Ferbane’s time could come but Tullamore remain favourites for elusive three in a row

OFFALY GAA supporters will experience an acute case of Deja-vu when referee Marius Stones throws in the ball in the Senior Football Championship final next Sunday in O’Connor Park, Tullamore.

It will be the third consecutive final between Tullamore and Ferbane and will all feel very familiar to both partisan and neutral supporters - this may well impact adversely on the attendance but there is no shortage of subplots to provide discussion, attract interest.

Tullamore are looking for their first three in a row since 1926 and are in the middle of a golden era, one of their best ever. They banished two major monkeys off their back last year as thy retained the championship for the first time since 1926 when they completed that three in a row and won their first Leinster club game since 1977.

It is their sixth final in a row and they are aiming for their fourth win since 2000. It is a remarkably sustained and consistent run by the county’s biggest population centre, a proud club who have endured their share of famine and long, dark days. They could very easily be going for a record equalling six in a row. Rhode denied them in the 2020 and 2022 finals by a combined three points and both of those games could have been won.

They also got away with ones in some of their wins. Rhode took them to a replay in 2021 and they fell across the line to an extent in their 2023 and 2024 final wins over Ferbane.

Tullamore have been the favourites from day one this year and carry that tag into the final but they are coming up against a ravenously hungry Ferbane.

If ever a team deserves their day in the sun, it is Ferbane. They have been also been very consistent for a decade. They have been in every semi-final and lost finals in 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2024. Rhode, then at the peak of their powers, were way too strong for them in 2016 and 2018 but Ferbane have been remarkably consistent since then.

They turned the tables spectacularly on Rhode in the 2019 final, getting away for a richly deserved 2-13 to 0-14 win. That was a hugely emotional occasion for all in Ferbane as it ended a long 25 year famine since they won their last – their win in 1994 had drawn the curtain down on a terrific era for the club, winning seven titles from 1986, including a famous five in a row from 1986 to 1990.

As Ferbane celebrated wildly in 2019, they would have done so with full confidence that it wouldn’t take them long to have an encore. It hasn’t happened and they now enter Sunday’s final with their huge hunger countered by the fear of another loss to Tullamore.

While Rhode had other powerful kicks in the tail and won two more championships, it was clear back at the turn of the 2020s that some form of a decline was both imminent and unavoidable. They have continued to battle with great heart, striving to remain in the top four, but the evidence of this has been shown by the fact that this will be the third county final without a Rhode team competing – that hasn’t happened since before they ended their own traumatic twenty three year famine when winning the Dowling Cup in 1998.

Ferbane seemed to be in pole position to capitalise on Rhode's slippage but the arrival of a multi-talented, superbly efficient Tullamore team changed the goalposts for them and everyone else in Offaly football. A golden generation arrived as stars of the 2021 All-Ireland U20 football champions, Cormac Egan, John Furlong, Oisin Keenan-Martin established themselves.

Other players came on their heels while a hardcore of very important, experienced players staying on. Some of these have fifteen years senior football experience – Declan Hogan will start in Sunday’s final while Michael Brazil will have his usual important role to play.

Another of these great club servants, Paul McConway lined out at corner back last year and is now the manager. With Niall Stack at the helm and the old rules in play, Tullamore were supremely efficient at playing to their strengths, grinding out results and doing the most important thing for any team, winning games. It wasn’t always pretty and their tendency to pass laterally or backwards often frustrated their own, opposing and neutral supporters. Yet it worked, the roll of honour proves it effectiveness and Niall Stack has been Tullamore’s most successful manager ever.

After winning two in a row and a Leinster club game last year and with young daughters making progress in soccer, 2024 was a natural time for Stack to call time on his reign as manager but McConway’s appointment was a surprise. He has sat in the same dressing room as all these players and managing them has to represent an occasionally problematic transition but Tullamore have powered on relentlessly.

They pulled off a stunning coup when bringing former Mayo manager Stephen Rochfort in as coach before the championship started. Tullamore had relinquished their Division 1 Football League crown to Edenderry when Rochfort came in and it was a appointment that drew attention far outside Offaly boundaries. It was a serious statement of intent and ambition by Tullamore and it also showed their potential – you can be sure that Rochfort would not have accepted every offer he got to be coach and manager and he wouldn’t have come to Tullamore without them being very good.

It was also necessary as Tullamore’s management team was a novice one at that stage with a Gracefield man, Niall Smith in as coach and the package finding their way. Birr man, Stephen Lonergan also came on board and while Rochfort’s influence and impact has been obvious, the whole set-up seems to be working very well.

There had been a theory that Tullamore would struggle with the new rules. It was of course rubbish and so it has proved as the rules have freed up players to play a more attacking, expressive game. They have gone from being quite difficult to watch to being a joy to see in action and they have played some great football. Players like the Fox twins, Mike and Dan had been quite peripheral in their attack under the old rules, always lively and capable of getting important scores but spending long periods out of the game. Their influence has increased dramatically as they have come out of this skins and others are also prospering.

Ferbane in the meantime have displayed incredible fortitude. Apart from the county finals they lost, they have generally lost to the county champions in semi-finals and two of their defeats have been in the most agonising circumstances possible, penalty shootouts. They keep coming back and back and they will travel to O’Connor Park on Sunday fully believing their day will come.

Things have changed between this year and last year. They have the same management with Cloghan man Ger Rafferty in his third year as manager but there have been changes in personnel. Leon Fox transferred to Louth, Joe Maher opted to play intermediate and others have been injured. They have cut their cloth to measure. Conor Dunican and Aaron McCabe have been re-invented as defenders and Dunican in particular is likely to have been marked down as a potential county footballer by Declan Kelly and Mickey Harte after some outstanding displays.

Former county hurler Paddy Clancy has returned from Australia and is likely to start. Kyle Higgins is on his way back from injury and their team is moving well.

Tullamore breezed through their group campaign. Their easy wins over Bracknagh and Clonbullogue were predictable while Shamrocks just didn’t perform against them.

Ferbane were more hot and cold and for a while, it seemed their form had dipped from last year. They got out of their group easily enough with wins over Ballycommon and Durrow but only got one point from their big tests, losing to Rhode and drawing with Edenderry. The group meant they could operate in a comfort zone as wins over Durrow and Ballycommon would put them through and they achieved that. They got away with one in the quarter-final against Shamrocks, lucky to win with an Adam Egan point incorrectly awarded as a two pointer.

Against Edenderry in the semi-final, they were evenly matched in the first half and Ferbane blew them out of the water in the second half. They played some of their best football in years and it will serve them very well for the final.

Tullamore had a problem this year in that their group games were just too one sided, in no way competitive. It left them a bit fragile in the semi-final and they weren’t at their best as they saw off Rhode. At the same time, they always looked like they would win and they were clearly the better team. It could have went wrong but semi-finals are all about winning and Tullamore did produce some outstanding football.

This game will showcase some of the best footballers in Offaly. Tullamore have three in John Furlong, Cormac Egan and Cillian Bourke – the possibility of this being Bourke’s last game in Offaly for some time and him going to play professionally in Australia looms large over this final. Cathal Flynn has been in breathtaking form for Ferbane, arguably the most gifted all round footballer in Offaly at the minute and he is at the epi-centre of so much of what they do. The presence of these players is one of the great attractions in this final.

While Tullamore have looked unbeatable at times, no one is and they are well capable of losing this. Ferbane will last the distance here and they know they are capable of beating Tullamore. Tullamore were definitely the better team in an awful 2023 final but Ferbane could have snatched it at the end. Last year was much tighter with Tullamore winning by 0-15 to 0-14 and some big refereeing decisions under scrutiny in Ferbane afterwards.

It should be a similarly tight game and these can always swing either way. No one in Offaly would begrudge Ferbane a win. These players deserve a win but sentiment doesn’t come into it. Tullamore are masters at winning these type of games and they have had the measure of Ferbane, irrespective of how close they have been. The semi-finals suggest that Ferbane have a terrific chance. If they replicate their second half form against Edenderry and Tullamore play the way they did against Rhode, Ferbane will probably win but the final will be different.

Ferbane won’t have the space Edenderry granted them and Tullamore will focus on not allowing Cathal Flynn to run the game. Ferbane could get the breaks they need to win, Tullamore could run out of road and a Ferbane win is a definite possibility. At the same time, we expect Tullamore to be considerably better than they were against Rhode. The return from Diarmuid Egan from injury is a big help to them. He was instrumental in them getting over the line against Rhode and he will have a big influence here. The older brother of Cormac, Tullamore have a call to make on whether to start him or not. It would be hard to leave off a player who has played all year at this stage but a fit Egan would be more or less an automatic on the Offaly team, never mind Tullamore, and it is a no-brainer when looked on that way.

SEE NEXT: Offaly women celebrate as Athlone Town complete league and cup double

It should be another great occasion, a compelling game. It will be all very familiar to everyone and there is a significant possibility that the outcome will be the same: Tullamore edging home and Ferbane licking their wounds once again.

Verdict – Tullamore.