Reds ready for Championship battle

Post date: May 03, 2013 7:36:52 AM

GAA activity in the county heats up as the Football Championship begins with action in all grades over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Our Senior Footballers begin their bid to climb the summit of Offaly Football again when they play Clara at 7.15pm in Geashill tonight (Friday May 3rd). A good start is half the battle and the winners of tonights game will be in pole position with four game then remaining in the group.

This will be an eagerly awaited game as it is a repeat of the 2011 County Final and last year’s semi-final. Clara will enter to 2013 Championship looking to throw a monkey off their back as they have lost the last three finals losing to Rhode in 2010 & 2012 and to Edenderry in 2011.

Edenderry will also meet 2012 Intermediate Champions St Brigids, St Rynaghs, Ballycumber and Erin Rovers in the group stages on this years Championship and will be keen to get their season off to a good start by collection two points this evening in Geashill.

The Red’s have had mixed form so far this year in the Div 1 League with 3 wins & 3 defeats from the six games played. Early defeats by Clara & Ballycumber were followed by wins over Erin Rovers, Walsh Island & Ferbane. This run of results was then spoiled when they suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Rhode. They will also meet group rivals St Brigids on Tues 7th May in Round 7 of the league in Edenderry at 7pm.

While the Reds form has been mixed it must be remembered that we have seven players involved with Offaly Senior Footballers. During these early League games, many of these players were unavailable to the club. While it is a huge honour for the club to have some many involved with the county, it also has had a disruptive effect on training and limited the number of games in which the full team was available.

When Edenderry won the 2011 Championship the average age of the team was just 23. Since then the transfer of Basil Malone and other retirements together with the introduction of some of the successful St Mary’s Secondary School team the average age has reduced further with many available for U21 duty also.

The Senior Football squad for the 2013 is as follows:

Brian Quinlan (capt),David Hanlon, Sean Pender, Daniel Nolan, Colm Byrne, Derek Kelly, Sean Moriarty, Stephen Guing, Richie Dalton, Stuart Cullen, Mark Young, Keith McGuinness, Sean Doyle, Peter Manley, Ciaran Hurley, Cormac Hurley, Diarmaid Meleady, Johnny Hurst, Dean Cummins,Wayne Mooney,Aaron O'Connell,Cian Lawton, Briain Reilly, Stephen Abbott,Gary Blong

The Reds are again managed by our own legends Peter Brady, Finbarr Cullen & Kevin Guing.

On Sunday morning our Junior Football team also begin their 2013 campaign with an opening game at home to Tullamore at 12noon.