Offaly Club Hurling Championship 2025

[brosna]

That’s why I don’t post here. The smart arses on straight away trying to catch someone out when they’re trying to have an honest discussions.

I called KK ballinamere’s “main competitors”.

They’re everyone’s “main competitors” or biggest threat. They’re going for 3 in a row and are 1/7 with the bookies.

[Sally treats]

I would have thought that your main competitors would be Birr and Coolderry.

Regards
Smart Arse

[brosna]

think our main competition is competing at senior A level in both codes whilst the likes of KK, Coolderry and Birr just focus on hurling

[oneshot]

Cillian Kiely playing centre back for offaly is a pipe dream. Simply doesnt have the mobility for intercounty and this has been shown time and time again. A great club player on his day but will be a club player only

He's the best player in the county when fit

Jaysus will you stop.
Good player but Charlie Mitchell, Killian Sampson, Ciaran Burke, Oisin Kelly, Dan Bourke and a few more all well clear of him

Ciaran burke is in his arse a better back than kiely .the others are forwards

[pigeon house biffo]

See Luke Carey is top scorer in senior championship, has he been in with the seniors before? Would he be worth a shot?

[FullForward waster]

think our main competition is competing at senior A level in both codes whilst the likes of KK, Coolderry and Birr just focus on hurling

i think you very much so have a tinfoil hat on at the moment. First you say its important to keep the history of Durrow football going but then proceed to basically say but its more important to give the hurling duels the week to prepare for "Main Competitors" KK. I would see if I was a Durrow club man equally important to field a team??

Lets not forget Ballinamere were given a schooling lesson on Saturday by KK. It is very hard to say your main competitors are the current Snr champions and you were lucky to survive the group. You are changing your narrative in comment to comment.

[Faithful Future]

See Luke Carey is top scorer in senior championship, has he been in with the seniors before? Would he be worth a shot?

Haven't seen enough of him to comment.

Has anyone put their hands up that wasn't involved in the panel in 2025?

[Lone Shark]

This is not politics, where the point of debating is to grandstand and score cheap points off the person on the other side. Thankfully we're aiming to be a lot more mature than that, where we're actually discussing gaelic games in Offaly from the point of view of wanting our clubs and our county teams to be as successful and vibrant as they can possibly be. So in that spirit, can we park the nonsensical pedantry stuff?

Kilcormac-Killoughey are the county champions, and the strongest senior hurling team in Offaly right now. Clubs who aspire to win the Seán Robbins Cup have to look at what's happening in KK and set that as their benchmark. It was quite clear that was what Brosna meant by referring to them as Ballinamere's main competitors, and trying to create a talking point out of a simple remark like that doesn't do anything for anyone.

Moving on....

With that out of the way, I still think it's not reasonable to blame KK for not pouring their heart and soul into football, when it's plainly obvious that the demand isn't there from their club members. From the outside looking in, what happened this year at U-14 is a bit of a concern, but there are standalone football clubs that can have one disastrous year. But they've won games at their level at U-16, they've fulfilled fixtures and clearly been at the right level for their adult team, and I don't think you could ask much more.

Could they be better if the likes of Mahon, Screeney, Kiely, Gorman and the rest all decided to split their focus much more evenly in the same way that we see from Cormac Egan, Marcas Dalton, David Nally etc., of course they could. But until those players decide that's what they want to do, then there is nothing that KK can do as a club other than facilitate football for those who want to play it. If the players decide they want to try and move up the ranks and be a senior football club, then and only then is it time for the club to try to match that ambition.

Plus of course, success influences and steers the next generation. A lot of the adult players now are those who were kids when Kilcormac-Killoughey played an All-Ireland club final in Croke Park. The history of past generations means far less than something you've lived and experienced.

Let's not forget that before St. Rynagh's won their first SHC final, Cloghan played in 13 Offaly senior football finals, winning two of them. Traditions can change, and that should be both a warning and a motivation to the people in the Durrow club.

[KeshaWantsTimber]

The problem here is all based around power dynamics. The real issue here isn't the actual walkover. If it was a single club entity I'd imagine that the same decision would have been arrived at with much less fuss.

However the problem for a lot of Durrow people is that there's a perception (right or wrong) that the Ballinamere hurling manager was dictating the actions of Durrow football club. That was never going to sit well.

It's been uneasy arrangement for a while and it sometimes takes an unexpected sequence of simple events take down an arrangement like that. On the odds of probability it was going to happen sooner or later.

I don't know where they go from here if that's the decision they've taken.

[faithfulfanatic]

He's the best player in the county when fit

Jaysus will you stop.
Good player but Charlie Mitchell, Killian Sampson, Ciaran Burke, Oisin Kelly, Dan Bourke and a few more all well clear of him

Ciaran burke is in his arse a better back than kiely .the others are forwards

Ciaran Burke is definitely better than Kiely right now.
Why can’t forwards be better than him? The original poster said best player in the county

[greenairfield]

How is he always the topic here.
He played inter county last year and was way off where he needs to be.
He has some of the best young talent around in his forward line but still he will shoot from 90 yards.

His best days are behing him much better young lads coming through.

[Bogman123]

My 2 cents on the Ballinamere/ Durrow situation (for what it's worth). Obviously an ugly end to the season and the media speculation may not have been their downfall last Saturday evening in OCP, but it certainly wouldn't have helped. Call it egos, call it inter-club politics but something will have to change.

I do not even think there is a 1% chance that Ballinamere and Durrow would cease their current relationship, it would do unfathomable damage to existing players, underage structures and the standard of both senior championships in Offaly (yes, there are quite a few Ballinamere players on the Durrow football team too). The head on the chopping block will be Niall Rigney, simple as that. If the posts above are true and an outside manager is directing a number of Durrow men not to play a senior championship game with their home club, that is never going to materialise well. Regardless of the importance (or lack of importance) to the Rhode game, his days were numbered once that happened.

There have been quite a few comments about Michael Duignan in the thread also. I feel for the man, being caught in the middle of this mess. Say what you like, he is now a Durrow man living in the middle of the community and I could never see him instructing players not to line out for their senior footballers. His passion for Durrow can be traced back to his numerous years of under 12 through to under 21 management, so he would absolutely want to avoid any division between Ballinamere and Durrow.

The clear path in my view is to axe Rigney, Duignan steps in for a fresh start next year and both the hurlers and footballers move forward with a real sense of purpose. They can take learnings from the debacle and I'm sure it will not be forgotten that most of the county seemed to rejoice at the thought of a split. For personal reasons, I was not altogether sad at the thought either I must admit (primarily their loud sideline and a small portion of their supporters, along with some players on-field antics). But do not be surprised if you see one big happy family with a serious grit in their teeth next year to "sicken the whole county".

The best hurler in the county right now is Charlie Mitchell.

[frankthetank]

The best hurler in the county right now is Conor Mahon.

[private joker]

Ballinamere mgt gone.

[Plain of the Herbs]

You can sing it. A hugely underrated player. He was at his brilliant best on Saturday and Ballinamere couldn’t handle him. He’ll leave a huge void when he finishes up, but that’s for another day.

Obviously his value to Killoughey is in winning the ball and laying it off, and in making space, and being a battering ram. But his scoring return is fierce impressive. Scored 1-18 in six games in 2023, and 2-14 in six games in 2024. Prior to last Saturday his only score this year was 1-2 against St Rynagh’s, he was peripheral against Shinrone and I wondered if the end was coming. But what a performance against Ballinamere, with his 1-4 just part of his story.

The best hurler in the county right now is Conor Mahon.