Shamrocks likely to agree to go into strong group in new Offaly SFC structure

THE possibility of Shamrocks agreeing to go into the strong group of a new Offaly Senior Football Championship format emerged at a meeting of the Offaly GAA County Board on Tuesday evening.

After some very poor and one sided group games in 2025, a new format for next year with a strong and a weak group was approved by delegates at the October meeting.

It means that the four semi-finalists, Tullamore, Ferbane, Edenderry and Rhode and one of the beaten quarter-finalists, Shamrocks or Bracknagh will be in the strong group. The weak group will consist of Ballycommon, Clonbullogue, Durrow, either Shamrocks or Bracknagh and the senior “B” champions, Ballinagar or Clara.

The Competitions Control Committee initially recommended that a draw will determine which of Bracknagh and Shamrocks goes into the strong and weak group.

However, the CCC secretary Pat Teehan told delegates that the clubs had held discussions recently and may reach agreement – he didn't specify what agreement they were seeking but it is certain to be Shamrocks going into the strong group and Bracknagh into the weak group.

That would be a common sense solution as Shamrocks have improved significantly in the past couple of years and were agonisingly close to eliminating Ferbane in the quarter-final this year. Shamrocks would benefit from being in the strong group, even if it made quarter-final qualification much more difficult whereas Bracknagh would be at nothing in this section and could effectively write off 2026 – the only gold for them in the format would be that they wouldn't have to worry about relegation as the play off to decide who goes back to senior B will be between the bottom two teams in the weak group.

Shamrocks trounced Bracknagh in this year's championship, 4-18 to 2-11 and were much more competitive in the quarter-finals where Bracknagh showed real spirit against Rhode but were still well beaten. Bracknagh have competed very well against Shamrocks in recent years but Shamrocks have clearly moved forward in the past couple of years and are moving into the territory where they could challenge for the title for the first time since the late 2000s.

Had the CCC used their finishing positions in the group as the criteria for deciding who went into the strong group, as they probably should have, it would have been Shamrocks – they finished second in the group with Bracknagh qualifying in third place as well as winning their head to head.

It was agreed to let the CCC decide on the final team in the strong group once Bracknagh and Shamrocks conclude their discussions.

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Under the new format, the top two teams in the strong group will go into the semi-finals with the third and fourth playing the first and second teams in the weak group in two quarter-finals.