TULLAMORE BEATING THE Wicklow champions two years ago in a Leinster club SFC opener shouldn’t have been that much of a big deal, at first glance.
But when the hour was up in Aughrim, Tullamore manager Niall Stack allowed himself a broad grin and a couple of fist pumps.
For such a big club, with the most Offaly SFC titles, 32 by now, it was only the second time they’d won a game in the province.
And their one previous win, in a replay over Newtowncashel of Longford, had been way back in 1977.
That was almost 50 years of nothing, not a single win. Six Leinster club outings across those decades, against teams from five different counties, resulted in six defeats.
Force
“It has been a monkey on our back,” Stack told The 42 immediately after that 2024 win over Tinahely. “It has been something that’s been thrown at us as a club. As a club member, as a club supporter and now as part of management, it is something that weighed heavily.”
Two years on, Tullamore have established themselves as the most powerful force in Offaly, recently overcoming Ferbane in the final for the fourth consecutive year to retain their grip on the county title.
It was their fifth win in six seasons and they have contested the last seven finals.
Ominously for all of the other clubs outside of Offaly’s principal town, Tullamore enjoyed close to a clean sweep of football titles this year.
For the first time, Tullamore won the Senior A and B football championships. Their U-14s and U-16s won too, and their minors reached the A final. Throw in the five-in-a-row of U-20 titles annexed by Tullamore in 2024 and you have a club primed to dominate locally for some time to come.
As one local paper summarised with its headline after Tullamore’s 2021 county final replay win over a previously commanding, but now ageing, Rhode, a ‘changing of the guard’ had occurred in Offaly football.
Five years on, the challenge that Tullamore are now grappling with is to assert themselves in the province, and to prove that they can be a big fish in a bigger pond.
Of the 20 players that featured in this month’s 2-16 to 1-13 Offaly senior final win over Ferbane, 11 of them also played in the 2021 final win over Rhode.
So that core of players have contested six Leinster club games between 2021 and 2025, and lost four of them. Aside from the win over Tinahely, they also beat The Downs of Westmeath last year.
“We’ve got good preparation from the last three years playing in Leinster,” said current manager Paul McConway, putting a positive spin on things ahead of their return to Leinster this weekend.
The problem is, they’ve been handed the toughest Round 1 tie they could have possibly got, against Dublin champions Cuala.
And McConway knows that only too well because when they ran into Cuala two years ago, after the win over Tinahely, he was part of the team that lost by a goal. Cuala went on to capture Leinster and All-Ireland titles after that and are strong favourites to return to the summit of Leinster again this season.
“It’s a hugely tough draw, but isn’t it great as well?” said McConway, still playing himself and part of that Senior B success, along with the evergreen Shane Dooley. “We can go, apply ourselves again and take on the best. If you want to be in contention to win Leinster championships, you have to beat the Dublin champions, so maybe the first round is as good a time to get them.”
It would be an anniversary win of sorts too if Tullamore can pull it off, because the last Offaly club to beat the Dublin champions in Leinster did so 20 years ago.
And McConway is the direct line between that game and this one, because Rhode beat a UCD side that McConway was playing in defence for. That UCD team also contained Mayo forward Austin O’Malley who scored four points and who, 19 years later, would manage Cuala to their All-Ireland win at the beginning of 2025.
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Rhode went on to contest the Leinster final in 2006, after beating UCD, but came up short against Moorefield.
Since then, Offaly clubs have contested 33 Leinster ties and won just 14 of them.
It’s a poor yield and their record against Dublin clubs is particularly bad with six games resulting in six defeats. The first four of those were all Leinster final defeats for Rhode, twice to Kilmacud Crokes (2008 and 2010) and twice to St Vincent’s (2014 and 2016).
Tullamore experienced the same outcome against Cuala two years ago while they were whacked by Ballyboden St Endas at the semi-final stage 12 months ago, losing by 15 points.
Little wonder then that Tullamore are 11/2 long shots to beat Cuala this time, and a fanciful 25/1 for the Leinster title.
The thing is, they have plenty going for them to suggest that a surprise of Mullinalaghta proportions is possible.
There were only three points in it when they last met, for starters. And Tullamore pulled off a significant coup the following season when they coaxed former Mayo manager and Donegal coach Stephen Rochford to the provincial town.
Stephen Rochford. james lawlor photos
james lawlor photos
He is currently two from two in terms of county successes alongside McConway and, surely, desperate to help his adopted club score a landmark win in Leinster.
There is no Cillian Bourke – the Essendon man joined the panel for the county final but wasn’t permitted to play by his AFL club – while Johnny Moloney, one of Tullamore’s joint captains when they won the 2021 championship, transferred to Moycullen and lined out in the Galway SFC final last weekend. In Leinster, those departures may be keenly felt.
Still, it’s a group high on adrenaline and powered by four-in-a-row momentum with Cormac Egan and John Furlong viewed as generational performers for the club and, crucially, fully fit. Clubmates Diarmuid Egan, Aaron Leavy and Harry Plunkett played for Offaly in June’s Tailteann Cup semi-final while Daire McDaid was an unused sub at Croke Park.
They will feel that the time is now to do something really special for their club.
On paper, Tullamore beating the Wicklow champions two years ago in a Leinster club SFC opener shouldn’t have been that much of a big deal.
But when the hour was up in Aughrim, Tullamore manager Niall Stack allowed himself a broad grin and a couple of fist pumps.
For such a big club, with the most Offaly SFC titles, 32 at present, it was only the second time they’d won a game in the province.
And their one previous win, in a replay over Newtowncashel of Longford, had been way back in 1977.
That was almost 50 years of nothing, not a single win. Six Leinster club outings across those decades, against teams from five different counties, had resulted in six defeats.
“It has been a monkey on our back,” Stack told The42 immediately after that 2024 win over Tinahely. “It has been something that’s been thrown at us as a club. As a club member, as a club supporter and now as part of management, it is something that weighed heavily.”
Two years on, Tullamore have established themselves as the most powerful force in Offaly, recently overcoming Ferbane in the final for the fourth consecutive year to retain their grip on the county title.
Clean sweep
It was their fifth win in six seasons and they have contested the last seven finals.
Ominously for all of the other clubs outside of Offaly’s principal town, Tullamore enjoyed close to a clean sweep of football titles this year.
For the first time, Tullamore won the Senior A and B football championships. Their U-14s and U-16s won too, and their minors reached the A final. Throw in the five-in-a-row of U-20 titles annexed by Tullamore in 2024 and you have a club apparently primed to dominate locally for some time to come.
As one local paper correctly summarised with its headline after Tullamore’s 2021 county final replay win over a previously commanding, but now ageing, Rhode, a ‘changing of the guard’ had occurred in Offaly football.
Five years on, the challenge that Tullamore are now grappling with is to assert themselves in the province, and to prove that they can be a big fish in an even bigger pond.
Of the 20 players that featured in this month’s 2-16 to 1-13 Offaly senior final win over Ferbane, 11 of them also played in the 2021 final win over Rhode.
So that core of players have contested six Leinster club games between 2021 and 2025, and lost four of them. Aside from the win over Tinahely, they also beat The Downs of Westmeath last year.
“We’ve got good preparation from the last three years playing in Leinster,” said current manager Paul McConway, putting a positive spin on things ahead of their return to Leinster this weekend.
The problem is, they’ve been handed the toughest Round 1 tie they could have possibly got, against Dublin champions Cuala.
And McConway knows that only too well because when they ran into Cuala two years ago, after the win over Tinahely, he was part of the team that lost by a goal. Cuala went on to capture Leinster and All-Ireland titles after that and are strong favourites to return to the summit of Leinster again this season.
“It’s a hugely tough draw, but isn’t it great as well?” reasoned McConway, still playing himself and part of that Senior B success, along with the evergreen Shane Dooley. “We can go, apply ourselves again and take on the best. If you want to be in contention to win Leinster championships, you have to beat the Dublin champions, so maybe the first round is as good a time to get them.”
It would be an anniversary win of sorts too if Tullamore can pull it off, because the last Offaly club to beat the Dublin champions in Leinster did so 20 years ago.
And McConway is the direct line between that game and this one, because Rhode beat a UCD side that McConway was playing in defence for. That UCD team also contained Mayo forward Austin O’Malley who scored four points and who, 19 years later, would manage Cuala to their All-Ireland win at the beginning of 2025.
Rhode went on to contest the Leinster final in 2006, after beating UCD, but came up short against Moorefield.
Since then, Offaly clubs have contested 33 Leinster ties and won just 14 of them.
Declan Hogan. james lawlor photos
james lawlor photos
It’s a poor yield and their record against Dublin clubs is particularly bad with six games resulting in six defeats. The first four of those were all Leinster final defeats for Rhode, twice to Kilmacud Crokes (2008 and 2010) and twice to St Vincent’s (2014 and 2016).
Tullamore experienced the same outcome against Cuala two years ago while they were whacked by Ballyboden St Endas at the semi-final stage 12 months ago, losing by 15 points.
Little wonder then that Tullamore are 11/2 long shots to beat Cuala this time, and a fanciful 25/1 for the Leinster title.
The thing is, they have plenty going for them to suggest that a surprise of Mullinalaghta proportions is possible.
There were only three points in it when they last met, for starters. And Tullamore pulled off a significant coup the following season when they coaxed former Mayo manager and Donegal coach Stephen Rochford to the provincial town. He is currently two from two in terms of county successes alongside McConway and, surely, desperate to help his adopted club score a landmark win in Leinster.
There is no Cillian Bourke – the Essendon man joined the panel for the county final but wasn’t permitted to play by his AFL club – while Johnny Moloney, one of Tullamore’s joint captains when they won the 2021 championship, transferred to Moycullen and lined out in the Galway SFC final last weekend. In Leinster, those departures may be keenly felt.
Still, it’s a group high on adrenaline and powered by four-in-a-row momentum with Cormac Egan and John Furlong viewed as generational performers for the club and, crucially, fully fit. Clubmates Diarmuid Egan, Aaron Leavy and Harry Plunkett played for Offaly in June’s Tailteann Cup semi-final while Daire McDaid was an unused sub at Croke Park.
They will feel that the time is now to do something really special for their club.
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Tullamore due: midlanders eye statement win against east coast Cuala
TULLAMORE BEATING THE Wicklow champions two years ago in a Leinster club SFC opener shouldn’t have been that much of a big deal, at first glance.
But when the hour was up in Aughrim, Tullamore manager Niall Stack allowed himself a broad grin and a couple of fist pumps.
For such a big club, with the most Offaly SFC titles, 32 by now, it was only the second time they’d won a game in the province.
And their one previous win, in a replay over Newtowncashel of Longford, had been way back in 1977.
That was almost 50 years of nothing, not a single win. Six Leinster club outings across those decades, against teams from five different counties, resulted in six defeats.
Force
“It has been a monkey on our back,” Stack told The 42 immediately after that 2024 win over Tinahely. “It has been something that’s been thrown at us as a club. As a club member, as a club supporter and now as part of management, it is something that weighed heavily.”
Two years on, Tullamore have established themselves as the most powerful force in Offaly, recently overcoming Ferbane in the final for the fourth consecutive year to retain their grip on the county title.
It was their fifth win in six seasons and they have contested the last seven finals.
Ominously for all of the other clubs outside of Offaly’s principal town, Tullamore enjoyed close to a clean sweep of football titles this year.
For the first time, Tullamore won the Senior A and B football championships. Their U-14s and U-16s won too, and their minors reached the A final. Throw in the five-in-a-row of U-20 titles annexed by Tullamore in 2024 and you have a club primed to dominate locally for some time to come.
As one local paper summarised with its headline after Tullamore’s 2021 county final replay win over a previously commanding, but now ageing, Rhode, a ‘changing of the guard’ had occurred in Offaly football.
Five years on, the challenge that Tullamore are now grappling with is to assert themselves in the province, and to prove that they can be a big fish in a bigger pond.
Of the 20 players that featured in this month’s 2-16 to 1-13 Offaly senior final win over Ferbane, 11 of them also played in the 2021 final win over Rhode.
So that core of players have contested six Leinster club games between 2021 and 2025, and lost four of them. Aside from the win over Tinahely, they also beat The Downs of Westmeath last year.
“We’ve got good preparation from the last three years playing in Leinster,” said current manager Paul McConway, putting a positive spin on things ahead of their return to Leinster this weekend.
The problem is, they’ve been handed the toughest Round 1 tie they could have possibly got, against Dublin champions Cuala.
And McConway knows that only too well because when they ran into Cuala two years ago, after the win over Tinahely, he was part of the team that lost by a goal. Cuala went on to capture Leinster and All-Ireland titles after that and are strong favourites to return to the summit of Leinster again this season.
“It’s a hugely tough draw, but isn’t it great as well?” said McConway, still playing himself and part of that Senior B success, along with the evergreen Shane Dooley. “We can go, apply ourselves again and take on the best. If you want to be in contention to win Leinster championships, you have to beat the Dublin champions, so maybe the first round is as good a time to get them.”
It would be an anniversary win of sorts too if Tullamore can pull it off, because the last Offaly club to beat the Dublin champions in Leinster did so 20 years ago.
And McConway is the direct line between that game and this one, because Rhode beat a UCD side that McConway was playing in defence for. That UCD team also contained Mayo forward Austin O’Malley who scored four points and who, 19 years later, would manage Cuala to their All-Ireland win at the beginning of 2025.
Rhode went on to contest the Leinster final in 2006, after beating UCD, but came up short against Moorefield.
Since then, Offaly clubs have contested 33 Leinster ties and won just 14 of them.
It’s a poor yield and their record against Dublin clubs is particularly bad with six games resulting in six defeats. The first four of those were all Leinster final defeats for Rhode, twice to Kilmacud Crokes (2008 and 2010) and twice to St Vincent’s (2014 and 2016).
Tullamore experienced the same outcome against Cuala two years ago while they were whacked by Ballyboden St Endas at the semi-final stage 12 months ago, losing by 15 points.
Little wonder then that Tullamore are 11/2 long shots to beat Cuala this time, and a fanciful 25/1 for the Leinster title.
The thing is, they have plenty going for them to suggest that a surprise of Mullinalaghta proportions is possible.
There were only three points in it when they last met, for starters. And Tullamore pulled off a significant coup the following season when they coaxed former Mayo manager and Donegal coach Stephen Rochford to the provincial town.
He is currently two from two in terms of county successes alongside McConway and, surely, desperate to help his adopted club score a landmark win in Leinster.
There is no Cillian Bourke – the Essendon man joined the panel for the county final but wasn’t permitted to play by his AFL club – while Johnny Moloney, one of Tullamore’s joint captains when they won the 2021 championship, transferred to Moycullen and lined out in the Galway SFC final last weekend. In Leinster, those departures may be keenly felt.
Still, it’s a group high on adrenaline and powered by four-in-a-row momentum with Cormac Egan and John Furlong viewed as generational performers for the club and, crucially, fully fit. Clubmates Diarmuid Egan, Aaron Leavy and Harry Plunkett played for Offaly in June’s Tailteann Cup semi-final while Daire McDaid was an unused sub at Croke Park.
They will feel that the time is now to do something really special for their club.
On paper, Tullamore beating the Wicklow champions two years ago in a Leinster club SFC opener shouldn’t have been that much of a big deal.
But when the hour was up in Aughrim, Tullamore manager Niall Stack allowed himself a broad grin and a couple of fist pumps.
For such a big club, with the most Offaly SFC titles, 32 at present, it was only the second time they’d won a game in the province.
And their one previous win, in a replay over Newtowncashel of Longford, had been way back in 1977.
That was almost 50 years of nothing, not a single win. Six Leinster club outings across those decades, against teams from five different counties, had resulted in six defeats.
“It has been a monkey on our back,” Stack told The42 immediately after that 2024 win over Tinahely. “It has been something that’s been thrown at us as a club. As a club member, as a club supporter and now as part of management, it is something that weighed heavily.”
Two years on, Tullamore have established themselves as the most powerful force in Offaly, recently overcoming Ferbane in the final for the fourth consecutive year to retain their grip on the county title.
Clean sweep
It was their fifth win in six seasons and they have contested the last seven finals.
Ominously for all of the other clubs outside of Offaly’s principal town, Tullamore enjoyed close to a clean sweep of football titles this year.
For the first time, Tullamore won the Senior A and B football championships. Their U-14s and U-16s won too, and their minors reached the A final. Throw in the five-in-a-row of U-20 titles annexed by Tullamore in 2024 and you have a club apparently primed to dominate locally for some time to come.
As one local paper correctly summarised with its headline after Tullamore’s 2021 county final replay win over a previously commanding, but now ageing, Rhode, a ‘changing of the guard’ had occurred in Offaly football.
Five years on, the challenge that Tullamore are now grappling with is to assert themselves in the province, and to prove that they can be a big fish in an even bigger pond.
Of the 20 players that featured in this month’s 2-16 to 1-13 Offaly senior final win over Ferbane, 11 of them also played in the 2021 final win over Rhode.
So that core of players have contested six Leinster club games between 2021 and 2025, and lost four of them. Aside from the win over Tinahely, they also beat The Downs of Westmeath last year.
“We’ve got good preparation from the last three years playing in Leinster,” said current manager Paul McConway, putting a positive spin on things ahead of their return to Leinster this weekend.
The problem is, they’ve been handed the toughest Round 1 tie they could have possibly got, against Dublin champions Cuala.
And McConway knows that only too well because when they ran into Cuala two years ago, after the win over Tinahely, he was part of the team that lost by a goal. Cuala went on to capture Leinster and All-Ireland titles after that and are strong favourites to return to the summit of Leinster again this season.
“It’s a hugely tough draw, but isn’t it great as well?” reasoned McConway, still playing himself and part of that Senior B success, along with the evergreen Shane Dooley. “We can go, apply ourselves again and take on the best. If you want to be in contention to win Leinster championships, you have to beat the Dublin champions, so maybe the first round is as good a time to get them.”
It would be an anniversary win of sorts too if Tullamore can pull it off, because the last Offaly club to beat the Dublin champions in Leinster did so 20 years ago.
And McConway is the direct line between that game and this one, because Rhode beat a UCD side that McConway was playing in defence for. That UCD team also contained Mayo forward Austin O’Malley who scored four points and who, 19 years later, would manage Cuala to their All-Ireland win at the beginning of 2025.
Rhode went on to contest the Leinster final in 2006, after beating UCD, but came up short against Moorefield.
Since then, Offaly clubs have contested 33 Leinster ties and won just 14 of them.
It’s a poor yield and their record against Dublin clubs is particularly bad with six games resulting in six defeats. The first four of those were all Leinster final defeats for Rhode, twice to Kilmacud Crokes (2008 and 2010) and twice to St Vincent’s (2014 and 2016).
Tullamore experienced the same outcome against Cuala two years ago while they were whacked by Ballyboden St Endas at the semi-final stage 12 months ago, losing by 15 points.
Little wonder then that Tullamore are 11/2 long shots to beat Cuala this time, and a fanciful 25/1 for the Leinster title.
The thing is, they have plenty going for them to suggest that a surprise of Mullinalaghta proportions is possible.
There were only three points in it when they last met, for starters. And Tullamore pulled off a significant coup the following season when they coaxed former Mayo manager and Donegal coach Stephen Rochford to the provincial town. He is currently two from two in terms of county successes alongside McConway and, surely, desperate to help his adopted club score a landmark win in Leinster.
There is no Cillian Bourke – the Essendon man joined the panel for the county final but wasn’t permitted to play by his AFL club – while Johnny Moloney, one of Tullamore’s joint captains when they won the 2021 championship, transferred to Moycullen and lined out in the Galway SFC final last weekend. In Leinster, those departures may be keenly felt.
Still, it’s a group high on adrenaline and powered by four-in-a-row momentum with Cormac Egan and John Furlong viewed as generational performers for the club and, crucially, fully fit. Clubmates Diarmuid Egan, Aaron Leavy and Harry Plunkett played for Offaly in June’s Tailteann Cup semi-final while Daire McDaid was an unused sub at Croke Park.
They will feel that the time is now to do something really special for their club.
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GAA next step Tullamore due