Championship Odds

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fatlad
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Championship Odds

Post by fatlad »

Anybody know what the odds are for the different adult football grades in Offaly are? Where can the odds be had , I've tried on line to no avail.

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High School Musical
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Re: Championship Odds

Post by High School Musical »

Hi all, long time no post.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t be here recently because of a very important fishing trip, which I was just unable to cancel.

I’m fucking miserable today. I had to get up at 10 o’clock this morning.
Thought I’d take to the keyboard to vent some hot, hot words.
While this isn’t exactly under the heading of ‘Championship Odds’, I thought I’d throw it into this thread anyway.
There has been very little talk of the Club Football Championships in Offaly on this site of late.

The Senior A looks a little predictable, admittedly, but I think there may be some life in the other championships.
Rhode appear to be waltzing through Senior A. So far they’ve just decided to say to everybody, “I'm going to take a pillowcase and fill it full of bars of soap and beat the shit out of you!”. Rhode’s demolition of Clara suggests that the Hawks aren’t in with a realistic shot this year. Can Edenderry or Tullamore give Rhode a rattle? Gracefield are middle of the road. And Ferbane, while not being beaten out the gate, have still lost every game to date, and will face St. Brigids in a relegation winner-takes-all match. Watching the Croghan men a few weeks ago against Tullamore was like that one scene in The Wizard Of Oz... when the flying monkeys pull apart the scarecrow? That's what it was like. St. Rynaghs too, despite a creditable draw with Clara, have managed to score just 3 scores in 3 of their 5 games so far. Incidentally, they’re unbeaten in the other 2.

Senior B looks like a real minefield, with 5 teams still in contention at the top of the group. These 5 would be on a par with the bottom 3 in Senior A as far as I’m concerned. All 5 are probably capable of winning it on their day, but I think it might be Durrow’s year. They look to have a decent squad and have the easier fixtures left to play. At the bottom, K/K have failed to show again. What happens now? Relegation to intermediate next season, presumably. The sniff of silverware there might bring them back out of the woodwork I feel. Walsh Island have slipped back a good bit too it seems. If they don’t get their act together next season, they could be in danger of slipping down to Intermediate. At the moment, I’d fancy Cappincur to take them in a one on one game if it came about. Doon are another side that are difficult to figure out. They don’t look great, but have given some teams their fill of it so far. I get the feeling that they’re at their level right now (lower end of Senior B). Wouldn’t be surprised if they fell away to intermediate though in the next 1 or 2 years.

The Intermediate championship seems to be where a lot of moving is now going to take place. Ballyfore have fallen away badly and are surely certainties at this stage to make the drop to Junior ranks next season. Their demise is like watching my mom get eaten by a dog and there’s nothing I can do about it. Long-time former senior sides, Erin Rovers & Shannonbridge, are also making heavy work of this championship. On the surface of things, it doesn’t look like either team has a massive amount of talent coming through the ranks. Daingean have made an excellent start to their first season back at intermediate in 9 years and are definitely this year’s surprise packets. They just have this “We’re here to fuck shit up!” mentality about them so far. That said, it would still be a major surprise to see them win it. Tullamore, Rhode & Bracknagh are all capable of winning it on their day, but each of them are fairly brittle at the same time. You’d have to say that Cappincur look to be the stand-out side at this grade, although they’ve still managed to draw 2 games already. Declan Kelly on the line for them seems to have the cleverness to lead them to a county title. The return of Eoin Carroll & Peter Cunningham will be a massive boost to their respective teams, and at this level of football, players of this calibre can have a very significant say on the outcome of championship matches. Bracknagh, in particular, seem to be heavily reliant on Cunningham.

The Junior A had a predictable enough look to it, in terms of the 4 teams that reached the semi-finals.
This has been a common trait of the Junior championship in recent years, with the top 4 or 5 sides in the grade being considerably better than the remaining sides in this championship. From last year, I would have thought that Ballycommon were looking like the side with the most to offer in the coming years, and it would seem that they have gone about their business quite well and are now sitting, waiting in the county final having dispatched of an experienced Clonmore Harps side. There they’ll meet the winner of the Clonbullogue & Kilclonfert replay. Personally, I think it’ll be Clonbullogue who win that one. Ballycommon sort of remind me of the guy who works at a college as a janitor even though he feels like he’s smarter than most of the people who go there. Sometimes I see an equation written on a blackboard like half an equation and. I just figure it out. They’ll need to keep that guile about them while now turning into the guy that one time wrestled a giraffe to the ground with his bare hands. I still fancy them to win it out though. The old cliché is that Junior is a very difficult grade to get out of could be put to the test by both Clonbullogue & Kilclonfert in the coming years I feel. Folks, make no mistake about it, this grade is a fucking prison. On planet bullshit.

Anyway, just thought I’d kickstart the discussion.
Anyone care to contribute their own?

Congratulations too, to Durrow and Lusmagh on their respective victories in the Junior B and Junior C Championships.

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Archangel
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Re: Championship Odds

Post by Archangel »

I think most will agree with the above assessment. I haven't watched much of the seniors this year but I have caught a lot of the other grades mentioned. Senior B will probably be the tightest of all, very much any even standard in the top4/5.
Intermediate will be Cappincur / Daingean / Bracknagh to fight over, with Cappincur best equipped to handle it. Won't mention Junior-A too much as I don't want to put the blink on it for our boys, but seems like only one winner there! :roll:

But on that point I would like to pose a question,

I am led to believe that the winners on the Junior Championship WON'T be representing Offaly in Leinster this year because of the addition of a 2nd Grade Senior division, meaning Intermediate is now our third tier championship and thus the winner of that is due to enter the Leinster Junior. Hardly fair? :(
Blasphemy is a victimless crime

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theman
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Re: Championship Odds

Post by theman »

Archangel wrote: Intermediate will be Cappincur / Daingean / Bracknagh to fight over, with Cappincur best equipped to handle it. Won't mention Junior-A too much as I don't want to put the blink on it for our boys, but seems like only one winner there! :roll:
:(
I hope your not implying Ballycommon there? Clonbullogue and Kilclonfert are as every bit as good as Ballycommon. Their replay will stand to whoever wins.

And it is ridiculous that the Junior A winner doesnt get to represent Offaly in Leinster - its all about looking after the big clubs in Offaly sure!!!!!!!!!!
Twice we had the chance,but well get one more

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Archangel
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Re: Championship Odds

Post by Archangel »

theman wrote: I hope your not implying Ballycommon there? Clonbullogue and Kilclonfert are as every bit as good as Ballycommon. Their replay will stand to whoever wins.
That's the truth, Ballycommon will have played only one competitive match in nearly two months by the time of the final, whoever comes through the replay will be battle hardened, has to be an advantage!
Train all you like, you can't bate matches! Interesting one.
Blasphemy is a victimless crime

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honey badger
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Re: Championship Odds

Post by honey badger »

in senior A what way will the next round of games go?

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Lone Shark
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Re: Championship Odds

Post by Lone Shark »

Archangel wrote: I am led to believe that the winners on the Junior Championship WON'T be representing Offaly in Leinster this year because of the addition of a 2nd Grade Senior division, meaning Intermediate is now our third tier championship and thus the winner of that is due to enter the Leinster Junior. Hardly fair? :(
Whether it's fair or not, the truth of it is this - the clubs voted for it. When this new system was being introduced, it was clearly presented as part of the package that the Senior B would be treated the same as the IFC for the purposes of Leinster club, and that IFC would effectively be the junior championship. What has happened in reality is that every junior club was regraded to Junior B, but they just got to keep the title of junior A.

I would have said at the time that I was opposed to the system and I remain so, however I also said at the time that the county board did a very honest job of presenting the arrangement to all the clubs and making sure they knew what they were voting for. This wasn't some little thing that was hidden in the terms and conditions, it was front and centre - and if any club delegate tries to claim that he wasn't aware of it now, then he wasn't doing his job properly.

I am surprised that Leinster let Offaly away with this, that said. The 17th best club in Offaly will be entering the Leinster JFC, while the 16th best team in many counties will be entering the IFC. Admittedly Longford and Carlow have their 14th ranked teams going into the JFC, but their club numbers are very low. Similarly, Offaly's ninth best team is going into the Leinster IFC - which should in theory give them a great chance. That said I'd back Cappincur as Offaly's best chance in Leinster football this year.

I believe there are plans in train to put in place a Special JFC next year, along the lines of the special JHC that the Offaly junior reps go into now. I'm not certain if that will happen though, and it's certainly not happening this year.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Archangel
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Re: Championship Odds

Post by Archangel »

theman wrote: Their replay will stand to whoever wins.
I would seem that it was the case. I've seen Clonbullogue's last 3 matches and they played their best football of the year in the final V Ballycommon. Ballycommon had one competitive match in ages as they got a walk-over in the last round of the group stage, had a bye into the semi-final with Clonmore and then had to wait for the replay in the other semi. You could see Clonbullogue were more match fit or battle hardened. Ok, this is not an excuse, but an idea how fixtures work for/against you. Ballycommon failing was in front of the posts again, when it was a tightly contested match 2-8 to 1-9.
You could also see that maybe Clonbullogue had learned from their Final defeat last year, being a bit more mature around the field. Clonbullogue's Lee Dempsey is probably assured of Junior Player of the Year.

One good point to note was a end to the bad taste left after last years semi-final between the sides, as the Ballyboys visited Clonbullogue on Monday to have a drink with their victors with a reciprocal visit due this weekend. Fair play to all involved for that.
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ah lethimoutwithit
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Re: Championship Odds

Post by ah lethimoutwithit »

From looking at Ballycommon in the Semi and the final , they actually don't appear to have the talent coming through that some people think.

They were so far off the pace, physically and tactically.

1) Allowed Mark Daly all the time in the world to place his kick pass in front of Lee Dempsey.
2) No plan to put a sweeper back in front of Dempsey and Shane O Brien.

There whole full forward line struggled, Matthew Dempsey, Robert Conneely, and Dylan Martin hardly felt the weight of the ball.
Midfield was well beaten too.
With Shannonbridge or Ballyfore coming down from Intermediate, Ballycommon will have to get a few more younger players to step up as there are a number of lads there who many were telling me are Senior footballers, never mind Junior, that have a lot of work to do.

Would have hoped to see Ballycommon deliver as I believed a lot of the hype that was floating around the area, but looks like a few of the players may have believed it too.

I agree that they lacked a challenge in the group stages but they knew that from the time of the draw, and they had the benefit of Div 2 league , I think they will need to go outside the club for a manager and they need to be willing to work a lot harder earlier in the year.

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