Durrow’s win over Clara the main talking point in opening round

By Kevin Egan

Before a ball was kicked in this year’s Offaly SFC, the view was that Tullamore and Rhode were still out in front, Ferbane and Edenderry would be the most likely challengers, and it was hard to see a sustained challenge coming from any of the other four clubs.

With one round of games gone, it could be argued that Durrow might be slightly better than expected, and Edenderry are a little bit further off the top than anticipated, but otherwise things are playing out in keeping with expectations.

Rhode were far more dominant against Edenderry than the final score suggested, and the fact that the Reds ended that game with four points from play would suggest that they simply aren’t where they need to be.

It’s a lot harder to dismiss Ferbane, who were short a significant number of key players and still showed plenty of feistiness against a good Tullamore side in Ballycumber. The Blues extended their run of victories against the west Offaly side but they had to work hard to do so, and if the two clubs meet again later in the year, it would be hard to call a winner if both sides were at full strength, albeit most would favour last year’s county finalists.

The big result of the weekend was Durrow getting a comprehensive win over a lacklustre Clara side who were nowhere near as solid as they would have wished.

Some would possibly argue (particularly around Mucklagh and Rahan) that Shamrocks did incredibly well to get a point against Bracknagh, given the ludicrous length of their absentee list, but it would still be a stretch to say that their getting a draw was a massive shock.

What we can say is that none of these four sides did enough to suggest that they are county title contenders, but perhaps the only one that might have been considered a dark horse before last weekend was Clara. That feels hard to imagine now, at a time when relegation talk is easily found in the bars and pubs around the town.