Rynagh's and Belmont look likely in tough contests to call

By Kevin Egan

This weekend’s Offaly senior hurling quarter-finals should be two enthralling games, purely because all four teams have shown plenty of quality at various stages, yet all four still have a fair amount of improvement to find if they are to get to a level where taking Kilcormac-Killoughey’s title is on the table.

St Rynagh’s have put their desperately disappointing 2025 campaign behind them and go into their quarter-final against Shinrone on Saturday (Birr, 5pm) in a very strong position. They have three good wins on the board and a competitive showing in their defeat to Kilcormac-Killoughey.

Eoin Woods is scoring heavily, the twin threat of Aaron Molloy and Darragh Scully in the corners has to be respected and Ben Conneely is the star turn in a defensive unit that is astute, physical and competitive. A little bit more consistency is needed in their scoring threat around midfield and half-forward, but they have more of their ducks in a row than most.

Shinrone, in contrast, have perhaps a higher ceiling but are still a long way short of the finished article and need to find a way to work their way through the type of arm wrestle that they will find in Birr tomorrow. They had ten scorers from play last time out against Lusmagh and can rain points over the bar from all over the pitch, so are well suited to shootouts – but they won’t get three of those between now and the end of August.

The training ground in Birr will have been a slightly uncomfortable place since their last outing against the county champions. Suddenly it doesn’t look like Birr have addressed the frailties that St Rynagh’s exposed back in July, but instead it looks like Coolderry and Kinnitty just weren’t able to take advantage to the same extent.

Belmont won’t come at Birr (Sunday, Glenisk O'Connor Park, 4.15) with the same relentless energy and pace as Kilcormac-Killoughey while it’s doubtful that any player in Offaly is capable of controlling games the way Colin Spain is for K-K right now. Birr fell back into the trap of relying too heavily on either Eoghan Cahill frees or moments of magic to create scores last time out.

Belmont themselves are perhaps a forward or two short of where they need to be, and they mirror Birr in the sense that there can be an over-reliance on David Nally to shoulder a disproportionately heavy burden. There aren’t the same concerns about Belmont at the other end of the pitch, however, which makes them marginally more likely to prevail on Sunday afternoon.

In the relegation play-off (Sunday, Birr, 12.30), neither Kinnitty nor Lusmagh have hurled well for a full 60 minutes so far but it’s easier to pick out substantial tracts of games where Lusmagh have looked competitive. There might be a little bit more positive energy in the club too given that the memory of last year’s county final is still fresh, so they get a hesitant vote to stay in the top tier of club hurling.