Underage Hurling and Football 2025

[del]

Have to agree completely . No offence to clonbolugue who have a fine pitch but playing the u 14 A football Final there is just not fair on both sets of players. They deserve to play in OCP on county final day or at least the faithful fields
I see the u 14 A hurling final the following week is in OCP
Re Edenderry and Tullamore reaching finals the hard work both clubs have put into their underage structures is paying off Tullamore are probably a few yrs ahead of Edenderry but Edenderry are catching up. Both clubs would always have a population advantage but didn’t always put the work in consistently but now it appears both are.

[SizeFive2024]

Have to agree completely . No offence to clonbolugue who have a fine pitch but playing the u 14 A football Final there is just not fair on both sets of players. They deserve to play in OCP on county final day or at least the faithful fields
I see the u 14 A hurling final the following week is in OCP
Re Edenderry and Tullamore reaching finals the hard work both clubs have put into their underage structures is paying off Tullamore are probably a few yrs ahead of Edenderry but Edenderry are catching up. Both clubs would always have a population advantage but didn’t always put the work in consistently but now it appears both are.

Fairly obvious who is pulling strings with ballinamere durrow getting to play u14 hurling final in OCP.
The footballers should get the same experience of using the dressing rooms and going up the steps after the match.

[greenairfield]

Disgraceful comments u14 final can or should be played anywhere.

[FullForward waster]

Disgraceful comments u14 final can or should be played anywhere.

Can you explain how these comments are disgraceful?? Young lads who are the future of GAA in our county. they should get the reward of playing in the county grounds for the final. Giving them that little bit of excitement of playing in OCP is no harm whatsoever. And before anyone jumps on it clonbolugue is a fine pitch and im sure they will be great hosts for the game.

Think the point being made is that its unfair that the Under 14a Hurling is in OCP and the Football Elsewhere.
Call it what you will but B/D in the final of the u14A Hurling and game in OCP (Considering who does the fixtures and venue). Would make one wonder??

[Lone Shark]

Fairly obvious who is pulling strings with ballinamere durrow getting to play u14 hurling final in OCP.
The footballers should get the same experience of using the dressing rooms and going up the steps after the match.

This is the disgraceful comment, and the one immediately above by FullForwardWaster is no better. I have no writing work today and have a mountain of gardening jobs lined up, and instead I'm here posting about this stuff, all because someone sees a fixture, and jumps to a spectacularly wrong conclusion and then chooses to very clearly malign a certain individual as a result, and I got texts about it. I was tempted to just delete it, but if I did that, then it might be incorrectly perceived as protecting that person, so instead I'm going to emphatically shut this down, with a warning that should be obvious - don't infer guilt on the part of individuals when you haven't the first clue what you're talking about.

(1) Tullamore asked that they wouldn't have to play the U-14 final at the same time as their intermediates also played a county semi-final. Edenderry offered to go to Clonbullogue and have an earlier start, so that Tullamore players and supporters could make the short hop over to Walsh Island for the IFC game. The clubs agreed, the CCC went along with it.

(2) Ród Óg play an U-16 final tomorrow night, so their U-14 "C" final against St. Broughan's was moved back to Monday to give those crossover players more time between games. It needs to be played under lights and the two clubs were happy to go to Daingean rather than travel the whole way across to Kilcormac. Again, the clubs came to their arrangement, the CCC agreed - not the other way around.

(3) There is an understanding that where possible, county underage finals will be played in either OCP, SBP or the Faithful Fields. But points 1 and 2 above left the B final as a standalone, which would have made it a lot of hassle to open up the Faithful Fields just for one game, there are no club volunteers there etc. The two clubs were happy to go to Cappincur instead, but had they insisted they wanted it to stay in the Faithful Fields, it would have.


The U14 hurling final remains in OCP because that is where it was originally fixed, and there was no cause to move it. My understanding is that a school tour might yet affect the B and C finals, but I'm not sure about that.


So in a nutshell, save the subtle digs and innuendo for when you actually are informed. Now I'm going back out to find my hedge clippers.

[frankthetank]

We’re getting into the final stages of all the underage hurling championships in Offaly so time for a quick synopsis.

U20 Championship – Kilcormac/Killoughey claimed a historic 6th U20 Championship in a row with a comfortable win over CRCC

Minor Hurling – Kilcormac / Killoughey started the season as the team to beat as they claimed the 2024 U17 title with a win over Ferbane / Belmont.

Minor A Final – Kilcormac / Killoughey 2-23 vs Birr 1-12
Minor B Final – Ballinamere/Durrow 2-07 vs Shamrocks 1-19

U16 Hurling – Birr were fancied to claim this title as they won last year’s Under 15 championship defeating Kilcormac / Killoughey in the final.

U16 A Final – Birr vs Tullamore. Saturday October 18th. St Brendan’s Park
U16 B Final – Kinnitty/Lusmagh 1-10 vs CRCC 1-15
U16 C Final – Edenderry 4-10 vs Clara/Brosna Gaels 1-05

Under 14 Hurling - Birr were the team to beat having claimed the U13 championship with a win over Ballinamere/Durrow in last year’s final. However Ballinamere/Durrow exacted some revenge defeating Birr in this year’s U14 semi final.

U14 A Final – Ballinamere/Durrow 1-10 vs Kilcormac/Killoughey 3-09.
Under 14 B Final – St Rynaghs 3-14 vs SBK 2-17. Draw.
Replay: St Rynaghs 2-16 vs SBK 2-16. Draw. SBK win 3-2 on Penalties.
Under 14 C Final – Shamrocks 1-13 vs Kinnitty/Lusmagh 2-09


And unfortunately, a couple of clubs need to look harshly at themselves in the mirror for the gradings they entered their teams in. When you’re hammering teams in your grade and there’s a grade above you, you should be in it. End of story.

Under 14 C – Shamrocks won their 5 group games by an average of over 21 points per game. Absolute nonsense they were placed in the C grade.
Under 16 C – Edenderry won their 3 group games by an average of 14 points per game. And their semi final by 13 points. They should have been placed in the B competition.

Hopefully these results won’t be forgotten for the 2027 championships.

[frankthetank]

As expected a comfortable win for Edenderry over Clara/Brosna Gaels in the Under 16 C final.

One to watch for this Edenderry team is county Under 15 hurler Joe Furey. His development will be interesting to monitor. He is a brother of county minor footballer Tony Furey and a nephew of former Offaly great Peter Brady.

[frankthetank]

Kilcormac/Killoughey claimed the U14 championship with a 3-09 to 1-10 victory over Ballinamere/Durrow.

The conveyor belt keeps churning them out in K/K.

Interesting to note that if you ask anyone in K/K they will tell you they don’t do anything radical or earth shattering. They have a lot of adult help and a lot of players which they make maximum use out of.

Probably the noteable thing for player development and retention over the last few years has been to enter 2 U16 teams into the championship.

[del]

Deserved win for Rhode this morning in the minor football semi final. They made better use of the wind and got goals at vital times. A very young Tullamore team with 9 of the starting team underage next year and 4 of the subs brought in . A pity Eoin rouse and Caden o Beirne were injured for Tullamore it would have been a lot closer they are also underage next year but no complaints Rhode were the better team will be a good final against Ferbane /Belmont

[Plain of the Herbs]

Minor B hurling final on Saturday. I am surprised to see Shamrocks have only won this once before (1992) while Ballinamere-Durrow have never won it.

[frankthetank]

Minor B hurling final on Saturday. I am surprised to see Shamrocks have only won this once before (1992) while Ballinamere-Durrow have never won it.

Minor A final on Saturday at 3pm aswell.

Under 16 B final as curtain raiser at 1pm.

[frankthetank]

Kilcormac/Killoughey’s dominance of hurling in Offaly looks set to continue into the medium term as they hoover up underage titles across the board. For some amalgamation clubs in South Offaly it is an achievement to hurl in an underage A grade. For K/K it’s a disaster if they don’t win any underage A championship they enter.

[Offaly Hero]

Seven out of the last eight minor titles and six U-20’s in a row for KK.

It’s an incredible achievement. Ballygunner-esque. And worrying for everybody else.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Offaly Hero is correct.
On the point of the Seven out of eight Minor titles, Crazy thing is that, in the same time period – but adjusted for age – they’ve won just one out of seven U13/U14 titles (2013 to 2020, winning in 2018). And since then they’ve won U13 in 2021 and U14 this year.

And in U15/U16 they’ve won four out of seven in the period 2015 to 2022. They also won U15 in 2023, and still have to face Birr (who beat them in last year’s U15 final) in the forthcoming U16 final. But they really take off once they reach Minor.
• I think I’ve got the corresponding years right, the change from even to odd years around 2018 makes it awkward to compare like with like.

[llkj]

Their dominance and consistency is incredible year in year out across the grades. They are not in this season’s u16 final, however, following a defeat to Tullamore in the semi final.