RHODE MAP TO SUCCESS
McNamee delivers another Offaly county title win
NIALL McNamee kicking the crucial score in an Offaly senior football final has been a recurring theme over the past two decades.
And yesterday afternoon the star forward picked up his 12th county senior title when his mark gave Rhode a 1-9 to 0-11 win over Tullamore.
Yet on this occasion, it wasn’t McNamee’s stardust that proved crucial to the win, but instead it was the incredible game management of Declan Gorman’s side, ably assisted by Tailteann Cup-winning manager Jack Cooney.
With a strong breeze blowing at Tullamore’s backs in the first half, Rhode dropped deep and packed the defence, forcing ‘the Blues’ to kick from distance.
Gamble
The gamble paid off as Tullamore duly kicked away their advantage in the opening 30 minutes, racking up eight wides by the interval.
Three Niall McNamee frees put Rhode 0-3 to 0-2 in front after 29 minutes, and it was only when
Tullamore finally found a trace of momentum, kicking three before the break, that they looked like the team that everyone expected them to be.
Midway through the second half, it looked like the Village were still going to fall short.
Aaron Leavy and Declan Hogan kicked good scores for Tullamore, Rhode were struggling to work the ball out of their own half, and a brave, diving block from Hogan to deny Stephen Hannon a goal looked like a big swing moment.
Then Anton Sullivan kicked another superb score, Harry Plunkett was off target with what looked like a simple chance from a mark, and a long ball from Alan McNamee into the edge of the square saw John Moloney field the ball, but get pickpocketed by Rúairí McNamee on the way down. A quick sidestep past the keeper, and Rhode led by 1-7 to 0-8.
Niall McNamee kicked the next from a free, but Tullamore had one more surge in them, and in a mirror image of the end of the first half, two Plunkett frees and a point from Moloney tied up the game.
Moments
And so it all came down to two big moments. A fast attacking move down the left flank ended with Ciarán Egan snatching a shot at the Rhode goal, pushing his opportunity wide from 25 metres out.
When Rhode got their chance, there was no such lack of composure.
Anton Sullivan broke out of defence and played a punt into the chest of Niall McNamee on the edge of the arc.
McNamee held his nerve and split the uprights from the mark.
“Big men for the big day” said Gorman. “It was put down as youth against experience, and we knew that experience counted for something!”
Sullivan, who went on to collect the man of the match award, spoke of how the unusual pre-match dynamic, where Rhode were marked down as underdogs against a youthful Tullamore side, fed into the team’s mentality.
“Tullamore are county champions, they beat us fair and square last year after two games so they earned the respect we showed them today” said the county star.
Bubble
“But we were written off by everyone in the county and outside the county. We stayed in our bubble, we kept our heads down and now we’ve won it and it’s probably the sweetest one yet.
“I’ve won nine championship medals, Alan McNamee has 13, we could easily sit on a high stool and say we’ve won enough, but when the time comes to get back to the field, we work hard and we love it” he said.
RHODE: K Garry; B Darby, J Kavanagh, J McPadden (0-1); K Murphy, C McNamee, G McNamee; D Kavanagh, A McNamee; P Sullivan, R McNamee (1-0), C Heavey; A Kellaghan (0-1), A Sullivan (0-2), N McNamee (0-5, 0-4f). SUBS: P McPadden for P Sullivan (half-time), S Hannon for Heavey (40), D Garry for G McNamee (60+1).
TULLAMORE: C White; P McConway, N Bracken (0-1), D Hogan (0-1); K O’Brien, J Moloney (0-2), D McDaid; M Brazil, A Leavy (0-1); C Egan, D Egan, H Plunkett (0-5, 0-4f); C Egan, L Plunkett (0-1), L Egan. SUBS: C Burns for C Egan (41), D Fox for McConway (49).
Referee: F Smyth.