Rhode 1-18 

Ferbane 0-10

Rhode completed a three-in-a-row of Dowling Cups with a surprisingly comfortable victory over Ferbane at Bord an Mona O'Connor Park.

Anton Sullivan scored the only goal in the 37th minute as 'The Village' claimed their 29th title to extend their lead at the top of the Offaly SFC roll of honour. The winners controlled the game from the start and led by 0-6 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter thanks to points from Niall McNamee, Ruairi McNamee and Sullivan. 

Rhode's Brian Darby and Eoin Rigney lift the Offaly SFC trophy. ©INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan.

Ferbane, for whom star forward Cian Johnson only managed a single point from play, narrowed the gap to 0-4 to 0-6 before the two McNamees and Sullivan added further points to give the charges of Jack Cooney and Declan Gorman a double-scores lead, 0-10 to 0-5, at the break. 

Padraig Egan's underdogs were a beaten docket when Sullivan raised the game's only green flag and not even a straight red card for corner forward Paul McPadden with 13 minutes remaining could knock the champions off their stride.

Rhode - K Garry; S Sullivan, E Rigney, J Kavanagh; B Darby, N Darby (0-1), J McPadden; C McNamee, A McNamee; C Heavey, R McNamee (0-3), P Sullivan; P McPadden, A Sullivan (1-4), N McNamee (0-9, 4f). Subs: D Garry (0-1) for C Heavey, D Kavanagh for C McNamee, G McNamee for S Sullivan, S Lowry for A McNamee, M Rigney for P Sullivan.

Ferbane - J Cullinan; M Wren, C Egan, K Nugent; S Wren, C Cahill, L Fox; K Higgins, O Kelly; D Cox, J Maher (0-4, 1f), D Egan; C Johnson (0-3, 2f), A Keenaghan (0-2), R McGuire (0-1). Subs: S Flynn for D Cox, J Nally for D Egan, S Ibbotson for S Flynn, D Kelly for C Egan, K McManus for R McGuire.

Referee - F Pierce.

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