With the majority of the 25,825 attendance wearing Offaly colours, they finished strongly to win the county’s first ever All-Ireland under-20 title.
O’Connor, the former Limerick hurler, referenced last year’s under-20 final loss to Cork and the previous year’s heartbreaking minor defeat by Tipp, as well as a Tony Forristal (under-14) defeat to Tipp in 2018 with many of the same players.
“We were beaten in the Forristal final by that Tipperary team and in an All-Ireland minor hurling final two years ago by that Tipperary team,” he said.
“From our point of view, third time, we had to get over the line tonight. They’re the targets we set ourselves at the start of the year and that’s the way it’s worked out for us.”
He said that the loss to Cork in last year’s final underlined the need to improve their physical conditioning.
“You see how they developed tonight over the last 12 months. And they’re not finished yet. There’s 10 of that team, 11 of the team that finished up on the field, underage again next year. There’s no doubt, that’s an opportunity,” he said.
“We set our goal at the start of the year that we’d go out and defend our Leinster championship. Now we’ve to come back and defend an All-Ireland championship. That’s the standard. You just can’t stop and we keep moving on with it.”
That is still a work in progress, but he insisted. “To be very realistic about it, I think it’s going to take three to four years before these guys are at their full strength.
“They all have to develop and that’s the most important thing. I worked with Limerick for 10, 11 years and I know what it takes. I remember 2008, 2009 with development squads in Limerick and it took 10 years to get back up.
“We won a Munster championship with Limerick in 2011 with Declan Hannon and all those lads. It took until 2018 for them to really mature.
“Fair enough, Limerick won a Munster senior hurling championship in 2013 but, as I said during the week, 2013 Limerick were beaten in an All-Ireland semi-final, 2014 beaten in an All-Ireland minor final, and it took time for the thing to come through.
“That’s what’s going to happen in Offaly. There’s guys ahead of this team that were involved last year. They’re there and we’re going to work hard on them again.
“It’s a matter of development, development, development, and I can’t emphasise it enough. No one swallow made a summer so it’s a work in progress.”
And he noted the importance of next Saturday’s McDonagh Cup final where Offaly meet Laois with the winner promoted to the MacCarthy Cup. A number of the under-20 side will also be part of that bid.
“It’s brilliant winning tonight but really the end product is to get Offaly back into the MacCarthy Cup. You know there’s a massive task ahead next week (McDonagh Cup final v Laois) but one I know the senior team will look forward to and I’ve no doubt they’ll meet the challenge.”
