Ballinamere-Durrow’s first title a positive in bleak year for Offaly LGFA
By Kevin Egan
The air of crisis surrounding Offaly LGFA deepened in 2025, with the county’s flagship team experiencing relegation in both league and championship, following on from yet more upheaval within the executive and with regard to the county team management earlier in the year.
The prognosis is unquestionably and unmistakably bleak. At a time when Offaly camogie has returned to the All-Ireland senior championship, Offaly LGFA will start 2025 in the bottom tier of both the league and championship, attempting to rebuild the county’s reputation at a time when the morale of players will have taken a few hard hits in recent seasons.
Another new management team will be in place for 2026 and getting the best players in the county on board for that campaign will be a hard sell, even with four home games in what should be a very winnable league.
The level of endeavour and commitment at county underage level is still very high among players and coaches alike, but with a very small player base in a county where just 13 clubs fielded adult football teams in 2025 (Kilcormac-Killoughey hope to make that 14 in 2026), competing with other similar-sized counties with a much larger pool of players such as Westmeath and Laois is difficult enough, never mind going out against the likes of Dublin, Kildare and Meath.
Out of this year’s minor team there will be players who have the potential to develop into capable senior footballers, but while this year’s camogie success was achieved with significant contributions from players who competed in All-Ireland minor finals in recent years, there is no such wave of players ready to step in and do something similar for Offaly LGFA in the next couple of seasons.
The absence of several of the county’s established stars for various reasons meant that competing at intermediate level was always likely to be a huge ask, but there is no obvious evidence to suggest that those veterans are going to come riding over the hill to salvage things either, so future progress is not guaranteed and if it does happen it’s likely to be slow, painstaking, and hard-earned.
If there was a silver lining, it came in the form of a new winner of the Peggy Foley Cup, Ballinamere-Durrow. No club had done more than Naomh Ciarán to try and keep standards high in the county over the past decade but the West Offaly side were a shadow of their former selves this year, struggling in the group stages of the championship before finding a way to bounce back against Tullamore in the semi-final.
For Naomh Ciarán to win this year’s championship when they were clearly a long way short of the peak of their powers would have been a very clear indicator that standards weren’t where they should be in the county’s flagship competition.
Across the championship as a whole, Ballinamere-Durrow had been the strongest team in the county. Emma Hand, Niamh Lydon and Róisín Mealiff gave the team a mobile and strong platform in the middle, while Saorah Doyle carried her excellent intercounty form into the club championship, solidifying her status as the leading scoring threat in Offaly across the season and one of the first names on the county team sheet next spring.
There may have been just two scores between the teams at the final whistle in the Faithful Fields but Ballinamere-Durrow had been the stronger side over the hour and were fully worthy of their first ever senior championship title.
Dunshaughlin Royal Gaels proved far too strong in the Leinster championship and across the board, there looks to be a very strong case for Offaly arguing that the county’s senior champions should drop back down to the intermediate grade. In turn, that would mean that the county’s intermediate winners would and should take part at junior level, at least until fortunes change a little.
Rhode, this year’s intermediate champions, were comfortably the best team in the second tier and if they stay together as a group, they look like they will be contenders for senior honours right from the off. However there is no ignoring the county’s results in Leinster club competition and a nine-point defeat to Balyna - albeit a Balyna team that reached a Leinster final in the end - is just the latest in a long line of first round exits in this competition.
That would of course squeeze out the junior champions but a competition that is largely for second teams and one that is finished before the SFC and IFC competitions get underway, played alongside intercounty competitions to give games to players at that time of year, is not one that needs the carrot of a Leinster championship fixture four months later.
Despite their failure to retain the senior title, Naomh Ciarán still ended the year with a Division One league title, a junior championship win and perhaps most importantly of all, a Minor ‘A’ championship win, secured after a replayed final against Naomh Molaoise. Add in one or two returning established stars in 2026 and they will be right back in the mix for the year ahead, with Tullamore and Rhode also likely to play their part in keeping the senior club championship competitive.
On the intercounty front, however, the road back to relevance looks like a long one, and finding it won’t be as simple as just turning the key and letting your maps app do the rest. A lot of pathfinding will have to be done just to get started.