Concannon’s confidence in border boys proves well-founded

Davitts weren’t just ready for a county final, they were ready for the Breeders’ Cup this weekend too, according to their delighted team manager, Mark Concannon!

“I was really confident all week, I won’t lie,” he said to the Western People, just before the Sweeney Cup was presented to team captain Niall Treacy.

“I said to Ronan McNamara (selector) on Thursday evening that it’ll take a really good team to beat us, we were flying. And I didn’t have that feeling in every game to be honest, but I could see how tuned in they were, they were smiling. If they were horses, they would have been good in their coats!” While the task for horses is to clear hurdles and fences perfectly, the most important thing in football is to clear the crossbar with your shots – and Davitts did that 18 times in a sensational display of shooting, something that Concannon felt was coming.

“One thing you could never fault about Davitts is their work-rate and energy. We knew that if we got a hold around the middle and got our primary possession that we’d do damage up top, and that’s the way it turned out,” he said.

“We were really happy (at half-time), we had been very controlled, the game was going according to plan. We had a couple of these performances throughout the year, against Ballyhaunis in the quarter-final in particular, we were excellent, the shots just didn’t go over that day. We won by six in the end but we could have won by a lot more, and today, the shots went over.

“The last thing I said to them before they went out on the field was that we have big players. Big players perform on big days, and that’s what happened today.” 

For Ballinrobe manager Eoin Hughes, the game playing out as something close to a shootout, even in wintry conditions, was no huge surprise. In his view, the problem for Ballinrobe was that they didn’t get to fire as many bullets, because their work in the trenches didn’t give the forwards a full chamber of rounds.

“We struggled to get up to the pace of the game initially, and that carried right through into the second-half as well,” said the Neale man.

“I don't think that breeze overall or the weather in general was a factor. The conditions were excellent. We lost our way a bit in the middle third. A few basic errors cost us and cheap turnovers gave a bit of momentum to Davitts.

“We knew 20 points wouldn't be enough today to win the game. We felt 23 was the magic number, we need to hit 23. We didn’t, they did, they got it in ones and twos, but they also were very physical around the break of ball. That allowed them to push on and kick scores at will throughout the game.” 

Next year will be the 25th anniversary of Ballinrobe’s last intermediate title, and while he freely accepted that his side were a distant second best in this fixture, he firmly expects them to be back in contention in 2027.

“I think a town like Ballinrobe, they want to be pushing on in the latter stages of the intermediate championship, they want to be playing senior football,” he said.

“When you look back on 2026, will we be happy with getting to the final? Probably not. I know on paper it’s progress, but these are ambitious players and it’s an ambitious club, they want to be pushing on. There's a big population in there, with lots of very good footballers, they need to be playing senior football.

“There's a lot of excellent football being played at all ages in Flanagan Park and an awful lot of good people in the club. I’d definitely be positive about the future.”