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As far as i'm aware, Rhode have won the senior, Under 21, Minor, Under 16 and Under 12 championships in football this year. As much as it pains me to say it, this is a great feat and Congratulations must be given. It was a super year for the village. However, is it just that they are that strong, or is there a lack of footbal in the rest of the county.
We all know that there was little between Rhode and Clara in the Senior, and even Ballcumber rattled them, but there is no doubting they are the best senior team around. At underage level i only saw them against Clara in the Minor semi Final and the Under 16 final, and on both days Clara arguably had the better of them... But it is very easy to say that, but the proof is in the pudding, and when all the ifs and buts are finished with, Rhode have almost made a clean sweep in Offaly football.

Anyone worried bout the standard of the rest of the teams?? Or are Rhode just that Good?? Or are they very good and got the breaks and a bit of Luck this year??

But again, a great year for Rhode, Congrats!

Club football in Offaly is no better or worse than anywhere else. I've seen some dire stuff this year in our championship but speaking to people in other counties which include Meath, Kildare,Carlow, Wicklow and Laois it seems everyone is not happy with club football in their perspective counties.
Rhode are by far the best team in Offaly, as for taking a Leinster title I feel that as BOG MAN pointed out to me a couple of months ago they are a midfielder short, and I think that everyone will agree Shane Sullivan would be in the land of the giants up against someone like the Magee brothers from Kilmacud Crokes for instance[ a bit similar to our county team's problem]. So I fear that our county champions will fall short again, probably against the Dublin champions, whoever they may be in the semi final, mainly due to the midfield being dominated by more physically stronger players in that sector.

A great year for the Rhode Club, but they have not won the u/21 yet. They are playing St. Broughan's on Sunday in Tullamore and are going for a 5 in a row with 2 players Sean Casey and Niall Mac also going for 5 in a row.
As for Leinster, Rhode will need to improve to have any chance in Leinster, but they did improve as the year went on last year and were a wee bit unlucky not to have beaten Kilmacud last year. Time will tell and a Leinster would be a massive achievement, but what a year.
Did Edenderry do somewthing similar in 1997?????by winning alot of champioships. True Red might have an answer on this.

I wouldn't be worried about the standard from the rest of the teams because quite simply I think this is a very decent Rhode team in the context of county champions across Ireland. They may prove me wrong but I would see them as being a reasonable amount short of Nemo, Crossmaglen, Corofin and Crossmolina, but other than that there isn't anyone to be afraid of for them. Certainly Leinster has opened up beautifully for them this year. Dublin look like they'll even do well to field, the way things are going, Meath's winners were junior a few years ago, Westmeath, Laois, Louth, Wicklow and Longford will all be teams that haven't won county championships in ages if at all, and as such one would feel they will be celebrating too much to really make an impact outside of there, which only really leaves Moorefield, who would be dour, dogged, but nothing special.

And having said all that, Clara, Brigid's and Ballycumber all gave Rhode a good run this year, as Shamrocks would possibly have done if they got a run at them.

As regards underage, again those teams tend to have come out on top at the end of reasonably competitive championships. If they were sweeping all before them we'd have a problem, but whatever about the under 12's, those minor and under 16 teams were just a little bit better than anyone they played up along the line.

In answer to the question,the year was 1997 and Edenderry won Senior,Junior,Under21 and Minor Championships plus the Senior & Junior League's.As well as that the under 12's,14's and 16's all reached their county finals.And to to top it all off the county board awarded us Club of the Year which is represented by the Fr. McWey Cup which was named after a prominent Parish Priest for Edenderry and highly regarded in GAA circles.

A great year....seems a long way off at the moment however.

Indeed, hats off to Rhode. As Tom has stated, I thought overall Clara shaded the underage games, but that doesn't really mean anything, as Rhode emerged the winners.
At senior grade, I think some of the other clubs are starting to believe that Rhode are beatable. And, although I wish them luck in Leinster, I don't think they have enough to win it. Not only are they small in the middle of the field (I include both midfielders here), but most of the forwards have an enormous reluctance to shoot at the goals. If Niall McNamee is well looked after, problems may arise.
One last thing that's worth mentioning is the performances of Leavy and Sullivan for the Rhode U-16 team last Sunday. Leavy is physically strong and well able to field and kick a point. As for Sullivan (who I believe is the younger brother of Shane), he already looks like quite a mouth-watering prospect. For a young lad he seems to do everything right....when to hold the ball, when to release, etc...I could go on and on. For me, he was the difference between Rhode and Clara in the U16.

LS- Just 1 correction. Abbeylara in Longford have won county championships recently and I seen their semi-final and final, they won the final without their top forward and I don’t feel they will be pushovers. They are well balanced all over the field. I don’t know who they are playing in Leinster.

Don't know if I'd count 2000 as recent, but fair enough - subjective I'd grant you. Bearing in mind how far off the place Longford clubs have been in recent years, they'll be no threat. They'll give Castledaly/Tyrellspass a game first day out, probably being around 6/4 or 7/4 for that game, but with Laois to play after that they should run aground. I'd say save your money if you were contemplating an investment.

Who was missing - Sheridan?

True Red i know your right about edenderry getting the club of the year in 1997, but you are incorrect about the name of the cup. It may be called the Fr McWey cup now a days but in 1997 he was still alive and thus no cup named in his honour. The cup you refer to was called the Gerry Carroll cup after a prominent county board official from Tullamore. It was a magnificent year for ye then

I checked this out and Edenderry DID actually recieve the Fr. McWey cup.Fr McWey passed away in 1999 but the cup was presented by him and they named it after him in his honour.
The Gerry Carroll cup refers to the trophy for the Under 12 A Hurling championship.

LS players name was Kevin Smith and he scored 1-4 in the semi final before being sent off in the last minute for mouthing. He is on the Longford senior team. Last time Abeylara were in Leinster they convincingly beat St. Josephs Laois and then lost by two points to Na Fianna Dublin. They have been there or thereabouts in Longford since 1998.
However Smith is banned until December and will miss at least the 1st game.

Agreed
In fairness, All credit to the "Village of Blinding Lights"

True Red wrote:

I checked this out and Edenderry DID actually recieve the Fr. McWey cup. Fr McWey passed away in 1999 but the cup was presented by him and they named it after him in his honour.

Presumably it wasn't called the Fr McWey cup when he presented it though? If the rule about needing to be dead before getting a trophy called after you was applied.

Rhode are some village! What a yr we've had.............headin for the Leinster 3rd December!!! Our lads can do it!!