Tullamore the team to beat in Offaly Senior Football Championship

IN the midst of a great golden era, Tullamore are very much the team to beat in the Tullamore Court Hotel Senior Football Championship.

They got two big monkeys off their back last year, retaining the championship for the first time since 1926 and winning their first Leinster club game since 1977.

The appointment of former Mayo manager Stephen Rochford as their coach this week is a further indication of their ambition, though it will also motivate their opponents in Offaly.

Tullamore will be aiming to win three in a row for the first time since 1926 in 2025 and it will be very difficult to knock them off their pedestal.

The injured Diarmuid Egan will miss most of the campaign and is a big loss while Harry Plunkett and Daire McDaid are on playing sanctions in America. Tullamore can cushion absentees better than anyone else in Offaly and they are odds on title favourites.

In Cormac Egan, John Furlong and an emerging Cillian Bourke, they have three of the best footballers in Offaly. Diarmuid Egan, Aaron Leavy, Daire McDaid and Oisin Keenan-Martin were also on the Offaly senior football panel this year and Tullamore are a real force of nature.

Yet they can be beaten and that will give great hope to their big rivals. Tullamore don't have a real marquee forward, they can play their football a bit too safe at times and they don't always put teams away when they are on the ropes.

Yet they have a great ability of finding a way to win tough, tight games and they have terrific hunger for success.

Ferbane, Edenderry and Rhode are their main rivals, Shamrocks are dark horses with an outside chance of some sort and Bracknagh, Clonbullogue, Durrow and Ballycommon almost certainly can't win the Dowling Cup.

The format has changed this year after last year's farcical championship when every team qualified from the group. The top team in each group makes the semi-final with second and third criss-crossing in two quarter-finals.

They are also hoping to bring the championship back up to ten teams. After the decision of last year's beaten senior B finalists, Cappincur not to avail of the opportunity of promotion, it will consist of nine teams this year and there will be no relegation which takes the pressure off the weaker teams.

Group 1 consists of Ferbane, Edenderry, Durrow, Ballycommon and Rhode. Durrow and Ballycommon are capable of surprises but all recent form points towards Ferbane, Edenderry and Rhode qualifying out of this.

Tullamore, Shamrocks, Bracknagh and Clonbullogue are in group 2 and Tullamore and Shamrocks are the clear front runners to emerge from this, even if we harbour some doubts about Shamrocks. Bracknagh are slight favourites to claim third spot but their game with Clonbullogue is a parish derby and it is effectively a 50-50 game with no result a surprise.

Ferbane have been Tullamore's main contenders in recent years. They have been so close in big games and have endured heartbreaking defeats. They remain second favourites but there are doubts. Leon Fox has transferred to Louth and Joe Maher and Ronan McGuire have opted for intermediate football. On the plus side Eoghan Grennan, a promising young player, has returned to fitness but Oisin Kelly is away at the moment and Ferbane look somewhat vulnerable.

They are desperate to add another title to the one won in 2019 but hard defeats can take a toll and sides do run out of road at some stage. Ferbane are at a cross roads and anything could happen for them this year – they could return to the final and they could take one but equally, they could be gone earlier than normal.

Edenderry did very well to win the Division 1 Football League and in Jordan Hayes, Lee Pearson, Rory Egan and Cian Farrell, they have a quartet as good as any club's in this competition. Young players Kaelem Bryan and Cillian Foran are coming onto the scene and Edenderry are definitely contenders. They have a lot of improving to do but they are one of the sides that could beat Tullamore.

Rhode are the big conundrum. The dominant force for over two decades, they didn't make the semi-finals last year and are heading into a transitional, rebuilding phase. Yet there could be another powerful kick from them and in Ruari McNamee, Niall McNamee, Anton Sullivan and Aaron Kellaghan, they have lethal forwards, capable of making hay against any team. They have a good few players in the Winter of their careers and this may mitigate against them but nothing would surprise with Rhode and you write them off at your peril- their opener in Edenderry on Saturday will tell a lot about where they are.

Shamrocks are dreaming big and have the best prospects outside the traditional big four. They have a lot going for them. Jack Bryant and Nigel Dunne are very good forwards and they have real strength and power in players such as David O'Rourke and David O'Toole-Greene. There is quiet optimism in the parish about their title prospects but we don't know yet.

They have read a good bit into last year when they beat Edenderry and Ferbane in the group but the format with every team qualifying was a factor with that. When the real business started, they were blessed to get over Ballycommon in the quarter-final and were well beaten by Ferbane in the semi-final. They may be a year or two away from returning to the land of genuine title contenders and all that we can say with certainty at the moment is that they are heading in the right direction, moving down that road.

It will be an exciting championship and Tullamore's regular failure to put teams away means that they can be taken out. At the same time, they have been the best, most consistent team in Offaly over the last five years, they have some truly exciting footballers and if they vast majority of people were handed a free €1,000 bet for the championship, they would put it on Tullamore.

Verdict – Tullamore.

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First round games

Group 1 Round 1

Ferbane v Ballycommon in Ferbane: Friday, July 18 7.15pm

Verdict – Ferbane.

Edenderry v Rhode in Edenderry: Saturday, July 19 7pm

Verdict – Edenderry.