Significant overhaul of Offaly SFC proposed with strong and weak group for 2026

A SIGNIFICANT overhaul of the Offaly Senior Football Championship has been proposed for 2026 with a strong and a weak group in a bid to counteract the disparity in standard between some of the teams – the group stages in 2025 have done little to excite supporters and have had an air of inevitability about them the whole way.

The change has been proposed by the Competitions Control Committee and sent to clubs on Thursday night. It will be decided on by clubs at a County Board meeting later this month but is likely to receive general approval, even though there could be two bodies of thought – there will be an opinion that if you are senior, you are senior and the championship should be drawn on an even basis but there were some very one sided results in this year's championship and there is a lot of merit in more balanced groups.

Clonbullogue, Bracknagh and Shamrocks were all walloped in this year's championship, though it has to be noted that most of these were all by Tullamore, who are capable of doing that to a lot of teams. Shamrocks in turn inflicted big beatings on Clonbullogue and Bracknagh and were within a hair's breath of taking out one of the main contenders, Ferbane in the semi-final.

There was also a disparity in the other group where Edenderry, Ferbane and Rhode were clear favourites to qualify out of a division that included Ballycommon and Durrow. Ferbane had big wins over Ballycommon and Durrow while Durrow competed well for a long time against Edenderry but then conceded a messy, very unsatisfactory walkover to Rhode – the majority of their hurlers with Ballinamere had opted out. Ballycommon gave Rhode a good go after a calamitous start but conceded six goals in a ten point loss and were well beaten by Edenderry.

The proposal by the CCC is designed to minimise the prospects of so many one sided results. The championship will be going to ten teams next year with no relegation and the senior B champions promoted. It will consist of Ballycommon, Bracknagh, Clonbullogue, Durrow, Edenderry, Ferbane, Rhode, Shamrocks, Tullamore, Senior B Winner 2025.

The groups will be decided on the 2025 championship finishing positions with the strong group 1 consisting of the four semi-finalists, Edenderry, Ferbane, Rhode and Tullamore and one of the beaten quarter-finalists, Bracknagh or Shamrocks.

Ideally that should be Shamrocks as they were way more competitive than Bracknagh in 2025, running amok against them in a 4-18 to 2-11 win in Geashill and almost making the semi-finals.

However, the only practical way of determining that is a draw and that would create a major problem for Bracknagh if they do end up in the strong group. Bracknagh are likely to fight this but the greater good will have to determine it and a club could have to take their medicine for this year – Shamrocks ambitions of becoming a force again look more realistic after their Ferbane display and they should not have an issue with being in the strong group, even if their preference was to be in the weak one.

Group 2 will consist of Bracknagh or Shamrocks, Ballycommon, Clonbullogue, Durrow and the senior B champions.

After the conclusion of the group games, the teams will be graded 1 to 5 in accordance with the Offaly championship regulations. The top two teams in group one will qualify for the semi-finals and the third and fourth teams will play the top two teams in group 2 in two quarter-finals – the third team in group 1 will play second in group 2 and the fourth team in group 1 will play the first in group 2. It means that only one team will exit in the group stages from the strong group, three from the weak group – however, the season will not be over for the bottom two teams as they will clash in the relegation play off.

The top two teams in group 1 will be seeded into separate semi-finals, meaning that they can';t meet again until the final. Under the proposals, it will be winner on the day up to the semi-finals and there will be a replay in the event of a draw in a final – it will be winner on the day in a replay, meaning that it could go to penalties.

The selection of the strong and weak groups going forward will also be merit based and the CCC have come up with a very fair system for determining this.

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In 2027, the bottom team in group 1 will be placed into group 2. They will be replaced by one of the two teams, from Group 2, that qualified for the quarter-finals. Whichever of these teams advance furthest in the 2026 championship will be placed in Group 1 for 2027. If they both ended the championship at the same stage, the team that finished top of Group 2 will be placed in Group 1 for 2027.