager.
His club involvements were enough to land him the Limerick U21 gig in 2009 and a Munster title followed in his third and final campaign. Declan Hannon, Shane Dowling, and Graeme Mulcahy three future All-Ireland winners who combined for 3-12 that day in 2011. John Kiely was beside O’Connor on the line as selector/coach.
He coached Mayo and was drafted in as Limerick minor manager for 2015, when a team featuring Kyle Hayes, Séamus Flanagan, and Peter Casey came up just short in a Munster final.
He sidestepped into the role as Treaty intermediate boss for 2016, working with Aaron Gillane, William O’Donoghue, and Mike Casey.
His time working with the Sligo hurlers alongside Declan Loughnane brought him into Offaly’s orbit as minor coach in 2019. O’Connor’s experience with the Limerick hurling academy proved the essential factor and he was upgraded to manager a year later.
On one hand, he knows how these opportunities can pass by so quickly. “I won an All-Ireland minor title with Limerick in 1984 and Limerick haven’t won one since,” he pointed out in 2022. That team held a 40th-anniversary reunion last weekend.
On the other, he can also relate how those underage defeats fuelled the green machine that has dominated the game since 2018.
From his own point of view, O’Connor admits he learned more from defeat in ’94 than victory ever taught him.
The lessons of Offaly’s past two final defeats will be carried into Nowlan Park this Saturday. Cork brought their physicality to bear on them last year. One story from the transition to minors to 20s reflects the growing up process they are navigating.
“About two weeks before the Leinster minor hurling final, we played Galway in a challenge match in Ballinasloe and the match was abandoned with four or five minutes to go because Galway were beginning to dish it out and our lads stood up to it,” said O’Connor at their Leinster U20 medal presentation last winter.
“I knew coming away that night that we were capable of going on and doing some serious work.
“Twelve months on, when we met Galway this year in the Leinster quarter-final in our back garden in Tullamore, we said going out the dressing room door that we were going to lay down a marker and make sure that everyone stands up and takes notice of us.
“That night there was an outpouring of emotion. People started to realise that this team were serious operators and were very capable of going on to bigger things.”
It was the first time an Offaly side had beaten Galway in championship at any level since that year, 1994.
“Leo O’Connor came up here from Limerick five years ago,” said Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan at their All-Ireland final homecoming last year. “I said in the dressing room after the game he is now an Offaly man fully.
“He has given huge commitment to this county, he is an absolute gentleman to deal with. He never comes with any bad ideas. It’s always what can we do to get the extra inch or extra yard.
“Leo, you have been a brilliant leader of this group, a brilliant man since you came to Offaly, and on behalf of everyone in Offaly, thank you very much.”