Reaction
Mike Finnerty
THERE is going to be some craic around Allergan Pharmaceuticals over the next few weeks ahead of the Mayo SFC Final between Breaffy and Castlebar Mitchels.
That’s because Aidan O’Shea and Barry Moran — who both produced man of the match displays in their team’s respective semi-final victories last Sunday — are work colleagues in the Westport facility.
The duo also enjoyed a similar build-up in 2013 when the West Mayo neighbours also met in the decider, and the Mayo team-mates will now have to put their friendship to one side for the big match on Sunday, October 25.
O’Shea broke Ballintubber’s hearts by scoring two wonderful goals as Breaffy dumped the defending champions out during the course of a four-point win for Damien Mulligan’s charges.
Moran, meanwhile, also hit the net and dominated the midfield area during the second half of Castlebar’s nine-point victory against a gallant Knockmore outfit.
“It was only the second semi-final in our history so it was great to win,” O’Shea (25) told Mid West Radio after leading Breaffy into their second County Final in three seasons.
“Ballintubber are obviously the top team in the county over the last five or six years, our near-neighbours.
“We knew we’d have to up our game big-time from the Garrymore game and thankfully we did.
“We got the tactics spot-on and got the goals at the right time.”
Breaffy positioned O’Shea in an advanced position against the holders (alternating between centre-forward and full-forward with his brother, Conor) and he played a key role as they hit Ballintubber for 2-2 in the opening nine minutes.
“We didn’t do ourselves justice in the quarter-final and we felt the first ten or fifteen minutes was a chance for us to try and catch them off guard,” admitted the Mayo star.
“They probably didn’t expect it from us. Fair play to the lads, we were rightly tuned all week and I felt that start was coming.
“Ballintubber, with the forwards they had, they were going to get chances. So we needed a buffer there to stay ahead.”
MEANWHILE, Barry Moran believes the rematch of the 2013 County Final (which Castlebar won by six points) is going to be ‘a cracker’.
“We know from two years ago [we’re playing against] a lot of our friends, we were in school together, we’re around town together, but we won’t get caught up in that. I’m sure Breaffy won’t either. We’ll all be concentrating on ourselves.
“It’s a great win for Breaffy and I’m sure it’ll be a cracker.”
The Mitchels midfielder also believes that the 2014 All-Ireland club finalists have left plenty of room for improvement despite beating Knockmore comprehensively in the end last Sunday.
“We’re happy to get through against a dogged Knockmore team. We pulled away a few times and they pulled it back so we’re just looking forward to a County Final again.
“A lot of us were poor in the first half but we upped the gears in the second half and put in a much better performance.”
