‘We created a family’ – O’Connor toasts U-20 glory

Leo O’Connor credited Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan for giving him the freedom to lead the Faithful county to their maiden All-Ireland U-20 Hurling Championship title.

Offaly got the better of Tipperary by 2-20 to 2-14 in a tense final in front of 25,825 supporters at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny.

The victory saw them bounce back from defeat to Cork in the 2023 final, while O’Connor and Offaly also tasted defeat to Tipp in the 2022 All-Ireland minor final.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport amid celebratory scenes in Kilkenny, O’Connor praised Duignan for giving him time to build on the back of those disappointments.

“I can’t speak highly enough of the man,” said O’Connor. “The man gave me free rein to go and do what I could with Offaly hurling.

“You can’t beat that raw honesty, that integrity, to know that you’re trusted. That’s the most important thing. We have really created a family. There are more hurling clubs in half of Tipperary than there are in the whole of Offaly.

“It’s a credit to the clubs, a credit to the players, how they’ve developed over the last three years. We made one rule at half-time. We said we weren’t going home without it.”

A native of Limerick, and specifically a clubman with Claughaun on the southside of the Treaty City, O’Connor is the son of 1969 and 1975 All-Ireland final referee Sean O’Connor, who passed away in 2018.

“He’s looking down on me tonight,” added O’Connor, who led his native county to Munster under-21 glory in 2011. “I hope I did him proud and I hope I did my mother proud. I’ve lost the both of them in the last five years. It’s been a tough road. I’m a proud Claughaun man and always will be. It’s just one of those things where it took me further afield.

“It took a lot of energy over the last six months to get this team to where we are today but we’ll come back and we’ll defend it.”