Rhode in Leinster - 2014

[Kevin]

Good with the wind in the first half.

Moorefield tried to claw it back early in the 2nd half. Rhode missed a few scoreable chances in that period to help the effort along.

Then a strong finish from Rhode to pull away

Rhode 1-15 to 2-4 in the end.

Well done!!!!

[kingscounty]

Well done Rhode , great to have KK and Rhode in leinster finals. If only we could get it right with the county team

[Toxicity234]

Great result. Well done Rhode.

[townman]

Best team in offaly by at least ten points but off all a far cry from kildare, despite Wat the untouchables says Rhodes have being very impressive in last 2 games,but I feel moorefield have just to much for Rhode,Rhode have represented offaly very well if offaly was more competitive I'd give them a better chance, but it's moorefield by 4 for me

well done rhode they were in a different class to moorefield, as for kildare been a far cry off, they could never beat us when we had our house in order. well done Rhode keep her lit.

[Killeighman]

Fairplay to the men, terrific performance. I thought Ronan Sweeney and Daryll Flynn were a disgrace in that game. 3 times Sweeney caught Rhode players with punches and Flynn at the final whistle laid out Conor McNamee with a punch.

[allstar2010]

Fair play to Rhode on making the final, great achievement and nothing to lose in the final just go for it. So we now have teams in both Leinster senior club finals and two teams in the Leinster junior hurling finals!! Club scene in offaly isn't too bad at all... And both county teams couldn't get a win in Leinster never mind get to a final, something seriously wrong there. We obviously have the players in the county we just don't know how to get them all in together!!

[the Untouchable]

Great result & performance from Rhode, certainly not 1 I was expecting.

Big question now is, is making a Leinster final enough for these lads? St. Vincent's got their shock today against Garrycastle & got over the line...can't see them being so complacent in the final.

As an Offaly man I'm very pleased that our clubs are doing so well, hopefully there's a Leinster title brought home by at least 2 teams.

[Lone Shark]

Fair play to Rhode on making the final, great achievement and nothing to lose in the final just go for it. So we now have teams in both Leinster senior club finals and two teams in the Leinster junior hurling finals!! Club scene in offaly isn't too bad at all... And both county teams couldn't get a win in Leinster never mind get to a final, something seriously wrong there. We obviously have the players in the county we just don't know how to get them all in together!!

That's a gross over-simplification of the situation right there. Our clubs have done really well this campaign and deserve credit, none more so than Rhode who produced their best performance of the year so far yesterday in my opinion, but it's not as simple as all that either. I could easily see a situation where five, maybe even six players off that Rhode team start for the county next Summer, including two (Niall Mac and Brian Darby) who would be the two best players in the county side. That's an incredible concentration of strength in one club and nothing that they've played so far would have anything comparable. Of course that's not Rhode's fault, they can only beat what's put in front of them and they've done that well. But the strength in depth in most counties is far more than we have, and let's not forget either that our JFC and IFC winners went out at the first hurdle, as is usually the case in those competitions.

KK have proved over the last three years that they are worthy of comparison with any team in Ireland and right now I'd go so far as to say that they are probably the second best team still standing in the race for the All Ireland - the problem for them is that the best team is the one they'll play next, so they're still quite possibly going to come away without a second Leinster medal. All that said, they've still needed plenty of character but plenty of luck too to come through their last couple of games. If they play like they did against Raharney or Shelmaliers on Sunday week, they'll be eaten alive by Ballyhale. Thankfully I'm confident that there's a lot more in them.

However to draw massive inferences from Shamrocks and Clara going well is clearly a flawed logic. Shamrocks so far have beaten the Dublin equivalent of our JHC champions and the IHC winners in Westmeath and Carlow - all while playing at home venues. These are all decent results, but Shamrocks would have been short odds favourites to win every one of those games so far. I know it's not as simple as ticking the box when you've to go out on the field and play, but it's not as if they have done anything remotely close to what Ballinamere did last year when they actually beat a Kilkenny team in the final. Shamrocks have done all that's been asked of them so far, but not that much has been asked. If they can get within four points of a good Bennettsbridge team, never mind win it, then I'll say they've exceeded expectations. For now, they've just fulfilled them.

Clara's performances have been very creditable but when we consider that this is a very low grade of hurling, I certainly don't think even the most ardent supporter of the club would say that there will be any correlation between their results and those of the Offaly county team.

[Lone Shark]

Returning now to the topic at hand, I have to say that I was hugely impressed with Rhode's display yesterday. They needed to make a big step forward from what they had done in the previous two rounds and to my mind they took at least three such steps. They were slightly flattered to beat Pats by five, they were completely flattered to beat Navan by nine but they were worth every ounce of that eight point win yesterday and if they won by a double figure amount that would have been fair enough too. Their complete dominance of the battle for breaking ball in the first half was a huge shock to me, even more so their ability to continue to win that battle after Paraic Sullivan went off on a black card.

Some of that has to go down to Ross Glavin sufffering from illness and the absence of whichever Lonergan normally plays centre back of course, and we saw that things leveled up considerably when Daryl Flynn came on, but given that we know that Rhode are very strong at either end of the field, a performance like that in the middle was probably the perfect outcome from their perspective.

From a county point of view, Anton Sullivan's form (he was man of the match for me) was excellent and that bodes really well, he looks like he's back to his very best, while in a county where there aren't too many midfield options, Conor McNamee could easily find himself doing a lot more than just playing under-21 next year at this rate too. He's still a little bit on the slight side for the rough and tumble of playing midfield at senior intercounty I suspect, but if he keeps developing at the rate he is, he'll bridge that gap very quickly and he clearly has no shortage of football in him. Eoin Rigney had another very solid outing as well and he's unlikely to be too far away either, while James McPadden is playing simple corner back football very effectively.

I continue to be surprised by their scant use of the bench though. It's hard to see them getting close to St Vincents without operating at a very high tempo throughout the hour and they still seem to have the policy of bringing Ruairí McNamee on for the last ten and otherwise stick with the starting XV for as long as you can. Stephen Hannon's introduction yesterday was forced but he was very good when he came in, Gareth McNamee had a decent outing against St Pats and hasn't got a look since, and we know that lads like Shane Sullivan and Darren Garry are well able to play ball too. It seems counterintuitive to me that a fresh player of that calibre wouldn't be worth bringing on with fifteen minutes to go, given that there should be a handful of the outfielders who would have emptied their tank to a considerable degree at that stage.

[Square Cab]

Great performance by Rhode. LS why did you write them off so badly in your column? Not attacking you but all indications going into this game were that they would win it. Playing at home, two good wins on the trot against good teams and a moorefield team who haven't really been firing on all cylinders this year.

[ryot]

Well done Rhode & as a Kildare resident I did not see that coming.....................

All the best v Vins,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Saw them in the Dub Final,,,,,,,,,,,, ok at the back, not great at midfield but excellent upfront if they get ball and they get complacent when they get a decent lead, as they did again v Garrycastle. Their bench is long,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

So Rhode can trouble them esp if they dominate the middle ( again !!!),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

One point for those drawing conclusions re County: Moorefield were missing 2 Lonergans,Kevin O'Neill, David Whyte & P O'Flynn, both on UN duty ( at least) and they had no player on Kildare Championship team this year while quite a few like Sweeney, Glavin & Naughton, are pushing on a bit..................

[ryot]

Well done Rhode & as a Kildare resident I did not see that coming.....................

All the best v Vins,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Saw them in the Dub Final,,,,,,,,,,,, ok at the back, not great at midfield but excellent upfront if they get ball and they get complacent when they get a decent lead, as they did again v Garrycastle. Their bench is long,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

So Rhode can trouble them esp if they dominate the middle ( again !!!),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

One point for those drawing conclusions re County: Moorefield were missing 2 Lonergans,Kevin O'Neill, David Whyte & P O'Flynn, both on UN duty ( at least) and they had no player on Kildare Championship team this year while quite a few like Sweeney, Glavin & Naughton, are pushing on a bit..................

[onthefence]

Well done Rhode, when attitude is right and lads trust each other ,performance follows.

[Lone Shark]

Great performance by Rhode. LS why did you write them off so badly in your column? Not attacking you but all indications going into this game were that they would win it. Playing at home, two good wins on the trot against good teams and a moorefield team who haven't really been firing on all cylinders this year.

I would disagree vehemently that the following is "writing them off so badly". It's extremely rare that I ever put anything so black and white down on paper as to "write off" anyone, much less in a game like this. It was merely suggesting that Moorefield were marginally the more likely team to win, which was a very commonly held view, even if it turned out to be incorrect.

Perhaps Rhode would have been capable of more if they were forced to step up to a higher grade in the earlier rounds of this championship, but the simple fact of the matter right now is that Moorefield have performed at a higher level this year and deserve to be favourites here. While the familiar surroundings of O’Connor Park will be worth a point or two to the Village men, the odds on offer from Paddy Power, even money about Moorefield and 11/10 against Rhode, simply aren’t attractive enough to warrant a patriotic bet. Rhode have a very good chance this week and deserve to go into the tie with real optimism, however any critical analysis of the form of the two clubs so far would result in the same conclusion – that for the first time in 2014, Rhode will start a championship tie as slight outsiders.

I would also disagree that Pats and Navan are good teams in a Leinster context, and having attended both those games, I would say that Rhode were marginally the better team on each day, carried over the line by their greater ability to finish their goalscoring chances. I would even go so far as to say that Pats were probably the better team in many facets of the game, but they missed five goal chances and so paid the price. Navan, on the other hand, are stone useless in a Leinster context, witness their previous outing in 2012 ending in an eight point home defeat to a Longford team. Take Kevin Reilly out and they were even worse again.

Nothing that happened in either of those matches was remotely comparable to the performance that Rhode put in yesterday, in my eyes. Also I would argue that Moorefield's last two performances - comprehensive wins over Sarsfields and Rathnew - were more impressive based on the reports that I got, and certainly don't equate to not firing on all cylinders, as you put it.

I will admit that I didn't allow for the absence of the Lonergans or the illness of Glavin, all of which were significant- but that was still an awesome effort from Rhode and a huge step up on what they've done so far in my mind.

[manfromdelmonte]

Improving in every game.
They'll give the final a right rattle