Parish derby intermediate decider to be curtain raiser of Offaly SFC final

A REAL tribal parish derby Intermediate Football Championship final will serve as the curtain raiser to the Offaly Senior Football Championship final in O'Connor Park, Tullamore on Sunday, October 13.

Raheen and Ballinagar will have a 2.15pm throw in with the senior football decider between Tullamore and Ferbane starting at 4.00pm.

It is a very attractive double bill. In intermediate football, both Raheen and Ballinagar pulled off mild surprises when beating Tullamore and St Brigid's in the semi-finals last weekend. Raheen have staged a terrific recovery after losing their three group games, including an opening round defeat to Ballinagar, and their current form means they are the slightest of favourites for the final.

There is a huge shared history between these two neighbouring clubs. Players from Ballinagar played for Raheen for years when junior players were allowed under rule to line out for the senior club in the parish. Half a dozen Ballinagar players played for Raheen as they suffered a very unlucky defeat to Edenderry in the 1985 Senior Football Championship final.

The avenue of playing for two clubs was shut off in 1989 while most of these Ballinagar and Raheen players have played together the whole way up underage ranks with Na Fianna, with some winning U-16 and minor football titles. The clubs almost amalgamated five years ago. Officers of both clubs supported the amalgamation and Ballinagar voted in favour of it but Raheen rejected it – they were just five votes short of the large majority required and a swing of just three votes would have seen them merge.

That all creates a fascinating under current for this final while there are huge family connections between both clubs.

The senior final is a repeat of last year when Tullamore defeated Ferbane by 1-5 to 0-6 in a remarkably low scoring encounter, played in terrible conditions. Both sides performed well to win their semi-finals on Sunday, doing the ground work against the wind in the first half. Ferbane were level at half time after an excellent second quarter and duly went on to win by 2-13 to 2-7. Tullamore controlled their semi-final against Edenderry the whole way and were excellent against the wind in particular. A great Cormac Egan goal and a Daire McDaid penalty put them in the driving seat early on and they had one foot in the final when they led by 2-2 to 0-2 at half time. Tullamore played it safe in the second half but never looked like losing as they eased home by 2-8 to 0-5.

There will also be an enticing double bill in O'Connor Park on Saturday, October 12. The glamour fixture is the Senior “B” Football Championship final between Cappincur and Clonbullogue, which has a 4.15pm throw in. The Junior Football Championship final between Shannonbridge and Edenderry is the curtain raiser here at 2.30pm.

If the weather really deteriorates in the coming week plus, one or both of those Saturday fixtures will be removed. There is no way fixtures makers will allow the senior football final to be the last of four games if the weather gets really wet but as things stand, the pitch is in terrific condition, bone dry and all these games should be able to proceed as fixed.

In the Senior “B” Football Championship semi-finals, Cappincur had a dramatic 1-10 to 1-8 win over Clara on Saturday. Disaster struck when they went behind to an injury time goal to Ed Cullen but Jason Gethings fisted the winning goal right at the death for them. Cappincur were the better side on the day but were a hair's breath away from losing and in the build up to Gethings' goal, as they tried to manufacture an equalising point, they were finger tips away from losing the ball on a couple of occasions.

In the other semi-final, Clonbullogue were the better side as they got away late on for a 0-15 to 1-9 win over Daingean.

Meanwhile, football relegation play offs went ahead last weekend, even though it looks like the senior football ones will be pointless. Senior football will almost certainly go to 10 teams next year and if this happens, there will be no relegation while both senior “B” finalists will be promoted – the beaten senior “B” finalists could stay back if they wished and Clonbullogue in particular will have a call to make if they lose their third consecutive final but the wise option for the two would be to go up. In any event, this won't be a factor at all in Saturday week's final as both give it everything they have.

It looks like Cappincur will be without Brian Norris for the final. Norris played very well in the second half of Saturday's win, scoring two crucial points, but he has to return to Australia for work. Their star player Bill Carroll also has to go abroad for work in the build up, to America, but he will be back for the final. His older brother Eoin missed Saturday's game with a hamstring injury and will be getting intensive work to play some part in the final. He injured himself early in the second half of the quarter-final win over Walsh Island and was picked to start on Saturday but knew he wasn't good to go in the warm up and pulled out shortly before throw in. The vastly experienced Carroll is a key member of the Cappincur management team and his work on the training field has been seen in matches.

In the senior football relegation play offs, Rhode suffered the very rare experience of not scoring in the second half as they held on for a 0-9 to 1-4 win over Ballycommon. They led by 0-9 to 0-1 at half time.

Durrow recovered from a poor display in their quarter-final defeat by Tullamore to waltz to a surprisingly easy win over Bracknagh, 6-9 to 1-5. Bracknagh really fell to pieces in the second half after trailing by 2-5 to 0-4 at half time.

The final play off between Ballycommon and Bracknagh has been fixed for under lights in Croghan on Friday, October 11 – the fixtures must proceed as the championship structures for next year won't be finalised until January. It means they are effectively dead rubbers but both Ballycommon and Bracknagh will want to stay up on merit, rather than availing of a boardroom escape chute.

Relegation will apply in the other grades. The Senior “B” relegation play off between Ballycumber and Walsh Island will take place in Killeigh on Saturday, October 12 at 1.45pm. Tubber defeated Walsh Island last Thursday evening in the relegation semi-final while Gracefield got away from Ballycumber in the second half to retain their status.

Erin Rovers and Kilcormac-Killoughey will meet in the intermediate football relegation final on Thursday, October 10 in Shannonbridge at 7.30pm. Ferbane beat Erin Rovers and St Rynagh's did very well to get the better of Kilcormac-Killoughey in the relegation semi-finals last week.

The junior football relegation play off between Tullamore and Kilclonfert is taking place this Friday, October 4 in Croghan at 7.30pm.