Club Football 2026

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2 hard games to call and any result possible in both. On form, Ferbane and Rhode would be slight favourites but an extra game for Tullamore and Shamrocks may have worked in their favour.
Didn't expect Paddy Dunican to have such a big impact against Clara considering how long he's been out. Nigel Dunne very good in 2nd half as well, but would still have reservations over a manager being on the field when big calls might need to be made on the sideline. If Shamrocks can tighten up at the back, will be very close.
Tullamore got a full game into John Furlong and if Cillian Bourke is also available, it will take a very good performance from Rhode to defeat them.
On a side note, surprised to see Marius Stones reffing this match again. Think he is normally a very good ref but thought he lost control a bit in the 2nd half the last day and it could be a tough day for him.

[jonsey]

On a side note, surprised to see Marius Stones reffing this match again. Think he is normally a very good ref but thought he lost control a bit in the 2nd half the last day and it could be a tough day for him.

thought he had a terrible game all through

[SearingDrive]

2 hard games to call and any result possible in both. On form, Ferbane and Rhode would be slight favourites but an extra game for Tullamore and Shamrocks may have worked in their favour.
Didn't expect Paddy Dunican to have such a big impact against Clara considering how long he's been out. Nigel Dunne very good in 2nd half as well, but would still have reservations over a manager being on the field when big calls might need to be made on the sideline. If Shamrocks can tighten up at the back, will be very close.
Tullamore got a full game into John Furlong and if Cillian Bourke is also available, it will take a very good performance from Rhode to defeat them.
On a side note, surprised to see Marius Stones reffing this match again. Think he is normally a very good ref but thought he lost control a bit in the 2nd half the last day and it could be a tough day for him.

Rhode v Tullamore could go either way, Tullamore have some of their strong players back,,and they can concentrate on football, since their hurlers exited the championship. In a game that will go down to the closing stages, I just favour Tullamore to win.

Ferbane are hoping to make it 4 county finals in a row, but they have to get over Shamrocks first. Shamrocks pushed them all the way in 2025, but Ferbane get the nod to win another tight game. Ferbane have a few dual players involved with Belmont in the upcoming SH semi final v Ballinamere,

[faithfulfanatic]

Passage from Offaly Express article with Tullamore Senior B player Kevin O'Brien, who also does S&C with the Senior As:

He pointed out that Tullamore isn't as big a club as some outsiders think and have a “quite small playing community”.

Their junior A and B teams train together as separate squads and the senior and senior B footballers go together but when you take out county players from these, it is a “small enough squad”.

“I know people from the outside might scoff at that but it is the way it is,” he insisted. Tullamore also took players from senior B to senior as required this year with Davin Keegan the last to go before the final group game. “And he fully deserved it. Senior B is a great breeding ground for senior and he has made the step up really well. We have small enough numbers in terms of that senior B squad at the moment but there is a really good standard of player there.”

I don't think Kevin appreciates what a small squad is - that is massive numbers for any club to have
Any rural club would bite your hand off for the playing numbers that would be lost in one Tullamore estate.

[Wingbackassassin]

Passage from Offaly Express article with Tullamore Senior B player Kevin O'Brien, who also does S&C with the Senior As:

He pointed out that Tullamore isn't as big a club as some outsiders think and have a “quite small playing community”.

Their junior A and B teams train together as separate squads and the senior and senior B footballers go together but when you take out county players from these, it is a “small enough squad”.

“I know people from the outside might scoff at that but it is the way it is,” he insisted. Tullamore also took players from senior B to senior as required this year with Davin Keegan the last to go before the final group game. “And he fully deserved it. Senior B is a great breeding ground for senior and he has made the step up really well. We have small enough numbers in terms of that senior B squad at the moment but there is a really good standard of player there.”

I don't think Kevin appreciates what a small squad is - that is massive numbers for any club to have
Any rural club would bite your hand off for the playing numbers that would be lost in one Tullamore estate.

He's correct in that its actually quite a small playing community. Senior Bs have maybe 17 or 18 players. There is no junior A team in the club as is falsely stated above. The junior B team trains separately from the two senior teams. Thats not much different to say Ferbane or Edenderry whose 2nd teams are intermediate and 3rd teams are Junior B like Tullamores is.
Also have several of their senior team with Offaly and a lot of the same players play senior club hurling. That doesn't leave a whole pile of players exclusively playing club football.
Playing population and population of the actual town itself are very different things. Just because a place has large population doesn't mean the gaa club are benefitting if the vast majority of that population have no playing involvement in the gaa club.

[faithfulfanatic]

Passage from Offaly Express article with Tullamore Senior B player Kevin O'Brien, who also does S&C with the Senior As:

He pointed out that Tullamore isn't as big a club as some outsiders think and have a “quite small playing community”.

Their junior A and B teams train together as separate squads and the senior and senior B footballers go together but when you take out county players from these, it is a “small enough squad”.

“I know people from the outside might scoff at that but it is the way it is,” he insisted. Tullamore also took players from senior B to senior as required this year with Davin Keegan the last to go before the final group game. “And he fully deserved it. Senior B is a great breeding ground for senior and he has made the step up really well. We have small enough numbers in terms of that senior B squad at the moment but there is a really good standard of player there.”

I don't think Kevin appreciates what a small squad is - that is massive numbers for any club to have
Any rural club would bite your hand off for the playing numbers that would be lost in one Tullamore estate.

He's correct in that its actually quite a small playing community. Senior Bs have maybe 17 or 18 players. There is no junior A team in the club as is falsely stated above. The junior B team trains separately from the two senior teams. Thats not much different to say Ferbane or Edenderry whose 2nd teams are intermediate and 3rd teams are Junior B like Tullamores is.
Also have several of their senior team with Offaly and a lot of the same players play senior club hurling. That doesn't leave a whole pile of players exclusively playing club football.
Playing population and population of the actual town itself are very different things. Just because a place has large population doesn't mean the gaa club are benefitting if the vast majority of that population have no playing involvement in the gaa club.

Tullamore Senior Bs used 19 lads versus Daingean. They named a panel of 23.
Senior As named a panel of 26 v Ballycommon, 6 of these subs had started the Senior A game v Daingean (so about 20 exclusively Senior A).
Probably 3-4 injured/suspended who weren't named here, such as Brazil.
That's approx. 45-50 lads involved across a Senior A and Senior B side.

Article mistakenly refers to Junior A side.
Although it isn't too far off, Tullamore fielded a Junior B and Junior C side this year.
Tullamore topped their group in the Junior B and have a semi final tomorrow.
Some Senior B subs probably play Junior B, so conservative estimate of 80 lads togging for adult football in the club this year?

I am not trying to detract from Tullamore, it is great to see a club fielding 4 teams when others are struggling to field 2 or even 1.
And it is great that so many are also hurling and so many are involved in county panels.

But to try claim that there's a small enough squad there is just laughable, those numbers are the envy of 99.9999% of clubs in this country.

[Wingbackassassin]

Passage from Offaly Express article with Tullamore Senior B player Kevin O'Brien, who also does S&C with the Senior As:

He pointed out that Tullamore isn't as big a club as some outsiders think and have a “quite small playing community”.

Their junior A and B teams train together as separate squads and the senior and senior B footballers go together but when you take out county players from these, it is a “small enough squad”.

“I know people from the outside might scoff at that but it is the way it is,” he insisted. Tullamore also took players from senior B to senior as required this year with Davin Keegan the last to go before the final group game. “And he fully deserved it. Senior B is a great breeding ground for senior and he has made the step up really well. We have small enough numbers in terms of that senior B squad at the moment but there is a really good standard of player there.”

I don't think Kevin appreciates what a small squad is - that is massive numbers for any club to have
Any rural club would bite your hand off for the playing numbers that would be lost in one Tullamore estate.

He's correct in that its actually quite a small playing community. Senior Bs have maybe 17 or 18 players. There is no junior A team in the club as is falsely stated above. The junior B team trains separately from the two senior teams. Thats not much different to say Ferbane or Edenderry whose 2nd teams are intermediate and 3rd teams are Junior B like Tullamores is.
Also have several of their senior team with Offaly and a lot of the same players play senior club hurling. That doesn't leave a whole pile of players exclusively playing club football.
Playing population and population of the actual town itself are very different things. Just because a place has large population doesn't mean the gaa club are benefitting if the vast majority of that population have no playing involvement in the gaa club.

Tullamore Senior Bs used 19 lads versus Daingean. They named a panel of 23.
Senior As named a panel of 26 v Ballycommon, 6 of these subs had started the Senior A game v Daingean (so about 20 exclusively Senior A).
Probably 3-4 injured/suspended who weren't named here, such as Brazil.
That's approx. 45-50 lads involved across a Senior A and Senior B side.

Article mistakenly refers to Junior A side.
Although it isn't too far off, Tullamore fielded a Junior B and Junior C side this year.
Tullamore topped their group in the Junior B and have a semi final tomorrow.
Some Senior B subs probably play Junior B, so conservative estimate of 80 lads togging for adult football in the club this year?

I am not trying to detract from Tullamore, it is great to see a club fielding 4 teams when others are struggling to field 2 or even 1.
And it is great that so many are also hurling and so many are involved in county panels.

But to try claim that there's a small enough squad there is just laughable, those numbers are the envy of 99.9999% of clubs in this country.

20 exclusively senior A
Another 18 exclusively senior B including Kevin O'brien and Paul McConway who are coach/manager.
Another maybe 20 used in Junior B
Junior C is 13 a side and doesn't consist of too many life long committed gaa players
So overall no different to Ferbane or Edenderry

[faithfulfanatic]

He's correct in that its actually quite a small playing community. Senior Bs have maybe 17 or 18 players. There is no junior A team in the club as is falsely stated above. The junior B team trains separately from the two senior teams. Thats not much different to say Ferbane or Edenderry whose 2nd teams are intermediate and 3rd teams are Junior B like Tullamores is.
Also have several of their senior team with Offaly and a lot of the same players play senior club hurling. That doesn't leave a whole pile of players exclusively playing club football.
Playing population and population of the actual town itself are very different things. Just because a place has large population doesn't mean the gaa club are benefitting if the vast majority of that population have no playing involvement in the gaa club.

Tullamore Senior Bs used 19 lads versus Daingean. They named a panel of 23.
Senior As named a panel of 26 v Ballycommon, 6 of these subs had started the Senior A game v Daingean (so about 20 exclusively Senior A).
Probably 3-4 injured/suspended who weren't named here, such as Brazil.
That's approx. 45-50 lads involved across a Senior A and Senior B side.

Article mistakenly refers to Junior A side.
Although it isn't too far off, Tullamore fielded a Junior B and Junior C side this year.
Tullamore topped their group in the Junior B and have a semi final tomorrow.
Some Senior B subs probably play Junior B, so conservative estimate of 80 lads togging for adult football in the club this year?

I am not trying to detract from Tullamore, it is great to see a club fielding 4 teams when others are struggling to field 2 or even 1.
And it is great that so many are also hurling and so many are involved in county panels.

But to try claim that there's a small enough squad there is just laughable, those numbers are the envy of 99.9999% of clubs in this country.

20 exclusively senior A
Another 18 exclusively senior B including Kevin O'brien and Paul McConway who are coach/manager.
Another maybe 20 used in Junior B
Junior C is 13 a side and doesn't consist of too many life long committed gaa players
So overall no different to Ferbane or Edenderry

Small numbers alright

[Tar Man]

Passage from Offaly Express article with Tullamore Senior B player Kevin O'Brien, who also does S&C with the Senior As:

He pointed out that Tullamore isn't as big a club as some outsiders think and have a “quite small playing community”.

Their junior A and B teams train together as separate squads and the senior and senior B footballers go together but when you take out county players from these, it is a “small enough squad”.

“I know people from the outside might scoff at that but it is the way it is,” he insisted. Tullamore also took players from senior B to senior as required this year with Davin Keegan the last to go before the final group game. “And he fully deserved it. Senior B is a great breeding ground for senior and he has made the step up really well. We have small enough numbers in terms of that senior B squad at the moment but there is a really good standard of player there.”

I don't think Kevin appreciates what a small squad is - that is massive numbers for any club to have
Any rural club would bite your hand off for the playing numbers that would be lost in one Tullamore estate.

This definitely needs closer examination - I would agree that Tullamore have small playing numbers compared to their population and this is the crux of the matter when it comes to Offaly's competitiveness. I'll make a few points drawing from a few different threads here:

- From the Club Map Thread - Tullamore have a population equivalent to the population of 20 other Offaly Clubs so in theory if they had an equivalent participation as these smaller clubs they should be able to field 20 Adult Teams. I know that this isn't practable in real life with the no of competitions we have and playing facilities so I'll stick to theory for the moment. If Rural Clubs are declining and Urban Clubs aren't enlarging then we have an issue;
- Development Squads Thread - People keep hammering the County Board on here about the makeup of the Development Squads when the real issue is playing numbers. We're down to 16 Minor Clubs in the County and some of these will have to amalgamate further. Our Underage Competitions will become of the equivalent of the hurling championship in a strong football county where you might have only 3-4 hurling clubs;
- The declining birth rate in the country as a whole - See attached Croke Park response to the Demographics Shift in our country: https://www.gaa.ie/api/images/image/upl ... l8kq98.pdf

Something needs to happen urgently - this is not blaming any club or county board or individual - if anything successive governments & local authorities are to blame for prioritising investment in large urban areas and neglecting smaller towns and villages - we're not the only county in this predicament but it does affect us more than most. Our population has never been higher and we're struggling with our playing numbers and it's only going to get worse.

[del]

Well done to Clodagh Gaels today . Was a good watch with some good football mixed in with some mad stuff. But was an enjoyable game .
The senior B game Tullamore’s skill level and game Mgt was streets ahead of Ballinagar who somehow got within 2 points in injury time .
Jay Sheeran the best player on the pitch . Ryan his brother excellent too.
Tom Furlong Patrick Fahey Martin Keogh really good too. Dooley on his 40th birthday got 1.4 I think . He has some collection of medals.
Robbie Gallagher really good in the first half but then Tullamore owned the ball and Shane Enright shut him down in the second half

[Old-school]

Tullamore look a different team from the group games. Took apart Rhode with ease. Ferbane too strong for Shamrocks. Disappointed with Shamrocks after last year's great battle, they looked lost there today. Ferbane have improved at a different level over the last 12 months. I think they could actually do it this year if they don't loose lads to hurling injuries next week. But hopefully it will be a good county final, I'm backing Ferbane to win.

[Lone Shark]

Passage from Offaly Express article with Tullamore Senior B player Kevin O'Brien, who also does S&C with the Senior As:

He pointed out that Tullamore isn't as big a club as some outsiders think and have a “quite small playing community”.

Their junior A and B teams train together as separate squads and the senior and senior B footballers go together but when you take out county players from these, it is a “small enough squad”.

“I know people from the outside might scoff at that but it is the way it is,” he insisted. Tullamore also took players from senior B to senior as required this year with Davin Keegan the last to go before the final group game. “And he fully deserved it. Senior B is a great breeding ground for senior and he has made the step up really well. We have small enough numbers in terms of that senior B squad at the moment but there is a really good standard of player there.”

I don't think Kevin appreciates what a small squad is - that is massive numbers for any club to have
Any rural club would bite your hand off for the playing numbers that would be lost in one Tullamore estate.

I wouldn't do it to him because (1) he's a fierce sound lad who probably thought he was just giving stock answers to a county final preview rather than really delving into a serious issue, and (2) I'd be accused of stirring up shite in Ferbane's cause if I did so, but if I was in that chat, the obvious comeback to someone from Tullamore saying that they have a quite small playing community is that they appear to be advocating for a second club in the town to ensure that the playing numbers are a lot closer to the level that they should be.

As was pointed out by Tar Man above, there are demographic shifts underway and the GAA needs to respond, and while Tullamore isn't an egregious case of a town being too big for one club in the same bracket as Portlaoise and Naas that have in excess of 20,000 people, Athlone and Mullingar are two towns that are both well able to sustain not just two clubs each but two big senior clubs each, Drogheda has five clubs for three times the population, while Arklow and Enniscorthy both have two GAA clubs (and not two clubs in the way that Ballinamere and Durrow are two clubs) operating within the confines of the town area.

And before anyone comes back and tries to argue about Cappincur or Durrow coming right in on top of the town, every urban area has that. Naas has Sallins, Carlow has Graiguecullen, Mullingar has Shandonagh, Kilanerin come in on top of Naomh Éanna in Wexford etc.. We're talking about right within the town here.

[DurrowBoy17]

Ferbane Tullamore for 4th year in a row.

I think Ferbane are slight favourites going off form this year. I thought they’d have a good year this year with lads re-joining the panel and the addition of some good new young fellas.

Assuming Cillian Bourke is not allowed to play from his AFL club ?? I think Ferbane can gain more possession in the middle and win the game this time around.

[Offaly Hero]

Passage from Offaly Express article with Tullamore Senior B player Kevin O'Brien, who also does S&C with the Senior As:

He pointed out that Tullamore isn't as big a club as some outsiders think and have a “quite small playing community”.

Their junior A and B teams train together as separate squads and the senior and senior B footballers go together but when you take out county players from these, it is a “small enough squad”.

“I know people from the outside might scoff at that but it is the way it is,” he insisted. Tullamore also took players from senior B to senior as required this year with Davin Keegan the last to go before the final group game. “And he fully deserved it. Senior B is a great breeding ground for senior and he has made the step up really well. We have small enough numbers in terms of that senior B squad at the moment but there is a really good standard of player there.”

I don't think Kevin appreciates what a small squad is - that is massive numbers for any club to have
Any rural club would bite your hand off for the playing numbers that would be lost in one Tullamore estate.

I wouldn't do it to him because (1) he's a fierce sound lad who probably thought he was just giving stock answers to a county final preview rather than really delving into a serious issue, and (2) I'd be accused of stirring up shite in Ferbane's cause if I did so, but if I was in that chat, the obvious comeback to someone from Tullamore saying that they have a quite small playing community is that they appear to be advocating for a second club in the town to ensure that the playing numbers are a lot closer to the level that they should be.

As was pointed out by Tar Man above, there are demographic shifts underway and the GAA needs to respond, and while Tullamore isn't an egregious case of a town being too big for one club in the same bracket as Portlaoise and Naas that have in excess of 20,000 people, Athlone and Mullingar are two towns that are both well able to sustain not just two clubs each but two big senior clubs each, Drogheda has five clubs for three times the population, while Arklow and Enniscorthy both have two GAA clubs (and not two clubs in the way that Ballinamere and Durrow are two clubs) operating within the confines of the town area.

And before anyone comes back and tries to argue about Cappincur or Durrow coming right in on top of the town, every urban area has that. Naas has Sallins, Carlow has Graiguecullen, Mullingar has Shandonagh, Kilanerin come in on top of Naomh Éanna in Wexford etc.. We're talking about right within the town here.

Not quite as straight forward as that.
Tullamore are hardly in lonely company. Other examples of Irish towns with populations over 10,000 that are still essentially served by one main GAA club include Naas, Portlaoise, Castlebar, Cavan, Longford, Celbridge, Maynooth, Kildare Town, Ratoath, Ashbourne, Balbriggan, Skerries, Rush, Malahide, Portmarnock, Bray, Greystones, Wicklow Town, Gorey, Ballincollig, Carrigaline, Midleton, Mallow, Shannon, Ballina and Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington.

So that's 27–28 of the 49 towns (or around 55–57%) that have a population of over 10,000 in the Republic of Ireland that can reasonably be described as predominantly one GAA club towns.

[TownieTim253]

Ferbane Tullamore for 4th year in a row.

I think Ferbane are slight favourites going off form this year. I thought they’d have a good year this year with lads re-joining the panel and the addition of some good new young fellas.

Assuming Cillian Bourke is not allowed to play from his AFL club ?? I think Ferbane can gain more possession in the middle and win the game this time around.

Was expecting him to make an appearance yesterday? I heard he is back in the country. Did anyone see him at the game?