Birr’s battle with Blues the pick of weekend hurling action

By Kevin Egan

Out of the four games down for decision this weekend in the Offaly SHC, the most interesting by some distance is the game between Birr and Tullamore in St Brendan’s Park tonight (Friday).

After putting a win on the board against Seir Kieran, Tullamore have effectively given themselves two shots and securing a quarter-final berth, starting with this game. On paper, this could be the best chance of the two, in part because Birr have a lot of the hard work done by putting two good wins on the board already, but also because of the way that the teams match up.

Tullamore’s strengths are their athleticism and ball-winning ability in the middle third, where they can break tackles and close down the space for opposition runners. Birr have shown fantastic stickwork and cohesion in possession this year and they have created high quality chances on the back of that, while contributions of 1-2, 0-2 and 0-2 from play from their three inside forwards last time out would indicate that the project of reducing their dependence on frees, and on Eoghan Cahill generally, is going well.

The issue for Tullamore is that while players like Lochlann Quinn and Morgan Watkins are sharp and quick, they need to be brought into the game with passes from advanced positions, not long clearances from their own half-back and full-back lines. If Tullamore can get contact in early and fairly in the middle third, they’ll bring a level of intensity that Birr haven’t met in either of their games so far.

Mathematically, both Seir Kieran and Kinnitty have everything to play for in their games against last year’s county finalists. Seir Kieran aren’t clear of relegation if they beat Ballinamere, but if they were to pull off an upset, then Ballinamere would need a result in their final game against Birr to avoid the trapdoor, which is far from a certainty.

Likewise for Kinnitty, if they were to beat Kilcormac-Killoughey this weekend, they could yet sneak into the quarter-finals, since it’s fair to say that Shinrone would be incredibly eager to shut the door on the county champions if that was on the table in a fortnight’s time.

Realistically however, the two Slieve Bloom neighbours will probably be happy enough to come out of this weekend’s games with good performances, and some positive signs in advance of their relegation showdowns to come.

Kinnitty have two chances to stay senior and they should take plenty of satisfaction from the grit and tenacity they showed against Belmont last time out, though Kilcormac-Killoughey looked formidable against St Rynagh’s at times and will hope to move things up another notch.

Ballinamere need to find some form for themselves and they’ll want to build up an early lead in Banagher to avoid a tricky outing, because the longer things go on, the more nervous it’ll get for a side that had much higher expectations than trying to scrape into a quarter-final.

The meeting of Shinrone and Belmont is much harder to predict, as right now, there’s no massive carrot for winning the game. Patrick Taaffe’s injury depletes what is an already quite light Belmont squad, though that’s balanced up by the potential return to action of Oisín Kelly, even for just a portion of the game.

In all likelihood, these two clubs are headed for the quarter-finals so this is about form and momentum more than making life easier, albeit a Shinrone win over Kilcormac-Killoughey in the final round would change the landscape. But for now, expect Shinrone’s greater depth and more settled lineup to give them an edge.