More heartbreak for Ferbane as Tullamore secure three in a row

By Kevin Egan

In what has become a quite familiar story at this time of year, Ferbane contested an Offaly senior football final and played well, but Tullamore were able to be that tiny bit better when it counted, and so the Blues are the Dowling Cup winners for the third year in a row.

Harry Plunkett kicking three two-pointers in what was a sensational reply to Darragh Flynn's goal caught the headlines. But no less important was the period midway through the first half when Tullamore dug deep to take the lead while playing into the wind, or the control that they started to exert at midfield in the third quarter with Aaron Leavy in the vanguard of their charge.

As has been the case in each of the past two years, Ferbane will look back with no small amount of regret at plenty of moments during the game, mostly their lack of composure in the closing minutes.

However it may just be a case of a second chapter on a similar theme in the club’s history, the first being their battles with Walsh Island in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where they had a team that would have been good enough to win many more county titles in another era, but where they just ran into an elite side at the peak of their powers.

From Tullamore’s perspective, making a deep run in Leinster is probably a prerequisite in order to cement their status as one of those elite sides, on a par with that Walsh Island team, the Ferbane side of the late 1980s, or the Rhode group of the 2000s.

Provincial success has eluded Tullamore so far and while they were quite competent in 2024, falling a goal short to the eventual All-Ireland winners Cuala, the absence of any obvious heavy-hitter and the advantage of a three-week lead time should be seen as a huge opportunity.

A quarter-final clash with the Downs is no easy test. The Westmeath champions are also in that bracket of teams that will feel that a Leinster title is on the table this year, alongside Summerhill, Athy, Portarlington and of course Ballyboden St Enda’s. Luke Loughlin is one of the form forwards in the province, they have reached a Leinster final previously, and Cusack Park is a uniquely tight pitch at intercounty level, where familiarity with the way it plays is likely to be a notable advantage.

Yet while each of those clubs has plenty of potential and in all likelihood, Tullamore will have to overcome three of them to earn more silverware, the bar is as low as it will ever be, while the Blues are fit, strong and coming into the peak of their powers. They’ll get other chances, but probably not better ones.