Offaly manager Kevin Martin blasts new Leinster format

Kevin Martin is not happy with the new format of the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship.

Following a promising spring campaign, the Offaly manager is plotting a surprise in the Championship. The Faithful County caused a huge surprise by hammering Dublin in the first round of the League at Croke Park, and gave Kilkenny the fright of their lives in the quarter-final.

Given how Offaly have struggled in recent years, there are certainly promising signs within the county. However, the new format may not entirely suit them, as one-off knockout games may be better suited to Offaly causing a shock, rather than a run of successive matches. Just one week after their surprise win over Dublin, they fell to a 17-point defeat to Limerick at home.

Speaking ahead of their opener against Galway, Martin said the new format has its disadvantages.

"To be honest, I think it's a bit mad," he said. "Possibly they should have had two rounds, a break of a week, then another two rounds because players are going to get injured. My thing about it was if a player tore a hamstring in the first round, they are gone for the next three. It's a tough one but it is what it is and we're going to have to face in it.

"A knee-jerk reaction [to the Super 8s] is the proper word for it. It's going to generate more revenue, there's no doubt about it. The games are going to be intense but if things don't go right for teams as regards injuries it'll be the team with the biggest, strongest panel that going to come out at the end of it.

"We are the minnows of our championship, it's going to be hard on us if we do pick up a lot of injuries, fingers crossed."

Offaly start their campaign at home to reigning champions Galway in Tullamore on May 12.