Club football championship 2023

[FJB]

Hidden agenda and all that.

No, just making sure the rules were properly applied.

[biffinbanner]

tullamore by 6 ferbane by 2

[Anonymous1]

tullamore by 6 ferbane by 2

I’ll go Tullamore to win comfortably and Ferbane-Rhode to end in a draw with the winner decided on extra time or penalties.

[biffinbanner]

deserved ferbane win after et, was as good a club game played in offaly in a while.rhode died with their boots on.

[Buttons]

With 5-10 minutes left of normal play I couldn’t see rhode losing, rhode kick outs then went long and favoured ferbane which allowed them back in. The penalty miss was the turning point, don’t think ferbane would have got back if that went in but up to that point anton had some game and can’t be faulted at all, the point from the stand side especially was something else and I think it was him and Leon that nearly lied down for the last passage of ferbanes equalising point such was the effort the 2 had put in.

As a neutral was happy ferbane won, lot of talk years ago such was their underage dominance that they would be the next big team and with Rhodes legs and team in the twilight years the county needs ferbane to challenge tullamore.

[G91]

Ferbanes underage success not fully followed through , some players never went and played senior for long amd some left and relocated , a mixture of youth and experienced players worked well being honest i was worried ferbane were going to leave it behind them it was just the way the game was going they couldn't seem to get the burst of scores they badly needed hit some silly wides after great play.

Anton was brilliant but he was doing most of the shooting and collecting most of the ball in the forwards where ferbane had more player's chipping in with scores.

The refereeing left alot to be desired, before antons super score that almost won it ferbane were denied a penalty, Stephen corcran this year fouled the ball in hurling for laying on it against kildare

The Rhode keeper did the exact same and nothing was given , the penalty given to rhode was very questionable

Sean grennans son came on was great to see , sean gave so much to ferbane and offaly and Eoghan grennan did little wrong when brought on won some very important balls

[first_touch]

Great win for Ferbane. They looked the better team in the opening half but conceding a soft early goal and a high error count meant they only led by the minimum at half-time. It wasn't looking good for them half way through the second half. Rhode had taken over, turning a one-point deficit into a four point lead. But somehow Ferbane found the resolve to get back into the game and it was nip and tuck until the end of normal time. Ferbane were probably lucky to draw it as they couldn't have complained if the ref blew it up after Anton's outstanding lead point five minutes into added time.

After a pedestrian first half, the second half and extra time produced as thrilling and exciting an encounter as has been seen in Offaly in many years. In the end it was Ferbane's younger legs and impact off the bench that won it for them. Rhode didn't go down without a fight. I'm not sure if it was Ger Rafferty or captain Kevin Nugent who said in a post match interview that you need to be six points better than Rhode to beat them by one.

I think it was Sean Grennan's son Conor who was brought on for extra time. He looks a real prospect. In fact the 3 underage players were super for Ferbane yesterday. David Dunican didn't put a foot wrong in goals and Patrick Taaffe is a natural talent who posed a real attacking threat from deep.

Ferbane have a chance to go all the way now.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Two very compelling games over the weekend, the result could have gone either way in both matches. Both Rhode and Edenderry will be sick and both had some fantastic individual performances in Ruairi McNamee and Anton Sullivan for Rhode and Cian Farrell for Edenderry, among others. Great entertainment.

Ferbane have a fantastic chance in the final. Tullamore’s lack of firepower up front, their poor overall offensive play and inability to create space up front is by now a consistent theme. I think they either didn’t score or, at most, got one score from play in the second half today.
The final is anybody’s game.

[kingscounty]

Have to say an enjoyable game today in O Connor Park, it had a bit of everything, penalty scored, penalty missed, drama at the end with back touching the ball on the ground to hand the game to tullamore.
Cian Farrell may have missed the penalty but he scored some classy points in the second half and was a real handful up front. Sean Doyle’s goal was finished superbly, over all I feel this will be one that Edenderry left behind. Tullamore played well in the first half but seemed to take the foot off the gas in the second, the final is anyone’s, I’d go for Ferbane to win it by 1 or 2 points

[jimbob17]

Edenderry will be kicking themselves after today. Had the opportunity but couldnt take it. Tullamore will be red hot favourites for final but Ferbane will not fear them. Big pressure on Tullamore now after coming up short so often in recent years, especially after all their underage dominance.

On talking to a Tullamore club man last week, he had a sense they are a bit overly negative in how they play given their talent at their disposal. I havent seen much of Tullamore in last few years outside of finals so I couldnt say either way.

Either way, Ferbane had a spell of underage success themselves before Tullamore and have a good spread of lads age and experience wise to be confident enough to take on and beat Tullamore in the final. Id expect it will be really tight and will only be a point or two in it either way.

[llkj]

The reality is that there is not a red hot favorite for the final. Both teams are very similarly matched. Both have good underage pedigree and a good mix of experienced players in their ranks as well as some good new blood. Both clubs have handled being a true dual club and both camps will benefit from their hurling counterparts not being in action next weekend. Both teams will feel that 1 county title for the talent in their ranks in recent years is underachieving and it probably is (but Rhode deserved each and every one of their recent titles).

Glad to hear it will be on TG4. Looking forward to it

[ah lethimoutwithit]

"Glad to hear its on TG4"

Hopefully this doesn't take away from the crowd, after a lot of whiging over the standard there were 2 very good semi finals and from what I seen of the Intermediate over the weekend there was great entertainment.
As the GAA saying goes, nothing beats being there!

Tullamore have to come out and play a bit or continue as they are a maybe scrape a win. Ferbane will not fear them and this win over Rhode will be a serious monkey off their back. Great to see Ger rafferty helping get them oevr the line and may have a lot to offer in coming years also as a developing manager.
I don't think Tullamore are in the same league as a dual club as Ferbane anyway? Not near the same level of effort going in as there would have been in Belmont. I think Ferbane will be well primed to deliver in this final.
Edenderry will hopefully build on this over the winter and get the structure in place to drive on next year with the talent at their disposal.

Pollagh Croghan was pure excitement from start to finish, and a typicalchampionship match, plenty of mistakes but savage workrate. Pollagh very reliant on Nathan Poland who did well. Ballinagar pitch suited both teams really but maybe Croghan moreso. Questionable incident with injury to Ben Kennedy caused while he was on the ground after free had been awarded and ref should have taken more action in many peoples opinion.
This follow through after a whistle is blown needs to be clamped down on as there was a similar enough incident in the other Inter semi final yesterday.
I think Daingean were deserving of the win, but Tullamore will be kicking themselves in relation to some of the wides kicked in both first half and second half.
On both games, I think Croghan will be favorites. People might say OCP may not suit some of their players but if the weather closes in and knowing the intensity the they will bring to it, what Daingean produced yesterday won't be sufficient to get over the line.

I would expect KK to win the football but Edenderry will be glad to be in a final and have a chance to expose a few more players to a higher level of football to bring through to Senior.

[Anonymous1]

As is customary in the Offaly Senior football championship, weeks of shadow boxing in the groups ignited in the semi finals with two rip roaring games. Both were equally as entertaining and gripping as each other despite some similarities.

As was the case last year, Ferbane vs Rhode more than lived up to the hype. 25 seconds in and Rhode got off to a dream start with a goal but Ferbane responded admirably kicking six of the next seven points yet Rhode only trailed by a point at halftime and even at that early stage, extra time looked ominous.

Following the break, Rhode took control of the game and with a four point lead with ten minutes remaining on the clock, you’d have been hard pressed to find any Ferbane supporter who believed they could turn it around but turn it around they did despite Rhode going back in front by two in both the 56th and 58th minutes. A worldie from Anton Sullivan in the 64th minute looked to have all but sealed the win yet somehow Ferbane managed to work an equaliser in the 66th minute.

It always felt as though the longer the game went on, the more it benefitted Ferbane particularly in that sweltering heat and that’s exactly how it played out with Ferbane taking the lead in the 8th minute of extra time for the first time since the 32nd minute although Anton had a chance to put Rhode two points ahead from the penalty spot with 8 minutes remaining in extra time and had he done so, Rhode in all likelihood would’ve went on to win the game but as soon as the ball rolled wide of the post you felt Rhode had blown their chance.

Ferbane then kicked on from there with a couple of insurance points while Rhode ran out of steam meaning a county final will take place without this immortal Rhode team for the first time since 2011.

As was said above, Ferbane’s younger legs and impact from the bench was the difference. Ferbane’s four points in extra time were scored by two subs and two re introduced subs whereas Rhode’s subs only contributed one point throughout the whole game.

I’ve seen some criticism of the ref but over the course of 90 minutes of action, it’s hard to think of many mistakes he made. Six minutes were added on by the fourth official and he didn’t play over the six meanwhile Ferbane should’ve had a free in just before Anton’s 64th minute point as Ken Garry was lying on the ball but overall he had a very good game.

Almost everyone, myself included felt Tullamore would beat Edenderry comfortably but a mixture of Edenderry raising their game and Tullamore massively underperforming gave us a second semi final to rival the first.

Edenderry shot out of the blocks to kick two points in as many minutes but Tullamore responded with the next four. The two teams traded blows for the remainder of the half leaving Edenderry within touching distance and a second half set up nicely.

However, an Aaron Leavy penalty just four minutes after the restart gave Tullamore a five point lead and it was hard to see a way back for Edenderry but a sublime second half performance from Cian Farrell single handedly dragged Edenderry back into contention and following a beautifully worked goal they took the lead with 15 minutes left. In an almost identical scenario to the first semi final, Farrell had a chance to put Edenderry three points clear with a penalty but had it saved on the same side of the goals at the same end of the pitch as Anton’s… Incredible really!

The penalty miss swung the momentum in Tullamore’s favour but it was two terrible mistakes from the Edenderry goalkeeper and corner back that gifted Tullamore two frees right in front of goals to send them into their fourth consecutive county final.

Rhode and Edenderry will be licking their wounds for months to come, it’ll be a particularly long winter for Edenderry who were marginally the better team over the course of the game.

So it’s a Tullamore-Ferbane final for the first since 1992. I disagree with the post above that Tullamore are red hot favourites for the final, the odds have Tullamore at 1/2 and Ferbane at 6/4, I’d actually have Ferbane as favourites. Between the four teams who competed in the semi finals, Ferbane were the most impressive and while a facile win over Bracknagh in the quarters was put down to how poor Bracknagh were, coupled with their performance against Rhode it backs up a point made by Brian Gavin that Ferbane are a different team when they play in O’Connor Park.

While Tullamore have been Ferbane’s achilles heal in recent years, Ferbane haven’t had a full complement of players since the two met in the 2020 semi final which ended 9-8 on penalties. Saturday was the first game this year that Ferbane had a full squad available and they’re yet to start a game with their best 15 on the pitch.

These two teams met in the group earlier this year with Tullamore running out 4 point winners. Aaron Leavy and Oisin Keenan-Martin didn’t start while Cormac Egan was on the bench but Ferbane were without Joe Maher, Cathal Flynn, David Nally and Conor Butler plus Jack Clancy, Patrick Taffe and David Dunican were all on the bench so on the balance of that, you’d have to think Ferbane could overturn that 4 point margin.

Ferbane will also benefit from the fact Belmont have been knocked out of the hurling. While Tullamore also hurl, they have just five players starting on the football who hurl and two subs while Ferbane have ten players who start and two subs.

Leon Fox, Michael Brazil and Keenan-Martin all came off with injuries in the semis so it’ll be interesting to see if all three are good to go for the final. Fox and Brazil in particular would be cruel blows to either team.

Lastly, it was disappointing to see such a small crowd for both semi finals. Why the county board couldn’t have had a double header makes no sense other than financial sense. At least, they could’ve put the intermediate semis on before the senior games. Hopefully there’s a big turnout for the final on the back of these most sensational of semi finals.

[bracknaghboy]

Can't understand Rhodes tactics from Saturday.
You've got the best forward the county has seen in 40 years in the county in your ranks and you play him tracking opposition players up and down the pitch. He was ran into the ground. Had they isolated him and Anton in close to the goal they'd have won this by 5 or 6 points in normal time. Anton was doing serious damage but they stopped kicking into him. Strange stuff indeed. Opposition managers surely can't believe their luck seeing Nialler banjaxed running up and down the pitch......you wouldn't ask him to it 15 years ago never mind now thats he's approaching 40!

[SearingDrive]

Can't understand Rhodes tactics from Saturday.
You've got the best forward the county has seen in 40 years in the county in your ranks and you play him tracking opposition players up and down the pitch. He was ran into the ground. Had they isolated him and Anton in close to the goal they'd have won this by 5 or 6 points in normal time. Anton was doing serious damage but they stopped kicking into him. Strange stuff indeed. Opposition managers surely can't believe their luck seeing Nialler banjaxed running up and down the pitch......you wouldn't ask him to it 15 years ago never mind now thats he's approaching 40!

Rhode never put Ferbane away on Saturday, even when 4 points ahead in the second period. Ferbane got back level, and outscored a tiring Rhode in extra time. I found Ferbane’s slow, handpassing tactics frustrating to watch at times.