Champions Ballina can expect severe test of credentials
Ballaghaderreen attacker Kuba Callaghan has lit up the Mayo SFC and tops the scoring charts. Picture: David Farrell Photography
It’s forty years since these two clubs met in the Mayo SFC Final where Ballina Stephenites ended a near two-decade long famine but less than twelve months since the teams served up one of the county championship’s most memorable games of recent seasons.
But if Ballaghaderreen had entered last year’s semi-final as very much the underdog, their odds on beating the back-to-back Moclair Cup holders have shortened dramatically this time around. The East Mayo outfit entered the championship on a high by winning the Mayo SFL Division 2 final and the feel-good factor saw them emerge from the group stages as the only team to win all three of their matches.
In Kuba Callaghan, Ballagh’ have the championship’s highest scorer of the season to date and the fact they have the worst defensive record of all the quarter-finalists isn’t as much of a concern as it could be, given Ballina are averaging 1.33 points per game less but scoring 1.67 points per game less than Ballaghaderreen. Small margins.
What Ballina Stephenites will remind themselves of, however, is that when having it as tight as they did against Ballagh’ in that extra-time classic last year, they had been forced to line out without Padraig O'Hora and Mikey Murray, both of whom were injured. The imprint of both players was all over Ballina’s quality first-half display against Garrymore last time, where the team’s running power (Sam Callinan, in particular, gave a tour de force) was simply too much for their South Mayo opponents to handle. But what might have concerned manager Niall Heffernan was a quite inept second-half performance where his team scored just twice, both of which were frees.
In contrast, Ballagh’ weren’t at their best early doors against Ballintubber last Saturday week, falling behind by ten points before closing that gap to two points by half-time. To have won by four points at the conclusion indicates just what value Patrick Sharkey and his players placed on making sure of home advantage for next weekend’s quarter-final.
They might be the most successful club in the history of the Mayo SFC but not since the 1920s have Ballina Stephenites won three titles in-a-row. That’s their motivation this year but having already lost to local rivals Crossmolina and leaving several questions unanswered against Garrymore too, any vulnerability is almost certain to go punished by a Ballaghaderreen team that boasts quality in each and every line, from McBrien and Cunniffe and Drake in defence, to Lynch at midfield, to Callaghan and Akram in attack, to Hanley and Doohan off the bench. Extra-time could easily be required once again.
