Birr and K/K fancied to advance to last four of championship
Birr v Shinrone
Shinrone"s path to this weekend"s senior hurling championship quarter-final against Birr might not have been as arduous as that travelled by David Fitzgerald"s Waterford side in reaching Croke Park, but the south Offaly men will no doubt empathise with the scale of the task facing the Déise this weekend as they too try to take on the longstanding kingpins of their scene.
Just as very few tipsters will give Waterford any chance of overturning Kilkenny on Sunday, one could travel far and wide before encountering anyone who would have a strong fancy for Shinrone to upset the odds in Banagher on Saturday night.
From the start of the season Shinrone were one of the lesser fancied teams within the county, opening the campaign as 66/1 rank outsiders to lift the Sean Robbins Cup. One could argue that a similarly large number would be justifiable even now, but for a brief time earlier in the year they looked like real dark horses and must now look to rediscover that kind of form. Their two point win over Belmont back in the spring wouldn"t have looked like anything special to those just reading the result, but those who were in attendance that night knew that the two points secured were very hard earned. A very balanced and cohesive performance marked Shinrone as a team with real potential, potential that they haven"t delivered on since that night.
Michael Cordial"s heroics against Seir Kieran secured their slot in this quarter-final but the team"s travails against a very young Clareen parish outfit did not indicate that this was a team destined for bigger things.
Birr"s season has contrasted sharply with that of Shinrone to this point, recovering from an early setback with big wins over Lusmagh and Drumcullen, and if the graphs keep going in the same direction, this should be a comfortable win for the reigning champions.
However, it could be argued that Birr"s scoring this year, while very healthy, is not as widely spread across the forwards as is ideal. The pace of Michael Dwane and Seán Ryan is absent with Dylan Hayden now carrying the bulk of the workload in the full forward line. Birr"s 2008 strategy involves pulling the half forward line very deep, leaving the corner forwards very wide and playing low ball into Hayden in as much space as possible - a tactic that Shinrone will do well to prepare for as it is difficult to see Willie Comerford beating Hayden for pace across acres of open space, even allowing for all of Comerford"s wiliness and experience.
Birr"s scores have largely resulted from Hayden either taking his own score or else laying off to the oncoming Gary Hanniffy. Nineteen out of thirty two Birr points from play in the past two games have come from these two players - Shinrone can be in no doubt as to which attackers are their most pressing concern. A packed, disciplined defence and a lot of pressure on the two midfielders who tend to supply most of the ammo could see Birr struggle for scores, giving Shinrone a much better chance of maintaining competitiveness to the end, as they did in last year"s group match up between the two teams.
Those looking to see top class hurling will no doubt get it from Birr, in patches at the very least, but those looking for competitive hurling will probably do well to be in St Rynagh"s Park in time for the first game, just in case Birr do to Shinrone what many people suspect they might.
Tullamore v
Kilcormac/Killoughey
Kilcormac/Killoughey against Tullamore is an intriguing fixture, one in which it would be very easy to make a case for either side. K/K have some of the finest young talent in Offaly, they were county finalists last year, they"ve just come through a character forming clash against St Rynagh"s and they offer a big physical threat that Tullamore could find very difficult to handle.
Tullamore, on the other hand, have beaten Birr this year and are sky high on both confidence and form, they won last year"s match up between these two teams, the return of Gearóid O"Grady has energised the half-forward line and in Shane Dooley they have the form forward in the county and the clear front-runner to be Offaly"s hurler of the year right now.
The jury is understandably still out on this fixture as the evidence pointing both ways stacks up ever higher.
Luck has been somewhat unkind to Tullamore"s hurlers this year in that their performances were no less worthy of an automatic semi-final slot than those of Kinnitty or Coolderry, but the draw dealt them an unkind hand and dictated that they must clear another hurdle before reaching the penultimate stages.
One could also argue that the continued progression of the town"s footballers, though no doubt welcomed by Kevin Martin as a former stalwart of the big ball code himself, will have impacted on his ability to prepare the hurlers as well as he would like. Kilcormac/Killoughey could no doubt argue the same point as their intermediate footballers remain involved in a relegation battle. However, John Leahy will not face nearly the same degree of divided loyalty for the time and attention of his players.
That preparation time could yet be crucial as a tactical game is very likely to unfold between these two. K/K"s shooting, were it to be as bad again this Saturday as it was in Kinnitty a fortnight ago, would lead to Tullamore having a huge advantage this Saturday. Many of those wides were shot by players who would not normally top the scoring charts for the club, so the key for the double Ks will be to see that the bulk of the shots are being taken by the players who are most likely to raise flags, rather than outfield players who would be better employed feeding the in-form Daniel Currams and Peter Healion. Likewise they will be keen to see Tullamore denied the clear goal chances that both Dooley and Francis Kerrigan can create with their pace and sharpness in the corners, perhaps by letting the wing-backs drop a little deeper in general play in order to be able to cover back in time.
Tullamore too will have taken a very methodical approach in the run up to this game, particularly with regard to counteracting K/K"s athleticism and fielding around midfield and half-forward. Gerry Treacy and Benny Dagg have both been in excellent form this year but they could find themselves outmatched for height at half-back and if K/K establish a platform in this area,
Tullamore could find themselves spending long spells of the game on the back foot. Breaking and sweeping will be the name of the game for Tullamore, as well as preventing the quick handpass off the catch that K/K do so well.
Both clubs will have needed time to prepare for a match of this magnitude, and with the game likely to be decided by a wafer thin margin, that split commitment may just be the difference between Tullamore edging this game and falling a point or two short.
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