Team by team guide to all the team challenging for the Offaly Senior “B” Football Championship

GRACEFIELD

Manager – Adrian Murphy;

Selectors – Brian Brereton, Adrian Dunne;

Captain – Jason Slattery;

Retirements/Long term injuries – Patrick Hurley has been out all year with a shoulder injury but should feature later in the championship;

New players – Craig Weldon;

Last year – Beaten semi-finalists;

Star player – Jamie Evans;

Prospects – Gracefield found themselves in the eye of a storm when they won a technical objection to the DRA over the placings in the groups in the championship. They had already qualified and had no obvious benefit to gain, though the DRA ruled that they were right according to the rule. The objection held up the championship and left a bad taste in the mouth of many people. They were subsequently beaten by Clonbullogue in the semi-final but that is all in the past now and Gracefield have a realistic chance here. They have a lot of very good footballers, though some of them now have a nice bit of mileage up. They won't be far away here and are capable of beating anyone on any given day. Whether they can put three big wins back to back in the knockout stages, however, is the million dollar question.