PJ’s absence boosts Ballintubber
IS the hunger sated, or is there enough left to want to win Connacht . . . or more? Only the players can answer that. On Sunday Ballintubber venture onto the bigger stage, and only by the quality of their performance against Killererin will we learn if the haze of a fortnight’s euphoria has dissipated.
It’s another big challenge for the newly crowned Mayo champions . . . but a different sort of challenge. Having made the breakthrough in winning their first county senior title, Killererin may not seem so intimidating. Nerves won’t be so twitchy.
But the goal is no less daunting. In the county final they were playing for the pride of club and parish; on Sunday they also represent their county, and the tug to continue the momentum will not have diminished. Whether the funds of determination and spirit that served them so well in the final are still intact is another matter. After a week of heady celebrations, a return to earth cannot have been easy.
And Killererin will have been watching. Old experienced hands that they are, they know how to prod the vulnerabilities of a team new to the big stage. They have been there before, and prompted by Tommy Joyce and cousin Nicky they will not be lacking confidence.
The Galway champions have won six county titles, and the two Joyces have contributed a huge slice to four of those victories. Tommy is player/manager, conducting matters from midfield while Nicky brings a wealth of county experience to the forward line.
But flashing through the minds of the Ballintubber men today is not the achievement of those Joyces, but the news that Killererin’s biggest star is out of the game. Padraic Joyce, brother of Tommy, who has been the heart of so much of their success, is on his honeymoon, a long long way from Killererin, and a huge blow to their hopes of reaching the final.
None of them has ever won a provincial with the club. And Galway followers were expecting victory this year as a fitting tribute to a man who had given such outstanding service to football in the county . . . a kind of last great hurrah for a star on the wane.
While Padraic failed to score from play in their county final defeat of defending champions Corofin, his vision, honed on many a battlefield throughout the country, was a feature of their win.
Nicky, with a total of 1-5 took the scoring honours and his all round performance was another ace in Killererin¹s pack. The centre forward was also on fire in the semi-final with a haul of eight points in their win over Mountbellew/Moylough.
Other profiles of the team may not have the degree of eminence enjoyed by the Joyces, but without the likes of Colin Forde, Galway’s All-Ireland winning full-back of 2007, their big midfielder Thomas Hughes and Michael Boyle and Ger Butler up front, the Joyces could not have prospered.
Killererin will be hoping that all of them will hit the form they reached against Corofin, but while what they saw on television of the Mayo final will hold no fears for them, without their inspirational leader they will not be the same.
The news can only be good for James Horan and his young side who were rank outsiders to make it to the final. Now things have changed a little. Ballintubber will be buoyed. Suddenly it’s a new scene of which Horan no doubt will take full advantage.
How he’ll handle it may be worth watching — whether the strategy employed against Castlebar Mitchels will be sufficient to carry him to the Connacht final.
In the two Joyces, his defence was about to confront a more formidable duo than they have met so far. Now the danger has been halved. And while Killererin will do everything possible to fill the gap, nothing can equal the guile and vision of the man who spearheaded Galway to two all-Ireland titles.
His absence together with the fact that the Mayo side are relatively unknown outside the borders of their own county is now a major factor in Sunday’s tussle. No matter how Ballintubber looked on television, Killererin don’t really know much about them. James Horan has a much better idea of what he is up against. Player/manager Tommy Joyce can only guess.
Alan Dillon will register with them as the biggest threat to their Connacht final hopes. And from his record for Mayo they have every reason to fear the wiles of the centre forward.
But they can’t rate the Earleys or Loftus or Feeney or Hallinan or Gibbons or Geraghty or Plunkett or the O’Connors. And on them James Horan may be calling for special efforts to ease the burden on the backline.
To be sure the Mayo county final was no showpiece. And the thousands who viewed on television will have concluded that it was a poor reflection of Mayo football. Of course it wasn’t pretty. Fluid football was stemmed mainly by the spirited defensive strategy employed by James Horan. But it was effective.
While the challenge from Killererin is now less potent, special plans may still be needed to deal with Nicky Joyce, and Butler and Farragher and O’Donovan, and the rest. They are still a powerful force, and will want to win if only for the sake of their absent leader.
Ballintubber have shown immeasurable degrees of composure on their journey through the Mayo championship and Joyce’s absence is unlikely to usher in any kind of complacency. They will still be seen as outsiders. But they have a better chance now than they did yesterday.
Flair players take out Tourmakeady
TOURMAKEADY bowed out of the Connacht intermediate championship on Sunday, and in typical Tourmakeady fashion they went down fighting.
If they ignited earlier it might have been a different story. For much of the first half they played second fiddle to Galway champions St James. A spirited recovery in the final minutes reduced a four-point deficit to two at half-time.
Seventeen minutes into the second half, the Gaeltacht men seemed set to repeat their final resurgence against Burrishoole when they drew level. But they were unable to sustain the pressure, and St James, a shade faster and more balanced, dug deep to rap out three winning points in the final ten minutes.
The crucial moment came thirteen minutes into the second half when St James keeper John Egan made a splendid save from Kevin Dolan. The ball spun over the bar from his stinging shot. A goal at that stage would have been a rallying call for Tourmak’.
A short time later their outstanding centre-back Brendan Prendergast, who scored half of Tourmakeady’s eight points total, was unlucky to see one of his many fine frees bounce back off an upright.
On the other hand St James can lay claim to a great chance of a goal in the first half when the ball spilled across the face of goal with no one to take up the invitation to tap it into the net. A few minutes from the end Brian Heneghan also denied Ronan O’Connell with a spectacular save.
On balance then, despite the Herculean efforts of Prendergast, Tomas Staunton, MJ Meenaghan, Michael O Neill, John Heneghan and Kevin Dolan, an extra bit of flair deservedly saw St James home.
Mitchels finish the year on a positive note
IT won’t ease the hurt of losing the county final, but some little solace may have come to Castlebar Mitchels after winning the Walsh Cup final at Crossmolina on Saturday.
Even though it was no classic performance a lot of the character they failed to display against Ballintubber shone through. And while Ballina fielded only a pale shadow of their championship side, the win was nevertheless vital for restoring much dented confidence.
What next year brings for the Mitchels is anyone’s guess, but winter’s hibernation will provide the defeated finalists with plenty of time for reflection.
Just a thought …
Australia established their superiority in the International Rules with another win over Ireland. The series, thankfully, was not spoiled by rancour or flared tempers. Neither, however, did any new attractive feature embellish it.
