Offaly Senior Football Club Championship 2011

[darknight]

who do we reckon will be there or there abouts this year???

[old_faithful]

Round 1
Edenderry v Erin Rovers 1:1
Ferbane v Tubber Result Tubber 0:2
Rhode v Tullamore 2:0
St Rynaghs v Gracefield 0:2
Walsh Island v Ballycumber 2:0
Clara v Shamrocks 2:0
Round 2
Erin Rovers v Rhode 0:2
Tullamore v Ferbane 2:0
Tubber v Edenderry 2:0
Gracefield v Clara 0:2
Shamrocks v Walsh Island 0:2
Ballycumber v St Rynaghs 2:0
Round 3
Ferbane v Rhode 0:2
Tullamore v Edenderry 2:0
Tubber v Erin Rovers 1:1
Walsh Island v Clara 0:2
Shamrocks v St Rynaghs 0:2
Ballycumber v Gracefield 2:0
Round 4
Erin Rovers v Tullamore 0:2
Edenderry v Ferbane 2:0
Rhode v Tubber 2:0
Gracefield v Shamrocks 2:0
St Rynaghs v Walsh Island 0:2
Clara v Ballycumber 2:0
Round 5
Tullamore v Tubber 2:0
Ferbane v Erin Rovers 1:1
Rhode v Edenderry 2:0
Shamrocks v Ballycumber 0:2
Walsh Island v Gracefield 2:0
Clara v St Rynaghs 2:0

Group 1
Rhode 10 points
Tullamore 8 points
Tubber 5 points
Edenderry 3 points
Erin Rovers 3 points
Ferbane 1 point

Group 2
Clara 10
Walsh Island 8
Ballycumber 6
Gracefield 4
St Rynaghs 2
Shamrocks 0

Quarter Finals
Rhode V Gracefield
Tullamore V Ballycumber
Tubber V Walsh Island
Clara V Edenderry

Semi Finals
Rhode V Walsh Island
Tullamore V Clara
Final
Rhode V Clara

[offalyman08]

Well it is hard to pick anybody beyond Rhode and Clara. Tullamore could have maybe pushed on but the loss of Brazil and Moloney and even the experience of John Kenny could hamper them a lot.

Shamrocks look like their in trouble having lost Dunne,Kelly & a few more.
Tubber could improve with Allen taken a lot of the burden off McManus but a championship is beyond them.

[Long John]

It will be between Rhode and Clara again. Tullamore are likely to push hard to make the final.

Shamrocks will be relegated.

[Fargo Boyle]

I'd also fancy a Rhode-Clara decider but lets hope someone else can get in the mix. Rhode still look strong but the core of the team that has won so much is starting to age combined with the disappointment in Leinster, it might not be their year.

Tubber should have more firepower this year with Allen going well. I would also think that Ferbane might make progress with the good results at underage. Shamrocks, Gracefield and Rynaghs to battle out the relegation.

[faithfullad]

I'd imagine it will be a Rhode-Clara decider with the main contender to upset this being Tullamore(the old reliable) and then possibly Tubber, Ferbane, Walsh Island.

[Abercrombie Fitch]

We really need more than 2 teams competing for the county championship but its very hard to see anyone genuinely challenge Rhode and Clara. Perhaps Clara just to shade it due to being fresher and having a younger core to the team. Clara have a fully fit Joe Quinn for the first time in 3 seasons. Could prove crucial. But expect there to be nothing between them again.

[offalyman08]

Clara = Should make final, but Tullamore did give them a good run last year.
Rhode = Should make final but Leinster final defeat is still very much in their minds, has probably soured a few..
Tullamore = Potential always there but loss of key players could impact them.
Tubber = As previously stated by others, Allen will be hard stopped and will be the focal point of their game.
Walsh Island = Plenty of potential but lack of a sideline hinders them, also have lost that element of surprise.
Ferbane = Could have beaten Rhode last year in quarter final & schools players should help them.
Ballycumber = Never easy to beat and will qualify from group stages but lack cutting edge to progress.
Edenderry = Unlucky not to reach quarter final last year but hard to see them going any further than quarter final.
Gracefield = Only see these reaching quarter final due to Shamrocks & St Rynaghs in their group. Heavy QF final defeat to Rhode on the cards..
Erin Rovers = Should have enough to survive
St Rynaghs = Could struggle but have been given easier group.
Shamrocks = Potential disaster season on the cards but nobody ever knows what to expect from Shamrocks

[Truth as i see it]

Sorry lads, for those of us not in the know what's the story with Maloney and Brazil, are they going to College somewhere??? Traveling??? working abroad???

[High School Musical]

It'll be Rhode & Clara fighting it out again this year. Nobody else is even close to their level.
I think it could be Clara's year.....

[offalyman08]

Sorry lads, for those of us not in the know what's the story with Maloney and Brazil, are they going to College somewhere??? Traveling??? working abroad???

Brazil & Moloney going to New Zealand to play rugby. John Kenny is in Australia

[In the long grass]

Two lads goin New Zealnd for summer is what I heard but not 100%.

Brian Geraghty going New York as far as I know.

John Ledwith goin States aswell for summer.

[Truth as i see it]

Sorry lads, for those of us not in the know what's the story with Maloney and Brazil, are they going to College somewhere??? Traveling??? working abroad???

Brazil & Moloney going to New Zealand to play rugby. John Kenny is in Australia

Damm!! had high hopes for those two in terms of the Offaly scene, still you can't blame them, you're only young once and i suppose now is the best time to travel for them as there is nothing keeping them here, still, hope they come back to the GAA scene at some point in the future.

[offalyman08]

Any predictions for the first round?

[Lone Shark]

It's only after the first round when you see the full list of who's around and who's missing from the action that we'll begin to get a reasonable idea of how most clubs are fixed. If we take the past couple of seasons as a base, then Rhode and Clara are a good way out in front of the rest and that's going to be difficult to bridge when we see that the two main contenders for the past couple of years - Tullamore and Shamrocks - appear to be losing some of their best players.

I presume the fact that I saw Kevin Williamson captaining Athlone Town last Friday means that he won't be lining out for the Blues either? Tullamore have a good second string and I don't think we'll see them lining out with any junior standard players in the SFC, but you can't lose three excellent club players (and possibly capable of county football) in Moloney, Brazil and Williamson and not feel the effects. Particularly when they needed more scoring support for Shane Dooley, not less.

While I don't think Shamrocks will be title contenders, I remain to be convinced that there isn't a fair degree of playing the poor mouth going on as well. I appreciate that they have problems, but even if you do lose key players, the fact that their juniors reached the county final last year suggests to me that there are more than a few players in the club that are capable of stepping up a level.

There is a middle tier there of Ballycumber, Tubber, Ferbane, Edenderry and Walsh Island, any of whom would be 50/50 to beat any of the others in that group on a given day. Every club in that group has problems, and every club in there has real advantages. For Ballycumber they are a settled group that rarely lose heavily to anyone, even the best of clubs, but you'd have to be concerned about how few footballers from the club have featured on county underage teams in recent years. Tubber are still very low on depth but you'd have to respect how Bernard Allen has become an elite player in Offaly in the last while and he'll be very hard stopped by anyone, while in general they are a young group with a fine leader in McManus. For obvious reasons I hope they get off to a bad start and they probably don't have the capability of beating both Clara and Rhode in the one year, but to me they are one club who could conceivably spring a one off surprise, and certainly would fancy themselves against anyone outside the big two. Put it another way, I reckon there's a 90% chance that it's either Rhode or Clara who'll win again, but if that doesn't happen, Tubber would be my dark horse against the field.

Ferbane rarely look like hitting fifteen scores in a game and they will certainly find it hard to balance the amount of dual players they have this year (Shane Nally and Liam Browne both went off injured against Lusmagh last night) but a lot of the current minor team look very talented and while they have a long way to go, it means that there is plenty of pace and a few options for impact subs in every game.

When Edenderry figure out how to close out games that they always seem to find a way to lose, they'll be some team. Losing all the lads that were just as committed to soccer won't hurt them and the one asset they have is that Seán Pender is in my opinion the best pure man marker in the county. Most clubs in Offaly have at least one very good forward - very few have a top class defender. That in itself gives them a chance.

Walsh Island every year have four or five excellent club players, a good hard core but they always seem to me to have to field one or two lads that aren't up to it to make up the numbers. Rory Galvin is a decent prospect and he'll probably play a significant part, but Willie Mulhall hasn't progressed in line with his natural talent and Gary Comerford has to be finding it tough to keep up by now. It's hard to see where they'll find enough improvement to really give Rhode or Clara a game, and in general I suspect I may be tipping against them this year as the fixtures progress.

As for the rest, well any of the lazy analysts who say that they expect Erin Rovers to go down simply doesn't understand Pullough football. Too many people east of Clara simply don't appreciate how there are quite a few talented players in this club and every one of them to a man will live and die for the blue jersey. They'll ship a heavy beating against Rhode and possibly Tullamore too, but they will target the other three games and they'll win at least one. I certainly don't expect them to go down.

Rynaghs are also better than some people give them credit for, and have plenty of good young footballers to flesh out a capable group of older players. If they get a reasonable level of commitment from the dual players they'll more than hold their own and I would expect them to sneak a quarter final spot.

Gracefield really do look to be in bother. It's not that the loss of Ciarán Kiely is a huge deal in and of itself, but as part of the bigger picture, there's something not right over there. Ruairí Allen was very poor in the under-21 championship and for a guy that I expected to turn into a real talent, he has regressed a lot. After a half decent start to the league they have been putrid in their last three matches and sadly there is a long history there of the club disintegrating when the pressure comes on. I believe that John O'Neill and one of the two Fitzpatricks will be back later in the year and they'll help, but the situation might be beyond retrieval at that point.



As for the big two, well there's nothing I can say that everybody doesn't already know. There's little or nothing between them in each of the last three years, both sides have a good chunk of the county team in their ranks and both sides have had their fair share of good underage teams. It does look to be drying up a bit now, but that won't tell a tale for some time. If I was a bookie and these two sides were playing in a county final tomorrow Rhode would probably be 8/11 or 4/6, and I can't see that changing too much until they do, in all likelihood, meet in O'Connor Park in October.