Watching their form slip away like spilled water in yesterday's second half, Offaly might have reflected on the dubious currency that is League form. Galway, who won the big boys' competition last year, had a majestic second half in the Ballinasloe rain to keep their dignity and a place at the top table.
In the aftermath, relegated Offaly were choosing to accentuate the positive from between gritted teeth. Tommy Lyons pronounced himself "pleased" with the display, at least as pleased as a man could be watching his side lose their direction and a six-point half-time lead.
"Overall I was happy. We put it up to them for a long period. We couldn't get a vital score in the second half. Listen, Galway are good footballers."
Tommy was less keen to chat freely about John Ryan, whose demotion from the team and out of the panel was so swift that he could be forgiven if he'd looked a little dazed as he sat beside the press box watching the game.
Will he be back?
"John's call," said Lyons closing his face to the subject.
If Ryan's absence prompted speculation about unhappiness in the Offaly camp, it was not corroborated by their first-half performance.
David Connolly, roving and rambling from the corner forward position, had a fine time, scoring six points, half of them from play, before the interval. In the business of making the Galway defence look lightweight, he was well abetted by Vinny Claffey.
At midfield Ciaran McManus lost his focus at times early on, but grew into the game and had a 20-minute spell when he played with authority, scoring a fine point midway through the first half.
That score, the first in a sequence that brought just two dead-ball replies, was indicative of Offaly's feisty confidence in their game. They moved the ball intelligently and people got into good positions as Galway's defence again looked frail and uncertain.
After the break Galway's personality was much changed. John O'Mahony joked that he had bottled a little of the half-time speech from last year's All-Ireland final and uncorked it again yesterday. He should sell it commercially.
His team trailed by six points at one stage and after the break an affronted Galway ripped into Offaly from the start. Sean O Domhnaill, immersed in distraction and sideshow through the first half, popped a point over in the opening minute and suddenly Galway's sleeves were rolled up.
O Domhnaill, whose mental absence had caused his side all sorts of problems before the break, began plucking the greasy ball down with ease. John Divilly, whose first half wasn't bad, stepped up a gear and splayed some fine passes about the place, while Derek Savage gave the best performance we have seen from him in some time.
Despite the rain and wind slanting across the field there were moments when the poetry of Galway's secondhalf display bore comparison to last summer's finest moments. The second point of the second half was a masterclass in economy. Divilly, vibrating with energy, hit a lovely pass towards the corner where Savage scooted in to pop a fine score. Minutes later Tommy Joyce latched onto a Ja Fallon free from the hands out in the right corner and plotted a point from a freakishly difficult angle.
Fallon was one of the Galway performers who never threatened to submit a masterpiece. He was withdrawn with hamstring trouble in the second half and his replacement, Fergal Gavin, had a busy closing quarter. Like Fallon the performance of Michael Donnellan at centre forward was strangely out of sorts.
Donnellan seems to find that the traffic at centre forward makes him claustrophobic and it was only late on, when he began wandering the wings, that his influence was brought to bear on the game. That, and the form of Micheal O Collarain, were possibly the two most disappointing aspects of yesterday's business for Galway.
The wondrous second half was chiefly the responsibility of the Galway inside line which scored freely throughout, registering 10 points without reply in the space of 22 second-half minutes.
"I'm relieved," said O'Mahony. "We had a terrible first half and we were all over the place. And in the end we pulled it out. We're not playing well for the hour, but at least we got a good half hour. When we played we were great, when we didn't we were terrible. Down the years I felt Galway were damaged playing in the lower divisions. We've avoided that."
Last year Galway had Carlow, Kilkenny and Fermanagh after Christmas. This year, with a tougher programme and more distractions to erase, O'Mahony reckons they have work to do.
"We've a lot of sitting down and a lot of talking to do. Kevin Walsh is out running again, Tomas Meehan is a little ahead of Kevin at this stage."
GALWAY: L Kelly; R Doyle, G Fahy, J Lardner; R Silke, J Divilly, S Og de Paor; J Fallon, S O Domhnill; M O Collarain, M Donnellan, T Joyce (0- 2); D Savage (0-3), P Joyce (0-4, three frees), N Finnegan (0-3). Subs: P Clancy (0-1) for M O Collarain (40 mins), F Gavin for J Fallon (42 mins)
OFFALY: P O'Kelly; J Brady, C Daly, D Foley; F Cullen, J Kenny, T Coffey; J Stewart, C McManus (0-1, free); P Brady, B O'Brien (0-1), P O'Reilly; D Connolly (0-6, three frees), M Daly, V Claffey (0- 1). Subs: P Moran for P O'Reilly (45 mins), K Fitzpatrick (0-1) for O'Brien (53 mins).
Referee: M McBrien (Fermanagh).
