Senior football Championship 1st round

[offalyman08]

Any predicitons for the first round of the championship starting this Thursday

Clara vs Shamrocks (Clara)
St Bridgets vs Gracefield (Gracefield)
Tubber vs Edenderry (cant call but based on last year you would say Tubber)
Rhode vs Erin Rovers (Rhode)
Walsh Island vs Ballycumber (Walsh Island)
Ferbane vs Tullamore (again cant really call this one, Tullamore had a better league campaign if you can base it on that)

[Thereorthereabouts]

Any predicitons for the first round of the championship starting this Thursday

Clara vs Shamrocks (Clara)
St Bridgets vs Gracefield (Gracefield)
Tubber vs Edenderry (cant call but based on last year you would say Tubber)
Rhode vs Erin Rovers (Rhode)
Walsh Island vs Ballycumber (Walsh Island)
Ferbane vs Tullamore (again cant really call this one, Tullamore had a better league campaign if you can base it on that)

Clara -3
Gracefield

[Thereorthereabouts]

Any predicitons for the first round of the championship starting this Thursday

Clara vs Shamrocks (Clara)
St Bridgets vs Gracefield (Gracefield)
Tubber vs Edenderry (cant call but based on last year you would say Tubber)
Rhode vs Erin Rovers (Rhode)
Walsh Island vs Ballycumber (Walsh Island)
Ferbane vs Tullamore (again cant really call this one, Tullamore had a better league campaign if you can base it on that)

Clara -3pts
Gracefield -2
Tubber -2
Rhode -5
Walsh Island -1
Tullamore -4

[Offaly2010]

Anyone have any word on how the Clara and Shamrocks match went?

[offalyman08]

clara 1-9 0-8 shamrocks..

Fights galore at it! Dont know how nobody was sent off

[The Magpie]

Very briefly, in bullet form.

- Clara raced into a 1-2 to 0-0 lead, all from Thomas Deehan.
- Shamrocks slowly pegged them back, with PJ Ward and Nigel Dunne both looking in good form. At half-time, Clara were 1-4 to 0-6 ahead.
- On the stroke of half-time, Deehan broke for goals and just yards from goal, Barry Mooney had a piggy-back race on his back. Deehan reacted and many bodies piled-in Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer, as Johnny Cash might say. Amazingly, only Clara players were booked (players from both teams deserved to be booked, with the blame fairly even) and even more amazingly, Barry Mooney wasn't even spoken to
- To compound things, the referee then decided that it was half-time.
- The second-half was very slow to start - in fact, it wore on really slowly. Clara were to score 5 points, while Shamrocks only 2, leaving the final score at 1-9 to 0-8. The only high points were two excellent saves by the Shamrocks keeper - one from point-blank range (palmed over the bar) from Ross Brady and the second from the left-boot of Thomas Deehan. The Shamrocks keeper was impressive, also saving well in the first-half and consistent with his kick-outs.
- Both teams missed a couple of easy enough frees over the course of the hour
- Both teams had a point waved wide during the game
- The game was pretty much dying a death with Clara leading by 4 points and only a couple of minutes left. A strong Ross Brady tackle on Leonard Mooney saw both players squaring-up before a bit of a row broke out. It seemed to start as another player was struck directly in front of the linesman, who didn't seem to react to it at all. Things eventually seemed to be calming but there was more pushing and shoving to come before the referee eventually decided to restart the game by throwing in the ball. Now, according to the rules, that was probably the correct thing to do, but tinderbox and matches spring to mind. Thankfully, the game did restart and after a few more kicks of the ball, the final whistle blew.

In summary, Clara really only got going in very small patches. Shamrocks might feel the same. Despite all the talk of trouble and retirements, Shamrocks showed great resolve and this was an evenly contested game for long periods. They were strong in the full-forward line and probably just lost the midfield battle.

Opening games, to my mind at least, are never great spectacles. Unless there is to be a big surprise in this group, I think both teams should qualify for the knock-out stages. Clara started the game with 10 of the team that started against Portlaoise late last year, so will be pleased to welcome back a number of faces over the coming weeks.

[Long John]

Yes Magpie summed it up pretty well. It was very poor football alright. Typical of the new group structure with teams not overly worried about a loss.

Few bits of handbags but nothing to get over carried away about. Ross Bradys challenge was fairly deliberate and high.

Clara missing a few players, Shamrocks had a very strange team out. Padraig Kelly in the foward line and alot of new faces. I'd imagine they have another 6 or 7 players that didnt start based on previous years.

Best players on show were Deehan and Ward. Nothing to inspire Tom Cribben.

[Offaly2010]

Gracefield and Brigids drew tonight in O'Connor Park.
Gracefield 1-5 - 0-8 Brigids
Ruairi Allen sent off for Gracefield.

[toughtackler]

Edenderry beat Tubber 15 points to 11.Nip and tuck in the first half.Point for point.6 each at half time.Tubber came out of the blocks quicker in the second half and broke into a 3 point lead.Looked as if they would kick on.Missed two sitters of frees (within 21yds) to increase the gap.Fair play to Edenderry though,they battled hard and rattled off 7 unanswered points to take the game.Think Tubber may struggle in future as rumours of players heading abroad are strong.Wouldn't fancy Edenderry to set the place alight but wouldn't fancy playing them either.1st championship match to win in 5 yrs.Have to start somewhere though.

Also heard D'Island beat Ballycumber by a point after being 6 down at half time.

[ballinamereman1]

walsh islandl had a good win tonight was at it.. Ten minutes into the second-half Ballycumber were in complete control with a 0-11 to 0-4 lead however they were outcored 2-6 to 0-4 in the remainder of the game and Walsh Island won by 2-10 to 0-15.. Walsh island showed tremendous battle skills tonight.. and offaly football needs a good walsh island team based on tonights showing the seem to be back to there 80s days.. a very welcome sight for offaly football indeed!

[The Magpie]

To conclude on the first round: Tullamore 1-7 Ferbane 0-8

- Tullamore started well and went 1-4 to 0-2 ahead. Ronan Monaghan kicked a couple of good frees and then kicked a speculative effort from the sideline that was punched into the net.
- However, after that (and that was no more than 15 minutes into the match) Tullamore scored just three more points.
- Ferbane lorded the ball around the middle of the field and I lost count of the number of times they turned the ball over. They put in a huge effort.
- Aidan Keenaghan must have been injured or just returning from injury. He was brought on with about 10 minutes to play and looked to be the best player on the pitch. He kicked two late points and caused all kinds of havoc.
- Paddy Moore missed a late penalty for Ferbane, with the scores (I think) at 1-7 to 0-6. It was certainly their chance to get back into the game.
- Best for Ferbane were Eddie Lowry, Gerry Grehan, Colin Egan & Aidan Keenaghan
- Best for Tullamore were Paul McConway, John O'Donohue & Ronan Monaghan

- Finally, I don't like to say it, but the referee was awful. He made most of his calls from a good distance and got a lot wrong. Throughout the 60 minutes he blew for one handpass/throw when many many more looked like clear throws.

Ferbane will look back on this game and know that they really did throw it away. In terms of kickouts won, posession and turn-overs, I hope Lone Shark recorded them, because I'd say it was astounding. Tullamore will definitely improve. Taking Shane Dooley as an example, he probably hasn't played football in a while and looked rusty, but he has plenty of football in him and another day would've done a lot more damage. I assume that Tullamore also have some bigger names to return? Obviously missing were:

- Cathal Daly (retired?)
- Stephen Egan (hurling only?)
- James Keane (illness?)

Kevin Williamson was a used-substitute. Maybe Kemo Sabe or one of the lads have some background information on the guys missing?

[gunnerman]

Aidan Keenaghan is too good a player to hold back in reserve. He has had his injury problems but he was 100% fit to play last night. On the evidence we seen, if he had been started the result could well have been alot different.
Ferbane had too many non performing players and in my opinion Liam Browne and Eddie Lowry held the backline together. Ferbane went out of the game at midfield for long stages of the game and their half forward line was non existant until the introduction of Keenaghan. As bad as they were, they will feel they could of snatched a win with a few late wides and a missed peno.

For Tullamore, they will definetly improve more than Ferbane. They kicked more wides han Ferbane and will also be feeling the could have won by more. Ronan Monaghan despite kicking Id say 4 or 5 points could of had a lot moe but was off target. He was giving a yard or two by his man all evening. Brian O'Reilly got on a huge amount of ball at centre forward as Gerry Grehan decided against marking him directly and instead tried to hold the centre. Mark Conlon was excellent at full back.

Next weeks games will be all the more interesting after this weeks games. Not sure who Tullamore have but Ferbane play the Shamrocks in a must win for both sides but Ferbane will surley have Aidan Keenaghan on from the start.

[bazza]

I don't think either side could really learn anything from last nights match, as a game played on a pitch where the two 65's are beside one another does not tell us a whole pile about how Tullamore and Ferbane will fair once they get into the wide expanses of O'Connor Park in a knock-out type game. The Offaly County Board really need to look at where they are fixing championship matches. The Clara pitch is just too small. At least 2 or 3 lads had to go off injured and its no coincidence because 30 grown men playing gaelic football on a soccer sized field is going to result in injuries. Another disadvantage of playing club championhsip games in tiny fields is that Tom Cribben can learn nothing from the games. A big lad can shine in these games, yet put him out in a proper pitch like OCP or Portlaoise and he'l be flagged after 15 minutes. On the other side slighter, fitter lads like Gerry Grehan, for example might not be able to exert influence in these games but could shine in a big field where Offaly play ALL league and championship matches. Surely our Senior club matches should be played in similar surroundings to Senior Inter-County matches. Granted every game can't be played in OCP but there is nothing wrong wit Doon, Tubber and a few other pitches for West Offaly fixtures.

[concrete]

egan was training with the offaly hurlers last night but will make himself available for selection with the footballers, williamson is suffering with a hamstring injury and was wearing a heavy strap on it last night and was only able to play 15 minutes, keane is suffering with a leg injury and will be out for a while, egan and williamson will be back in for the next game and will improve the team as will them playing in o'connor park