Familiar final beckons but can Ferbane beat the Blues this time?

By Kevin Egan

Tempting though it was to look back through the Offaly Independent archive and rehash the previews from 2023 or 2024, there will be enough unfamiliar faces on show this Sunday (Glenisk O'Connor Park, 3pm) to suggest that the third successive renewal of the Tullamore vs Ferbane county final pairing could be a completely different type of game.

Paul McConway has been a remarkably consistent performer for club and county through a stellar career that saw him win five county medals. But Father Time is relentless and it’s uncertain if McConway would have been able to hold off time’s advance and hold his place in this Tullamore team at age 39, given the deep reserves of talent in a club whose second team won the intermediate championship, and their third side will contest the junior B final replay on Sunday in the curtain raiser.

Arguably Luke Egan is a bigger loss after he threw in his lot with the small ball, while Diarmuid Egan hasn’t had the chance to get as many minutes into himself as he would have liked at this time of year after his injury issues. Overall, though, this looks like broadly the same Tullamore team, just with a bit more experience and physical development in some key areas.

In 2024, Cillian Bourke was one of the most impressive young footballers in Leinster, in 2025 the adjective ‘young’ is superfluous in that statement and if he is destined to ply his sporting trade in Australia in 2026, he’ll be all the more eager to make his mark with his club for the remainder of the year, however long that may last.

In Ferbane, the personnel switches feel less cosmetic. Jack Egan was an athletic, physical defender capable of getting up and down the pitch, Joe Maher invariably carried his weight and more on the scoring front, while Leon Fox was arguably the team’s anchor and fulcrum, dictating everything that happened around him. For all Ciarán Cahill’s undervalued reliability and consistency, he was never likely to take on the role of ‘Field Marshal’ to the same extent as Fox.

The return of Paddy Clancy from Australia was always likely to fill one of those gaps well, and so it has proved. Perhaps more impressive, however, has been the emergence of a handful of new defenders, with Michael Wren, Aaron McCabe and in particular Conor Dunican, who has almost certainly earned a county call up with his current form.

Add in Brian Carroll beginning to realise that in addition to plenty of natural ability, he has a big frame that allows him to compete aggressively with older players, and suddenly Ferbane don’t just have a capable starting team, they also have a deep bench. Indeed, players like Patrick Taaffe – albeit largely due to an injury setback – and Oisín Kelly have been used as impact subs rather than starters.

Because of this, more than ever, Ferbane will feel confident that they can hold their own in a tight finish. The club has known more than its fair share of heartbreaking defeats in the last decade but that will be of no bearing since the law of averages is rarely if ever enforced in sport, however they shouldn’t feel that they have to put a cushion in place to withstand a stronger Tullamore finish.

With so much depth of quality all over the pitch and so many parallels between the sides, the individual battles between on-field leaders for the two teams will be crucial. Cian Johnson is playing arguably the best football of his life, racking up scores relentlessly, while Declan Hogan is still as good a man-marker as there is in the county. If one of those two men has a significantly better day than the other, we’ll have a fair idea who will take home the Dowling Cup.

Flynn vs Furlong battle

Trumping even that battle, however, is the all-important clash between John Furlong and Cathal Flynn, the Offaly centre-back taking on the Offaly centre-forward – and on current form, arguably the two best players in the county. The most remarkable thing about Flynn’s energy is not that he covers so much ground, but that it’s always about making a significant contribution. Every possession, even in his own full-back line, is an opportunity to attack, and he plays in a way that even forcing him to give a lateral pass feels like a big win for his opposite number.

Furlong is also a key part of the Tullamore attacking game but marries that with his uncanny ability to still be right back where he needs to be in a split second if play breaks down. His defence of the counter-attack is outstanding, and he too rarely puts a ball in the wrong place. Performances at anything below eight out of ten are extremely rare for either man, but the need to counteract their opponent will put additional strain on their shoulders.

All year long, the loss of Ferbane’s centre-back from 2024 looked like it might be the single biggest reason why Ger Rafferty’s side would still fall narrowly short. This Sunday, their ability to force the Tullamore centre-back to spend much more time than he would like on the back foot is the biggest reason why, just maybe, by the narrowest margin possible, the law of averages might just be enforced.