Offaly manager Michael Fennelly says it would be a failure for his side if they didn’t advance to the Joe McDonagh Cup final.
Fennelly’s charges take on Kerry tomorrow afternoon in Tralee (1pm), where a win would go a long way towards booking a spot in the decider.
Speaking to RTE Sport ahead of this weekend's crunch clash at Austin Stack Park, the former Kilkenny star said they won’t be banking on other results to go their way.
"I think it would be a failure this year if we didn't get to it," he said at the announcement of Glenisk as Offaly’s new main sponsors.
"We're missing probably our best player, Oisin Kelly. He's a huge loss. It would be like losing Cathal Mannion from Galway, TJ Reid or the likes of Gillane in Limerick.
"That's made it extra challenging this year. And we picked up a large number of injuries during the league as well, they were only coming back over the last few weeks. So, we've had a mountain of challenges. But I still think we've got to get to the final, without a doubt. And I probably would consider it a failure, yeah, on my side of it more than anything.
"Obviously, we need to win and Kerry need to win. The Joe Mc is very competitive this year. We're not banking on other results to go our way or anything like that.”
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