Club football 2025

[Anonymous1]

Not sure how Ferbane will recover from losing three finals in a row. Being a proper dual club and having several of their best footballers being county hurlers, makes it very difficult to beat a Tullamore team who are much more focused on football. Tullamore didn't play particularly well once again but got the scores at the critical stages almost effortlessly.
Ferbanes best chance to win was 2024.
Tullamores age profile is also a lot younger than Ferbanes. McDaid, Egan, Furlongs, Bourke all aged 22 or younger.
I know Ferbane have had excellent minor teams the past few years but even with them on board it's hard to see Ferbane being any stronger next year.

Agree on the dual point. Tullamore are just that bit more well drilled which stems from training. Ferbane/Belmont lads only have half the time to work on the same things Tullamore do.

You can see it most starkly in their buildup play. Tullamore are much more patient and willing to wait for a gap to appear before striking clinically whereas Ferbane are a bit more haphazard and panicky on the ball which often leads to wayward passes or players running into blind alleys and getting bottled up.

Had Ferbane been a football only club, I’d have no doubt they’d have won 2 or 3 more Dowling Cups over the last few years.

Since 2016, they’ve lost 5 finals and 4 semi finals (2 of which were on penalties to the eventual winners) meanwhile Belmont have lost 6 semi finals in the same period.

I don’t agree on the age profile though. Dunican, Taffe, Carroll, Grennan and Wren who would’ve started barring injury are all under 22. 12/15 of the starting team are 26 or under with only one above the age of 30 (Cahill)

There are a couple of good minors from the back to back winning teams to add into that group as well as one or two who could return from travel.

They’ll go close again next year. A new manager might be the difference.

[Offaly Hero]

Hold on, Tullamore are Senior A in both codes too.
Surely that counts as a dual club as much as Ferbane/Belmont? How do Tullamore manage the football/hurling training compared to Ferbane?

[Anonymous1]

Hold on, Tullamore are Senior A in both codes too.
Surely that counts as a dual club as much as Ferbane/Belmont? How do Tullamore manage the football/hurling training compared to Ferbane?

Did you read the post just above that?

“14/17 for ferbane hurled this year, I make it 4/18 for Tullamore but stand to be corrected on that.“

[Offaly Hero]

Sorry I missed that.
Yes, in that case that’s a massive dual commitment for Ferbane. They really are an incredible bunch of players.

[Cheddar]

Can we address the Cathal Flynn thing. Where has this come from. My god he would be some loss. A genuinely huge loss in the team. The playmaker. He dictated our attacking play last year and would have major implications if he wasn’t involved.

Catastrophic if he’s walked away or was dropped.

[Anonymous1]

I believe he's been carrying an injury for some time and will naturally use the opportunity afforded to him now to have it addressed.

[Hyper]

Well of that Top 16, Cathal Flynn and Aaron Kellaghan are still there. Surely a place there for a few more.

Stated above by poster that Flynn will not be involved for some reason. I have not heard myself but did hear both Kellaghan and Ruairi McNamee will not be involved - again no specific reason given....

I believe Cathal has to undergo a shoulder op and Aaron has made himself unavailable

[Cheddar]

Ah fair enough on Cathal Flynn so. I’m glad he’s not been dropped or stepped away. He’s better off getting the surgery and getting sorted. Helps him long term.

Kellaghan is a shame as he had a great championship with Rhode. In fairness he hasn’t gotten much opportunity with Offaly and he probably feels like he won’t get more. Hopefully the door has been left open.

[G91]

Ultimately being a dual club with almost the hole panel playing both codes is effectively paying the price for it

Colin Egan (hurling) left the panel some time ago to focus on hurling probably down to age family etc.. he would have been a big player to still have

And Cathal Flynn vise versa would have been brilliant in the hurling

I do find it odd and no disrespect to the management how after Ferbane got the goal everything went pear shaped

That you could say many factors played the part
But the game Ferbane played wasn’t anything like what they played in the semi or quater final

Ferbane played quick attacking football getting the ball into the danger men from the back to forward line quickly as they could

In the final they slowed it down and wasted their own time on the ball a lot of it was Tullamore defence but more of it looked like a lack of confidence to have a go

Tullamore went for scores if it hit the corner flag or ended up in the hospital they went for it

I thought tullamore were the deserving winners but that Doesn’t always play out that way
Ferbane could have been tactically smarter when they got the goal it’s really tough on a player when you give out to the ref heat of the moment ultimately you pay the price

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Weather and how Tullamore have progressed meant that Ferbane played a cagey game that almost paid off for them.

First of all, Tullamore set up with a number of forwards close to the Ferbane goal in the first half, it meant that there was more room out the field and pushing up on Tullamore could have left them open to Cormac Egan, dara McDaid and the likes breking the line. In other words, Ferbane were patient and hoped to break them down closer to the goal as Tullamore couldnt shoot outside of 30 m.
I think we saw a little how Tullamore have improved , they were brilliant in the tackle, and played it in line with how it was reffed. They punished Ferbane heavily on the counter in the second half when Ferbane tried to attack and maybe during this early period of the second half Ferbane were a bit naive.
Ferbane gave it a right rattle and some poor turnovers by Tullamore enabled the lead to be whittled down.
Tullamore tore into it after the goal and brilliant free taking from Harry Plunkett saw them home.
Fox had a magical 15 mins.
With 10 mins to go, MOM for me was Niall Furlong, if he delivered that every day (which he has rarely done to date), he'd be a shoe in for Offaly. County finals always throw up a match winner and he along with Leavy who carried them at midfield were the main difference.
But for me I didn't see it with Cian Johnson, limited aggression and turned over at least 3 times. He's worth a punt maybe with Offaly but jury would be out as to how he might dog it out at that level. Some good scores but limited enough.

The bright side for Tullamore is that they got a widespread of contributions, all working very hard in the tackle, and a class freetaker. Plus for a lot of the game they got their tactics spot on. The Downs will be a serious test, but in fairness, over recent years Offaly champs cant take any county for granted so they will have to battle for every win.

Great game, but where was the crowd? Bad day but there was plenty of anticipation around this.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Thats around 7500 across both hurling and football, down on last year I'd say.

[Anonymous1]

Weather and how Tullamore have progressed meant that Ferbane played a cagey game that almost paid off for them.

First of all, Tullamore set up with a number of forwards close to the Ferbane goal in the first half, it meant that there was more room out the field and pushing up on Tullamore could have left them open to Cormac Egan, dara McDaid and the likes breking the line. In other words, Ferbane were patient and hoped to break them down closer to the goal as Tullamore couldnt shoot outside of 30 m.
I think we saw a little how Tullamore have improved , they were brilliant in the tackle, and played it in line with how it was reffed. They punished Ferbane heavily on the counter in the second half when Ferbane tried to attack and maybe during this early period of the second half Ferbane were a bit naive.
Ferbane gave it a right rattle and some poor turnovers by Tullamore enabled the lead to be whittled down.
Tullamore tore into it after the goal and brilliant free taking from Harry Plunkett saw them home.
Fox had a magical 15 mins.
With 10 mins to go, MOM for me was Niall Furlong, if he delivered that every day (which he has rarely done to date), he'd be a shoe in for Offaly. County finals always throw up a match winner and he along with Leavy who carried them at midfield were the main difference.
But for me I didn't see it with Cian Johnson, limited aggression and turned over at least 3 times. He's worth a punt maybe with Offaly but jury would be out as to how he might dog it out at that level. Some good scores but limited enough.

The bright side for Tullamore is that they got a widespread of contributions, all working very hard in the tackle, and a class freetaker. Plus for a lot of the game they got their tactics spot on. The Downs will be a serious test, but in fairness, over recent years Offaly champs cant take any county for granted so they will have to battle for every win.

Great game, but where was the crowd? Bad day but there was plenty of anticipation around this.

You “don’t see it” with the top scorer overall in the championship by 10 points as well as the top scorer from play.

Would you care to suggest 12 better forwards in the county at the moment considering Nigel has retired, Ruairi has stepped away and Flynn is facing a spell on the sidelines?

[del]

The top scorers in this years championship are a bit off
Ferbane had 7 games in the championship Tullamore had 5 so Ferbane players had 2 extra games so a Ferbane player was always gonna come out on top between the 2 top teams which more often than not provide the top scorers
Rhode had 6 games Edenderry had 5 from the other 2 semi finalists
But Cian should defo be in there and see what he has to offer cause at the moment nobody knows if he is up to it or not . Same as Harry Plunkett he deserve a go too and see if he’s up to it.

[ruletheroost]

Good point Del. Nice to put a bit of perspective on it. Maybe Cheddar could add games played in another column. Some of the top 20 only played 4 games too.

[Anonymous1]

The top scorers in this years championship are a bit off
Ferbane had 7 games in the championship Tullamore had 5 so Ferbane players had 2 extra games so a Ferbane player was always gonna come out on top between the 2 top teams which more often than not provide the top scorers
Rhode had 6 games Edenderry had 5 from the other 2 semi finalists
But Cian should defo be in there and see what he has to offer cause at the moment nobody knows if he is up to it or not . Same as Harry Plunkett he deserve a go too and see if he’s up to it.

The top scorer almost always comes from the finalists because as you’ve identified they’ve played more games.

Those extra games in Ferbane’s case were against Shamrocks, Edenderry and Tullamore. Not exactly relegation fodder.

If you divided each players overall scores by the number of games played, the list would be fairly similar.