Ferbane and Rhode clash the standout tie as knockout action looms

By Kevin Egan

Enough with the endless appetisers, it’s finally time for some substance in the Offaly SFC. It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally getting down to some meaningful club action in the county, and the senior championship is top of the bill, with two big double headers this weekend.

The action starts at 3pm tomorrow (Saturday) with the meeting of Edenderry and Bracknagh. In one sense, this is a decent draw for Bracknagh who will feel that they can sit back, absorb the pressure, ideally double mark Cian Farrell and then hope for their own pace and flair up front to maybe secure a shock win.

Realistically, it shouldn’t happen. Injuries to Mark Abbott and Seán Doyle robbed the Edenderry attack of a few important weapons last time out but it would be a surprise if Doyle doesn’t play at least some part of this game, while at midfield and half-back, Edenderry have the tools to dominate this fixture.

Oddly, if there is to be an upset in the three games where there is a clear and obvious favourite, then we wouldn’t rule out Durrow pulling it off in the second leg of tomorrow’s action. For a whole host of reasons, Tullamore still look like the strongest club in the county, but this is a banana skin of a fixture for a variety of reasons.

Durrow will certainly be able for them in terms of fitness and conditioning, and Ballinamere finishing top of their hurling group means that Durrow should have got effectively a two-week lead in into this game and, as any dual club will tell you, that can be transformative.

In fact, with Tullamore playing big hurling games on each of the past two weekends where players like Niall Furlong, Cillian Bourke, Cormac Egan and Aaron Leavy were all involved, it’s Tullamore manager Niall Stack who might feel that his team isn’t quite as cohesive as it might be. Add in the fact that Durrow lost two games that they would have learned from, and then turned that around to beat Shamrocks convincingly, and this is a tricky tie for the Blues. They should still win, but unlike some other potential fixtures they could have got at this stage, they’re not stone cold certainties.

Ballycommon’s form could certainly be described as stone cold, but they’ve lucked out in the sense that Shamrocks’ flying start will now feel like something of a distant memory. Jack Bryant couldn’t get going against Durrow and their midfield was completely outplayed, so Ballycommon aren’t without hope here.

That said, Pádraig Egan’s side also produced their worst performance of the campaign last time out, and while it was inconsequential in terms of affecting their chances of winning a quarter-final, it’s hard to see a group that scored just 0-7 against Bracknagh suddenly finding a way to accumulate a winning total here – even if this game should be the lowest scoring contest of them all.

Shamrocks should still find a way, though perhaps not in the type of fashion that will intimidate any of their potential semi-final opponents.

By some distance, the tie of the round is Ferbane’s clash with Rhode. Both these sides will be desperately disappointed to have failed to pick up the win they needed in the final round, and they suffered for doing so, as this looks for all the world like a 50/50 clash.

On the Ferbane side, it was a surprise to see Oisín Kelly get so little game time last time out, while David Nally’s calf injury meant he didn’t get on the pitch at all. Ger Rafferty will expect his side to benefit from meaningful contributions from both those players this week, however, even if they are just cameo roles.

Ferbane will be able to look back on the Edenderry game and say that things could have gone very differently. They created a reasonable amount of chances, but didn’t take them, including other goal chances aside from Kevin Nugent’s converted penalty.

Rhode will, on the other hand, be concerned about where the scores will come from in Niall McNamee’s absence. Unlike previous years, the Village do have a bench to call on – last time out they sprung Alan McNamee, Eoin Rigney and Pauric Sullivan, who between them have nearly 30 seasons with Offaly accumulated.

The challenge for Ferbane will be to force Peter Tormey to use those reinforcements earlier than he’d like, and to keep the tempo high throughout the game. If they can do that, they might just find a way to keep their season running in what has been a disappointing year for many adult teams in the parish.