Club Football

[Fallguy]

Fair play to both sides on a great game

At the end of the day Ferbane only kicked 4 scores from open play

The best team won the match

Best of luck to Tullamore in Leinster

[SearingDrive]

Fair play to both sides on a great game

At the end of the day Ferbane only kicked 4 scores from open play

The best team won the match

Best of luck to Tullamore in Leinster

Fallguy you are correct about the best team winning yesterday, I was not aware Ferbane scored just 0-4 from play, not a good day for their attack.

If the ref was from Ballycommon, a neutral club, why the controversy over his appointment. He went out to do his best for all, but got a few calls wrong. He is human after all.

Looking at the program yesterday, I see Tullamore had 11 management, while Ballinagar had 3, and Ferbane had 5. The teams in Saturday’s games had 4-5 officials. Why so many in Tullamore?. I wonder how they will do in Leinster, as Tullamore have not made any real provincial progress previously.

[llkj]

Several points I'd like to make :

1. I don't like that most of the posters so far have focused on the referee and called into question his integrity (albeit mainly in a concieted way). Posters on this forum were doing the same thing for a previous knockout game also. Very poor form.
2. Watching the game on Clubber, the general consensus from the two commentators was one of 'the ref made some strange calls on both sides, which probably evened themselves out over the course of the afternoon'. Reading the paper online, Kevin Corrigan also had the same viewpoint. Coming on here, you'd swear that Ferbane were absolutely rode.
3. With that in mind, I took a look at the game again now. I decided to focus on times when Ferbane got a favourable call from the ref that directly led to a score. There were plenty of them. I could do the same on the other side too (and I will) but feel free to question any one of the above examples below.

• A. 7.15 mins in - Clancy gets away with a throw to Joe Maher. Maher is tackled by Tullamore's number 8 and is then dispossessed. Ref gives a free in for 8's tackel. Point to Ferbane from the free - on another day the throw is called back or the tackle is not deemed a foul.
  B. Ferbane's 8th point - ref said Flynn was pulled back at 21.47. Looked in the very soft/wrong call category to me.
  C. Ferbane's 9th point - ref deemed it a free. Commentator called it a 'fine strip tackle'. It was 50 /50
  D. 33.34 Leon Fox drags Brazil to the ground after losing the ball. If he doesn't make the foul, Brazil slips a handpass over the head of the defender to Plunkett for a goal chance. Fox doesn't get a black card. Looked a black card all day. I don't think he got a yellow.
  E. Ferbane's 10th point - ref calls a free against Paul Mc Conway on Johnson. I don't think anyone could see a foul including the commentator and either of the players involved. I honestly think the ref gave the free because he might have missed something moments earlier out the field, so he gave that one instead. Watch it again and tell me if I am mistaken. 43.50 on the clock at that point.
  F. 47.28 Tullamore's 11th point - Egan is tackled from behind needlessly by number 28 when there are 3 players around him. It was borderline, but consistent with everything else the ref gave. Fox goes bananas banging the ball against his head 2 times. Tullamore do something similar for Ferbane's 13th point. Needless free with 4 players around the Ferbane attacker. Tullamore players go bananas with the decision too.
  G. Tullamore's 13th point wasn't a free.
  H. 63.40 Joe Maher gets a free that wasn't a free in the middle of the field. Would have been a huge turnover but Ferbane hold on. There are 2 borderline hard tackles in the next play that are not given. Tullamore break up and score point 15.
  I. Ferbane's 14th point - 50/50 call goes Ferbane's way. Free is slotted over.

So you went back and watched the game but somehow glossed over the most egregious calls of all? Funny that.

As for the local media they’re never ever going to criticise a referee no matter what he does.

I did deal with the penalty in a different post. For me, it wasn't a penalty. Yes, there was contact, but not enough for a penalty.

[FlyOnTheWall]

Neutral here who doesn’t care who won one way or the other but you couldn’t come away from watching that with any opinion other than Ferbane were robbed of at least a draw, the decisions in the last 10-15 minutes were hard to believe.

[llkj]

Couple of observations on the match:

1. The quality of the free-taking was top-class on both sides. They both scored 8 frees while Ferbane also added a 45.
2. Tullamore's forwards scored 2 points from play. Some years ago that would have been the stat that we'd be talking about as to why they lost the game, but things have changed significantly with Gaelic football. However, they do have an opportunity to make progress in this sector in the coming years. (Ferbane had a similar return with 3-4 points from play in total; depending on how you categorise a mark).
3. I was surprised Tullamore didn't try to work a short kickout or 2 when under pressure during the middle of the first half. I am not saying that they weren't trying some set moves, they were, However, the fact that both teams pushed up made for an enjoyable match.
4.The skillset of players is completely different now than in the past. Both teams showed good examples of being composed on the ball in really tight spaces. Being able to slip a quick handpass under pressure or make a half yard of space to wiggle free is light years ahead of what it used to be. I would say the emphasis on what skills are in demand has greatly evolved over the years.
5. Some great fielding on display. Nice to see.

[The big hill]

Senior
Quarter Finals
Tullamore play winners of Portarlington vs Baltinglass/Tinahely

Intermediate
Clonbullogue play winners of Fenagh(Carlow) vs Milltown/Garrycastle(Westmeath)

Junior
Ballinagar play Ballon (Carlow)

[TrueBlue1]

There is no way he should have been the referee joey D from Clara was supposedly down to do it but tullamore objected there's plenty of referees that would have neutral.


G91, Please remove the above comment from your post. It is a completely untrue allegation against the Tullamore club.

[G91]

I won't be deleting anything this is a forum where topics are discussed and opinions

He's the main highlight of the game now.
he may have been bad for both but it benefitted tullamore

It got that bad the frees tullamore were getting ferbane couldn't actually put in a tackle

the referee if he did such a good job why was he almost down the tunnel after the game

That referee was far from neutral end off

[FlyOnTheWall]

On a wider point, Tullamore have played 3 finals between underage and senior over the past 2 weeks.

All 3 finals were officiated by the same referee.

Is that normal?

I’ve never seen anything like it before.

[G91]

Cathal daly had a few words with the referee at half time.

[biffinbanner]

it was the worst display of refereeing ive seen in a long long time. its a sure sign when neutrals are wondering what they are after seeing. i dunno how many people have said to me about ferbane getting rode. and not just in offaly. its not good enough to have young lads training since february for that to be done to them.

[FlyOnTheWall]

There were strong words exchanged after the game and it’s lucky it didn’t get worse.

[Behindthegoal]

Late to this but here’s my take on the senior final.

These are clearly the two best teams in the county by a mile and it was great to finally get a good final because there hasn’t been a good one since probably 2019 albeit the weather was awful in some of the finals since.

It was a game of two halves with the wind both trans had similar problems on their own kickout against the breeze when the other team pushed up. Ferbane’s last 15 mins of the 1st half to score 7 points in a row was exceptional I don’t think any team has rattled Tullamore like that in a long time.


Oisin Kelly was a huge addition for Ferbane his physicality around the middle was key to gaining a foothold in the game. Tullamore being 4 down at HT brought out a different side to them they had to go for broke and it’s good this happened as they do receive a lot of criticism for their style of play.

The killer got Ferbane was their 4 point lead was wiped out after almost 10 minutes of the 2nd half they never got a foothold until mid way through the 2nd half but they rallied well to go from 11-10 down to 13-11 up from there you were starting to think it was their day but you have to credit Tullamore in the way they fought back and didn’t panic

As for the referee I don’t know the ins and outs of the links being made between him and Tullamore so I’m not going to comment all I will say is that when the county chairman opens his speech with “one or two decisions didn’t go your way” that probably tells you all you need to know.


I love watching John furlong he’s fantastic but there’s no way he was MOTM for me it had to be Cillian Bourke, his fetching ability and work rate was unbelievable he made two massive plays towards the end with a turnover on Shane Nally to set up a point and he caught the very last Kickout to seal the win, incredible that under next years rules he would have been too young to play senior this year.


For Ferbane I don’t think it’s going to take too much to get them over the line, they needed more from the likes of Jack Clancy Joe Maher and Kyle Higgins in the 2nd half to move the ball up the pitch. Someone told me after Cian Johnson had 7 touches in the game which were 3 points an assist and three frees won a symptom of the modern game but some efficiency if they had gotten him more ball it might’ve been a different story. I thought Jack Egan struggled on Cormac egan up to that he had a fine year, same for Patrick Taffee and Ciaran Cahill in the FB line

The quality of Offaly club football is fairly bleak and as long as these teams avoid each other this will be the 2025 county final

[Anonymous1]

Niall Stack has stepped down as Tullamore manager.

[del]

No surprise he’s there 5 yrs . And 5 very successful yrs 4 leagues 3 Dowling cups lost 1 league group game and I championship match the final vs Rhode between 21-24 covering 52 matches in Offaly the most successful manager the club have had by a long distance
It’s not gonna be an easy job to follow in his footsteps plenty of talent there and plenty coming thru the underage ranks anything other than another championship would be seen as a failure for the next manager.