Evan’s above: Stephenites stalwarts savour the moment

For two of Ballina Stephenites’ longest serving custodians, that they had difficulty comprehending what had just transpired spoke volumes.

Former Mayo goalkeeper David Clarke is a man who has won it all with his home club yet not a Stephenite still lived who had won three Mayo SFC titles in-a-row. To have become the first team to do that for the club since 1929, and in the fashion that they did, left Clarke marvelling at what he saw.

“I was watching most of it. I wasn't out there in the rough and tumble. It was unbelievable, I don't know how we did it.

“Some of the stuff at the end, we had worked on the last two scores. It's not something that was new to us. It wasn't just luck, that last play between Evan and Conor, something they've been talking about a long time in doing in games.

“We just kept on plugging away. We got a few lucky goals. [It’s] just an unbelievable feeling, something special in fairness.” 

Did he think the game was gone?

“I'd say a lot of us thought the game was gone but we just kept on playing. Loads of things didn't go right for us all throughout the game. Calls, passes, shots, everything. I messed up for the [opening] goal, we all did bad things. But we kept on going, we kept in the game, and lo and behold you get your rewards at the end.

“I always say we're not the best team in the world. We don't think we’re the best team, but we know we have to be at our best and we probably weren’t there today at times, but we just kept on fighting and that's a great quality.” 

Ballina Stephenites captain Evan Regan, who was also awarded Player of the Match, capped off another great scoring campaign with a tally of 1-8. His goal started the comeback and he also completed it with a stunning two-pointer to level the game before following with the championship-winning score deep into additional time.

“After a game like that, we were dead and buried, probably a lot of people thought that at half-time. Then with ten minutes to go, it didn’t look like we were going to make a comeback. So proud of the group, just unbelievably delighted and happy with what we’ve done there.” 

That two-pointer was a score Regan had to go for, as Ballina worked the ball from left to right and back again, waiting patiently for their moment. The team captain felt that scoring it from play instead of a free made it somewhat easier.

“You're kind of just in the moment and you're not really thinking about it too much. Obviously I’ve done a lot of practice this year on kicking twos and have kicked a few in that position. I'm comfortable there and I knew that it was do-or-die at that stage. We had to go for it and, yeah, just delighted it went over.” 

Regan added: “Even though there was a big deficit in the game, I've always felt that with the two-point options, it would be easier to cut into that lead, and I knew we'd need to get a couple of them or at least one.” 

As well as a three-in-a-row, it was a fourth final appearance on the spin, avenging their defeat to Westport in 2022. So what continues to motivate this group?

“When you do it once you want to keep winning and you want to keep doing it. I think that sense of everyone being chased by other teams and every team adapting to beat you year after year, I think is something that drives us on,” said Regan.

“When you have that target on your back, you don't want to give it up. When you have a county title, you don't want to give it up easy.” 

Replicating that hunger year in and year out can be very difficult, but the former Mayo attacker believed their group stage defeat to Crossmolina Deel Rovers was a major turning point in their championship campaign.

“There's a reason why it's been 100 years since Ballina have done a three in-a-row. It's because you eventually get caught and you eventually get bet.

“Looking back, the best thing that ever happened to us this year was being beat by Crossmolina. I think there was lot of soul searching and lot of looking around after that to see where we were going to go next. We were either going to go one way or another after that game. We were either going to wilt and leave the championship and be done, or we were going to do what we've done today and bounce back from it.

“It was definitely the best thing that happened to us this year and it showed how much we cared about it; how much we wanted to continue to win.” 

Attention for Ballina Stephenites now turns to the challenge of London champions North London Shamrocks in a fortnight. But their approach will not be different than the one that has taken them to their current success.

“I think every year you win one, you want to go a step further and we'll take it the same way we're doing with this, game by game. We'll give every team that we come up against the respect they deserve,” assured Evan Regan.

“If it brings us to a Connacht title or an opportunity to play for one, that'll be brilliant. I think all we can ask is for the group to stick together and keep doing what we're doing and stick to the process.”