Offaly Senior Club Championship

[Thereorthereabouts]

The Offaly Senior Football Championship Group stages kicks off this weekend.
It will be interesting to see how the new Senior B Championship fairs.

Senior A
Round 1

FERBANE V ST RYNAGH'S (FOOTBALL)

Saturday 11th, Time: 2 00 PM , Venue: Shannonbridge


CLARA V ST. BRIGID'S

Saturday 11th, Time: 5 00 PM , Venue: Cappincur


RHODE V TULLAMORE/AN TULACH MHÓR

Saturday 11th, Time: 6 30 PM , Venue: O Connor Park, Tullamore


EDENDERRY V PAIRC DE GRÁS/GRACEFIELD

Sunday 12th, Time: 12 00 PM , Venue: Clonbullogue


Senior B
Round 1

TUBBER V KILCORMAC-KILLOUGHEY

Thursday 9th, Time: 7 00 PM , Venue: Clara


DOON V DURROW

Sunday 12th, Time: 12 00 PM , Venue: Ballycumber


BEAL ATHA CHOMAIR V RAHEEN

Sunday 12th, Time: 2 30 PM , Venue: O Connor Park, Tullamore


NA SEAMRÓGA V WALSH ISLAND

Sunday 12th, Time: 4 00 PM , Venue: O Connor Park, Tullamore

[Thereorthereabouts]

Ferbane, Clara, Rhode and Edenderry should all come out on top in the Senior.
In the Senior B, the tie of the round looks like Shamrocks v Walsh Island, both teams eager to get back up to Senior. I'd fancy Walsh Island to win by a point or two.
In the other ties, Tubber, Raheen and Durrow should come out on top.

[bracknaghboy]

Round 2 of many was on over the weekend but in reality nobody cares.
Can someone wake me up a week before round 7 please? Cheers

[kingscounty]

Gone to the dogs altogether , tullamore 7-13 Croghan 0-03 . What is the point , just fuck Rhode, Tullamore , Clara , Edenderry straight into semi at start of year and forget about it after that. That's some effort from a Senior club 3 points , it's laughable but in reality shocking for Offaly football.

[Square Cab]

Really gone to the dogs now. Rynaghs only scored 3 points against rhode today, all in the 1st half. Shocking stuff. Barely four competitive teams at senior level

[timber]

The standard is dreadful. Rynaghs, Brigids, and surprisingly Ferbane are very weak. You look at Rhode who are nowhere near the team they were and they are still cruising along without much effort. Edenderry, Clara, and Tullamore not as strong as they have been at stages over the last 15 years but still contenders.

Senior B (really intermediate) although a very competitive championship with 5 teams on equal points, the standard is brutal bad. Durrow and Raheen seem to have made improvements but on the other hand you look at Tubber, Ballycumber and Shamrocks who are not a patch on where they were. What has happened these teams.

And then there is the KK fiasco? Have they pulled out of the championship. They got hammerings from Tubber and Shamrocks and just threw in the towel, gave up. What sanctions do they face for the pulling out mid championship?

[honey badger]

Any Players standing out in the senior championship to date?
Maybe able to make the county team.

[Lone Shark]

Underdogs have some chance when it's a one off game and they can prepare for it over a long distance, but trying to perform on a consistent basis is a lot tougher. To take the St Brigids vs Tullamore game as an example - one of the worst SFC games I've ever been at in terms of the gulf in quality - there is no way that St Brigids would have been missing players through holidays if it was a do or die fixture, and they also wouldn't have been a beaten docket before the ball was thrown in. If your side is demoralised from shipping heavy beatings week in and week out, you lose that sense of having the potential to shock an opponent on any given day.

Brigids knew from a long way out that their season would be determined by their games with Ferbane and Rynaghs at the end - similarly, for the latter two, the clash in Shannonbridge at the start of the year was always likely to be critical, and while Ferbane tried to rally after losing out, they then found themselves in a situation where they could put in decent performances (vs Gracefield, Edenderry, Tullamore) and still end up empty handed. I remain convinced that they need a few players back with a bit more experience - by my count all bar two of the starters vs Gracefield were 22 or younger - but they aren't as far away as the results would suggest. That said, in a one off game against a St Brigids team that will welcome back Cian Donohue and maybe Johnny Brickland as well, they'll have their work cut out to stay up.

In terms of Senior B, it has delivered what people might have expected, in that the standard is fairly equal so the games are competitive. It's hard to measure the overall level of play right now, but the Leinster competition will certainly give some indication. A first round game away from home to either a Laois or a Kildare team won't be an easy task, but if the Offaly reps are close enough with ten minutes to go there, then we can say that the standard wasn't terrible. If they lose heavily (and that's a real possibility) then we can say otherwise.