1986 they beat Laois by 1-23 to 4-9 to qualify for the Leinster Final. When Laois began to get the upper hand, Joe Dooley was switched to midfield and turned in a "man of the match" performance. The same tactic was not effective in the Final itself. With Jim Troy and Aidan Fogarty out through injury, League champions Kilkenny swamped the Offaly defence and won their 51st Leinster Title by 4-11 to 1-11. Only 0-5 of the Offaly total came from play. Pat Delaney's twice-taken penalty closed the gap to five points, but this would be Offaly's last score. Pádraig Horan's retirement the following winter opened another gap in Offaly's attack formation. Apart from Martin Hanamy (St Rynagh's) and Seamus Coughlan (Kinnitty) the Faithful County had few fresh faces to call on for the 1987 campaign. On 31 May 1987, Offaly showed craft and character to beat Dublin (2-18 to 1-13), exemplified by Joe Dooley's left-handed swing connecting to score the decisive goal – but the team failed to score in the last 18 minutes. Similarly, Laois had Offaly on the rack for much of the Semi-final. Jim Troy had to be brilliant between the posts. Eugene Coughlan and Aidan Fogarty combined well under heavy pressure, as the Faithful County won out (1-16 to 0-13). 29,133 spectators were in Croke Park when Offaly contested their eighth Leinster Final in a row in warm August sunshine. They were chronically short of attack options and only scored 0-3 after the break. For Kilkenny, Christy Heffernan almost single-handedly dislocated Offay's half back line. Liam Fennelly's goal and midfielder Ger Fennelly's hail of points ensured that the Cats prevailed by 2-14 to 0-17. While it was demoralising to have lost the Leinster Final twice in a row, the success being garnered by Offaly's youth teams held out the prospect of better days to come. Seir Kieran's Ger Connors was corner back on the St Brendan's Community School team that reached the 1985 All Ireland Colleges Senior Final, losing to the North Monastery in a replay (4-11 to 1-5). The Community School went one better in 1986, with a stunning 5-8 to 1-8 victory over "the North Mon" in the All Ireland Final, played out on 27 April 1986 at Portlaoise. Billy Dooley (1-1) and Aidan Mulrooney represented Seir Kieran. Team captain Michael Hogan (Birr) lifted the Dr. Croke Cup. The captaincy passed to Billy