Tullamore's clash with Edenderry the pick of the round as senior football championship resumes

Six senior football championship matches, five intermediate ties and a plethora of junior fixtures means that there is no shortage of football action in Offaly this week, and after a long break for the senior and intermediate sides, many clubs are now entering the do or die phase of their championship. It's impossible to win the Dowling Cup in April and May, but it's difficult to lose it either and even the clubs that have yet to record a win so far - Ballycumber, Tullamore and Shamrocks - can look forward to this weekend knowing that one win would turn everything around. Perhaps the game with the most at stake, and indeed the most neutral interest, could be the meeting of Tullamore and Edenderry in O'Connor Park on Sunday evening. The trials and tribulations of the Blues this year are an open secret and while there is both the time and the talent in Tullamore to turn things around, it can be very difficult to turn things around when a downward trend starts to gather momentum. The news that John Moloney and Michael Brazil are cutting short their summer abroad and making themselves available is a huge boost, though their sacrifice has to be matched by a strong and committed effort from the club members at home if it is to have the desired effect. It may yet turn out that in a group where Rhode are a cut above the rest but every other team looks capable of taking points off each other, four points could be enough to progress. However, while some clubs might slip into the quarter-finals on four points, others could miss out on the same mark, so nobody will want to leave themselves in a situation where four points is the most they can aspire to - least of all Tullamore, who have a very poor scoring difference after their defeat to Ferbane in the last round. A win this Sunday is vital, but Edenderry will represent a huge test of their forward line in particular. The absence of Shane Dooley robs Tullamore of one of their most natural scorers and they cannot hope to secure the points in O'Connor Park without some creative influence up front. If some other players step up and lead the line well in Dooley's absence, then arguably the club could be stronger for that in the long run. Edenderry come into this game on the back of a good run of form and they came very close to taking the division one league title last Saturday evening. That game has captured the headlines for all the wrong reasons but it also illustrated the Edenderry have a lot going for them at the moment, not least a very effective diamond with Johnny Hurst, Derek Kelly, Basil Malone and club captain Richie Dalton all playing some very good football. The absence of a really sharp goal threat is a concern for the Reds, but the psychological value of their win over Tubber in the last round cannot be overstated. Edenderry had come out on the wrong side of a lot of narrow defeats in recent years and to edge out a game like that would have meant a lot to the club. Equally however, with a game against Rhode to come and head to head results likely to prove crucial, Edenderry can ill-afford to drop points against Tullamore this week, making their clash in O'Connor Park one of the highlights of the round. St Rynagh's v Shamrocks In group two, the two clubs that face into a season-defining fixture are St Rynagh's and Shamrocks, who meet in Doon at lunchtime on Sunday. St Rynagh's could very easily be on four points on none at this stage after two extremely tight games against Gracefield and Ballycumber, but as things stand they've left themselves every opportunity to advance with one win so far. They'll be underdogs against both Walsh Island and Clara, so not unlike Edenderry, dropping points here would leave them with a mountain to climb - on the other hand if they were to win and Gracefield beat Ballycumber, their place in the knockout stages would almost certainly be secured. It was widely anticipated that the recession would put pressure on playing numbers in certain clubs, with many young footballers leaving Ireland and many of those in employment forced to work longer hours simply to make ends meet and to keep their job going. What wasn't so predictable was the way that the two clubs in Offaly that appear to have been most adversely affected were Tullamore and Shamrocks, two clubs with a large player base to begin with. Shamrocks have really struggled this year, to a certain degree in hurling and very much so in football, and the sight of their junior football team that reached the 2010 county final sustaining so many heavy beatings is very disheartening. They've been forced to promote several of those 2010 junior footballers up to senior due to a plethora of retirements, transfers and departures, and the club that up until recently was fielding three adult teams looks to be in real danger of having one intermediate and at best one junior B side in 2012. All that said, this weekend's game against St Rynagh's is perfectly poised for Shamrocks to bounce back. While St Rynagh's are a competitive club with plenty of good footballers, they are not a free scoring group of players and they simply don't win games with plenty to spare, even last year at intermediate level. Even on a good day Rynagh's will do well to score twelve times, and that lack of a cutting edge gives any opponent a chance. One good result for Shamrocks could see players returning to training and things improving immeasurably, but they have a very tough hour ahead of them before that happens.