Evan's set for a night at the stars
Evan Regan was the top scorer in last season's Mayo SFC, becoming so in spectacular style due to his heroics for Ballina Stephenites in the county final replay.
Like a fine wine, Evan Regan is getting better with age. The Ballina Stephenites attacker took full advantage of the new scoring rules in Gaelic football in 2025, leading by example as he captained his club to a third successive Mayo Senior Football Championship title.
The fun that Evan would have with the two-pointer throughout the year was evident well before the championship even began. He popped over four orange flags in the Stephenites' County Cup final triumph over Charlestown Sarsfields, and it was only a sign of things to come.
He kicked a further four two-pointers in Ballina’s opening group game of the championship against Ballyhaunis, and thirteen in total, as he finished top scorer in the Mayo SFC once again, with a haul of 4-42 across seven matches. Backing up their victories in 2023 and ’24, it was the first time since 1929 that Ballina Stephenites had won three Mayo senior titles in-a-row.
It is not just the volume of scores that Evan consistently gets, but the manner in how – and when – he gets them. He demonstrated his temperament for the big day once again in the county finals against Westport, particularly in the replay when, trailing by ten points with ten minutes remaining, the Stephenites pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks in championship history.
It was Evan’s sharp thinking that saw his quickly taken free deflected to the Westport net which truly ignited the comeback. Then, with only three points between the teams and four minutes of normal time remaining, the ex-Mayo star again stepped up when needed. His converted free and then a two-pointer levelled things up and with 20 seconds of the added time left to play, Regan wrote his name into the history books by kicking the point to secure the three-in-a-row. The team captain had scored a goal and five points in the second-half alone, including the final four points of stoppage time.
Some 19 points adrift of the championship’s highest score after the semi-finals, across both finals, the draw and replay, Evan scored 2-14 (2-4-6 in new money) to, quite literally, possess the ‘golden boot’ at the end of the 2025 Mayo SFC. Never was the title ‘Captain Fantastic’ so applicable.
