Eoghan Cahill’s 15th point of a dramatic Leinster SHC encounter rescued a landmark draw for Offaly, their first time avoiding defeat against Kilkenny in the Championship since the 1998 All-Ireland final.<\/p>\n
A famous win for the Faithful looked to be on the cards at various stages throughout a Round 3 encounter that Kilkenny simply never got going in.<\/p>\n
But when Cian Kenny – who replaced TJ Reid on the frees after the Cats legend was taken off – put Kilkenny a point ahead in the 73rd minute, it looked like the holders might sneak an away win.<\/p>\n
So Offaly were delighted that referee Johnny Murphy gave them the opportunity to level the game, in the sixth minute of stoppage time, from a 65 that was initially waved as a wide.<\/p>\n
Murphy chatted with his umpires about the decision before signalling for the 65 which the nerveless Cahill stuck between the posts.<\/p>\n
Having already been well beaten by Galway, it’s another terrible result from Kilkenny’s perspective though Offaly supporters in the 6,066 rejoiced and savoured their second draw of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Dan Bourke and Brian Duignan split five points between them also for Offaly while their defence was excellent.<\/p>\n
But Kilkenny will, of course, be the story of the afternoon with 16 wides undermining their chances of scoring an important win to keep their seven-in-a-row title charge alive.<\/p>\n
Kilkenny were unchanged from the side that put 5-21 on the board against Wexford but if boss Derek Lyng was banking on picking up where they left off in Round 2, he was let down.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t quite the first half underperformance that Galway exhibited in their clash with Kildare in Newbridge yesterday afternoon, but it was still below par.<\/p>\n
The Cats drilled a dozen first-half wides with TJ Reid accounting for three of those, including a 65 and a relatively easy free that seemed to sum up their sluggishness.<\/p>\n
Reid wore number 14 and played most of the first half in the full-forward position, with Ben Conneely for company. But he came out deeper towards the end of the half as Kilkenny tried to make something happen.<\/p>\n
They pushed for goals whenever a chink of light emerged in a well drilled Offaly backline.<\/p>\n
Kenny drilled a shot wide in the 13th minute, Martin Keoghan had an effort blocked by a defender and Reid controlled a loose ball and then pulled on it close to half time, only to be thwarted by goalkeeper Liam Hoare.<\/p>\n
After all of Offaly’s hard work, they winced at the soft goal they did cough up, a 27th minute Carey shot taking enough of a deflection off Ciar\u00e1n Burke to deceive Hoare and trickle in beneath him.<\/p>\n
With Kenny sniping three points from play, Kilkenny just about led at half time, by 1-9 to 0-11, but it was unconvincing and travelling fans were still waiting for their team to catch fire.<\/p>\n
Offaly were more efficient, drawing five fouls that Eoghan Cahill comfortably converted. Brian Duignan swung a beauty over from out on the left wing and Dan Bourke caused the Cats plenty of trouble, registering two first-half points.<\/p>\n
Crucially, Offaly would have the wind behind them in the second half so opportunity knocked.<\/p>\n
And when they reeled off four points in a row between the 38th and 43rd minutes – one of those coming off a morale boosting Ross Ravenhill interception ahead of Reid – they led 0-15 to 1-10.<\/p>\n
Reid was taken off the frees and eventually replaced for one of the few times in his storied career.<\/p>\n
It highlighted just how badly things were going for the Cats though they can take credit for refusing to lie down in a game that was level 14 times in all.<\/p>\n
\n Kilkenny scorers: Cian Kenny 0-7 (0-2f), Mikey Carey 1-0, Martin Keoghan 0-3, TJ Reid 0-2 (0-1f), Tom Phelan 0-2, Killian Doyle 0-2, Eoin Cody 0-1, Darragh Corcoran 0-1, Stephen Donnelly 0-1, Liam Moore 0-1, Fion\u00e1n Mackessy 0-1.<\/p>\n
\n Offaly scorers: Eoghan Cahill 0-15 (12f, 1 65), Dan Bourke 0-3, Brian Duignan 0-2, Charlie Mitchell 0-1, Conor Doyle 0-1, Shane Rigney 0-1, Ter Guinan 0-1.<\/p>\n
\n Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy; Ivan Bolger, Mikey Carey, Mikey Butler; David Blanchfield, Darragh Corcoran, Paddy Deegan; Killian Doyle, Jordan Molloy; Cian Kenny, Eoin Cody, Tom Phelan; Martin Keoghan, TJ Reid, Liam Moore.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: Richie Reid for Carey 10-12, Stephen Donnelly for Reid 49, Fion\u00e1n Mackessy for Moore 53, Timmy Clifford for Phelan 59, Richie Reid for Molloy 68.<\/p>\n
\n Offaly: Liam Hoare; Patrick Taaffe, Ben Conneely, Ter Guinan; Ross Ravenhill, Killian Sampson, Ciar\u00e1n Burke; Colin Spain, Luke Watkins; Shane Rigney, Daniel Bourke, Conor Doyle; Charlie Mitchell, Brian Duignan, Eoghan Cahill.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: Cathal King for Watkins 53, Dan Ravenhill for Spain 53, Ois\u00edn Kelly for Doyle 66.<\/p>\n
\n Referee: Johnny Murphy (Limerick).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eoghan Cahill’s 15th point of a dramatic Leinster SHC encounter rescued a landmark draw for Offaly, their first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[177329,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-442265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-championship-2026","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}