Blues can edge out Ferbane and end long wait to retain crown

By Kevin Egan

It’s no slight on the footballers of Tullamore or Ferbane to say that if you’re not a member of one of those two clubs, then Sunday’s county final (Glenisk O’Connor Park, 4pm) might not get the pulse racing quite as much as some previous deciders.

The two clubs have done their jobs this year, they’ve been clearly the two best teams in the championship, and they’ve earned their slot in the showpiece final.

There is also no novelty to the game, the championship as a whole never really caught fire, and there is no sense that Offaly football is in a good place. Since Rhode reached the 2016 Leinster senior club final, Offaly clubs have won one match in seven campaigns, tied with Wexford for the worst record in that time. Louth clubs have won three games, and every other county won four or more.

These, however, are concerns for another day. Moreover, one could argue that the fault doesn’t lie with teams like Rhode, Ferbane and Tullamore who are consistently competitive, but the others, who have failed to bridge that gap.

The county champions have done exactly what was expected of them this year, winning all five championship starts, four of them with a considerable degree of comfort. New players have stepped up to freshen up the group and keep everything sharp, with Cillian Bourke in particular playing like one of the brightest teenage prospects in the county.

There are times when Tullamore’s style of play doesn’t necessarily win a lot of admirers, but in a world where the object of the exercise is to score more than the opposition, then a group can hardly be faulted for playing to their strengths and putting in place a structure that gives up tallies of 2-5, 1-5, 0-5, 1-3 and 0-5 across five matches.

Ferbane’s start to the championship was a lot less convincing, and while disjointed showings against Shamrocks and Durrow in the first two outings could be forgiven in the context of a championship where every team was going to play a quarter-final, the reward for beating Edenderry was tangible and still Ferbane failed to turn a six-point lead into a win, meaning they were thrust into a do-or-die battle with Rhode.

In hindsight, that was exactly what the club needed. They came through that battle, and when they bounced back from a slow start against Shamrocks and came back to win well, it looked like everything was back in order.

However, that victory came at a cost, with David Nally initially illustrating his value with two excellent points, before being helped off the field with a shoulder injury that is likely to rule him out for Sunday’s final. There is still plenty of depth in Ger Rafferty’s panel, but the impact that a player like Nally can make on a game is not something that is easily defended, or replicated.

The range of scoring threats in the Ferbane attack means that they will pose a much tougher test to the Tullamore defence than anything that the county town side have faced thus far. Cathal Flynn has been operating much deeper than usual this year and affecting the game in ways that people mightn’t have expected – he was a key factor in the kickout battle against Shamrocks, for example – but he still can’t be ruled out as a scoring threat.

With Jack Clancy on one wing and Brian Carroll on the other, another young player that has made huge strides forward in 2024, Tullamore have to respect the fact that scores can come from anywhere across the forward line.

Nonetheless, in a game where it’s impossible to imagine a scenario where either side is past the post with 45 minutes played, the bench will be crucial, and a look at the options available to Niall Stack – including Niall Furlong, Mike Fox, Ciarán Egan and Seán McCabe, who has made a remarkable transition from the oval ball code in recent years – makes it very hard to look past a first title retention for the Blues since 1926.