Rhode in Leinster

[summerindublin]

Well folks, you would have to be impressed with Rhode against Gusserane O'Rahilly's, they just tore them to shreads with some brilliant running and passing with some outstanding teamwork, ok the Wexford boys were poor but were still Wexford champions, I have never seen Rhode as fit, Simonstown next on the 13th in Tullamore.

[NewEra]

Great to give Offaly football a shot in the arm with the county representatives showing well in Leinster. Rhode did a demolition job in Wexford. MEath champs up next who have just won their first ever Meath championship so hopefully their focus has wained a bit.

Bracknagh and Cappincur both out this weekend in their Junior Semi and Intermediate Quarter Final. Both have realistic chances of progressing. Cappincur facing Rosemount from Westmeath in OCP and Bracknagh facing Kilcullen from Kildare in Bracknagh. Lets hope for a few more wins across the three competitions.

Is the Offaly club scene that far off the pace when we see progress in Leinster competitions?

[ryot]

Delighted to read of that Rhode display........

Wx teams normally prove difficult, holding teams to dour low-scoring encounters.

Rhode fairly put paid to that possibility... Here's hoping they can get over the Meath Champs who might not be the most experiences..........

[llkj]

Great to give Offaly football a shot in the arm with the county representatives showing well in Leinster. Rhode did a demolition job in Wexford. MEath champs up next who have just won their first ever Meath championship so hopefully their focus has wained a bit.

Bracknagh and Cappincur both out this weekend in their Junior Semi and Intermediate Quarter Final. Both have realistic chances of progressing. Cappincur facing Rosemount from Westmeath in OCP and Bracknagh facing Kilcullen from Kildare in Bracknagh. Lets hope for a few more wins across the three competitions.

Is the Offaly club scene that far off the pace when we see progress in Leinster competitions?

Certainly would be great to see each club do well in their respective competitions. My take on it is like this:

1. Rhode - They are significantly ahead of the standard of the rest of the clubs in Offaly, so you would really expect them to do well in Leinster, which to their credit they have managed to do over the past 10 years, competing well in several Leinster finals. I am not sure if it gives much of a shot in the arm to the county team, as it is not as if there are a few Rhode players that have been over-looked for the county panel. I feel that if any other club were in Leinster at the moment, they would struggle to make much of an impact.
2. Senior B champions at Intermediate level - The restructuring of the club championship should really make an impact to the Offaly reps chances at this grade. Now that we are sending our #9 club and not our #13 club should make a big difference in the coming few seasons. I really feel that this would be a better indication of the strength of clubs in Offaly than how our Senior reps do.
3. Intermediate champs at junior level - same as above.

I think a good example of this is Clodagh Gaels in the local hurling scene. When the existing adult clubs joined forces and keeping in mind the great success and structure at underage, there is really no surprise that they became a senior club quickly (a top 12 club). What would be even more pleasing (from a CG point of view) is that they were able to get their second team into Intermediate hurling next year and have a 3rd team compete pretty successfully too. That would really be a more solid indication of their strength and long term prospects, than solely if their 1st team was senior team and their second team was middle of the road juniors or something. Now that they have found their 'true level', with the benefit of getting success on the way for 2 teams, the next couple of years should be interesting to see how far they can push on.

It is no surprise that, based on the structure of Offaly hurling, that the successful senior teams have usually have a very competitive 2nd string and a 3rd string too - Birr, K/K, Coolderry, Rynaghs. The fact that Tullamore won a championship with a mi-ranking junior team is an outlier and one of the things that made their achievement even more surprising in my mind.

Bit of a rambling post I know and a little off topic, but hopefully you get the gist of what I am trying to say.

[townman]

good win for Rhode today, good hard game with Rhode letting Simonstown Gaels back in it late in the game, Niall Mc kicked some lovely scores, Shane O'Sullivan at fulback was good, Anto also had a good game.

i wonder was history made today with Colm O'Rourke and his Son Shane both sent off in the game, Colm was back on the line for the start of the second half and the ref had to sent him to the terrace for a second time.

[Homebond]

That was one of Rhode's better wins. Simonstown are very big, strong and well organised. Some of their hitting was very late and Rhode's discipline was excellent. All Rhode players put in a huge effort but I was delighted to see Conor getting a great goal. Conor doesn't always get the recognition he deserves for the hard, unsexy work he does. Also how many times have we heard Colm O'Rourke lambaste northern style football only to see his team today with 13 to 15 players in their own half most of the time.

[sam88885a]

Great win Rhode well done to all involved.
Always represent themselves and Offaly with pride .
Great club.

[summerindublin]

Ye, good win to day, very physical match, ref was very poor, Niall was brill, impressed with Darren Garry when he came on, a big lad, all round good performance, took Rhode awhile to get to grips with Simonstown bur finished the first half well outscoring them 5-0, up to Drogheda or Dundalk next, won't be easy especially with Anton gone.

[timber]

Bit of a mixed bag performance. The good, the bad and the awful.

Typical of meath clubs in leinster, simonstown were poor. Big and ignorant would sum them up about right with no real quality.
Apparently the loss of their key man Nash at midfield was a big disadvantage to them. Nash is signed up to Hawthorn in Oz and only played the last 10 minutes.

Simonstown looked like a team sent out to try intimidate Rhode or maybe its just the way they play. There was a lot of late hits.

Can Rhode go on and make another leinster final? I still don't think they have the team of old that was a good bit more physical and Pascal and Roy posed a threat that kept teams guessing and not able to fully plot against the gifted McNamee. Some of the smaller younger lads have a good bit to prove. And no better time to do it now.

St Pats were the top dog in Louth for a long time and were always a dogged team in Leinster so expect a confident sean o mahonys side. they are a young team that only won intermediate in 2014 and won the leinster club beating castleknock who played in the Dublin senior county final this year. Rhode were beaten by St Pats of Louth in a terrible performance not so long ago so they should be only too well aware of the dangers that lie ahead.

It is a great opportunity though and one that might not come along again, so Rhode will want to be on their game and improve a lot on yesterday.

[NewEra]

Congrats to Rhode. Our best and most consistent representatives in Leinster over the last decade.

Best of luck to Anton and Jake Kavanagh on their army duty. Fair play to ye both lads.

Best of luck to Bracknagh in their upcoming Leinster Final this weekend in OCP. Great achievement and hopefully one more step to go! The Leinster winners play a team from Edinburgh in All Ireland Q/F.

[Lone Shark]

No point pretending otherwise, this was a poor effort from Rhode, far below the standards that they are usually capable of. Simonstown were first time champions in Meath and will still only start as about 5th or 6th favourites to win their county title next year. They were short Conor Nash, who is an exceptional talent, and Brian McGrath at wing back, who would be a huge step up on the Michael O'Rourke lad that played in his stead. I know McGrath came on, but he was clearly completely banjaxed, he could barely move, and he's normally a real dynamo. Shane O'Rourke was carrying an injury, so that would be three of their best five players either absent or hobbled.

What's more, all the word from Meath was that Simonstown tore the behind out of it (and rightly so, I'd argue) after winning their Meath title, so they weren't preparing for this in the same way that Rhode were. Overall, Rhode should have been good enough to win this by at least seven or eight points. Put it another way - if St Vincent's were playing Simonstown, there would have been ten points between them - and that's the standard that Rhode need to be looking at, because absolutely everybody in Offaly just wants to see them get over the line and win a Leinster title at this stage, and they're going to have to beat St Vincents to do that. Whatever about Lomans maybe causing a shock and knocking over Vinnies, there is absolutely zero chance of Mullinalaghta beating them.

You'd also be worried about the fact that Anton Sullivan was very definitely Rhode's man of the match yesterday and replacing him will be no easy feat to say the least of it. Jake Kavanagh was having a solid enough year too but I'd be confident that they would have plenty of potential replacements for him - certainly Darren Garry did enough to suggest that he's well worth a start in a fortnight's time.

The other side of it is that Rhode are a lot better than we saw yesterday, and they put in their "down" performance at the right time. Play like that against Seán O'Mahonys and they'd be in bother, but hopefully they'll get their act together now.

One thing that I couldn't figure out yesterday - twice in the second half Rhode were in a situation where Niall McNamee was up jumping for Ken Garry's kickouts. Now I certainly wouldn't like to second guess Paschal Kelleghan, who is undoubtedly one of the most astute managers in the county. I personally can never understand taking Niall away from goal, or at worst, playing him at centre forward. But even if you do want to play him out the field and get him more involved, surely you still never want him to be the guy to be jumping up and contesting a high ball? It's not that he would never win it - he's a big man with good hands - but you want him to be the man taking on the possession after it's been won, and playing the ball forward from there, surely.


As a final note, I only found out afterwards that Brian Conlon (Simonstown centre back) is only 19. He's a serious baller if so, very bright future ahead.

[Homebond]

Best of luck to Rhode on Sunday. At this level Anton and Jake are a huge loss but its a team game and these lads will work hard for each other. If things go his way Darren Garry might be worth a punt for goal scorer although i expect we will be facing a packed defense again so chances will be scarce. Anybody got any opinions on the match or on Sean O'Ms?

[townman]

best of luck to Rhode today.

[ryot]

Well done Rhode. Good win considering the 2 lads who had to be replaced,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[NewEra]

Well done to Rhode, players and management. Rhode have won the league, championship and are in Leinster final now. Brilliant year for them and hopefully they can get revenge on Vincents for 2014.

Great achievement from Slaughtneil in Derry. Ulster Champions in Senior hurling, senior football and senior camoige! What dreams are made of!