New rules get first airing in entertaining challenge between Colaiste Choilm past pupils and Offaly selection

THE new rules for football got their introduction to the Offaly GAA public at an entertaining challenge game in O'Connor Park on Sunday afternoon.

Senior Football Match for Mumbai

The Faithful Selection 1-28

Colaiste Choilm Past Pupils 1-10

Played to raise funds for the Colaiste Choilm, Tullamore India Immersion Project, past pupils from the school took on a very strong county-like team, dubbed the Faithful Selection.

Official challenge matches for county teams are prohibited for December and this featured a mix of players who will feature on the Offaly senior football panel next year on both teams – the Faithful Selection did not wear Offaly jerseys, instead sporting an all white rig-out.

Colaiste Choilm has been a terrific nursery for Offaly football in recent years with several outstanding players going through the school. Many of them featured here for them with David Dempsey, who is a teacher in the school, Daire McDaid, Cormac Egan, Kevin McDermott and Jack Bryant all starting for Colaiste Choilm – they all played senior football for Offaly in 2024 while their team featured a former county stalwart in Paul McConway.

Offaly joint manager, Declan Kelly, a former student in the school, assisted with the selection of both squads and the Faithful lineup featured a mixture of established county players, ones who will be on the panel in 2025 and ones that could be on it – the Colaiste Choilm squad featured a number of players who will be playing for Offaly in 2025.

It was particularly good to see Kieran Dolan from Shamrocks line out on the Colaiste Choilm team at full back. Dolan, captain of the Offaly side that won the All-Ireland U20 football title in 2021, has had a horrific run with injuries and missed all of the club campaign this year. He has put in massive work to get back fit as well as rebuilding his confidence for physical, high intensity football and he played the first half here. His club mate Paddy Dunican was also back in goals after being away for over a year – Dunican returned home before the end of the club championship but could not play for Shamrocks as he had played in America. He will be a part of the Offaly panel and the competition for the number one jersey between him the incumbent, Ian Duffy will be intense.

The introduction of the new rules commanded most interest here with an arc 40 metres out from the goal indicating the zone from which two pointers could be kicked – there was a new line on the half way line to help officials make sure that teams had three men in the opposing half of the field at all times and an open game did emerge in the difficult conditions.

While it was for a very worthy cause, helping to raise funds for a charity trip to India for transition year students in the school at the end of January, it was a fun exercise, a pre-Christmas run out and the stakes were not high but it was still lively – and both sides moved well, eager to impress.

It did give players an opportunity to get used to the new rules in a competitive environment and the county team management to get an indication where some of them are in terms of fitness and how they are moving.

They didn't play the full inter-county 35 minutes with 30 minutes plus injury time played in both halves. It was very much a game of two halves and Colaiste Choilm were very competitive in the first half but were completely over-ran in the 2^nd half.

There was a very simple explanation for this. The Colaiste Choilm first half team was a county standard one, featuring a number of players who will be regulars for Offaly this year along with others who have either featured in the past or will in the future, have played underage county football and will be on the management's short list for consideration on the panel.

Their second half team, however, was a world removed from a county team as they emptied their bench. With several subs making the effort to attend, they had to give everyone a decent game but it also removed the competitive element for spectators. The Colaiste Choilm team that played in the second half included Sean Afobali-Joseph and Luke Bourke, who had played for Tullamore in their U-20 football final win over Wheery on Saturday, andTullamore players who played intermediate football in 2024 – suffice to say that most of the Colaiste Choilm second half team won't have their festive celebrations disrupted by phone calls from Mickey Harte or Declan Kelly but this game was not about that for them and was a much more “ecumenical” exercise.

It did mean that the second half was a non event. Colaiste Choilm led by 1-9 to 0-9 at half time but were outscored by 1-19 to 0-1 in the second half – and it could have been worse as the Faithful Selection could have ran in another few goals if they really wanted to, apart from the near misses that they did have.

You certainly won't be able to make any sort of adjudication on the new rules until the National Football League at the end of January but you could see the merit in some of them here. The two points from outside the 40 metre arc tempted Colaiste Choilm to have a go in particular in the first half, though it took 22 minutes for them to have their first shot from here, a wide from Dan Fox.

Two minutes later, Harry Plunkett got the 1^st 2 pointer, a delicious shot from out on the right, and the school side had a couple more off target attempts in the next few minutes. Plunkett's kick gave them a 0-8 to 0-5 lead and was followed by a very well finished Jack Bryant goal in the 26^th minute after a good Diarmuid Egan break forward for a 1-8 to 0-5 lead.

The Faithful Selection didn't have one shot at two points in the first half but they attacked very well at times - Cian Farrell was introduced for the winners at half time and as you would expect, he was hungry for two pointers getting two of them.

Dylan Hyland was wonderfully sharp as he kicked five points from play in the first half while Nigel Dunne got three. Hyland got three and Dunne one as the Faithful side cut the deficit to 1-9 to 0-9 at half time.

In the second half, both sides ran in plenty of subs but had very different outcomes. Whereas the subs did not weaken the Faithful side, Colaiste Choilm took off their best players and as you would expect, it was one way traffic. Their only point came early on in the second half from Luke Bourke. That left them leading by 1-10 to 0-11 but the Faithful had levelled by the 37^th minute and a well taken 38^th minute goal from Eoin Swayer gave them the lead – Castleknock club player Sawyer has declared for Offaly under the parentage rule.

The Faithful more or less did as they wished after this, taking some quality points as they pulled away for a facile win.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Dylan Hyland (Faithful Selection): After opting out of travelling to Cavan for the final Tailteann Cup game this year, we wondered if Dylan Hyland would be called back into the Offaly panel for 2025. He has been and he showed here exactly why. Hyland was fantastic here, his finishing out of the top drawer, his movement and awareness excellent. His point taking was a joy to watch and irrespective of what happened this year, Offaly don't have many forwards of this calibre and he has so much to offer his county. There are very few legitimate reasons for anyone missing county championship games outside of injury or close bereavement and markers have to be laid down for all but it is great that supporters will see a player of this quality wearing the Offaly jersey in 2025. A superb footballer with so much to offer.

THE SCORERS

Faithful Selection: Dylan Hyland 0-10 (1f), Cian Farrell 0-6 (2 two pointers), Nigel Dunne 0-3, Eoin Sawyer 1-0, Mikey Cunningham 0-3 (2f, free a two pointer), Jordan Hayes, Kyle Higgins, Keith O'Neill, Ed Cullen, Jack McEvoy, Cathal Donoghue 0-1 each.

Colaiste Choilm: Jack Bryant 1-2, Harry Plunkett 0-5 (3f and 1 two pointer), Kevin McDermott 0-2, Luke Bourke 0-1.

THE TEAMS

THE FAITHFUL SELECTION: Paddy Dunican (Shamrocks); Lee Pearson (Edenderry), Aidan Bracken (Ballycommon), Fionn Dempsey (Bracknagh); Shane O'Toole-Greene (Shamrocks), Rory Egan (Edenderry), Jordan Hayes (Edenderry); Jack McEvoy (Clonbullogue), Ed Cullen (Clara); Kyle Higgins (Ferbane), Cathal Flynn (Ferbane), Keith O'Neill (Clonbullogue); Dylan Hyland (Raheen), Nigel Dunne (Shamrocks), Ruari McNamee (Rhode). Subs - Cathal Donoghue (Oughterard), David O'Toole-Greene (Shamrocks), Mikey Cunningham (Bracknagh), Cian Farrell (Edenderry), Eoin Sawyer (Castleknock), Shane Tierney (Daingean), Andrew Delaney (Shamrocks),

COLAISTE CHOILM PAST PUPILS: Sean O'Toole (Shamrocks); Daire McDaid (Tullamore), Kieran Dolan (Shamrocks), Paul McConway (Tullamore), Cormac Egan (Tullamore), Jack O'Brien (Durrow), Oisin Keenan-Martin (Tullamore); David Dempsey (Ballycommon); David O'Rourke (Shamrocks); Dan Fox (Tullamore), Diarmuid Egan (Tullamore), Kevin McDermott (Durrow); Jack Bryant (Shamrocks), Robbie Gallagher (Ballinagar), Harry Plunkett (Tullamore). Subs - Mike Fox (Tullamore), Shane Enright (Tullamore), Matthew Dempsey (Ballycommon), Luke Bourke (Tullamore),), Cathal Ryan (Daingean), Gavin Hand (Durrow), Tom Furlong (Tullamore), Sean Afobali (Joseph (Tullamore), Ciaran Farrell (Cappincur), Cathal O'Meara (Clara), Steven Doran (Durrow), Ben Connolly (Tullamore), Ciaran Burns (Tullamore),

Referee – Fergal Smyth (Kiklonfert).