Ballina bow out of Connacht to superior Corofin
Ballina Stephenites' James Doherty, right, Conor McStay and Sean Regan in the thick of the action with Corofin's Ross Mahon, Jack McCabe and Michael Lundy during last Saturday's Connacht Club SFC semi-final at Pearse Stadium. Pictures: INPHO/James Crombie
Sometimes it’s the small things that trip you up.
On the face of it, Ballina Stephenites probably did just about as well as anyone had expected them to when losing to the most successful club in Connacht football history by four points, even better perhaps considering the debilitating losses of Padraig O’Hora and Dylan Thornton from their starting team and, after only eleven minutes, that of Ger Cafferkey as well.
And yet, it’s possible to identify aspects of Saturday’s semi-final in Salthill where with minimal improvements, Ballina Stephenites could have made life stickier for the five-time All-Ireland club champions.
As an example, Corofin scored three points in the opening eight minutes of the beginning of the second-half, a steady if unspectacular rate yet remarkably better than when the Mayo champions, playing into the same gale that now faced Corofin, required the entire first-half to score the same amount.
And then there was the fact that by the time Frank Irwin managed to fire over Ballina’s first point of the game from play, in the 36th minute, five different Corofin players had between them already scored nine from play.
To think then, that entering the final ten minutes of this Connacht Club senior football championship showdown, the Stephenites had moved to within three points of the red-hot favourites, with the full force of the Atlantic wind behind them, it’s a position foe which pre-match they’d have likely bitten your hand off.
“It looked as if we were coming back into it, but Corofin just always had the class,” remarked Ballina Stephenites manager Niall Heffernan after the game, his side having won the toss but opting to play against the wind in the first-half.
“It’s very easy to be smart afterwards. We made the decision and we backed it,” he declared.
What impact that choice had on the overall result is hard to gauge but there’s no doubt that not managing to score at all from play against the elements did contribute to the Stephenites simply having far too much to do against the ten-time Connacht champions in the second-half.
The first-half was always going to be about containment from a Ballina perspective, and losing their former All-Star Cafferkey (who had started the game with a couple of impressive turnovers) to a hamstring injury after eleven minutes, when already starting without county man O’Hora (ankle ligaments) and Thornton, their vice-captain and midfielder (groin), added massively to the difficulty of what was already an enormous task to overcome a side of Corofin’s calibre.
All that into consideration then, to trail by six points at half-time wasn’t the worst situation that the Green and Red could have found themselves in, but it was still going to take an enormous transformation for them to trouble the Galway champions.
Corofin had put four points on the board through Gary Sice, two frees, captain Dylan McHugh and their impressive young midfielder Patrick Egan by the time Ballina scored their first, with only a brilliantly timed tackle by Stephenites corner-back Liam Golden unbalancing Dylan Wall enough to make sure Corofin didn’t hit the net too during that opening quarter.
But the evergreen Sice sold Jack Irwin the classiest of dummies to slice over his first point from play, and with Egan notching his second and exciting corner-forward Jack McCabe picking off his first pair of points, Corofin suddenly led 0-8 to 0-1 after 22-minutes.
The opening Ballina point, kicked from a free by Frank Irwin back on the quarter hour mark, was eventually added to when Evan Regan, the first self-won, the second earned by Jack Irwin, curled over a pair of close-range frees in the 25th and 30th minutes, but there was just enough stoppage time for Corofin to have the final say of the half, as Dylan McHugh, having already scored off his right foot, appeared from defence again to this time shoot off his left, and send the Galway men to the dressing-room with a 0-9 to 0-3 advantage.
Corofin returned for the second-half with two changes, as Oran Burke replaced Bernard Power, who has struggled with injury, between the posts and Darragh Silke, who had been named to start, entered the attack in place of Dylan Wall. And while Ballina Stephenites began the new half with a great urgency, landing three points in seven minutes courtesy of Evan Regan, a mark, Frank Irwin and Regan again, they were leaking at the other end too, and in a manner Corofin simply hadn’t when the wind was with them in the first-half.
Michael Lundy pointed after running onto an excellent offload under pressure by Conor Cunningham before Lundy turned supplier for Gary Sice to kick his fourth point, while Jack McCabe’s third of the game, a delightful curler from the left wing off his left boot, meant that the six points margin that had been between the teams at half-time remained up until the 43rd minute when wing-back Ciaran Boland eventually kicked Ballina’s seventh point of the match.
The Moysiders had been unfortunate too that Evan Regan’s smack for a goal, after he retrieved a wayward point attempt by Mikey Murray, had been met by a superb block from Dylan McHugh, but with the Irwin brothers, Frank and Jack, each kicking points, the latter’s after excellent build-up involving Conor McStay, Sean Regan and Luke Feeney, the margin was now down to three points, with 49-minutes on the clock.
Corofin, however, would find a way to deflate Ballina’s growing momentum. Old reliable Michael Lundy picked off his second point and Jack McCabe added another pair to his growing tally, and although the Stephenites had turned to Dylan Thornton and Mark Birrane to add some attacking impetus, Thornton lasted only a dozen minutes before succumbing again to his injury.
Evan Regan and Gary Sice traded their fifth and final points of the game before sub Birrane and Conor McStay split the posts to narrow Ballina’s full-time arrears to four.
Corofin march forth to an incredible sixteenth Connacht club final where they will play St Brigid’s, winners of Sunday’s semi-final against Mohill.
Scorers – Corofin: Gary Sice (2f) and Jack McCabe 0-5 each, Dylan McHugh, Patrick Egan and Michael Lundy 0-2 each.
Ballina Stephenites: Evan Regan 0-5 (3f, 1m), Frank Irwin 0-3 (1f), Ciaran Boland, Jack Irwin, Mark Birrane and Conor McStay 0-1 each.
Corofin: Bernard Power; Liam Silke, Dylan McHugh, Cathal Silke; Mike Farragher, Conor Cunningham, Gavin Burke; Patrick Egan, Ciaran Brady; Brian Cogger, Michael Lundy, Tony Gill; Gary Sice, Dylan Wall, Jack McCabe. Subs: Oran Burke and Darragh Silke (for Power and Wall ht), Ross Mahon (for C Silke 38), Glen McHugh (for Farragher 47, inj), Colin Brady (for Gill 52), Daithí Burke (for Brady 59).
Ballina Stephenites: David Clarke; Liam Golden, Ger Cafferkey, David Tighe; Ciaran Boland, Sam Callinan, Sean Regan; Frank Irwin, Jack Irwin; Niall Feeney, Conor McStay, Mikey Murray; Evan Regan, Luke Feeney, Ciaran Treacy. Subs: James Doherty (for Cafferkey 11, inj), Dylan Thornton and Mark Birrane (for Murray and Treacy 41), Murray (for Thornton 54, inj), Ciaran Sweeney (for J Irwin 59).
REF: Barry Judge (Sligo)
