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Tar Man wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2026 11:05 am

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Wed Oct 14, 2026 10:50 pm Now let's factor in the lease on O'Connor Park, a lease deal that quite frankly, seems like it was originally drawn up by a combination of Tullamore's crack team of negotiators and one or two Offaly county board officials that dropped out of school at age 12 to go farming, and never got the hang of that oul' maths craic. Sure, you can give credit to Tullamore for managing their affairs well, but it's another leg up they don't need, and of course people will be resentful of that too, since indirectly, that's money coming out of every other club's pocket.

I'm continually surprised that no Journalist has dug deeper on this lease and the individual parties on both sides of the negotiation - because it's been said to me a no. of times over the years that it was the same person acting for both sides who came up with this arrangement which obviously benefited the Club more. There's no point in going back from a negotiation point of view as the last County Board exacted some reductions but their hands were tied legally by the lease.

The situation was best described on here by a poster after Rochford was appointed:

Clubs pay County Board Levy - County Board pay Tullamore - Tullamore pay Rochford to beat Clubs

We as a County we need to look forwards on this lease - it is up for renewal in 2037. In my opinion the County Board need to play hard ball and be prepared to walk away if they don't get substantial concessions. I'd have no issue if the County Board stripped whatever Fixtures & Fittings from the ground and left Tullamore with the financial headache of maintaining the Ground each year. I wouldn't entertain any new lease - A purchase of the land is what's needed so that this joke of a deal is not still an issue in 100 years time. Everyone should note that it's only the Land that has to be purchased - the buildings belong to the County Board who can knock them down if they wish. The Land will have a Recreational Zoning so isn't overly valuable. Believe me, if the Clubs stand together on this then Tullamore will have to do a deal.

Tullamore are very business-savvy and run things like a big business.
Until of course, they need to ensure eligibility of their hurlers...

oneshot wrote: ↑Wed Oct 14, 2026 11:05 pm

TownieTim253 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 12, 2026 2:49 pm Surprisingly easy victory for Tullamore yesterday, As soon as Hogan scored that goal the final nail was in the Ferbane coffin. It knocked the stuffing out of them and Tullamore never let up in their intensity. They were relentless and fully deserving of their win. I feel sorry for Ferbane because they are by a margin the second best team in the county, big gap back to 3rd best. They have just a met a serious Tullamore machine. Tullamore will probably win 7 out of the next 10 championships at least. They have blooded a couple of new players this year and also the success of their second team in the Senior B also bodes well for them as a club. Lots of underage success as well and it really is daunting for the rest of the teams.
Disappointed they play away to the Dublin champions in Leinster, maybe its the right time to get them. I do think Tullamore are in the top 4 in Leinster with Dubs Champs, Kildare Champs and The Downs from Westmeath but maybe I am being bias.

they played the dublin champions last year in tullamore and were hammer big gap between offaly championship and dublins.

Obviously the playing pool is far greater in the town. But Tullamore always had a leg up with numbers and resources down through the decades and did not dominate. They won finals here and there throughout late 90's and noughties but were touch and go and calling a spade a spade were pretty lucky to land some of them that could easily have gone the other way. So why the dominance now. They have dominated underage for quiet a while and so there was a fair chance it would play out as it has at adult level.

Rhode were a fantastic example of a club over the years getting the max out of limited resources and not just in Offaly but in Leinster. Tullamore were badly shown up at leinster level. Absolutely miles off the pace. Thats a reflection on where Offaly club football is. The intensity of championship games in Offaly are no where near what teams come up against when they go into leinster. Lets see how Tullamore go.

The Dublin final pairing might not be the worst from a Tullamore perspective as Cuala have dual players who will be involved in hurling later this month too. A Castleknock win would be massive for them so they might not be as focused on leinster. Tullamore should be able to compete well.

Tullamore have the tougher draw but even if they had a laois, wicklow, wexford, longford id still not be confidence of them winning. The standard of football in the county needs to improve massively. Rhode are a team well past their best and not replacing the quality they had with same standard but yet they still got to a semi final. Shamrocks similar got to the semi but are very average compared to teams they had when they were making finals.

On Ferbane, they certainly were not at the races. They are missing some key players and anybody who has played dual at senior level knows the challenges that brings for a club too. Tullamore were long gone out of hurling and had full focus on the big ball.

Tar Man wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2026 11:05 am I'm continually surprised that no Journalist has dug deeper on this lease and the individual parties on both sides of the negotiation - because it's been said to me a no. of times over the years that it was the same person acting for both sides who came up with this arrangement which obviously benefited the Club more. There's no point in going back from a negotiation point of view as the last County Board exacted some reductions but their hands were tied legally by the lease.

The situation was best described on here by a poster after Rochford was appointed:

Clubs pay County Board Levy - County Board pay Tullamore - Tullamore pay Rochford to beat Clubs

We as a County need to look forwards on this lease - it is up for renewal in 2037. In my opinion the County Board need to play hard ball and be prepared to walk away if they don't get substantial concessions. I'd have no issue if the County Board stripped whatever Fixtures & Fittings from the ground and left Tullamore with the financial headache of maintaining the Ground each year. I wouldn't entertain any new lease - A purchase of the land is what's needed so that this joke of a deal is not still an issue in 100 years time. Everyone should note that it's only the Land that has to be purchased - the buildings belong to the County Board who can knock them down if they wish. The Land will have a Recreational Zoning so isn't overly valuable. Believe me, if the Clubs stand together on this then Tullamore will have to do a deal.

The comment is perfectly fair, but even if I was a full-time reporter in Offaly (I wish, maybe someday, again! )writing about this is incredibly difficult because unless you have a copy of the agreement and someone comes to you willing to go on the record as to what happened in discussions, you've to be incredible careful in what you write about it, to the point that you're not really able to say anything definitive, you're just adding heat rather than light.

That's the first time I've actually heard that there was anybody involved who was batting for both sides, though it's eminently plausible, which shows how little is really known about what happened generally.

In terms of the next steps, I'd maybe be slightly less belligerent than that approach outlined above, if for no other reason than this is a "mutually assured destruction" scenario if ever there was one. I take the point that we own the buildings, but they're not worth much if you don't have the land underneath, and trying to build something else from scratch, in the current construction environment, would be absolutely crippling.

As things stand, then yes, Tullamore would be crippled by it too, but they could shoot for the stars. Getting that land rezoned might be tricky, but it's not out of the question either, and if they managed to get that done, then it's a different ball game.

Now if there is an acrimonious fall out, then you have all the assorted offshoots that will come from that. There will be huge resentment across the county towards Tullamore, and you can be sure that if ever there was going to be a push for a second club in the town, it would happen in that scenario. All of a sudden you'd find that the various levies and charges might be allocated differently, as every club in Offaly bar one or two vote to make them population rather than membership based, in a bid to level the playing field a bit.

It's going to take a lot of real courage from both sides. We have a situation where you'll have two teams going into negotiations with guns pointed at each other's heads, playing a massive game of chicken, hoping the other one blinks first. The ideal situation is exactly that - that the land changes hands, based on its value according to current zoning, with a small premium. But it'll be hard for other clubs in Offaly to vote to give more money to what is already the richest club in the county by a distance, and it'll be equally hard for Tullamore to accept less for the land than they would probably get on the open market.

Not a prayer Tullamore sell the land to Offaly GAA.

The clubs are being royally screwed by this county levy. The top table in Offaly who signed off on this were a shambolic mess.

But it’s the only option for a stadium we have. The acquisition of land and building costs for say a 12,000 stadium (the highest attendance at an Offaly game since OCP’s redevelopment was 10,073) would be astronomical.

There’s a few things on this thread that are worth commenting on, but I’m going to start with the match.

On Sunday Tullamore and Ferbane gave us a really entertaining county final – in fact, I’d like to watch it again. We had a real nip-and-tuck first half, where early point-kicking saw both sides open up two point leads that were quickly reeled in, before Tullamore capitalised on quite a lucky break in the middle of the field that turned into a free run on goal with an extra man. Ferbane responded brilliantly and points from Cian Johnson, Leon Fox and a Paddy Clancy 2-pointer saw them take a lead that looked unlikely only a few minutes earlier. During this purple-patch, Paddy Clancy also attempted another 2 pointer from almost the same position, but was off-target. That attempt would’ve given Ferbane a 3 point lead and it was certainly a period in the match where Ferbane were asking all the questions. Mike Fox, who seems to score at critical moments (and like Cathal Flynn, uses his size to his advantage), got a really important point to level things up as the first half came to a close.

The second half was a bit surprising for me. Ferbane got a really good goal, playing on an advantage and for the second time in the match, a 3 point gap was opened, but Tullamore were in deficit. I felt that Ferbane smelled blood a little bit at this point, but Mike Fox yet again turned up with an important point before Harry Plunkett kicked a big 45 to bring it back to a point. Even at this stage, I couldn’t have predicted the next 6 or 7 minutes. Tullamore scored 1-4 without reply and very quickly, it felt like Ferbane had a mountain to climb. Their kickouts weren’t going so well, while a couple of the Tullamore kickouts were bouncing into the half-forward line. Tullamore seemed to pounce or react best to the horrible ball and that was ultimately what decided things. Declan Hogan’s goal in this period was one of those County Final goals that people will remember. He slipped into open space on the stand side of the pitch around the 21 and when he was given the ball he refused a simple tap-over to rifle the ball into Adam Nugent’s top left-hand corner.

On scraps, Ferbane tried hard to eat into the 6 point lead, but Tullamore’s game management was decent and Ferbane might have started to panic a little bit too early. Tullamore had a chance to run-in some subs, all of which were deserving of an appearance. Nigel Bracken and Mickey Brazil joined Declan Hogan on the pitch to end the game as a trio with 6 Dowling Cup medals. A real indication of Tullamore’s current strength is the fact that they’ve won a County Final without either Brazil or Johnny Maloney, who I would’ve long regarded as their lynch pins.

Amazingly, between the two teams, the backs contributed 1-9 – the Tullamore contribution of 1-4 was decisive. My man of the match was Daire McDaid, but Cormac Egan and John Furlong were also excellent, as was Declan Hogan. Furlong is deceptively fast and he shut-down David Nally and Jake Maher a number of times.

Reflecting on the game, I had expected it to be tighter and I did leave O’Connor Park questioning Ferbane’s tactics. Tullamore’s strongest line is clearly their half-back line, yet Ferbane allowed Cormac Egan and (particularly) Daire McDaid an incredible amount of time and space on the ball. I know it’s a facet of the modern game to allow a certain amount of time and space outside of the 2-point arc, but allowing players space out there is fine if they’re not threatening you. Both of the Tullamore wing-backs were threatening constantly.

Overall, I felt Ferbane had a very difficult period in the second-half and just didn’t recover. I think they’re closer to Tullamore than Sunday suggested and we’ll find out if that’s true in the coming years. This leads me to another point being made on this thread – that Tullamore can’t be beaten in the Offaly club championship. I think this is a great Tullamore team and they play their football the right way – there’s lots to admire. They’re the first team in nearly 40 years to win 4 in a row, they’ve won five in six years and they have a great age profile. But the best of teams have come and gone through the generations and they’ve all been beatable. Yes, it’s true that many Senior football teams have a very low chance (if any) of winning a championship, but aside from the mid-90s, I can’t remember it being much different and again, aside from that period, there has commonly been a couple of very strong teams. This pattern is also not uncommon in other counties.

Who knows when this team will have an off-day, lose hunger or lose a couple of key players – things change quickly. Remember, the best group of players that Rhode ever produced and a group that were as close as any team to winning a Leinster championship, were not invincible. So, let’s hope that Tullamore and Ferbane continue to raise standards and that a surprise awaits at some point in the future – it’s never a surprise until it happens.

When it does happen, we need to resist casual conclusions like “they don’t have the club in order”. After all, with the biggest population and the greatest financial backing, it’s only natural that they should be winning everything – right? I think we’re all aware, that for both club and county, there’s a decent correlation between population, funding and success. But there are other important factors. Let’s take the Rhode teams of the last 20 years or so. Is it really fair to them to say that they won over half of the championships in that period because the bigger towns didn’t have their clubs in order? They won those championships because they produced an exceptional generation of talent, which to their fortune, was backboned by a small number of families that produced brilliant brothers: Sullivans, McNamees, Kellaghans, Darbys, McPaddens, etc. Is the current Tullamore crop that much different? Egans, Furlongs, Plunketts, etc. Consider how fortunate Tullamore are that, despite their population and funding, these families have produced these talents at the same time.

The GAA community in Tullamore know how lucky they are. Remember, they have an unparalleled history of winning underage football championships in Offaly – but turning that into senior success has never been easy. So I believe they will savour these championships and this team. Perhaps Anthony Kelly will always be a bigger legend in Shannonbridge, but that’s always the legacy of the underdog – I don’t think Tullamore’s championships are devalued at all by expectations.

Lastly, good luck to Tullamore in their next game, which looks a bit daunting. If they keep winning championships, I don’t doubt they will produce a decent run in Leinster at some point.

Great post Magpie as usual. and cuts thru some of bizarre stuff on here about how Tullamore people will look on this group. They are the greatest group in living memory for young and old in Tullamore and each championship win is savoured as much as the previous one by players and supporters.

Best summary of the final I've seen anywhere Magpie. Before the match most people would have given Ferbane a great chance and I think they just had a bad day which can happen. And as you said this could be Tullamore 's golden generation. Cormac Egan, John Furlong, Decky Hogan as good as they have ever produced.

Tailteann Cup 2026 Team of the Year

1 Ronan Burns, Down,
2 Malachy Stone, Wicklow, 3 Pierce Laverty, Down, 4 Eoin Porter, Wexford
5 Ronan McCaffrey, Fermanagh, 6 Eoin Murtagh, Wicklow, 7 Shane Annett, Down
8 Dean Healy, Wicklow, 9 Odhran Murdock, Down
10 Dylan Hyland, Offaly, 11 Padraig O'Toole, Wicklow'12 Jack McEvoy, Offaly
13 Oisin McGraynor, Wicklow,14 Kevin Quinn, Wicklow, 15 Eamon Brown, Down

Congrats to Dylan & Jack

Well summed up Magpie.

Bottom line is Tullamore have their house in order and bringing through plenty of underage. Look at their 2nd and 3rd teams at adult level.

On Sunday their management were on the ball too and Rochford showed his value and why that has been a good investment. They made tweaks that turned the game. Johnson for example was giving Dec Hogan a roasting and then Tullamore took action which had a double effect. It closed down space in front and behind Johnson who was the only threat and also unshackled Hogan from trying to curb him and gave him freedom which resulted in that goal because he had a free role. Ferbane didnt adapt to those changes.

Again I thought the intensity of the football for a senior county final was low. The physicality is just not there in Offaly club football. This is why we see Offaly struggle so badly these days. The gap between the physicality and intensity of football that the Offaly club championship is played at and then when they play intercounty is far too wide.

Tullamore are setting their own standards. The other clubs need to step up because Tullamore have their weaknesses too and need to be pushed to make them improve and raise the whole level in the county.

Johnson went off with a blood injury after scoring his goal. Oisin Kelly came on out the field for him and Hogan was a free man in the backline for this period. He pushed up the field then and when Johnson came back on he stayed out the field for a few minutes and scored a great goal.
I think Ferbane got badly caught here as they probably expected him to go back into the full back line and instead he found himself completely unmarked in front of goals.

Enjoyable summary Magpie.

I do tend to think that some of the Tullamore fortune on their kickout when it got pin bally is luck that another day goes a different way but there is no doubt the main breaking ball winners for them are moving now in pods of three to four around a specific jumper they select and that is making the goalies mind up for him. They are also more likely to win breaks with numbers in the drop zone. Three years ago it was about leaving space to the wings for Brazil the way their minors play now but I’m glad to see efforts to get something that works cause for Offaly this is absolutely our biggest issue. Getting out on kickouts.Parnell park the next day will show whether they are the real deal or not on kickouts.

Ferbanes goalkeepers kickout range in the first have seemed to confuse Cahill who definitely was the guy I felt he went to most with his kickout. It seemed like Cahill was a yard or two back and by the time he realised and got the flight of the ball which was slightly closer than he expected it was more a race to the front than high fielding which suited tullamore. Strangely in the second half against the wind I thought the keeper was getting more distance or height and it became a breaking ball contest.small margins in finals matter and they are a better kickout team than that final performance suggests and did stay in the game regardless for a long while so I too think they are not a million miles off tullamore.


One thing about the tullamore half back line that surprises me, it felt to me like Ferbane players on the day just during the chaos of open play and zonal marking can end up being on mcdaid or Egan when not initially marking them. I thought Higgins was on Egan at the start and they were largely cancelling each other. Mcdaid who I think was man of the match and is Class and consistently having a big say in games and picking up big players I couldn’t figure out who was taking him. when he gets his shooting returns up will be as effective as the big hitters in Leinster half back lines. I really hope they don’t put him corner back for Offaly. My point being that those two guys should not be up for discussion in terms of handing off in a zonal system and I think that happened and they used the switch to lesser players to then make their move at times.

On hogans goal the corner back makes a big call to drive in and ultimately leaves the space behind that hogan fills. Another day he holds back and it maybe is a point tullamore work but Tullamore were going to win anyway.it was their day. I think Tullamore’s tackling is deceptively physical and they aren’t giving up lots of frees either so cant wait to see how it holds up against the Dublin champs. Hopefully a breakout game for Fox too as he was huge to them staying with Ferbane and not letting a nap breathe energy into Ferbane legs. Plunkett too just delivers frees when needed. He has big game guts.

Any word on any new players being asked into Offaly for 2027 ? Must be starting up soon enough

Payperview1 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2026 11:41 am Johnson went off with a blood injury after scoring his goal. Oisin Kelly came on out the field for him and Hogan was a free man in the backline for this period. He pushed up the field then and when Johnson came back on he stayed out the field for a few minutes and scored a great goal.
I think Ferbane got badly caught here as they probably expected him to go back into the full back line and instead he found himself completely unmarked in front of goals.

I think this is a very good point. Johnson had just finished off a move he began to put Ferbane 3 points ahead and immediately had to leave the field for a blood sub. Their only outlet up front was gone in that period and so they never kicked on. In fact, by the time he re-emerged their lead had evaporated. He'd been the best player on the pitch up until that bang and can't have been 100% fit after it. Ferbane are far too reliant on him for scores.

Excellent post Magpie .

Fair play to Ferbane/Belmont to be realistically close to a senior double. The second half last Sunday wasn't a true reflection on their current ability. I think the mental fatigue from the loss in the hurling semi definitely played its part and thats not a fault on any management or players.

Tullamore were excellent and deserving winners.
I had Daire McDaid , Niall Furlong and Mike Fox for MOM.

Both clubs are great examples of many many players and mentors giving there all over a prolonged period of time. Something that should never be taken for granted.