Shamrocks' shock wins brings Offaly Senior Football Championship to life as knockout picture emerges

WITH two rounds completed, a clear picture of the knockout stages has begun to emerge in the Tullamore Court Hotel Senior Football Championship.

Surprise packets Shamrocks are assured of top spot in group 2 with a round to spare and will play the losers of Ballycommon and Bracknagh in one quarter-final. The winners of Tullamore and Rhode will top group 1 and will play the bottom team in group 2, Durrow in the other quarter-final.

The losers of Tullamore and Rhode and the winners of Ballycommon and Bracknagh will play Ferbane and Edenderry in the other two quarter-finals – the losers of Tullamore and Rhode will play the losers of Edenderry and Ferbane in the quarter-final with the winners of Ballycommon and Bracknagh playing the winners of Edenderry and Ferbane.

In spite of the controversial decision to eliminate any knockout element from the group stages with all eight teams qualifying for the quarter-finals, the championship has provided much greater entertainment than we expected.

The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly the clubs have treated it with full respect, fielded near enough full strength teams and with only a couple of exceptions, have gone at games with full intensity.

And secondly, Shamrocks' achievement in topping group 2 against all odds and expectations has really brightened up the championship, showing what is possible for the clubs outside the four front runners, Tullamore, Rhode, Edenderry and Ferbane.

They recorded a second excellent shock win last Friday, adding the scalp of Edenderry to Ferbane who they took out in the first round. The Rahan-Mucklagh outfit lived dangerously late on as Edenderry piled the pressure on but broke in injury time with Nigel Dunne fisting over the winner in a 1-9 to 0-11 win.

The manner in which Shamrocks have turned a corner has caught people by surprise. They were much closer to relegation last year and with key players out and injured, it looked like staying up was the summit of their ambitions this year – Shane O-Toole-Greene, Paddy Dunican, Alan Heffernan are away while All-Ireland U-20 winning captain Kieran Dolan is out for the season as he recovers from a horrific knee injury. Andrew Delaney, midfielder last year, has also been unavailable to date.

The return of one emigrant, David O'Toole-Greene has been pivotal to Shamrocks' renaissance as he has been outstanding at centre half forward in their two games and gave a man of the match performance against Edenderry. Shamrocks expect Paddy Dunican to return from abroad in the coming weeks while Andrew Delaney may also come back into the equation. While they will be reluctant to start either straight away, this duo will greatly strengthen Shamrocks. While Dunican has made his name as a goalkeeper for Offaly, Shamrocks will be using him as an outfield player – he played in the attack for Offaly at underage level and would be an attacking and midfield option for Shamrocks. All-Ireland U-20 winning goalkeeper Sean O'Toole is an automatic selection in goals and made a couple of crucial, outstanding saves against Edenderry.

A big flaw in the format is that Shamrocks could win all three group games and still be relegated while a team could lose all three and win the Dowling Cup – though only Bracknagh, Ballycommon and Durrow can achieve that particular distinction and there is no evidence to suggest that any of them will win the title.

As things stand, the four beaten quarter-finalists will clash in two relegation semi-finals with the losers here meeting to decide who drops back to senior “B”. That could change, however, as a structures committee has been set up to make recommendations for the format next year. They will almost certainly recommend a ten team Senior Football Championship which would mean there will be no relegation and the two senior “B” finalists will be promoted. They will almost certainly re-introduce a knockout element into the group stages but they are only in the discussions stage at the moment, so we don't know what the format will be.

Ferbane also struck a late winner in a very hard earned 1-14 to 2-10 win over an improved Durrow in the other group 2 clash, played in Ferbane on Saturday evening. After losing to Shamrocks in the first round and with Belmont hurlers having lost their opening two championship matches, Ferbane desperately needed a win and were very relieved to edge it on home turf after Durrow rallied powerfully late on to put themselves on the brink of a surprise.

Durrow are better than their position indicates and have the potential of a big result but their problem is that will now have to do that against Tullamore or Rhode and that is a big ask.

Those results mean that the final round clash between Shamrocks and Durrow is a dead rubber. Shamrocks can't be denied top spot as they have beaten both Ferbane and Edenderry and will be top on the head to head if they do lose. Durrow can't get off the bottom of the table, also on the head to head rule as they have lost to both Ferbane and Edenderry.

The stakes, however, are considerably higher in the meeting of Ferbane and Edenderry where the losers will have to take on Rhode or Tullamore – Shamrocks' success means that one of the four big guns will be gone in the quarter-finals and that has certainly helped salvage the championship format.

Group 1 results went entirely as predicted last week. Rhode looked good when beating Ballycommon by 2-11 to 0-7 while Tullamore played within themselves as they coasted to a 3-11 to 1-5 win over Bracknagh.

So far, Tullamore and Rhode have been the most impressive teams but have only played Ballycommon and Bracknagh and the jury must remain out for another few weeks.

The final round of group fixtures have been fixed for Sunday, August 25 – with quarter-final pairings to be decided, they all take place at different venues at the same time.

There are a couple of take away points in the final round. The meeting of Shamrocks and Durrow doesn't matter at all as their final placings won't be affected. There is plenty of incentive in the Tullamore v Rhode and Edenderry v Ferbane games. The real anomaly, however, is in the Ballycommon v Bracknagh clash. It is not something either manager will be considering or either club can say loudly but you can be certain that it will be on the back of the mind of all involved that they may be better off losing this.

The reward for losing is a quarter-final v Shamrocks while the winners play Ferbane or Edenderry. Shamrocks' performances earn complete respect and merit. They have been playing close to the peak of their powers, clearly enjoying their football and showing great heart. However, Ballycommon or Bracknagh would still have a better chance of beating them in a quarter-final than Ferbane or Edenderry, despite the questions that surround those two, particularly Ferbane.

Recent games between Bracknagh and Shamrocks have been very close with almost nothing in them while Ballycommon would relish taking on Shamrocks.

The semi-final draw is also mapped out with the winners of the quarter-finals involving the two group winners seeded in separate semi-finals.

Still it makes it all very interesting, and the final round of group fixtures all take place at 3.30pm on August 25:

Group 1

Rhode v Tullamore in Daingean;

Ballycommon v Bracknagh in Geashill.

Group 2

Edenderry v Ferbane in O'Connor Park;

Shamrocks v Durrow in Clara.

All the results in the Offaly Football Championships and the up to date tables