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Does anyone know when the first round of the senior, intermediate and junior championships is?
And secondly whos every ones favourite for all three championships??
Just to start off mine would be
Senior: Rhode
Inter: Doon
Junior: Durrow

According to the fixture list issued at the start of the year, it's down for the weekend of the 10th/11th/12th July. Now also that weekend, the Leinster football finals, phase 2 of the hurling qualifiers and the second round of the footballer qualifiers are down for decision. So in order for this weekend to be free of an Offaly intercounty match, we would need:

(1) Offaly senior footballers to have lost to either Kildare or Wexford and lost the first round of the qualifiers
(2) Offaly minor footballers to have failed to reach a Leinster final
(3) Offaly senior hurlers to have either lost to Wexford or else won their Leinster semi final.

Also, the 18th is down for the third round of the hurling qualifiers and the hurling relegation playoff, so unless we were Leinster champions, we'd be involved in this and you'd have all sorts of messing with Joe Dooley trying to release players as well.

I like the idea of playing the football championship in July, but I'm not loving the odds of making it happen, basically. I still believe that running the two seasons in tandem makes no sense.

As for your favourites, well from a bookies point of view, you have the senior championship here - http://www.ladbrokes.com/lbr_sports?act ... &subtypes= and while I think Tullamore are criminally short at 10/3, it's hard to argue with any of the rest of those odds.

Intermediate is open to very few possible winners, arguably less than senior and I'm going to risk some serious opprobrium here when I say that I think Walsh Island will improve for not having Richie at the helm. If they can finally harness the talent they have at their disposal, I think that I'd have them as marginal favourites, with Rynaghs as very close second favourites (moving to favs if Richie takes over again), Doon a distant third and then big prices anyone else. Birr, Clonbullogue and Raheen each around 14/1 or so, with maybe Rhode the same depending on how they have regraded - they do seem to be the best of a very weak group.

I'm not convinced by Durrow in the Junior at all. Kilcormac/Killoughey have way too much talent for this grade IF they put the effort in - but that's a huge if with them. I wouldn't dream of pricing it without knowing exactly how interested they are in winning this. Daingean and Durrow are the two clear front runners outside of K/K, and if you put a gun to my head I'd go with Daingean before Durrow - though with not a lot between them.

Just on the Senior- Rhode are too short there, 6-4 would be more appropriate.
And I would definitely have Tubber a bit shorter at 25-1.

I think that the Intermediate is a lot more open than you might think.

I do not believe that Birr and Raheen are as far away from the rest in front of them. My pricing would be something on these lines:

St Rynaghs 5-2
Walsh Island 7-2
Doon 7-2
Raheen 6-1
Birr 10-1
Clara 16-1
33-1 BAR

I think that Durrow are the best team in the Junior, slightly ahead of K/K, but a good bit ahead of Daingean.

Durrow 2-1
K/K 7-2
Daingean 6-1

I don't know that much about Raheen so I could be wrong with them, but they appear to be going backwards in the last few years. To my mind it would be bad intermediate championship if they got to the final.

I think Birr are coming and will be senior within four or five years, but they are still a few players short and need a couple of their younger lads to grow into fully fledged adult footballers. Now on the other hand they probably should be shorter since there is always the possibility that good footballers like Paul Cleary or Dylan Hayden might come on board, but it's still too hard to see them scoring fourteen or fifteen times in the one game.

I think you are over-rating Durrow a wee bit there too, but it's a close call. Good to have differences of opinion and all that.

In my opinion,based on this yeas league and last years championship, the odds would be

Doon Evens
Walsh island 2/1
Rhode 7/2
Birr 5/1
Raheen 6/1
St. Rynaghs 9/1
Clonbullogue 16/1
Clara 16/1
Kilclonfert 20/1
Tullamore 25/1
Ballyfore 30/1
Bracknagh 50/1

theman wrote:In my opinion,based on this yeas league and last years championship, the odds would be

Doon Evens
Walsh island 2/1
Rhode 7/2
Birr 5/1
Raheen 6/1
St. Rynaghs 9/1
Clonbullogue 16/1
Clara 16/1
Kilclonfert 20/1
Tullamore 25/1
Ballyfore 30/1
Bracknagh 50/1

172% over-round (or 42% gross profit margin) - am I glad I don't bet in your bookies! Having said that, if you wanted to lay any 9/1 about St. Rynaghs, I'd happily have a few bob on, even if they are going to be without Horan and a few others.

senior : Cant see anybody stopping Rhode .Tullamore wont give it to them easy.

Intermediate: Should be a great championship the best prepared team out of the obvious four should win it .Walsh Island ,Birr,Doon ,Raheen i wouldnt like to be meetin Rhode along the way either.

Junior: Surley its about time Daingean came back up .They have alot of good young players comin through.Durrow and Cappincur will also be in with a shout.killcormack will be concentrating on the hurling id reckon.

Its between Ballyfore and Bracknagh for the drop to Junior this year. Both are incredibly bad....what a difference a couple of years make in the club game.
Its always hard to call a winer at intermediate level especially when the likes of Rynaghs may not put in the effort they should, that said it will be a very interesting championship. I have a feeling that Daingean might take the junior title and I'm keeping my eye on Ferbane in the senior and fancy a bit of the 16/1 available for them to go all the way. Interesting to see what shape Rhode will be in this year......has the last few years taken anything out of them? I dont think they'll win it this year.

Bracknagh boy im afrad you could be right about Bracknagh,Ballyfore making the drop heard Clonbullogue arnt gettin many results either .
why you think that is? no one to fill in for lads that are retiring i presume
I dont think St.Bridgets will survive in senior this year anyone think otherwise?
Bracknaghboy again just cant see rhode being stopped a few lads probably wont be there such as malone and pascal but i think theve enough youth mixed with experience to get them through again.

In IFC , its going to be between the Big four ,Doon ..the Island, Raheen & Birr if you asked every intermeidate club at the start of the year which team they would have liked to seen come down from senior - everyone would have answered Rynaghs ... they have been fluking it up in senior since they got up their, will probably give more weight to hurling now that they have made the drop

Odds would have to go to :
Doon Evs
Walsh Island 11/8
Raheen 9/2
Birr 8/1

Alot depends on how the draw goes for knockouts stages

john locke wrote: Odds would have to go to :
Doon Evs
Walsh Island 11/8
Raheen 9/2
Birr 8/1

Looks like Clonbullogue are gonna get it tough seeing as there in the same group as 3 of the 4 favourites! Think the intermediate is wide open. To be honest i think any team can win it this year.

Rynaghs are not going well and there is no doubt that they got the rub of the green up in senior, but to say that they are a longer price to win this than either Birr or Raheen is ridiculous. A lot will depend on their group - if they can do well enough against Kilclonfert and Tullamore to get out of the group, they'll pull it together and people are forgetting that while their attitude in senior wasn't hectic, they still had the ability to pull off some big wins when they needed to. You might say they were poxed to get the wins over Shannonbridge, Ferbane and St. Brigid's in recent years, but ask yourself - could you really see Raheen getting three wins like that? I couldn't.

Raheen played rynaghs last friday evening in the league and beat them 3-19 to 0-03,so i would say they are in slightly better form at present,they also beat doon well in the league...Edenderry are the only team to beat raheen all year and the did that with a last minute goal to win by a point,and word has it from the geashill area is things are going very well this year,unlike the last year..they expect a huge run in the championship and a county final is well within there grasp and they were there in 2006 remember beaten by a tubber team who have done well in senior..and there actually playing them in the league tonight....a good game expected id imagine

Raheen played rynaghs last friday evening in the league and beat them 3-19 to 0-03,so i would say they are in slightly better form at present,they also beat doon well in the league...Edenderry are the only team to beat raheen all year and the did that with a last minute goal to win by a point,and word has it from the geashill area is things are going very well this year,unlike the last year..they expect a huge run in the championship and a county final is well within there grasp and they were there in 2006 remember beaten by a tubber team who have done well in senior..and there actually playing them in the league tonight....a good game expected id imagine

Nobody would argue current form. However there is a difference between current form and permanent ability and Rynagh's have proven that they aren't that bad, given proper preparation.

I don't doubt for a minute that they mightn't be bothered and could end up failing to get out of their group, but if they do, they'll be very hard stopped I suspect.