Clara v Rathvilly

[Frank Mcguigan]

Anyone got any thoughts on this game. Clara seem very short at 2/5 with paddy power. They are undoubtely favourites but my fear is that Clara may be over confident , However I dont think that Pat Flanagan would allow this happen as he seems like a ruthless manager who would nt be slow in dropping anybody who was nt fully prepared for the game.

Does anyone know anything about Rathvilly

[black and red exile]

Dangerous game for the Magpies, the whole Rathvilly panel and management were in Newbridge for the Lawrences game and will travel to Tullamore confident they can win this after watching Clara first hand. I have a feeling this one will go to the wire again and Clara's battling qualities will be tested to the full again. Clara to just sneak it but it will be tough.

[Lone Shark]

Does anyone know anything about Rathvilly

Not a whole lot, but I'll be looking forward to it if only to see Brendan Murphy play. Apparently he's been very good in the two games since he came back from Australia, and already looks like a top class intercounty midfielder. Should be a real test for the Bradys anyway.

[Bord na Mona man]

The question for Clara is whether to go with Plan B from the start this time.
The risk being that impact players from the bench don't necessarily make as big an impression when they start.

Another worry is how easily the Clara defence was opened at times by a far from brilliant St Laurence's the last day.
Both the early goals were walked in fairly handily, without much objection from the backs. Also at the 2nd half throw in, the Larries rattled the crossbar having won the hop and marched through about an acre of unoccupied pitch.

Given that Rhode spurned opportunities in front of goal in the county final, you have to conclude that Clara have ridden their luck a little to get this far.
The heroics of the forwards can only keep bailing the team for so long.

I think Clara should win this one.

[leinsterman]

if clara play for the 60 minute's they will win well i think, must say i have not seen much of clara
but any team that come's back from 8 points down against the kildare champion's in there home
ground cant be to bad. if clara click from the start they will win bye 5 or 6 point's.

[offaly09]

Can someone explain why Clara are favourites for a match at this level. Only a couple of months ago many thought Erin Rovers would run them close if not beat them in county semi. Dont point to Bradys, Reynolds and Deehan, they were all there from first game in championship.

[leinsterman]

And why would Rathvilly be favourites for a game at this level. Carlow football wouldn't be any better than offaly.
what have rathvilly won to make them top dog's for this game. clara have beating rhode far better team than rathvilly
and the match is at home for clara should suite them.

[Lone Shark]

Can someone explain why Clara are favourites for a match at this level. Only a couple of months ago many thought Erin Rovers would run them close if not beat them in county semi. Dont point to Bradys, Reynolds and Deehan, they were all there from first game in championship.

Some may have thought that, but the point is that in their last three games, Clara have demolished Rovers, beat Rhode (who would be favourites for Leinster now if they were in it) and come back from a nightmare start to beat St. Laurences away from home. That's some pretty solid achievement right there, they've earned favouritism.

Now on the other hand, if you ask me what Ballyboden have done to be such short price favourites over Rathnew, then I would be stumped. Bet of the weekend is Rathnew plus three at 6/5 with PP for me.

[Lone Shark]

Have to say I was quite impressed with Clara today. For the third game in a row, mental strength was a huge factor in securing the desired result, and it's great to see any Offaly team doing so well on that measure.

In terms of football, I felt that Clara were the better team over the course of the game and they deserved the win, however the result was very much in the melting pot when Rathvilly got the goal, and with the one man deficit things could have gone either way. In one sense, it probably was in Clara's interests that they conceded early enough that they couldn't just try to hang on, instead they had to go and win the game, and that was exactly what they did. No coincidence that Scott Brady's only score was the next one, as it was probably the most important one of the game from a Clara perspective.

The merit of having real pace in a half forward line was again demonstrated by Graham Guilfoyle who offered an excellent attacking alternative when the long ball into the full line wasn't on, while I also thought players like Matt Mitchell, Scott Brady and Tony Dalton did a great job of trying to use the ball cleverly, picking out deliveries rather than giving the obvious first option pass.

Portlaoise will of course be a huge step up, and they accumulated yet another big win today, but they'll have to respect Clara after what the Magpies have achieved and I can't see Clara losing in the same fashion as Seneschalstown (who in fairness, were three days after winning a county title) and Mattock Rangers (who had no such excuse).

[leinsterman]

good win for clara again today. but portlaois the next day will be a different kettle of fish.
after rhode knock them out last year. they will be hard bet in portlaois this year. they have a good team as well.
if clara win this one it will be some win, and i think the winner's will win leinster this year.

[The Magpie]

Clara's two previous outings before this encounter had played out in almost identical fashion. Strongly written off by half-time, only to mount gritty second-half comebacks and inch over the line. Sometimes, when a team comes from a position like that, ever-gaining momentum, they can be like an unstoppable force. Although Clara have been that force, to great effect, I think it's fair to say they hadn't felt it.

All of that changed in O'Connor Park today. By the mid-point of the second half, Clara had surrendered a 6 point half-time lead, were down to 14 men and looked extremely vulnerable. Rathvilly were pouring forward at any opportunity and (pretty much) everthing was working for them. Big questions were being asked of Clara.

The first half of the game had played out so differently, with Rathvilly drawing first blood with an early point, but playing second fiddle in almost all areas of the pitch for the remainder of the half. Clara kicked 8 points in the first-half - 6 from the faultless boots of Thomas Deehan, one from John O'Hara (who also had a half-decent goal chance) and one from a Ross Brady free. At 0-7 to 0-2, things were quite comfortable with about 5 minutes to go in the half when Brendan Murphy and Ross Brady became entangled. The result saw a straight red card for Brady and a yellow for Murphy. It was widely felt that, whatever the punishment should have been, it should have been equal.

Although this stirred things up briefly, a late Clara point saw the Magpies go in at half-time 0-8 to 0-2 ahead. Rathvilly elected to stay on the field at half-time and form a plan for their extra-man. Strangely enough, rather than deploying a man anywhere else on the pitch, they elected to play the extra-man in a sweeper role and to their credit, he started mopping-up ball.

Within 5 minutes of the restart, Rathvilly had tagged on a couple of points and the momentum was clearly building. Clara were struggling a little around the middle part of the pitch and Rathvilly were starving the Clara full-forward line. Another two points followed to leave the scores at 0-8 to 0-6. Thomas Deehan kicked a super point from the stand-side of the pitch to briefly revive Clara, but 3-4 minutes later, a speculative high ball into the Clara square was dropped by Clara goalkeeper John Buckley and one of the Rathvilly substitutes pounced to poke the ball into the Clara net.

At this point in the game, it was hard to see anything but a win for Rathvilly. The 'in-running' graph turned on it's head in 15 minutes. Clara needed to go to the well once more, but this time to battle against that unstoppable force and with only 14 men.

After a scrappy couple of minutes, Scott Brady scooped up a ball amongst a crowd of players and managed to hoof the ball into the air with his left-foot. It sailed high and over the bar and Clara burst into life again.

Clara turned up the heat around the middle of the pitch, winning a lot of important breaks and working tirelessly. Scott Brady won a couple of massive catches and Graham Guilfoyle was running at the Rathvilly backs. Guilfoyle won a free which Thomas Deehan kicked into the clouds, and it came down with all the confidence it went up with, landing over the black-spot.

John O'Hara made great room for himself on the hospital side of the pitch, running down the end-line, trading a neat one-two with Stephen Deehan, before punching the ball over the bar. All of a sudden, Clara were three points ahead again. Thomas Deehan kicked two more scores as insurance money and Rathvilly were thinking about goals.

By this stage, Pat Flanagan had decided to replace John Buckley with Kevin Meehan in the Clara goals. Meehan was called on with about 5 minutes to go when a Rathvilly 21 metre free, taken soccer-style was drilled towards the Clara goal. He managed to deflect the free over the bar to leave four points between the sides. Another Rathvilly free deep into injury time was blasted too, but this time over the bar. Three points was the gap and so it ended.

Clara 0-14 Rathvilly 1-8

On reflection, Rathvilly failed to make two things count: a) Their obvious physical superiority and b) An extra player for 35 minutes of the game.

Clara, on the other hand, have proven that their mentality is rock solid. In different forms, they've been asked the toughest of questions over the last three games and emerged as winners.

On the day, it was hard to pick out anybody that didn't play well for Clara. Thomas Deehan kicked 10 points and some of them really were stunners. Lone Shark fairly well nailed the three Clara players around the middle of the field that not only did trojan work, but also remained really composed on the ball when it was easier to panic.

[Bord na Mona man]

Once again Clara had the answers to the tough questions.
They were by a reasonable distance the better team, but could easily have exited the Leinster championship by circumstances conspiring against them.

When they handed back the 6 point half time advantage far quicker than anyone expected, I never sensed any panic from the players.
They were able to switch from a defensive mindset, go back on the attack again and run up a match winning lead for a second time.

In the end Clara's high level of fitness stood to them. Also what was notable was that when Clara needed to engineer big scores near the finish, the players were able to play "up the jumper" football to get the ball into the scoring area without misplacing passes. That sort of grit and composure has been in short supply in hurling and football players in Offaly in recent times. Its great to see a team from Offaly produce the goods when faced with adversary.

Portlaoise looks a big step up, but I'd be expecting the Magpies to give it a good lash.

[black and red exile]

Well done Clara, it didn't look too rosy when Rathvilly got level half way through the second half but in fairness the Magpies rolled their sleeves up, went up a gear and in the space of a few minutes re-established their authority on the game. Tommo was immense yesterday, in this form he is a serious match winner for club and County. For the Portlaoise game the loss of Ross Brady will be a massive handicap, himself and Scott had a terrific understanding in the middle of the field and on Sunday week against a team who in many people's eyes are favourites to be there on Paddy's day, Clara would have to be at full strenght to have any chance to come out on top. It's just an opinion but a very tough game against the Laois champions has been made even harder with that red card yesterday.

[red exile]

at last the leinster council have finally copped on and decided the club finals should be played at neutral venues so at least clara will have a level playing field if they overcome portlaoise unlike last yr when kilmacud only played one game outside dublin and previous years that unfairly favoured dublin clubs at parnell park

[corner back]

The venue didn't have that much of an effect on the half time score in last years final. Home venues lead to great atmosphere, e.g. Birr/ballyboden two years ago: oulart/ballyhale last week