Doherty hoping title chance hasn't passed him by

It was around this time last year that Ballina Stephenites were celebrating a historic senior championship - and now Luke Doherty wants to experience that feeling amongst his peers.

The 26-year-old missed last year’s championship as he was travelling in Australia. He followed their journey to success closely and although he wondered what might have been if he had stayed, he has no regrets about his decision to travel. Now that he’s back home, the forward is determined to help his club retain the Moclair Cup.

“Obviously following them along, I loved that the group got to the final but obviously I missed out. It was top of my list to get back this year, put that down and get to this position now.

“Regret? No, I'm glad I did do it. If I had to do it again tomorrow, I would do it. It's just a decision I made but like, yeah, you do miss out. It was in my mind, as delighted as I was, I was nearly kicking myself. ‘Why this year, why the year I decided to go away?’ But, look, you just have to be happy and stick by your decisions. I had a decision to come back this year and here we are.” 

Doherty came on in the second-half of Ballina’s county final defeat to Westport in 2022. That final came after a number of defeats in quarter-finals and semi-finals and the wing-forward can see the team has kicked on further since.

“You do mature, definitely become more confident in yourself. You just try and prepare as best you can, repeat what went well for you last year and the year before and just go again and hopefully get over the line.

“It was something we were building towards (in 2022). We've made quarter-finals, semi-finals, and maybe didn't have the experience or maturity to actually follow through and get ourselves over the line. Then the Westport one came around and we were in a better position. We had young lads coming through that were growing and maturing within the team, and now you can see we've kind of come on another few steps, so hopefully we can keep going.” 

After coming through their group, the Stephenites had stiff tests in their games against Castlebar Mitchels in the quarter-final and Ballaghaderreen after extra-time but eventually came through. Their bench played its part as the injury list began to lengthen.

“It was tough (against Mitchels). I thought we started well and then kind of fell off a little bit, just trying to work ourselves back into it again. They came out fighting in the second-half, we struggled to hold on at times, but look, again, it kind of comes back to the maturity that has come into the squad. Having the older lads talk us in the dressing-room and get us prepared mentally for a battle like that, I think it stood to us.

“A different game against Ballaghaderreen, a team not many people maybe expected to get to the semi-final, but they really went for it as well. There were a few moments for the team but the bench really stood up as well. There were a lot of guys who came off that bench and made a big impact.

“We do have a strong bench. We have a good depth in our squad. It’s what it’s all about, especially this time of year, coming up against injuries, left, right and centre, so you just need to have lads that are working away, working as hard as ever to break into the team. When your time is called, stand up and put your best foot forward.” 

Luke Doherty himself was there for two crucial moments in that semi-final. He got on the end of Sean Regan’s point attempt that dropped short for Ballina’s goal while at the other end, he got a crucial block in extra-time to deny Sharoize Akram a goal that would have levelled the contest.

The aforementioned experience and maturity kept Ballina heads cool, however, and it now leads to an all-North Mayo final.

“I think especially that situation where we got our goal after the first-half, then they went down straight away and got a goal and then followed it with a point. Other years the heads could have probably went. We trusted the process, we knew what we were out to do and just kept working away, kept working hard and popped over a few scores and we're back in it then.”