Cloghan aim to sabotage Tullamore's big clean sweep bid in Offaly Minor Football Championship Final

THE curtain will come down on the Offaly club championship season on Sunday next with one of the most eagerly anticipated games of the year. A meeting of Tullamore and Cloghan in a Minor Football Championship final would be interesting enough on its own but with Tullamore bidding for a historic clean sweep of the underage football championships, it will generate much more attention than normal.

It has been a sensational year for Tullamore so far. They have won the U-13, 15 and 20 Football Championships in addition to the senior football and will be hoping to complete the full collection on Sunday next in O'Connor Park.

It is not the first time a big clean sweep has been attempted in Offaly underage football. Clara completed a very special one back in 1995 when they won the U-12, 14, 16 and Minor Football Championship – the grades changed to U-13, 15 and 17 a few years ago. They didn't win the then U-21 or the Senior Football Championship but Clara's achievement in 1995 was an absolutely gigantic one.

Tullamore won Senior, U-21 and Minor Football Championships back in 1977 with a few players playing in all three finals.

Tullamore's dominance this year has been noted by every other club in Offaly football. The county's biggest club and population centre has got seriously well organised at underage football level in recent years and 2023 is a reflection of the work that has been put in. The implications for other clubs are a story for another day and in any event, no one knows what will happen anyway.

Tullamore's retention rate of players from underage into adult is considerably lower than most rural clubs while they don't have a tradition of dominating for long periods, despite their presence at, or very close to, the top of the roll of honour in most football grades.

Their minor football team management will not be speaking about clean sweeps, making history or setting records in the build up to the final. They will be trying to shield the players from this, insisting that it is just another game that has to be won and that this is a standalone team – something that is not quite correct as some of the younger players have already won U-15 medals and a couple of the older ones were on the U-20 winning side.

It is something that is being talked about in the town and in the wider county and it is a factor that is heightening interest in this final. Tullamore, however, will also be very conscious of the fact that it will take a huge performance to win this.

Normally Tullamore would be the favourites for this and while you could still give them that rating, there is a strong case to be made for backing Cloghan. Cloghan won the U-15 football title in 2021, destroying St Vincent's in the final while they were pipped by Rhode in a magnificently entertaining U-13 final two years earlier – an epic, high scoring shootout required extra time to separate them before Rhode won by 5-15 to 6-10.

Amazingly, history almost repeated itself in the minor football semi-final last Sunday when Rhode and Cloghan again went to extra time – but this time, the west Offaly amalgamation survived, winning another thrilling battle that was full of swings and round-abouts,4-10 to 2-12.

It should be a very close game and the two finalists progressed out of the same group – Rhode topped it with seven points, Cloghan were second on 6 and Tullamore qualified third on 5. Cloghan won their earlier meeting, 4-4 to 1-9 where their ability to score goals dictated the outcome.

Cloghan had lost, 2-10 to 1-10, to Rhode in their first game, they beat Clara by 0-5 to 0-4 and got a walkover from Shamrocks in their final game. A regular stream of goals saw Tullamore beat Clara by 6-6 to 1-9 in the first round while they destroyed Shamrocks, 7-21 to 1-3 and drew, 1-8 to 2-5, with Rhode in their other games.

Goals were the difference for both Cloghan and Tullamore in their quarter-finals where Cloghan defeated St Vincent's by 6-8 to 1-8 and Tullamore ousted Na Fianna, 4-6 to 0-7. In the semi-final, Tullamore were pushed hard to beat Ferbane-Belmont by 1-11 to 0-6.

Tullamore should benefit from having just one club whereas the St Rynagh's based Cloghan have the pick of a handful of clubs across south Offaly. However, Cloghan have been targeting this championship for a long time and you can be absolutely sure that they have the right volume of work done.

There are outstanding players on both sides. Tullamore will be confident of winning the midfield battle as Cillian Bourke and Davin Keegan played there for their excellent U-20 side – Bourke is one of the brightest emerging prospects in Offaly. However, Cloghan have a huge amount going for them – Ballyskenach twins, Rob and Fionn Carney are two of the best minor footballers in Offaly and are pivotal to their chances.

It may be very unusual to see Ballyskenach players progress to a decent level in football but the Carney's got going at a young age and their experience from U-13 level on with Cloghan has clearly whetted their appetite – the wide pick Cloghan have has generated some debate over the years but the development and emergence onto county teams of players like the Carney's very much shows the benefits of it.

They will have a big bearing on this final. Rob is a physically strong player who will be running straight at the Tullamore defence while Fionn is a delightfully skilful footballer with an eye for the posts. They both played well for Offaly minor footballers this year and another county player, Tullamore's Patrick Kenna is likely to be tasked with marking one of them – Kenna is a very solid, reliable defender.

St Rynagh's Niall Flannery, Aaron Molloy and Harry Grant also played on the Offaly minor football side this year and they had a bigger representation than Tullamore, which does say something. Molloy is a very good forward with rich Tullamore heritage seeping through his veins – his father Larry, who moved to Banagher several years ago, was a very good Tullamore footballer in the late 1980s, early 1990s, and played for them in their 1992 senior football final defeat by Ferbane.

It's a very hard game to call. It is set up for Tullamore to make history and you can be fairly sure of them performing more or less at the best of their ability. There are more doubts about Cloghan in this regard as they possess a couple of flair players who may or may not click on the day – Cloghan, however, have absolutely no shortage of character and they showed this against Rhode last Sunday.

It will be very interesting to watch it all unfold and Cloghan certainly have the ability to dash Tullamore's hopes of history.

Verdict – Cloghan.