Niall McNamee says the presence of hurling stars Shane Dooley, Dan Currams, Sean Ryan and Conor Mahon at Offaly football training on Monday night gave Emmett McDonnell's charges a major lift.

The quartet - who are all talented dual players -were called up to the football squad following the hurlers' exit from the championship at the hands of Waterford last Saturday, and could now feature in this weekend's All-Ireland SFC first round qualifier against Tyrone in Tullamore.

"The county is so small," Offaly captain McNamee pointed out in the Irish Daily Star.

"There are five or six lads on the hurling panel who would be good enough to be on the football panel. It was either hurling or football and some chose hurling and some chose football. Them lads are in good shape.

"They were keen to play football this year. A lot of them were keen to play both. For whatever reason, they couldn't come to an agreement on it. It's a testament to them boys.

"They have had a long year as well and could just have went off and enjoyed the weather, had a holiday for a couple of weeks, do whatever they had to do. They were raring to go on Monday night and it gave lads a lift to see lads that have a massive interest still in Offaly.

"Maybe next year we could work something together between the two panels to have access to them." Tweet

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