Club football 2025

[SearingDrive]

Brilliant win for Tullamore, they were much the better side, and if won by 8,9 or 10 ppints one wouldnt be able to fault them for it, tough ask in the semi again Ballybodan, but I think the blues can take them in OCP, really looking forward now to that game.

The Downs scored 4 goals today, they reduced Tullamore’s lead to 2/3 points.
That is an area they will look at before Ballyboden visit to GOCP.

[oneshot]

bar the last 10 minutes tullamore were outstanding today. the downs were big favourites to win today . a few sloppy goals but sure it will give tullamore something to work on over the next two week's. if they can put in the same display for the 60 minutes the next day in tullamore they will beat ballyboden. they were unlucky not to beat cuala last year in parnell park.

[Wingbackassassin]

Tullamore 0-10 Ballyboden 2-19
Worrying how much better Ballyboden were. Tullamore were tipped heavily before hand but as has been the case for much of the last couple dacades, Dublin champions are operating on a different planet to other club teams.
Tullamore had a good first ten minutes but Ballyboden took over after that. Very impressive football wise and physically much bigger than Tullamore. Tullamore tried to fight back after half time but missed a couple of goal chances and Ballyboden ended up winning the second half aswell.

[Payperview1]

Couldn't get over the difference in size and physicality of both teams today. Ballyboden are on a different level all over the field to not only Offaly club teams but even our county team. Play a very direct brand of football and their shooting was top class, only having 2 wides.

[Anonymous1]

A worrying reminder of the gap that remains between Offaly and Dublin football.

There really shouldn’t be this much in the difference between a club from a division 2 county in its third straight Leinster campaign and a club in its first Leinster campaign in 6 years from a county that were well beaten in the All Ireland QF.

Tullamore had placed a huge emphasis on progression in Leinster this year and if anything, they’ve gone backwards from last year.

With the loss of Bourke, retirement on the horizon for the likes of Hogan and Brazil and one would expect depleted morale after how this season ended - they’ll likely never be able to get over the Dublin champions.

The best thing at this stage for Offaly football is probably the return of Tullamore to the pack to motivate some of the other clubs to get their asses in gear.

One wonders though about the wisdom of giving a selector his 50 pieces of silver. Did he add anything of benefit? Hard to see it from our vantage point.

[Wingbackassassin]

Couldn't get over the difference in size and physicality of both teams today. Ballyboden are on a different level all over the field to not only Offaly club teams but even our county team. Play a very direct brand of football and their shooting was top class, only having 2 wides.

Agreed, Every one of their players must've been over 6 foot. Tullamore looked like an underage team next to them.

[Anon444]

Hard luck to Tullamore. Ballyboden look very well drilled and there was a bit of a gulf in class.

Tullamore have too many players who would probably be best suited to playing anywhere from 5-12. They are the most physical team in Offaly and they use it to their advantage around the middle and through powerful runners coming off the shoulder. They lack scoring forwards, who will always chip in with a couple of points from play reliably, every game. If they want to push on outside the county, they need to look at producing these type of forwards.

Separately, I would always be wary of clubs bringing in an outside coach for the type of money Rochford was rumoured to be on. It’s nearly like you’re setting yourselves up to fail, creating chatter that is unnecessary to the team and the club. Maybe they see it as a long term investment in that McConway would have gained a lot from the experience and if you have it, may as well spend it.

[Superhans75]

To be honest there's was a massive gulf today in the size of the players
The wet underfoot conditions always favour the big Man slows down the play .
You learn from defeat if you don't don't
You may take up tiddlywinks .
We have the league only 8 weeks away
Give the lads a week off blow away a few cobwebs
And another battle is waiting come the end of January .
Just get the heads right for it .

[oneshot]

a eye opener alright for tullamore were taught a lesson in the first half and ballyboden could have had 3 or 4 goals in that first half. but the signs were there again the downs how easy they were open up for goals in mullingar. on steve rochford don't think tullamore are any further down the road in leinster with him, i think tullamore would have won the county title under paul conway anyway. best of luck to cillian bourke on his AFL adventure a big lost to tullamore and offaly football.

[Bogman123]

Fully agreed there is a huge gap between Offaly and Dublin club football, but does the gap not exist between Dublin football and the other Leinster counties also? Dublin clubs have contested 14 of the last 15 Leinster finals, winning 11 of them. Dublin clubs have contested 3 of the last 4 all ireland finals. Even clubs the size of Tullamore, Portlaoise, Naas, Lomans etc do not have the population or resources to keep up with the Kilmacuds, Cualas, Ballybodens, Vincents of this world. It will generally take a Dublin club having a bad day, rather than any other Leinster club rising to the occasion.

Tullamore were very close to getting over Cuala last year with a luckier hop of the ball. They performed very poorly for 50 minutes of today's game and wouldn't have gotten over any other club in the Leinster championship with that display. I still don't understand how "Tullamore coming back to the pack" is a good thing for Offaly football?

If other clubs need to get their "asses in gear", this is the responsibility of players and management in these clubs. Tullamore have been developing a larger amount of players that are more physical and skillful than the other clubs in Offaly over the past 5-10 years, proven by their underage success. If anything, by raising the bar and winning 3 in a row, it is the responsibility of other clubs to get up to their level. Dropping back to the pack might make a more interesting championship yes, but how would that speak to the general standard of football in Offaly?

As for Rochford, as someone else eluded to - if you have it, spend it. I'm sure a lot of those Tullamore players and indeed McConway will have picked up a lot of things from Rochford over the year. The aim would have been to progress further in Leinster, yes. But sometimes you have to spend like a Dublin club to get there, and it's very easy to point fingers from the stands when it doesn't go to plan on the day.

Coming from a smaller club, I could only envy what resources and players Tullamore have at the moment. When it comes to the Leinster champ, I would always shout for Offaly clubs to represent our club championships. It doesn't seem this sentiment is shared around the county, which is natural for a 3-in-a-row winner, but this post just seems resentful from my reading (by all means correct me if this is not the case).

A worrying reminder of the gap that remains between Offaly and Dublin football.

There really shouldn’t be this much in the difference between a club from a division 2 county in its third straight Leinster campaign and a club in its first Leinster campaign in 6 years from a county that were well beaten in the All Ireland QF.

Tullamore had placed a huge emphasis on progression in Leinster this year and if anything, they’ve gone backwards from last year.

With the loss of Bourke, retirement on the horizon for the likes of Hogan and Brazil and one would expect depleted morale after how this season ended - they’ll likely never be able to get over the Dublin champions.

The best thing at this stage for Offaly football is probably the return of Tullamore to the pack to motivate some of the other clubs to get their asses in gear.

One wonders though about the wisdom of giving a selector his 50 pieces of silver. Did he add anything of benefit? Hard to see it from our vantage point.

[Lone Shark]

Very fair post from Bogman above.

For what it's worth, I think the desire to see Tullamore "come back to the back" doesn't stem from any ill-will towards the Blues, but instead it's because the Offaly SFC look quite uncompetitive for the near future and it would be easier to make peace with that if we had a team that was there or thereabouts in the province (and beyond) as was the case when Rhode were at the peak of their powers, or when Birr were the strongest club team in Ireland, or even when it comes to where Kilcormac-Killoughey are right now.

I know from a Ferbane perspective, I haven't heard a single word of bad feeling towards Tullamore. The Tullamore players and coaches that I've spoken to in the past or got to know a little bit are - to a man - decent good people who just want the best for their club and are committed to doing exactly that. Of course, with green-tinted glass on, you look back at the last three years with no small amount of regret and envy, but it would make those feelings that bit easier to take if Tullamore would take the same habit of always finding a way to win into Leinster, instead of what we have seen which is that they've extended their run to ten Leinster campaigns without ever making a final. I was in OCP today and I would have loved to see them win, I'd say every other Ferbane supporter would have felt the same. The fact that they are a town team, or that they have now beaten Ferbane in the last three finals, doesn't take away from the fact that they were out there representing Offaly and so, like Clara tomorrow (notwithstanding the Ferbane man on the Sallins management team!), of course we want them to be successful.

But to put it another way, if you're not from Tullamore, the status quo is the worst of both worlds. We have a team taking a stranglehold on the county and making our domestic championship very uncompetitive, but outside of Offaly, they're not making any headway. And yes, Ballyboden are a monster of a club with a gargantuan pick, but I'll be stunned if they beat Athy the same way they beat Tullamore, and Athy aren't a huge club by any stretch of the imagination, when measured by Leinster senior standards.

Since Rhode beat Clara in 2017, just three clubs have played in an Offaly SFC final. Our championship is shockingly stale, probably the worst in Ireland over the last decade. Mayo are another county where they have a poor record in provincial competition, but in the same period of time (eight years) they've had five different championship winners and eight different clubs have played in a senior final. It's easier to forgive the fact that your senior champions struggle against the Galway and Roscommon teams when your domestic product is so good.

Right now Tullamore have their house in order as a club, their senior team is very competent, they're very athletic, and while they have a huge advantage in terms of population and resources, they're not wasting it. They've set the bar at a level that is completely out of reach for the majority of Offaly clubs and for the handful that might catch Tullamore on a given day to upset the odds, which is probably three or four AT MOST, those clubs need to do absolutely everything right to make that happen. Eight out of ten won't do it.

But as today shows, they're still a long way off in Leinster. So I guess my wish for Tullamore would be that they would either get better and finally find a way to make and hopefully win a Leinster final, or else come back to the pack to open up the Offaly SFC a bit. Just ideally, my request of them would be please, don't stay exactly where you are!

[Offy]

Did anyone read Kevin Corrigans report on the Tullamore match.

There was a few mentions of a disastrous AGM on Friday and lots of players and people were connected to whatever went on.

Anyone know what he was referring to?

Was it a link to the performance on Saturday.

It all seemed very strange.

[greenairfield]

Corrigan is some reporter for going off script on a match report and raving about off the field issues or other topics that have noting to do with a match report.
The worst journo i ever came acrosscant bring myself to read his narrow minded tripe.

[Plain of the Herbs]

The goings on at a club AGM have no place in a match report.
The people who ran to the media with stories would want to take a good look at themselves too.

Corrigan is some reporter for going off script on a match report and raving about off the field issues or other topics that have noting to do with a match report.
The worst journo i ever came acrosscant bring myself to read his narrow minded tripe.

[DurrowBoy17]

In Tullamore's defence, Ballyboden GAA has a population of 30,000. That added in with 3 intercounty players to their team, it's not surprising how strong they looked and the question needs to be asked by Leinster Council about all these inter county transfers playing in the Leinster Campaign. I think fair game in Dublin becasue they're all at it. But how is any normal club supposed to compete against that?

Other than that, sad o see Cillian Bourke go, a massive loss. Any injury update on John Furlong? If both gone from Tullamore next year, that would really open things up for the rest of Offaly clubs. Albeit I hope John is only a minor thing.