THE beaming faces with their hands on the cup told a story. Two Mayo handballers had made their county proud by winning the hardball All-Ireland doubles crown. The first time a Mayo duo had managed the feat since 2013. 

The All-Ireland win shone even brighter considering the Claremorris boys Niall Joyce and Patrick Murphy dethroned Daniel Relihan and Michael Hedigan, three-time champions from Cork.

Even more noteworthy - the Mayo boys didn't expect the victory. Just a couple of weeks prior Joyce and Murphy lost the softball intermediate All-Ireland final.

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“We put so much pressure on ourselves, because we were there the previous year,” Niall Joyce, tells The Mayo News. “We were probably expected to win the previous year, and the same again this year. So all our training, all year was literally up to that moment, and we unfortunately lost that final.”

After that defeat, Niall and Paddy were very disappointed and didn't train for a while because of it. Winning the softball title was their one goal this year and when that didn’t occur it took them some time to recover. However, they entered the hardball championship, not just for the craic, but just see how they'd do against the senior men. 

“We were very relaxed and I think it benefitted us,” admits Niall, and Paddy adds. “I'd say we would have been nearly outsiders like Leicester City back in the day, who went on to win the Premier League against all odds, going into that hardball senior All-Ireland.”

The Claremorris duo staged a massive upset. They progressed through the rounds and then travelled to Croke Park for the final against huge favourites, a Cork duo with three titles to their name. The Mayo boys had lost to them in the round robin stage of the championship, so very little was expected of Joyce and Murphy when the deciding battle came around.

It is a mental battle, in handball as it is in any sport. Niall watched a video of a sports psychologist during the week before the competition, and they referenced David Clifford and an old Dublin manager saying how they don't look at winning All-Ireland finals. 

“They just focus on every game and every performance,” he recounts: “And looking back, me and Paddy are looking at that quote and we were thinking, that's kind of us in the final. Another day those Cork lads could have cleaned us.”

Nevertheless, the Mayo men definitely had plenty of support, even some unlikely cheers from the stands: “We had great support there. A lot of my family were up, and Niall's family were up. A couple of our friends too,” remembers Paddy: “There were a lot of Mayo shouts in the crowd. It definitely helped us. And there were even Dubs shouting for Mayo from up there as well. They were delighted for us, because they saw us lose a lot up there.”

COMING FULL CIRCLE

IT was a special moment for Niall and Paddy, as both go way back in their handball career. Ten years ago, they won the Minor All-Ireland together. 

“I'm two years older than Paddy,” Niall explains: “When I was minor, he was actually under 16. And so that year in particular, 2015, I had a great year in handball. I won all the minor All-Irelands that I could possibly win. And Paddy played minor as a 16-year-old, which would be very unheard of to be playing that young, because it's a very hard ball.”

That didn't prevent two talented boys taking on the challenge and bringing the Minor hardball All-Ireland championship home. Naill can't remember the exact score, but they blew their opponents out of the court in that final. Ten years later, and playing their first year senior now, Niall and Paddy managed to somehow do it again.

They have become close friends outside the ball alley since they struck up an explosive partnership during that minor championship in 2015.

Niall got married at Christmas last year, and Paddy was one of his groomsmen. They went to school together, in different classes obviously. “We probably wouldn't have crossed paths apart from playing the handball,” Paddy says.

The success that didn't fall from the sky. Niall and Patrick have strong connections to Dessie Keegan who last won this title for Mayo in 2013, together with Stephen Cooney.

“Dessie actually married a lady over near me,” Paddy explains, “so he's only living across the field here. Coincidentally, even though he's a Ballaghaderreen man, he's a member of the Claremorris club now. He has transferred.”

Paddy confirms, that Dessie has been doing great work with the juveniles along with Gerard Prendergast who also always had a huge interest. So a good piece of advice is always just a short walk away: “Dessie always looked after us. He was a good kind of role model,” Paddy applauds the All-Ireland winning neighbour from across the field.

Murphy and Joyce have now joined Mayo handball legends Paddy Bolingbrook, Padraig McCormack and Peadar McGee who won this famous title over the decades.

Mayo representatives also contested the Junior All-Ireland final this weekend. Shane Heraty from Aughagower and Lorcan Conlon from Boefield lost to Galway's Moycullen duo Seamus Conneely and Conor Noone on a 21-14, 21-10 score line.

It was a special weekend for Mayo handball and after their historic and wholly unexpected triumph, Niall and Paddy drove around Dublin looking for food, singing along to the Saw Doctors' tune 'To win just once'.

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