Rhode 1-18 Ferbane 0-10
Rhode made it three Offaly senior championship titles in a row and 29 titles in total with relative ease this afternoon, as they cruised to a comfortable win over Ferbane at Bord na Móna O’Connor Park in Tullamore, powered by a stunning display of scoring from their inside forward line.
Ruairí McNamee, Niall McNamee and man of the match Anton Sullivan racked up 1-16 between them, 1-12 from play, as they ran the Ferbane defence ragged with clever running lines and excellent interplay.
The three men scored all ten points for "the Village" in the first half as the champions got out to an early lead and aside from a brief wobble around the 25-minute mark, continued to dominate through the first half and on through to the final whistle.
After the first two points were shared, Ruairí McNamee scoring at one end and Joe Maher hitting the target from a tight angle at the other, Rhode quickly found their rhythm and while they were guilty of a number of early wides, they cut the Ferbane defence open time and again to fire over five points in a row.
It could have been even more as James McPadden ran 20 metres and attempted to find the top corner of the net only to be denied by a brilliant save from county U-20 goalkeeper Jack Cullinan.
A brief period of ascendancy at midfield saw Ferbane come back into the game with three points in succession from Maher (twice) and Cian Johnson, but a couple of enforced errors in their own backline resulted in Rhode replying almost immediately, and two points each from Anton Sullivan and Niall McNamee made it 0-10 to 0-5 at half time.
Ferbane tried to up the tempo after the interval and they created a series of half chances, but could only muster up a Ronan McGuire point on the scoreboard, and they were rocked right back on their heels again when Anton Sullivan ran through on goals in the 38th minute and found the net after two dummy solos close to goal.
There was no shortage of effort from the West Offaly club, who were chasing their first title in 24 years as they tried to work their way back into the game, but Rhode always looked sharp on the break and kept them at arm’s length, even after wing forward Paul McPadden was shown a straight red card for an altercation with James Nally.
Points from Cian Johnson and Aidan Keenaghan reduced the gap to seven but Rhode powered clear right up to the end, with Niall McNamee slotting over the last two points of the game before he picked up his tenth county senior medal, one short of his brother Alan who continues to be the record holder in the county after playing his part in an eleventh county final win.
Rhode: Ken Garry; Jake Kavanagh, Eoin Rigney, James McPadden; Shane Sullivan, Brian Darby, Niall Darby (0-01); Alan McNamee, Conor McNamee; Paul McPadden, Páraic Sullivan, Ciarán Heavey; Ruairí McNamee (0-03), Anton Sullivan (1-04), Niall McNamee (0-09, 0-04 frees).
Subs: Darren Garry (0-01) for Heavey (38), Dylan Kavanagh for C McNamee (54), Gareth McNamee for S Sullivan (58), Shane Lowry for A McNamee (59), Mark Rigney for P Sullivan (60+2)
Ferbane: Jack Cullinan; Colin Egan, Kevin Nugent, Stephen Wren; Ciarán Cahill, Leon Fox, Michael Wren; Kyle Higgins, Oisín Kelly; David Cox, Aidan Keenaghan, Damien Egan; Cian Johnson, Joseph Maher, Ronan McGuire.
Subs: James Nally for McGuire (15, blood), Sean Flynn for Cox (35), James Nally for D Egan (47), Sean Ibbotson for Flynn (56), David Kelly for C Egan (57), Ciaran McManus for McGuire (59).
Referee: Fintan Pierce
