Offaly manager Paul Rouse has revealed that each member of the squad was rang and asked the same question.

Following a turbulent few weeks that saw Stephen Wallace removed as manager by the county board and a new management team headed up by Rouse put in place, the squad focused on the qualifiers and were rewarded with a good win over Antrim last weekend.

Their 'prize' for that is another home time, and on this occasion they will face a Clare side that suffered a heavy defeat to Kerry in the Munster SFC semi-final.

Speaking to the Midland Tribune, Rouse stated that when he was appointed in the role, his first job was to ring each member of the squad and ask them just one question.

"It was one phone call to each person, 'do you want to play for Offaly' and the answer they gave me was yes. That says something about the heart and the spirit that them boys have," said Rouse.

"If you want to talk about personal pride, look at Brian Darby and Johnny Moloney, the two of them came back in and are after playing almost 80 minutes of championship football when you consider the injury time and they did not flag. We even played some of that with 14 men.

"They kept in shape with their clubs and came back into an inter-county set-up and fitted back in seamlessly."

He added: "Offaly people are producing very good footballers but we need to produce more. We can talk about acadamies and development squads all we want but what can put Offaly back at the top table is the work being done in the clubs."

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