Brigid"s look likely to claim intermediate title as Seir Kieran battle to avoid drop

The prize of senior status for 2009 is up for grabs in two crucial games in O"Connor Park and Carrig, and with decent weather forecast, GAA followers in the county could do a lot worse than banishing their budget blues, use some of that 8c dearer petrol and get to at least one of these games. The big prizes have all been handed out by now, but this weekend remains a particularly important one for the footballers of St Brigid"s and Walsh Island, as well as the Seir Kieran and Drumcullen hurlers. The prize of senior status for 2009 is up for grabs in two crucial games in O"Connor Park and Carrig, and with decent weather forecast, GAA followers in the county could do a lot worse than banishing their budget blues, use some of that 8c dearer petrol and get to at least one of these games. The final game of the 2008 Offaly SHC has been a long time coming. It"s now four weeks since Drumcullen"s surprisingly heavy defeat to Shamrocks left them in their current unhappy predicament and with the odds so heavily stacked against them, it would be understandable if a downbeat and misfiring Drumcullen team took the field on Sunday. However, the Sashmen would do well to keep their heads up and attack this game as if it were a fresh season, because odd things can happen in hurling and preparations for this fixture can"t have been easy down the road in Clareen either. On the face of it, there should be no doubt over the result here. Drumcullen need a nine point win to save their senior status and their form against Shamrocks would suggest that they will do well to score nine points at all, never mind win by that margin. But scoring difference is a tricky thing. Much like rugby, where the bonus point phenomenon has led to some team tactics and approaches that would have been unheard of years ago, so it is in hurling and football that games can take an odd shape when it is not the result that matters so much as they scale of the victory. The perfect example was some eighteen months ago, when Wexford needed to beat Meath by eight points in their final NFL Division 2B game of the season to snatch promotion from their Royal County opponents. Rather than trying to win the match, Meath went into the game merely trying not to lose by eight. The psychology of the situation was too much for them and they nearly blew it, instead losing by seven. So Seir Kieran must be forewarned. There will be a real danger that instead of hurling to win the match, they may subconsciously try not to lose by nine - which paradoxically, will make it a lot easier for Drumcullen to get into a position whereby doing just that is possible. Add in factors such as the seven week break since Seir Kieran"s last game, or their youth and inexperience and suddenly this game looks a lot less like a foregone conclusion. If the Clareen men get off to a good start and hurl with freedom they"ll win easily, but if this becomes a dogfight, there could be a very exciting afternoon in store. IFC FINAL Just under two hours after the twelfth name in the race for the 2009 Sean Robbins Cup is finalised, the final spot in next year"s SFC will be competed for. There are several elements to this game that whet the appetite - first and foremost, it will be an interesting test of how the incoming Offaly senior football manager copes in a high pressure situation where split second tactical adaptation and adjustment will be required. Richie Connor"s footballing credentials or his devotion to all things Offaly could never be called into question - however his ability to use the tools at his disposal to turn around a game that is going against his team is much more of an unknown quantity. So far this year, neither of these sides have looked like losing. St Brigid"s have obliterated all before them, including Doon, the only other team that was considered a likely contender for this championship. They also played in division one of the league and competed more than adequately at that level, qualifying for a semi-final with parish rivals Rhode. Walsh Island also had some big wins in the group stages but were far from impressive against Birr, even if they always looked more capable of getting handy scores. A few extremely contentious decisions helped the Island to pull away in the last quarter of the match and while they probably had enough in the tank to win anyway, it betrayed a level of weakness that is nowhere to be seen in the St Brigid"s line-up. Both clubs represent small, rural and passionate communities and either side would be an asset to the senior championship in 2009, but it"s hard to escape the feeling that St Brigid"s are playing at a higher level all year long and that it would take something special from Walsh Island to match that. Each team puts a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of their marquee forward - Ken Casey for St Brigid"s and Alan Mulhall for Walsh Island. These players are each well capable of scoring freely, albeit in very different styles, and either man could run up 1-5 or more on the day. The crucial difference is that in Seán Casey, St Brigid"s have a player who appears well suited to curtailing Mulhall. Richie Connor appears to have a lot less in his locker to shackle the younger Casey sibling. UNDER-21 FC As one championship draws to a close, another begins. The U-21 football championship starts this weekend, with five games down for decision between tonight and next Wednesday. Rhode parish are well on course to take the Senior, Intermediate, Junior A and Junior B championships in 2008 and they should be extremely strong at this level also. They were narrow victors in last year"s final, but their 2007 opponents, Wheery (Ferbane & Birr), have lost a lot of very good footballers from last year and should find other members of the pack closer to St Michael"s than they are. Tullamore will be strongly fancied to chalk up the first win of the competition when they travel to Gracefield tonight, but losing players of the calibre of Paul McConway, James Keane and Shane Dooley is bound to hurt their chances of going the whole way. St Manchan"s, the Ballycumber/Tubber amalgamation, should be extremely competitive and if they get over Wheery in the first round, they should come on for the experience. St Patrick"s (Edenderry Parish) could be another outfit that will go deep into the competition and could be there or thereabouts at the shake up. One final point regarding this event - it barely needs stating that U-21 teams are largely made up of college students, many of whom are studying away from home in the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, as well as in the various Institutes of Technology around the country - 8pm midweek throw-ins are hardly fair on these young men who must make their way back to venues such as Rhode and Ballinamere for fixtures. There is no doubt that the variety of other commitments makes these games extremely difficult to arrange - this weekend St Brigid"s footballers, Walsh Island footballers and Belmont Junior B hurlers have championship finals to play and will be using players from St Michael"s, St Coleman"s and Wheery respectively, but with winter conditions likely for the duration of the event in any regard, surely some extra delay would not make that much difference.