Champions K-K the team to beat and will have eyes on Leinster

By Kevin Egan

Say what you like about the Offaly football championships as they are currently constituted, but when it comes to the small ball, the local scene looks set to explode into life.

An enjoyable few weeks and months lie ahead on the club hurling front, with a host of wide open championships and a noticeably improving standard of play, in no small part due to Offaly turning something of a corner at underage level.

Any championship where seven out of the ten participants will feel that they wouldn’t need a lot right to get into a county final is one worth watching, and that’s even more commendable when we consider that Kilcormac-Killoughey will go into this campaign with one eye on going even deeper into Leinster competition this winter. Neither Shane Hand nor any of his players would admit it publicly, but given how close they were to O’Loughlin Gaels last November - a side that lost an All-Ireland final by the narrowest possible margin - it would suggest a serious lack of ambition if a team with their age profile didn’t feel that they couldn’t improve by four or five points over the course of a year.

There’s not a lot to say about the Double Ks that isn’t stating the obvious. There is incredible depth in the side, they’ve won a championship now and put to bed their run of three defeats in a row in county finals, and as for that sprinkling of magic… say no more. However, when it comes to potential usurpers of their throne waiting in the wings, the list is long, with a host of clubs making strong cases for themselves.

If the chief criterion is talent, then a Ballinamere side where half the likely starting team saw action with the Offaly senior panel this year has to be at the head of the list, closely followed by a Shinrone group that will miss Adrian Cleary, but who arguably had the county’s most improved player of the year in Killian Sampson, not to mention another springer in Luke Watkins.

Three heartbreaking semi-final defeats in succession followed by a down year in 2023 suggested that Belmont had perhaps missed their chance to do something very special. But a comprehensive victory in the recent league final suggested that the new management team has settled in well and is getting a tune out of a group that will be even stronger when they welcome David Nally back to the playing field.

A proven manager like Jeffrey Lynskey wouldn’t have been short of options so he’s not pitching up in Banagher for no reason, and even allowing for the dent in their scoring power that will be created by Aaron Kenny’s absence, there aren’t too many clubs that will match St Rynagh’s for power and ball-winning ability in the middle third of the pitch.

Birr probably have a bit more ground to make up than in previous years, though any team with Emmet and Luke Nolan in the fold will always have the potential to put in a fantastic performance on a given day, while Ian Kerin is a very interesting recruit up front for a team that has plenty of speedy forwards full of craft, but maybe a slight deficit in physical presence in that sector of the field.

At the risk of damning a group of players by faint praise, not since the Lord himself fed 5,000 people with seabass on sourdough has there been a feat of making a little go a long way that could rival Coolderry going as close as they did to the 2021 county title. Even now, they probably don’t have the star quality to be considered among the top contenders – but given their draw, no-one would rule out a second or third placed finish, followed by a humdinger of a quarter-final against a more fancied opponent.

After that, it gets a bit tougher to see a path to glory for any of the remaining contenders. Tullamore will be athletic and scrappy, and since the man in possession is always the more likely winner of a free in a collision situation, they will win enough dead ball chances to give Shane Dooley the chance to win games for them.

There’s probably a little bit more craft in both Seir Kieran and Kinnitty but they’ll still find it hard to put 15 strong and physically fit hurlers on the pitch week in and week out, and most will expect relegation to be decided by those three. Kinnitty have the tougher group, but they are capable of an upset so our hunch is that even if they don’t escape the wooden spoon among their quintet, they’ll be battle hardened and ready to secure survival in a relegation final.

Looking at some of this weekend's games, Belmont are tipped to get past Kinnitty by three or four points after a scrap, and the tie of the round should be etween Coolderry and St Rynagh’s, with the greatest chance of an upset there.

Beneath the top tier, Kilcormac-Killoughey and Clodiagh Gaels are too strong to miss out on the semi-finals of the Senior B championship while a case could be made for each of the other four, but this reporter’s eye is on Lusmagh, who will need a kind run of good health and top of the ground conditions at the business end of the season, but who have the talent to post totals that a lot of other teams at this grade will struggle to match.

Carrig and Riverstown are destined to compete for the Seán Robbins Cup in the next few years, but it might take them a season or two to acclimatize at Senior B level first.

Meanwhile at intermediate, Drumcullen might be the best pick to top their group and carry that momentum through to the end of the season.