Raheen the big losers as Offaly IFC bursts into life

THE Offaly Intermediate Football Championship burst into life quite spectacularly on Friday evening when surprise results emerged in both groups and one of the favourites, Raheen ended up as shock casaulties.

The final round of group games took place at the same time at different venues and when the dust settled, Daingean and St Brigid's have qualified for the semi-finals as group winners – they will be in opposite semi-finals with a draw determining who plays which quarter-final winners.

The quarter-final pairings are: Erin Rovers v Ballinagar and Tullamore v Ferbane. The relegation play off is between Raheen and Shannonbridge.

The presence of Ballinagar and Ferbane in the quarter-finals came as a surprise. Ferbane booked their place with a very good 2-12 to 1-10 win over Shannonbridge in group 1, where St Brigid's maintained their very good form by taking top spot with a 0-13 to 0-9 victory over Erin Rovers.

The real drama was in group 2 and the big losers were Raheen. Beaten by Clonbullogue and Ballycommon in the last two finals, Raheen looked to be well equipped to make it third time lucky this year but results conspired against them as they went out in very dramatic circumstances.

Firstly, the Geashill based club didn't do what they needed to themselves as they lost by 1-9 to 0-11 to an improving Tullamore. Level in injury time, a draw would have been enough to send Raheen through but instead Tullamore got the winning point from a Pa Cosgrove sideline just before the final whistle.

Raheen's worse nightmare came true when they received word that their parish rivals, Ballinagar had rallied powerfully in the final quarter to shock table toppers, Daingean, 2-7 to 0-10, in the other group 2 encounter. Anything other than a Ballinagar win would have kept Raheen in the championship but last year's junior champions produced their best display of the season to survive. Morgan Tynan and Aaron Gorman got their crucial goals and then after Daingean got on top, Ballinagar got a run of late points to march on.

Daingean were already into the semi-final, irrespective of the result here and defeats for teams in this situation is a frequent occurence at every level – it isn't that they don't try but the stakes are just not high enough for them to treat it as a must win game.

Raheen were gutted to bow out and will reflect with regret on the year. They had looked good in the second half of their first round win over Ballinagar but never really recovered from deeply sad off field events in the wake of that and those events escalated last week – two of their players were involved in a car accident on the day after the Ballinagar game and a female passenger in the other car passed away late last week and was buried on Saturday.

Raheen now find themselves with the difficult task of trying to pick themselves up for a relegation play off where they will be favourites but on thin ice.

Missing county star, Dylan Hyland, Raheen lost to Daingean in their next game – Hyland was back for the Tullamore game and got most of their scores.

With Raheen gone, the championship is wide open. Daingean may be slight favourites now but all the remaining teams can dream of glory and no one will be putting big money on the winners.