Club Football Championship 2022

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
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jimbob17
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by jimbob17 »

Durrow beating Cappincur was the expected result, though i'd a fancy for Cappincur to edge it. The scoring suggests the best team won which is good for the senior A competition, which is light on genuine contenders.

Clara really putting it up to Ferbane is good too and it will stand to Ferbane going into Rhode game and give Clara a bit of a fillup heading into the winter that they should be and can be contesting for the Dowling next year if they put in the work required. Ferbane appear to be missing good few lads from team that won couple of years ago so beating Rhode will be a bit of an ask for them, but also one a game they will relish and look forward to.

Edenderry beating Shamrocks was no surprise but they made hard work of it. Like Ferbane, they appear to be introducing lots of new young players and it will likely take time for them to develop. Hayes lorded it in second half and Rory Egan was devastating going forward, particularly in second half. They would have had another couple of goals only for some excellent saves from Sean O Toole in Shamrocks goal. Would not expect Edenderry to beat Tullamore based on performance today but the next day is another day and they won't fear Tullamore.
jimbob

SearingDrive
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by SearingDrive »

Today’s game was played as if it was a group game. No intensity, not compared to the Clara v Ferbane game, which was contested to the end. Shamrocks were better in the first half, and were ahead 0-8 to 0-6 at ht. Edenderry were a different team in the second period, and contained Shamrocks efforts, with the winning goal giving the Reds a 4 point lead, which they retained to the end. Interestingly Shamrocks had their last 3 points from 3 defenders. Cian Farrell was listed at 14 for Edenderry, but did not play.

Tullamore and Rhode will be favourites in the semi finals, but who knows what will happen on the day.

Tmacmahon
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by Tmacmahon »

Ferbane v Clara

A brilliant game of football in which both teams really played with great desire and grit, best game of the year. Clara can count themselves very unlucky not to see the game out but there is no denying Ferbane the plaudits especially when you score 4 points in a row , being 3 down with time up.
Clara took the game to Ferbane from the off and we’re bright and sharp in everything they did , even do a CJ goal after a few minutes gave Ferbane a brilliant start , Clara played the better ball. Ferbane took over in the last 10 minutes of the first half and the first 10 of second half, they moved the ball well and were opening Clara up at ease. Clara to their credit kept in touch and a great part smith goal changed the momentum yet again and Clara looked to see out a famous win. Ferbane held their nerve and finished brilliantly with Shane Bally kicking a late free to win it.
Carl Stewart had good moments as did Rosa Brady , pa smith looked dangerous .
For Ferbane Leon fox drove them on, McManus battled well and Joe and Cian and Cathal all caused problems. Ferbane and Rhode will be a cracker.

Edenderry v Shamrocks

The complete opposite of the game the evening before. Cagey, defensive and overall a really poor game. A close first half , shamrocks were two in front at the break but edenderry would have been happy with that condo they never got going. Second half was again close as both teams are very evenly matched, shamrocks just made a few more mistakes and the reds capitalised. Hard to asses edenderry here and I fear for them against Tullamore, but maybe they played to the level of their opponents in this one.
Edenderry had great performances from Lee Pearson who was outstanding and probably MOTM and won the battle with jack Bryant . Colm Byrne was immense and special mention to Hayes and Egan in midfield who never stopped trying to find a way forward.
Shamrocks were completely reliant on Nigel Dunne who again was brilliant, Scott Delaney had a powerful game at 6 and luke Molloy did well at comer back . The goalie Sean o Toole kept shamrocks in it with two great saves and in general he was outstanding.


Rhode v Ferbane. Ferbane by 2

Tullamore v Edenderry. Tullamore by 5

Faithful Future
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by Faithful Future »

I missed the Ferbane v Clara game but it sounds like I chose the wrong game to attend.
Edenderry v Shamrocks was very poor fare. Edenderry overall had a better balanced team, despite being without Abbott and Cian Farrell both of whom are excellent footballers.
Jordan Hayes is a joy to watch when he powers forward at pace and hopefully he can build on his form this year into next year.
Shamrocks were strong defensively and have two excellent forwards in Nigel Dunne and Jack Bryant, but really seemed devoid of ideas once they turned over the ball despite the obvious thing being to let the ball inside quickly. Unless they can unearth some talent around the middle of the park next year I think they will struggle.

As we enter the semi final stage it's as expected. Ferbane are coming good at the right time and no doubt the tight win will stand to them. I expect the Ferbane v Rhode game to be a tight affair with Rhode to just shade it.
I really think Tullamore are a step above Edenderry based on yesterdays showing.

Overall, we really need another couple of teams to come through and challenge the status quo big 4 to make our championship more competitive. Most likely this will be Clara or Durrow over the next few years.

In the B championship, for me its looking like a Bracknagh v Clonbullogue final which would definitely be interesting.

jimbob17
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by jimbob17 »

Edenderry will need to get likes of Farrell, Abbott and Eoin Dunne back to be any way competitive with Tullamore based on yesterday's display. Was like a challenge game for most of game. If they don't, I would worry for them as they appear to be short a lot of lads from competitive teams of recent past with loads of young lads in debut season at senior level. Shamrocks could have taken Edenderry out if they had gone at them with a bit of purpose when they had the ball as they had enough ball to win the game. Would have been quite frustrating to be a Shamrocks inside forward yesterday.
jimbob

Dunga
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by Dunga »

I wonder if Farrell would have been brought on had Edenderry been behind in the final few minutes.

FlyOnTheWall
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by FlyOnTheWall »

So semi final weekend is upon us, probably the most exciting weekend in the club calendar where all remaining teams are hopeful of making the County final, where dreams become reality and where we separate the pretenders from the contenders.

There’s no doubt the pick of the two games is on Saturday where a rematch of the 2019 County final pits Ferbane up against Rhode.

If you hadn’t attended a game this season but were following results so far, you’d be well entitled to think Rhode will cruise to another county final. However, a closer look at the two teams performance so far reveals a different picture.

While Rhode are indeed 3 from 3 this year, this doesn’t paint the full picture, they were outplayed for a majority of their first game against Edenderry but pulled it out of the fire late, never really ignited against Durrow but also never looked in danger and the same was true against Clara.

In truth, they haven’t been tested since their opening game against Edenderry and they should have lost that game but make no mistake about, Ferbane will be their biggest test yet.

Ferbane, for their part have been a tale of two personalities, Jekyll and Hyde if you will. Truly brilliant at times but staggeringly awful at others. They deserved to be beaten by Cappincur in their opening game, only deciding to play late on and stealing a draw when the threat of a loss was dangled in front of them. Fast forward to their fascinating encounter with Tullamore and they were excellent in the first half but never showed up for the second half yet still almost stole it at the death. The same can be said for their tussle with Shamrocks, they didn’t seem aware they were in a football match until an injury just before halftime woke them up and suddenly they started playing swashbuckling football. We then had the quarter final vs Clara that was a microcosm of Ferbane’s season, terrible for the first 15 minutes, outstanding for the next 15 then horrendous for the entire second half until injury time when they suddenly became outstanding again and got themselves out of jail.

Should the Ferbane we seen in the first half against Tullamore, after the injury against Shamrocks and in injury time against Clara show up, they’ll win this game.

Should the one we seen against Cappincur, in the second half against Tullamore and before the injury against Shamrocks show up, they’ll lose this game.

The unpredictable part is figuring out which of the two shows up and if it’s both, can Ferbane score enough when they’re brilliant to counteract how much they concede when they’re awful?

On the tactical front, we’re often guilty of overcomplicating things so let’s simplify this game to what it really is, a battle between Rhode’s Niall Mcnamee, Ruairí Mcnamee and Anton Sullivan and Ferbane’s trio of Cian Johnson, Joe Maher and Cathal Flynn. We may see scores from a handful of others like Aaron Kellaghan and Darragh Flynn, however it will ultimately be decided by that 3v3 and in particular Niall Mcnamee vs Cian Johnson. The man who’s carried the flag for Offaly football for close to 20 years vs the man often tipped to replace him.

Ferbane have got two glaring weak spots in the side at goalkeeper and cornerback and one or both are likely to lead to their downfall in this game while their midfield is less than impressive meanwhile the Rhode panel doesn’t currently possess a county defender for the first time in memory which should fill the Ferbane forwards with confidence as both Niall Darby and Eoin Rigney are recovering from ACL tears although the latter is close to a return whereas Ferbane have been missing some key players from the 2019 run this year such as Kyle Higgins, Oisin and David Kelly.

Ferbane’s game-plan should start and end with the prevention of Niall Mcnamee scoring, he scored 3-9, a record personal tally for the Offaly SFC when the sides met in the group stage last year albeit Ferbane were without a number of their best players. Without a severe cutdown in his personal tally this time, they won’t win this game.


It would be remiss of me not to mention the revenge factor in this game, these two haven’t met in knockout competition since the final in 2019 and there’s no doubt Rhode will be out to avenge that defeat.

In Ferbane’s favour is the fact their dual players had a rare week off competitive action as Belmont already progressed to the semi final while they also have youth on their side which could be an important factor against an ageing Rhode side despite their attempts to remain ageless, father time eventually catches everyone and Rhode will be no different when the time comes.

All in all, this should be a cracking game of football and is close to a 50-50 in my book, maybe 60-40 in favour of Rhode which is why it surprises me to see the bookies price Ferbane as 5/2 underdogs. Only time will tell if this was accurate.

Anonymous1
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by Anonymous1 »

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Last edited by Anonymous1 on Sat Sep 10, 2022 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

biffinbanner
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by biffinbanner »

ferbane are overpriced for sure. you say missing key players in oisin kyle and david. ferbane wouldnt have won the 2019 final without goalie jack cullinan. he was in and out of the offaly goals that year..why is he not playing? strange. he only in his early 20s.. i had him down as the number 1 for the next 15 years?

SearingDrive
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by SearingDrive »

Rhode win 3-2 on penalties after extra time. Ferbane should have won the game in normal time.

Tmacmahon
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by Tmacmahon »

Tough to take , could have won it , perhaps should have. None of that matters. Well done Rhode and best of luck in the final

frankthetank
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by frankthetank »

Since the 2002 final between Tullamore and Gracefield, including this year, there has been 20 county championships.

Rhode have qualified for 18 of those 20 finals. This will be their 11th final in a row.

Absolutely remarkable consistency.

private joker
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by private joker »

Tmacmahon wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 10:48 pm Tough to take , could have won it , perhaps should have. None of that matters. Well done Rhode and best of luck in the final
How ferbane did not shoot from the sideline kick was incredibly poor in game management. Time was up, shoot.

Plain of the Herbs
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by Plain of the Herbs »

Good first post by FlyOnTheWall there. I don't get to much club football but I found that piece informative and well written. Do stick around.
Pat Donegan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

frankthetank
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Re: Club Football Championship 2022

Post by frankthetank »

Plain of the Herbs wrote: Sun Sep 11, 2022 1:43 am Good first post by FlyOnTheWall there. I don't get to much club football but I found that piece informative and well written. Do stick around.
Seconded.

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