Blues start favourites but injury blows could open door for others
An eight-team senior championship is definitely on the smaller side, but expect all 18 games of this year’s race for the Dowling Cup to be worth watching. Out of the eight, four clubs will start out thinking that anything less than an outright victory is failure, while three of the other four will believe that they could wind up on top of the pile, if the bounce of the ball goes their way in a few key games.
When Tullamore regained the trophy last year, they had all the ingredients of a club that might go on to dominate the local championship for the rest of the decade. That still may happen, but long term injuries to Cormac Egan, John Furlong and Oisín Keenan Martin has robbed them of a lot of the youth and dynamism that made them so good. There is still plenty of depth there, and a central defensive axis of Declan Hogan at full-back and John Moloney wearing six is as good as you’ll find in any club in Ireland. They will still start the season as favourites – but not so much that every other club will feel that they have a lot to find.
All across the board among the leading contenders, dealing with injuries to big name players will be crucial to the cause. Rhode have no lack of firepower, but taking Eoin Rigney and Niall Darby out of their backline leaves new manager Declan Gorman with a lot of work to do to address that sector of the field.
Edenderry have some of the best young talent in the county but ultimately it’s hard to see them having the scoring power to compete if they can’t get Cian Farrell back onto the field of play by the business end of the championship, while the absence of players like Richie Dalton and Stephen Guing will leave a bit of a gap in terms of experience and maturity. In Ferbane, Cian Johnson is returning from injury and showing some signs of his form from a few years ago, while Oisín Kelly is likely to be needed to add a goal threat and a little bit of physical power to an attacking unit that is not short on craft, but is a little bit light.
Outside of the front four, an unlucky leg fracture for Bobby O’Dea is a blow to Durrow’s chances, and if there is to be a semi-finalist outside of the leading four, then Shamrocks might be the team to get to that stage. The mercurial class of Nigel Dunne and Jack Bryant up front is going to be hard stop, while Kieran Dolan continues to make huge progress in the back division and if he can show the type of leadership that was very much part of his game as an underage star, he can lead a competitive backline.
Clara should be right at home at Senior A level once again, but they could still be a couple of players short of where they need to be, particularly in terms of a heavy-scoring inside forward. Colm Doyle is expected to miss a lot of the season and while they’ll cause problems for the big hitter clubs when they run into them, it just remains to be seen if they can accumulate the type of tallies that will be needed to win matches in high summer.
For Cappincur, the battle against relegation is the main thing on the agenda, though they won’t mind a first round clash with Ferbane as a chance to try and give themselves a huge shot in the arm with an upset victory. They’ve had some notable performances at this grade before, particularly their win over Tullamore, but those performances usually involved Eoin Carroll dominating proceedings from midfield. In his absence, survival won’t come easily.
All told, 26 adult football championship matches take place across the weekend, and as is often the case, the intermediate and senior B championships look like fascinating competitions, with the world of possibility. Peter Cunningham’s return is a game changer for Bracknagh at senior B, where it’s entirely possible that one of their biggest championship rivals could be their parish rivals Clonbullogue. At the other end of the county, Tubber and Ballycumber will be consistent and balanced, albeit possibly still a little bit lacking in terms of the potency of the two championship front runners, while the longer that Gracefield spend in the second tier makes it tougher and tougher for them to climb back up to senior.
St Rynagh’s won’t give up too many scores but they too look a little bit short up front and are unlikely to consistently hit the 15 scores a game that will be needed to prevail, while Erin Rovers and Walsh Island will meet in Durrow tonight (Friday) and the loser of that game will be on the back foot straight away in terms of relegation.
When it comes to intermediate championship, Raheen will start as tentative favourites. Daingean will fancy their chances against anyone but possibly lack the consistency needed, while on paper at least, Ferbane might be the better of the two second teams, given that they had to deal with a huge injury list last year, but this time around it’s Tullamore who are
bedevilled in that regard. Ballycommon may struggle to compete unless they can get David Dempsey back to full fitness very soon and Clodiagh Gaels are very clearly a hurling-first club now, so if there is to be a dark horse emerging from the pack, we’d lean towards Shannonbridge as opposed to St Brigid’s as the side that might yet have a say in the championship.
Maughan steps away
John Maughan leaves the Offaly senior football manager’s role with most supporters in the county feeling a considerable measure of gratitude for his work over the past four years, while at the same time there is an appreciation that a change of direction was needed. Players have frequently testified to how the Mayo native has set very high standards across the board and how that shift in culture was certainly required. However there were clashes with some players this year, and when an injury crisis hit, it was exacerbated by those absences. Michael Duignan stated on a recent podcast that Declan Kelly has ruled himself out of consideration for the role, which seems to leave a clear path for Tomás Ó Sé to take over, provided of course that the former Kerry player doesn’t have his head turned by other possible appointments, such as the U-20 gig in his native county.
2023 offers the world of potential for Offaly, with at least half a dozen key players likely to come back into contention for selection and several more underage stars also getting a lot closer to reaching the physical standard needed to make an impact at senior level.
Consequently, getting an early appointment locked down so the next man up, whether it’s Ó Sé or someone else, can take in a lot of domestic football action over the next two months and more seems vital.