2024 review: Plenty of talking points outside football's top tier

By Kevin Egan

While each club all the way along the adult football championships has their own story to tell in 2024, when we zoom out, there were a handful of overarching narratives that defined the club football season as a whole. The record books will show that in addition to Tullamore winning the Dowling Cup, Clonbullogue, Ballinagar, Edenderry, Durrow and Ballyskenach-Killavilla walked away with county titles - but this opportunity to review gives us the chance to look that little bit deeper at the lessons that we learned from the football that took place outside the top tier in 2024.

Success stories in new territory

Both Clonbullogue and Ballinagar will compete at the highest level that they ever have in their clubs’ histories in 2025, after they both continued their upward momentum with county final victories that can reasonably be described as ‘against the odds’. These are two clubs with some of the brightest young talents in the county and it was heartening to see the way that some of those players stepped up and showed real leadership at various stages in the campaign. In Ballinagar’s case, it's a campaign which may have another while to run with an All-Ireland junior semi-final coming up.

Historically, many of Offaly’s best teams were built around senior panels that had a sprinkling of players from the traditional powerhouses of Rhode, Tullamore, Edenderry etc., but that also had a good spread of players that were used to being the main man for their own clubs. The likes of Diarmuid Finneran, Geordi O’Meara, Robbie Gallagher, Jack McEvoy and Keith O’Neill all showed similar spirit in big games this year, and for that reason alone they will be big additions to the Senior A and Senior B grades in 2025.

Daingean, St Brigid’s and Clodiagh Gaels are other clubs that might feel like they let county final places slip from their grasp this past Autumn, but they have a solid platform from which they will hope to regroup and mount a decent assault on silverware next year, which will no doubt shorten the winter for the players involved.

Demographic shifts starting to show

Drawing serious conclusions from just one year will no doubt have all my old maths and statistics teachers looking up my number to tell me that their efforts were wasted on me, and yet at the same time it’s hard to look around at the struggles of the various clubs in the west and not wonder if something more is happening than just the tide going out for a while.

There’s no doubt that Erin Rovers were desperately unlucky to be relegated, given that they topped their group and they only lost out to Kilcormac-Killoughey because so many of the hurlers decided to tog out for that one games. That being said, the numbers game is just weighing against the Pullough club at least as forcefully as it is with any club in Offaly, and probably more so. Their passion for football is as strong as it is anywhere, but their representation on St Manchan’s underage teams is getting smaller, and this year’s results will sting.

The longer term prognosis for Doon is a little better, but they’re still well off the pace for now at a low grade of football, while Shannonbridge will feel that they left a junior title behind them, and one that should have been theirs for the taking.

Ballycumber have been neither up nor down for a long time and that sort of stagnation creates its own challenges when it comes to trying to energise the younger generations, but they continue to play at a competitive level at least. Demographics is not as much of a factor in St Rynagh’s, but there is a narrow window for the Cloghan club to get things right, or else the momentum from their strong underage results in recent years will be lost.

Ferbane go against the grain a little here, with their intermediates in the middle of the pack and the junior 'B' team reaching a county final, but overall, the west looks like it’s losing ground consistently.

Some traditional powers continue to struggle

The lack of variety at the very top table in Offaly is an ongoing issue, and a big part of that comes back to a handful of clubs that historically are contenders at the highest level, all struggling to get close to where they need to be.

A last minute Cappincur goal cost Clara a county semi-final and also cost them a place in Senior 'A' football in 2025 regardless of whether the county opts to go back to a ten-team senior championship or not. But there’s no doubt that this needs to be a moment of reckoning in the club. When they were relegated out of the top tier a few years ago, they bounced back well with championship glory the following year, and a run to a Leinster final, where they ultimately lost out to eventual All-Ireland finalists Trim.

Clara is still a well-populated town, they haven’t been weighed down with underage silverware but they have consistently produced one or two very talented individuals each year. And while some allowance can be made for the serious strides that the Magpies have made on the hurling field, it still feels like they struggle to get players to kick on to the next level, once they graduate to the adult ranks.

It could be argued that Gracefield are even further down the same track, and setting that ship back on course will be a particular challenge. The success of the Portarlington club across the river doesn’t help when it comes to attracting new players into the club and that will be the biggest challenge facing officials right now, but equally, if both Cappincur and Bracknagh are taken out of their way in Senior 'B' next year, then they need to position themselves, alongside Tubber, as the biggest threat to Clara. Their narrow quarter-final defeat to eventual champions Clonbullogue would suggest that they’re not as far off as all that.

If we go by the history books, then 12-time SFC champions Walsh Island should be included in this bracket, but the situation is different there in what is probably the least populated of the three St Broughan’s clubs.

Nonetheless, dropping to the third tier will still be seen as a disappointment, and going into a championship where three of their title rivals in 2025 will be second teams will be a culture shock for a club that has traditionally competed at a much higher level.

Positive trends at Junior 'B' and 'C' level

Three groups in the Junior 'B' championship and four groups in Junior 'C' - while not the type of thing that normally catches the eye of the casual supporter - was one of the hidden good news stories this year. Clubs that historically fielded two adult teams added a third, and some small clubs even broke new ground by adding a second team.

The wider issue of emigration and the sustainability of life for younger people in rural Ireland is not something that GAA clubs can do too much about, but building up bigger playing numbers, even if those panels are often padded out with players that will only even be Junior 'B' and 'C' footballers, is the best way of future-proofing any club, regardless of gender or code.