Edenderry look the chief threat to Tullamore's football crown

By Kevin Egan

Whether it was Coolderry’s explosive display against Ballinamere, Belmont’s grit and Conor Slevin’s late equaliser for Kilcormac-Killoughey, Eoghan Cahill’s tour de force or even the impressive showings from Carrig & Riverstown and Lusmagh in the ‘B’ grade, there were no shortage of interesting storylines from the first round of action in the Offaly hurling championships.

It’s a disappointing but indisputable truth that last year, due to the format, nothing that happened in the Offaly football championships prior to the knockout stages was particularly newsworthy. In general, due to the lack of variation in teams making the last four, the Dowling Cup race has been not unlike an Olympic 10,000m final – a lot of distance gets covered before anyone but the most passionate supporters can really say that anything meaningful has happened.

This year too, it would be easy to speculate that Tullamore will top group two, the top three places in group one will be filled by Edenderry, Ferbane and Rhode in some order, and three of those four clubs will reach the semi-finals. The fourth will face a tricky, perhaps 50/50 battle with Shamrocks in a quarter-final contest that will serve as the bell for the last lap, the sign for things to get really interesting.

Any more detailed breakdown has to start with Tullamore, who set a pretty high bar for where teams have to get to if winning this championship is realistic. The recent addition of former Mayo manager Stephen Rochford in a coaching role has also caught the eye. The side is far from perfect – Declan Hogan has missed a lot of football and while he is expected to return, a huge part of their structure is built around the Scoil Bhríde teacher locking down the best forward on the opposition. Tullamore don’t just need him back, they need him sharp and match fit.

Equally, at the other end of the field, it’s not just that the Blues don’t have any inside forward that features on a matchday 26 for Offaly, it’s that they don’t have anyone who’s even in the conversation to see minutes in the 2026 National League in a scoring role. Of course that might change, but Luke Egan was arguably head of the queue, and he’s gone hurling for the year.

The other side of the equation is that in the middle eight, they’re not just the best-equipped team in Offaly, they’re arguably unparalleled in Leinster. They have a litany of county standard players that are either young or right at the peak of their powers, and they’ll have (presumably) Michael Brazil and Diarmuid Egan to inject into that mix by the time the knockout football starts. They’ll need more to win a provincial title, but in Offaly, they remain the team to beat.

On paper, and not just because of their league final win, the biggest potential trip hazard for the champions has to be Edenderry. Like Cork in this Sunday’s All-Ireland final, if Tullamore produce an eight out of ten performance in any match, they won’t be beaten. But if they do fall to a six or seven, the Reds have the potential to catch them with a knockout punch.

We saw last week in Clareen what can happen when a gifted attacking player goes out into a club championship fixture with a point to prove to county management, and where Eoghan Cahill went, Cian Farrell can follow. Add in a little bit of X-factor from Kaelem Bryan and Cillian Foran, and for all Edenderry’s notorious inconsistency and unreliability in late September, they are the one group that Tullamore won’t want to see coming.

The issue for Ferbane is similar to the issue that plagued the Belmont hurlers, that of absentees. Joe Maher, Oisín Kelly, Conor Butler, David Dunican, Leon Fox; these are players that will be immensely difficult to replace. Paddy Clancy will be valuable as the year goes on, however. Kyle Higgins was a crucial part of the Offaly senior team by the end of the summer and there is no playmaker in the county like Cathal Flynn.

The men from the west will stand or fall based on how many of their next wave of stars takes their game to the next level. A lot of pressure rests on Cian Johnson’s shoulders to finally become the player he foreshadowed, and behind him, the Conor Grennan/Brian Carroll/Darragh Flynn/Pat Taaffe generation need to produce a couple of players that are in the county panel conversation by October. Any less, and they will struggle to break through.

Rhode also need to produce a winner in the same lottery, but really their only tickets in that draw are Dylan Kilmurray and Aaron Kellaghan. Paschal Kellaghan will squeeze every ounce out of his native club and the transformation to a new game under the FRC rules should give a chance for a wily and thoughtful management group to give themselves a bit of a head start in the form of a tactical edge. However, the new game is still all about energy in the middle third and given Rhode’s dependence on 30-something year old players, that will prove challenging.

Shamrocks are clearly in this mix. Nigel Dunne will be a massive threat from two-point range and it would be no surprise to see them engineer a way for Paddy Dunican to also get on the ball in that range. Jack and Darragh Bryant can be a very effective twin threat up front, David O’Toole Greene is a powerhouse and David O’Rourke was a leading light in an otherwise disappointing U-20 campaign.

The key for the management duo of John Monaghan and Brian Kinnarney will be to address what on paper looks like a slightly underpowered kickout game. As the Armagh footballers will testify from their defeat to Kerry, when you’re under pressure, the ability to win your own ball to break opposition momentum is all-important and in a county not blessed with fielding midfielders, Shamrocks have more room to improve than most in that regard.

Looking to spring a surprise

With no relegation on the table – although it’s a pity that no-one thought to put a playoff fixture in place between the bottom senior team and the losing Senior ‘B’ finalists – the other four clubs can play with a fair bit of freedom and abandon. This column’s guess is that the most upside out of the four sits in Clonbullogue. The caveat is that Keith O’Neill has to get back to full fitness, at least in time for the derby meeting with Bracknagh, as his talent elevates this group to a level that others will struggle to match.

The reason the blue and gold part of this parish might fall short is not because of the first five or six names onto their teamsheet, but the last five or six. Anthony Cunningham’s injury robs them of another potential difference-maker, so a huge amount of pressure rests on the shoulders of Peter Cunningham. Those are broad shoulders, well able to carry that weight, but it does keep their ceiling relatively low.

For Durrow, the upside is unmistakable, but their scope to get there, particularly now that the Ballinamere hurlers are under a little bit of pressure, is very much in doubt. Assuming Ballinamere deliver on expectation against their town neighbours next Thursday, a little bit of pressure will be taken off and Durrow might be in a slightly better position to have a meaningful cut at Edenderry on the August bank holiday, but losing players like Dan Wyer and Billy Fogarty will be significant.

That leaves Ballycommon, who will look at the trip to Ferbane as a glorious opportunity to put a big win on the board. They’re not without hope either, but getting to four or five points in this group will be a big ask for a side that is very strong in defence, but their record at raising white flags is not good. Moreover, there are no standout two-point threats in the panel. Ryan Kenny is always capable of finding the net but unless a few consistent scorers emerge to balance the attack, they’ll find it hard to thrive in a group alongside Ferbane, Rhode and Edenderry.