Ballinamere bounce back as Belmont defeat puts Rynagh's under pressure

By Kevin Egan

Eight games have been played in the Offaly senior hurling championship so far, but it would be hard to argue that in terms of consequence, none was more significant than last Friday night’s contest in Banagher between Belmont and St Rynagh’s.

There will always be traditionalists who will argue that round robin groups lack the cut and thrust of knockout hurling, but in a group where it would take a remarkable sequence of results for Kilcormac-Killoughey to miss out on knockout hurling, there was plenty of pressure on both teams to pick up a result.

In a contest dominated by backs on both teams, particularly Jack Clancy, Matthew Moloney, Ben Conneely and Darragh Flynn, David Nally stepped up with a stellar performance for Belmont that now leaves them in a great position after two rounds, while Rynagh’s will know that anything less than two wins from their last two games will result in them missing out on knockout hurling for the first time since 2008.

Kinnitty’s win over Belmont a year ago will give the Slieve Bloom men some confidence in advance of their next outing against the same opposition, but based on their form against Shinrone, they look like they’ll have to find a lot of improvement if they are to repeat that result and keep their own championship ambitions alive.

In Group One, the most likely outcome is that the game in Shinrone next Friday between Coolderry and Birr will go a long way towards deciding the group winners, with Ballinamere the probable occupants of the other knockout spot.

Nonetheless, Tullamore will believe that they still can have a huge say in this group and can turn over one of the favourites. Errors cost them goals and probably a positive result against Ballinamere, but if they can take care of business against Seir Kieran, they’ll feel that they are primed for an ambush against either of the two south Offaly powerhouses.

*Two groups emerging in Senior B

If you told 100 people around the county that with two games played in the Senior B championship there would be three clubs sitting pretty with four points from two games and three clubs yet to win a match, at least 90 of them would have expected reigning champions Kilcormac-Killoughey to be in the former group, while a fair majority would probably have plumped for Clodiagh Gaels also getting into that trio.

There’s still plenty of time for last year’s county finalists to turn things around and with Coolderry really struggling to keep pace, more than likely at least one of the two will still sneak into the top four. They’ll want to get there with a bit of momentum however, and right now that momentum is elsewhere.

The hurling we’ve seen from both Carrig & Riverstown and Lusmagh has been very impressive, with both teams scoring at least a couple of goals in each game while having at least six points to spare in every match.

The same few teams have bounced up and down between the top two tiers in recent years so to see new sides stepping up is encouraging. Both clubs have also shown a bit of promise in the early rounds of the U-20 championship, albeit as part of combinations, and while it would still be the shock to end all shocks if anyone other than Kilcormac-Killoughey took the silverware from that championship, any lengthy run from Lusmagh/Kinnitty or CRCC will help to keep the tide rising.