Offaly is to receive €45,000 per year to help develop hurling in the county.

The four-time Liam MacCarthy Cup winners were omitted from the €900,000 five-year funding initiative when it was announced by GAA president Liam O'Neill at Congress in February, but they have now been included following a request from the county board. Antrim, Laois, Carlow and Westmeath had already been assigned development funding.

Offaly's decline in fortunes, coupled with the county's lack of training facilities which was highlighted in recent weeks, were factors in them being granted the funding.

"We have to be realistic and look at things as they are, not as they were. We have had great success in hurling since the start of the 1980s but that's history now," Offaly's Central Council delegate Pat Teehan told the Irish Independent.

"In terms of infrastructure, we'd be fairly closed aligned to the four counties who were included in the new funding programme, which was why we decided to apply.

"In fairness to Croke Park and Central Council, we were pushing an open door," the Coolderry man added. Tweet

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