On the brink

Ballina Braves on the brink

Last week’s club AGM was an emotional affair

Liam Henry

BALLINA Town Mayor Pádraig Moore’s threatened departure from Fianna Fáil may not have materialised, but the local councillor’s resignation as chairperson of Ballina Braves Basketball Club was much more definite when it was confirmed at a highly-charged club AGM last week.
While Moore stepped out, it was fellow town councillor Johnnie O’Malley who stepped in, albeit ‘in the short-term’, as the famous Moyside club made tentative steps towards resurrecting its fortunes. They experienced a disastrous 2007/08 season, characterised by ailing performances in the southern conference, off-court debacles and bitter internal division and strife.
Whether anything can be salvaged from the wreckage remains to be seen. On the evidence of Wednesday’s frank and fierce exchanges, the required passion is present. The will, however, may not be, and O’Malley may just have embarked upon his toughest challenge yet.
“I have a vested interest in basketball in Ballina – my sons play and I’d hate to see it fall,” said O’Malley as he agreed to ‘facilitate the rest of the meeting’ by taking over the chair from the disgruntled Moore. “But only in the short-term; maybe longer if cohesion going forward can be achieved.”
With the 20 or so members present failing to nominate, never mind elect, a single other candidate to the committee, O’Malley’s task is huge and takes on the role of peace-maker in the immediate term.
Resigning en bloc, the outgoing committee are certain of their position and certain of the cause of Team Merry Monk’s downfall – internal friction caused by the formation of a second team in April of last year.
The obvious division and lingering upset caused by the actions of that team, in fulfilling a league fixture in Belfast against the wishes of the committee, was all too evident on Wednesday, even before the meeting began.
Anthony McHale, a club stalwart and pivotal figure in the Division One side, questioned the timing of the AGM as many people with an interest in developments were out of the country. “I find it very suspicious that this meeting is going ahead in the absence of many people who kept the club going,” he said.
His argument was very clinically shot down, however, when a call from the floor asking for the list of paid-up members to be read out, revealed that those to whom McHale was referring, were in fact not fully paid-up club members.
Opening his chairperson’s address by declaring it a ‘sad night both personally and for the club’, Pádraig Moore went on to state that the ‘credibility of the committee’ had been irreversibly removed by the actions of the Division One team when they vowed to fulfil the by now infamous Belfast fixture.
“Our battle with Basketball Ireland was lost on the Friday night that Liam (McHale) told me the Division One team would be travelling to Belfast. The Division One team derailed our club rather than strengthen it as had been anticipated – it created problems and caused difficulties, effectively becoming a second club.”
The chairperson said it was with regret that he was tendering his resignation with immediate effect. Councillor Moore was followed into the sunset by club secretary, Conor Moore.
Describing the Division One team as ‘a cancer that ate away from within’, he too announced his resignation claiming his position was untenable in the face of obstruction from the ‘second club’.
“The demise, ironically, came last year on April Fool’s Day, when Oisín Ginty proposed a junior side to play in Division One,” he said. “It seemed a good idea at the time and working towards the purpose of bringing along younger players it should have been crucial in securing our future.
“Unfortunately that is not how things transpired and instead senior players – Liam McHale, Anthony McHale, Paul Barrett and Deora Marsh – formed the basis of that team, leaving the Superleague side in dire circumstances due to the emergence of what was effectively a second club.
“Owing to the Belfast debacle, I believe my position as secretary is untenable,” concluded Moore.
There followed the election of officers but with no nominations forthcoming (apart from Johnnie O’Malley’s), a decision to adjourn the AGM until Wednesday, April 16 was taken.
Before the meeting was formally closed it was also disclosed that the outgoing committee had forked out in the region of €14,000 out of their own pockets to clear the club’s crippling debts – €5,000 of which can be attributed to fines accrued for various offences.
It was also revealed that sponsorship offered to the second team by club sponsor Joe Lavelle of The Merry Monk was now being recalled as a number of conditions were not met including an incident whereby a team member failed to don the appropriate Merry Monk-emblazoned jersey.
The future of what was once a proud and happy family is now under serious scrutiny.