Rhode have the class to hold off local rivals edenderry

KEVIN EGAN previews this Sunday’s Offaly SFC final and contends that logic and form suggest Rhode will defeat their neighbours Edenderry to win yet another county title.

 

At a national level, population has always been critical in determining the likelihood of success. Offaly’s famous championship wins in the 1970s, '80s and '90s bucked that trend somewhat, but recent results would suggest that the county has slipped right back into the pack, while there is no evidence that any other small county is set to step forward and take up the mantle for underdogs everywhere.

Eleven Irish counties have a population under 90,000 people and since Offaly’s All-Ireland final appearance in 2000 against Kilkenny, only Fermanagh (2004) out of that group has reached a senior football or hurling semi-final – the big guys have taken over.

Club football and hurling used to be the exception to that rule, but as games evolve and greater resources are required to maintain club sides at levels that can generate championships, it’s notable that population has become more of a determinant of success at a local level.

Last year’s Leinster senior club football championship contained ten teams from outside Dublin, five of which were from county towns. Two of the others (Newtown Blues of Louth and Moorefield of Kildare) are from the second biggest towns in their respective counties and the biggest 'GAA town’s, while Rathnew of Wicklow represent a county where Gaelic games really haven’t grown to dominate the main population centres. Only Old Leighlin (Carlow) and Summerhill (Meath) flew the flag for rural villages.

Rhode GAA club will hope that this trend doesn’t ever take hold in Offaly, and certainly their incredible history and tradition makes it hard to believe that we’ll ever see the day when the Village aren’t one of the teams that have to be mentioned as title contenders at the start of the year in Offaly. Much like Rathnew, they are a club that are too deep into football to every be truly overtaken by any town side, regardless of the numbers at their disposal.

Edenderry, too, have a fine history and more significantly, they’ve overhauled their club in recent years, bouncing back from a very brief stint at intermediate level and turning around their fortunes at underage level in the process. What that means is that if you’re a player for either of the clubs involved in Sunday’s county football final, you have a very reasonable chance of enjoying senior championship success at some stage in your career, if you haven’t already, of course.

For both Rhode and Edenderry, this fixture isn’t the chance of a lifetime to win a county medal that they might never get to see again – instead, this winter is a chance to frame your legacy. Most of these Edenderry players already know what it’s like to lift the Dowling Cup, having done so three years ago, but they won’t need reminding that Clara did a lot of the heavy lifting for them that year, taking Rhode out in the semi-final round.

Of course it wasn’t Edenderry’s fault that they didn’t get the chance to beat Rhode along the way, but the simple fact of the matter is that just the same as Kilcormac-Killoughey needed to put a knockout win over Coolderry into the record books for their own sake, so it is the case that Edenderry need this victory to really claim that they were the best around, if only for a summer.

For Rhode, the issue is somewhat different – beating Edenderry would be welcome and adding yet another county championship would be doubly welcome, but for them the issue is the Leinster club championship, even though they would never admit that until they have the Dowling Cup firmly in their grasp. Just three Offaly clubs have picked up a provincial crown and Rhode will consider it a glaring gap in their CV until they join that select group.

Certainly the 2014 provincial draw has been extremely kind to whoever prevails this Sunday. The winners of the Offaly championship this year will play at home all the way up to the Leinster final, while the Dublin winners and Portlaoise, the two leading contenders, will be on the other side of the draw. Any Rhode player who says they haven’t thought of this is lying, particularly since they made such a dismal effort two years ago and will feel that they need to redeem themselves.

In order to give themselves a shot at doing that, their first target will be securing a large share of primary possession, an area where they haven’t always been dominant.Alan McNamee is excellent using the ball but not as strong at winning it, while his cousin Conor has a really bright future but is still very young to be playing at midfield. Though 20-year-old corner-forwards that are close to their peak are quite common, midfielders under the age of 24 who can hold their own against more mature opponents are extremely rare.

We know that Rhode will use the ball well – their foot passing is exemplary while the style of play employed by every team in the club from under-8 upwards is incredibly uniform, meaning that their cohesion and team play is as good as it gets. However that’s no good to them if Edenderry get on the ball first more often than not.

The nature of Edenderry’s attacking play is such that we will see plenty of numbers falling back in the Rhode half of the field very quickly once the Reds get possession. Edenderry do have some fast runners who can draw frees, while they will also be happy to let players like Derek Kelly take shots from range, players who can hit the target from 40 metres and thus take a deep lying defence out of the game.

Sean Pender will almost certainly drop back into defence to marshal the considerable threat posed by Niall McNamee, while that still leaves several fine playmakers around the middle third, presuming of course that Richie Dalton recovers sufficiently from his shoulder injury to take his place.

If Rhode can maintain their focus, they should be too good. They were seven points better than Edenderry in last year’s semi-final and nothing that has happened since then would suggest that the gap has been bridged. Rhode’s semi-final win over Clara was as good as anything we’ve seen in this year’s Offaly SFC, while Edenderry’s strong form from midsummer didn’t really carry through to the semi-finals. Seán Doyle has yet to face up against a man marker of the calibre of Brian Darby, while the wild card that is Ruairí McNamee is available to turn the game late on, if Rhode need to go that direction.

There are simply too many reasons why Rhode can win this game with something to spare to ignore, and while the Edenderry panel will know what’s at stake here and how important it is for their club to secure a meaningful win over their Village rivals, they don’t have a monopoly on hunger and need. Rhode have a longer term view and as long as they don’t let that aspect distract them, they should be back in pole position by around 5pm on Sunday.