“Super Saturday” showdown to resolve football knockout places

KEVIN EGAN COLUMN

It might not be ideal for neutral supporters, but there will be plenty of eyes on social media and texts between 6pm and 7.30pm on Saturday evening, as the final round of games in the Senior Football Championship all get underway simultaneously.

For those in West Offaly, a renewal of the old rivalry between Ferbane and Clara, played in Doon, will top the bill, and there’s a strong case to be made that it is the most interesting of the four games for a variety of reasons.

While Clara haven’t impressed at all this year, their highpoint in 2022 was their strong performance in the quarter-final round against Ferbane, when with a few minutes to go, it looked like they had pulled off a memorable upset. Ferbane hung in there to nick a win and while they are much stronger favourites this week, understandably given Clara’s two displays so far, both the recent and long term history of this fixture will keep both sides very honest. Ferbane look to have a fair bit more scoring power up front and that is likely to be the difference between the sides, but they’ll need to keep their focus, as their place in the knockout stages still isn’t assured.

The other game in the group is also a local derby and while Tullamore will also be expected to win well, Durrow are unlikely to just roll over and let their parish rivals run riot. As Ballinamere continue to gather momentum, it’s looking more and more likely that the dual players involved will start to believe that the Seán Robbins Cup is a lot more attainable than the John Dowling equivalent, but they have the mobility and power in the middle third to compete strongly with Tullamore, and the Tullamore attack is very fit, very energetic and laden with potential, but it’s not packed with reliable scorers. If by some chance one or two inside forwards failed to fire in Kilcormac, Durrow could yet keep this very competitive.

It's a lot harder to make a case for the Rhode versus Bracknagh game offering a huge amount to neutral supporters, so it’s unlikely that too many people outside of those two clubs will make their way to Gracefield.

Rhode are getting older, but still showing no signs of it, and while Bracknagh have possibly overachieved so far, this is a different scale of challenge entirely.

Shamrocks against Edenderry is a very different animal however, and even after their dreadful showing against Rhode, Shamrocks will feel that they aren’t without hope here. A good few club supporters and members probably tuned into the live coverage of last Sunday evening’s Chicago final, where Wolfe Tones – with Paddy Dunican in goal – edged out a Pádraig Pearses team containing Jack Bryant (and Cappincur’s Bill Carroll), and that will have left the club with a strong tinge of regret at what might have been if they had their best players available this year.

They don’t have anything like that – though Bryant could be back in action this weekend, which would be one significant boost - but they are taking on an Edenderry side that are misfiring badly, and are showing the signs of changing managers midseason. This game isn’t the foregone conclusion that people might have thought when the fixtures were made originally.

Senior B Showdowns

Earlier on Saturday, the knockout qualifiers from the Senior B championship will also be confirmed, but on paper, a lot of the games have very clear favourites.

In Group One, Cappincur have been the form team and they should be far too strong for Walsh Island, even more so with Bill Carroll back on board, while St. Rynagh’s have looked like a shadow of

themselves this year with so many key players absent, and it’s almost impossible to see them getting close to Ballycumber.

Ballycumber look a little bit short of the class needed to win this championship, but they will be competitive in the knockout stages, even if winning three consecutive games might be a bridge too far.

In 2022, Tubber and Clonbullogue played out a tense, dramatic and incredibly even county championship semi-final, where Clonbullogue were the slightly more fortunate side to drag the game into extra time. This year Clonbullogue haven’t quite found the improvement they’re likely to need to go one step further, but any issues they’ve had pale into insignificance relative to the crisis that is ongoing in Tubber right now.

Whatever else one could say about the Westmeath-border club down the years, they’ve never lacked tenacity or competitive spirit, but their last two outings have been nothing other than dismal, and if there was a backlash in them, logic would suggest that it would have materialised in the Gracefield game.

Regardless of what’s going on – and things don’t get this bad without reason, so all is clearly not well – a Tubber side going well would have their hands full with this Clonbullogue side, so even if they find something, they’re still likely to end up in a relegation battle.

Gracefield’s return to form has been most welcome from a county perspective, as there’s no point pretending otherwise; the Blackthorns are a big name club in Offaly, and while they have very different challenges in existing on the doorstep of what is currently the strongest senior club in Laois, Offaly needs the club to go well.

That being said, if there is to be an upset this week, then Ballycommon might provide it. Gracefield have leaned heavily on their ability to get goals, and there is a dogged, resilient quality to this Ballycommon defence.

A Gracefield win is the most likely outcome here, but of all the games throwing in at 3pm tomorrow, this looks like the one where there is the most to learn.

U20 walkover throws competition into the spotlight

Belmont’s concession of Tuesday night’s U20 championship match against Carrig & Riverstown/Crinkill has once again highlighted the difficulty of running a championship at this age group, and while some would say that the height of summer is the wrong time of year, the simple answer is that there is no good time of year for U20 games.

On this occasion, the issue was a graduation, but it could equally be holidays, or a plethora of adult games, or even just seasonal working requirements. As a club secretary, this reporter was once asked to contact the opposition club and referee to inform them that we would be giving a walkover in an U20 match if the day stayed dry. If the rain poured, there would be no problem, but in the manager’s words “if it stays dry, I have seven lads that will be up on tractors instead of down at the pitch”.

In Spring, the peak schools/colleges season runs into exams, winter is bad pitches and injuries, and in Autumn, the whole thing will get held up by clubs that are involved in county finals and then provincial campaigns.

Someday, some county will get creative and realise that while U20 is designed as a stepping-stone grade, it is anything but that for a lot of clubs and players. In this vein, also on Tuesday night, Kilcormac-Killoughey scored 7-31 in an hour’s play against DSK (Drumcullen/Seir Kieran).

At intercounty level, the principle has been accepted that players should play senior, or U20, but not necessarily both. It may be time for something similar at club level soon – perhaps raising the age to U22, but any player that has played 30 minutes or more in a single Senior A championship game or Offaly county U20 game that season is ineligible. Suddenly, you have a championship that offers a lot more to late bloomers, there’s less risk of burnout as the real elite players will be ruled out, and silverware will be much more realistic for smaller clubs who aren’t used to being on the podium as often.

It’s not the way we’ve always done things, but if you were to start from scratch, would you really design it the way we do things now?