2019 Offaly Senior Football Championship

The 2019 Offaly Senior Football Championship was the 122nd edition of Offaly GAA's premier gaelic football competition for senior graded clubs in County Offaly, Ireland. Eight teams compete, with the winner representing Offaly in the Leinster Senior Club Football Championship.

Offaly S.F.C.

Season	2019
Champions	Ferbane (12th SFC Title)
Relegated	Gracefield
All Ireland SCFC	n/a
Winning Captain	???
Man of the Match	???
Winning Manager	???
Matches played	56
← 2018 2020 →

The championship starts a league stage and progresses to a knockout stage.

Rhode were the defending champions after they defeated Ferbane in the previous year's final, however Ferbane claimed revenge this year when defeating Rhode in the final to claim their first championship in 25 years their 12th title overall.

This was Shamrocks' return to the senior grade after claiming the 2018 Offaly Senior 'B' Football Championship title.

Gracefield were relegated to the I.F.C. for 2020 when losing their Relegation Final to Tullamore.

Format Changes

[1][2]

2019 sees the adoption of a new criss-cross championship format. In 2018, the eight senior teams were in one group, but the 2019 season sees two groups made up of four teams. The format comprises two partially seeded groups of four at Senior A level with one county finalist, one beaten semi-finalist, one beaten quarter-finalist and one of the relegation play-off winners or promoted teams in each of the groups. Group 1 teams will play the teams in Group 2 thus ensuring that each team plays four games. The first two rounds are to be played on a home and away basis. The third round will then be played at O'Connor Park, while the fourth round will be played on the same day at neutral venues around the county.

At the end of this phase, the top teams in each group contest opposite semi-finals while their opponents are decided by two quarter-finals. Those quarter-finals will be contested by the runners-up and third-placed teams in each group with the runners-up in Group A playing the third-placed team in Group A. Repeat fixtures are ruled out by virtue of the criss-cross system which will ensure those two teams did not meet in the round-robin phase. The second quarter-final will be formed in the same way from Group B. The bottom teams in each group will enter a Relegation Final.

The group winners already in a semi-final will also play the winning quarter-finalists from their own groups, also ensuring no repeat fixtures at that stage. The Offaly CCC's hope is that they can make the championship more competitive than it has been

Team Changes

[3] [4]

The following teams have changed division since the 2018 championship season.

To S.F.C. Promoted from 2018 Senior 'B' Football Championship Shamrocks - (Senior 'B' Champions)

From S.F.C. Relegated to 2019 Senior 'B' Football Championship Durrow

Group Stage

The following seeded teams are applied to the draw for Groups A and B based on their performance during the 2018 season. One team from each category will be drawn into each group -

Finalists: Rhode Ferbane

Beaten Semi-Finalists: Clara Tullamore

Beaten Quarter-Finalists: Edenderry Gracefield

Relegation Final Winner & I.F.C. Champions: Cappincur Shamrocks

Group A

Team Pld W L D PF PA PD Pts Edenderry 4 4 0 0 99 44 +55 8 Ferbane 4 3 1 0 66 42 +24 6 Shamrocks 4 3 2 0 72 62 +10 6 Tullamore 4 2 2 0 67 46 +21 4 Group B Team Pld W L D PF PA PD Pts Rhode 4 2 2 0 57 41 +16 4 Clara 4 2 2 0 57 66 -9 4 Cappincur 4 0 4 0 40 84 -44 0 Gracefield 4 0 4 0 40 103 -63 0 Round 1 Rhode 0-11, 0-13 Edenderry, 20/7/2019, Clara 1-13, 0-11 Ferbane, 20/7/2019, Gracefield 1-14, 2-14 Shamrocks, 21/7/2019, Cappincur 0-7, 2-11 Tullamore, 21/7/2019, Round 2 Edenderry 2-22, 1-13 Clara, 2/8/2019, Tullamore 3-18, 0-10 Gracefield, 3/8/2019, Shamrocks 2-8, 4-12 Rhode, 4/8/2019, Ferbane 1-16, 2-6 Cappincur, 5/8/2019, Round 3 Edenderry 4-14, 0-10 Cappincur, O'Connor Park, 16/8/2019, Shamrocks 2-10, 1-7 Clara, O'Connor Park, 17/8/2019, Rhode 1-11, 2-6 Tullamore, O'Connor Park, 17/8/2019, Ferbane 3-15, 0-6 Gracefield, O'Connor Park, 18/8/2019, Round 4 Shamrocks 4-10, 0-11 Cappincur, Killeigh, 31/8/2019, Clara 1-12, 0-11 Tullamore, Tubber, 31/8/2019, Ferbane 1-9, 0-8 Rhode, O'Connor Park, 31/8/2019, Edenderry 4-20, 1-4 Gracefield, Geashill, 31/8/2019, Knock-out Stage Quarter-Finals 15 September 2019 Quarter-Final Clara 4-17 - 0-9 Cappincur O'Connor Park Referee: ??? Man of the Match: ??? 15 September 2019 Quarter-Final Ferbane 1-12 - 0-9 Shamrocks O'Connor Park Referee: ??? Man of the Match: ??? Semi-Finals 29 September 2019 Semi-Final Rhode 2-9 - 0-9 Clara O'Connor Park Referee: ??? Man of the Match: ??? 28 September 2019 Semi-Final Ferbane 1-15 - 1-9 Edenderry O'Connor Park Referee: ??? Man of the Match: ??? Final [5] 13 October 2019 Final Ferbane 2-13 - 0-14 Rhode O'Connor Park Referee: ??? Man of the Match: ??? Relegation Play Off The two bottom placed teams from each group play off in the relegation final with the loser relegated to the 2019 Senior 'B' Championship. Tullamore 2-16, 2-9 Gracefield, 15/9/2019, Leinster Senior Club Football Championship References "Hoganstand.com". 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019. "Two clubs shafted by Offaly's ludicrous football championship format". Offalyexpress.ie. 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019. "Offaly Express Archives". Irishnewsarchive.com. 16 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018. "Uibhfhaili.com". www.uibhfhaili.com. 16 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018. "Johnson the hero as Ferbane end 25 year wait for Senior Football glory in Offaly". Offalyexpress.ie. 14 October 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2019. External links