Offaly senior footballers face derby opener in Leinster championship

OFFALY senior footballers learned their fate in the 2026 Leinster Senior Football Championship when the draw took place on Thursday evening.

Offaly have a derby clash against Laois with the winners playing Kildare in the quarter-final. It is a tough opener for Offaly, who have performed at a higher level and generally had the measure of their neighbours in recent years but suffered a self inflicted late defeat to them in the Tailteann Cup group this year.

If Offaly do survive that, they will face a renewal against Kildare in the quarter-final. These sides have been very familiar with each other in the past year with Offaly beating them in both the league group and Division 3 final but losing to them in the Tailteann Cup quarter-final.

The winners of Kildare v Offaly or Laois will play the winners of Meath v Westmeath or Longford in the semi-final. It still represents a decent draw for Offaly and they can target a Leinster final berth, even if it is a big ask. They were ten points ahead against Meath at half time of the Leinster championship this year but collapsed against the wind in the second half, conceding a heap of two pointers, while they would be of a similar standard to Westmeath and rated higher than Longford.

While Dublin's long run as Leinster champions was ended by Meath this year, all those counties will be glad to be on the opposite half of the draw from a side who will be the pre-championship favourites.

The draw was made on an evening when news broke that one of their most exciting emerging footballers, Cillian Bourke is likely to accept a professional contract with Essendon in the Australian Football League.

There has been speculation about the Tullamore man's future for most of the year and he now looks set to go down under.

2026 will be a big year for Offaly as they big to build on the progress made in 2025 when they won promotion to Division 2 of the National Football League and mounted a challenge for the Tailteann Cup before bowing out to eventual winners, Kildare in that quarter-final.

The draw is:

Quarter-finals

1 - Kildare v Offaly or Laois

2 - Meath v Westmeath or Longford

3 – Louth v Wexford;

4 – Dublin v Carlow or Wicklow.

Semi-finals

1 v 2; 3 v 4.

Fixtures and venues will be made by Leinster Council in the coming weeks. The Offaly v Laois game is likely to be in Tullamore. There is a home and away agreement between Offaly and Laois and Offaly beat them by eight points in Portlaoise in 2024 while the 2025 Tailteann Cup clash was on neutral turf in Newbridge.

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Meanwhile the schedule for the 2026 Senior Hurling Championship was approved at a meeting of the Leinster Council Competitions Control Committee some weeks ago.

The championship gets underway on the weekend of April 18 and 19 with Offaly opening with a home game against Dublin in Glenisk O'Connor Park. 

Also on the opening weekend, defending champions Kilkenny will begin their title defence away to Galway in Pearse Stadium and newly promoted Kildare welcome Wexford to Cedral St Conleths Park.

Round 2 on April 25 and 26 will see Offaly travelling to Pearse Stadium to take on Galway with Kilkenny hosting Wexford and Dublin hosting Kildare. 

After a break week on the first weekend of May, Offaly will be back home in Glenisk O'Connor Park on the weekend of May 9 and 10 to face Kilkenny while Kildare host Galway and Wexford host Dublin. 

Round 4 on May 16 and 17 will see Offaly host Wexford while Kildare travel to Kilkenny and Dublin travel to Galway. 

The final round of group games takes place on May 23 and May 24 with Offaly travelling to Newbridge to play Kildare while Dublin will host Kilkenny and Galway travel to Wexford.

The top two teams after the group stages will go head to head in the Leinster Final on June 6