‘Extra jeopardy’ adds some spice to senior draw
Mikey Murray of Ballina Stephenites challenges Garrymore’s Liam Og Horkan during last year's championship clash. The two clubs have been drawn in the same group for the second year running and will face off at James Stephens Park in the opening round. Picture: David Farrell Photography
“It’s going to be a very interesting championship.”
So said Niall Heffernan following the draw for the 2026 Connacht Gold Mayo Senior Football Championship which took place last week (Monday, February 16) at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar.
It was held alongside the draws for the Egan Jewellers intermediate and Treanlaur Catering junior football championships, even though none of the three competitions are due to get underway for another five months or so.
Niall Heffernan is entering his sixth year as Ballina Stephenites manager with the mission being to become the first club since Castlebar Mitchels in the 1950s to win a fourth senior championship in succession.
“The way the draw was this year, there was going to be extra jeopardy,” said Heffernan after seeing his side drawn alongside Mitchels, Garrymore and Balla in Group 2. The “extra jeopardy” was that only last season’s semi-finalists were seeded (one per group), meaning that the other twelve teams were placed into an open draw.
The result was that four 2025 Mayo SFC quarter-finalists happened to be drawn in one group, with seeded Knockmore having to face Breaffy, Ballaghaderreen and Belmullet.
“All those teams have realistic aspirations and are good enough to win [the Moclair Cup],” reckons Niall Heffernan. “There’s about seven or eight teams who justifiably could say they could win it.
“Crossmolina, Ballintubber… last year Westport could have beaten us, should have beaten us probably. The year before, Ballaghaderreen could have beaten us.
“I was glad to see Castlebar go out of the championship last year when they did because they were getting better with every game – and now they’re in our group. So it’s the makings of a very, very tough group.”
Explaining that the Ballina Stephenites squad is undergoing some rebuilding on account of some players retiring and others unable to commit to the extent they had previously, Niall Heffernan said new players are being blooded and that preparation for the 2026 campaign began immediately after his side’s exit from the Connacht Club SFC at the hands of St Brigid’s.
“We’ve been lucky the last couple of years. There’s a couple of games we could have lost so it’s a very, very thin line.
“To do four in-a-row, you know how long it’s been since it’s been done, it’s nearly impossible, but we’ll give it a go.”
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A third round encounter on neutral turf between West Mayo neighbours Westport and Kilmeena already has the potential to be a blockbuster, as the former look to bounce back from the disappointment of last season’s agonising defeat in the Mayo SFC replay.
Kilmeena, for their part, are returning to the senior ranks after a one year sojourn at intermediate, and will hope their stay in the top tier lasts longer than when they were promoted there for the first time in their history in 2023 only to be relegated at the first time of asking.
Of course, Charlestown Sarsfields and Claremorris will both fancy their chances of squeezing into the quarter-finals by way of finishing inside Group 1’s top two places – with Round 2 looking like it could prove pivotal. It’s in that round where Charlestown entertain Kilmeena where nothing less than two points is likely to suffice for the hosts while Claremorris will have home advantage against Westport.
Ballina Stephenites will begin their attempt to become the first club in more than 70 years to win four successive Mayo SFC titles in-a-row with a home game against Garrymore. It’s the second year running the two teams have been drawn against each other in the group stages, with the Moysiders winning last year’s third round clash 0-16 to 0-13 on the neutral soil of Charlestown.
Ballina and Garrymore are drawn in Group 2 which also features Castlebar Mitchels who will commence their senior championship campaign with a short spin to Balla.
Garrymore’s home game is against Balla while Ballina must travel to Mitchels in Round 2. As always, the third round games are to be played at neutral venues, at which point the showdown between Garrymore and Castlebar Mitchels in particular could be seismic to both sides’ chances of advancing to the last eight.
The suspicion is that Crossmolina’s run to last year’s semi-finals in only their first season back at senior level was no flash in the pan and that the Deel Rovers are in this for the long haul i.e. will be serious Moclair Cup contenders in the coming years. With that in mind, their opening game of the 2026 championship at home to Ballintubber should attract a lot of attention; prior to hammering Belmullet at St Tiernan’s Park in last season’s quarter-final round, Cross’ also served eventual champions Ballina what remains their only championship loss in the past three years, so to have home advantage against a team of Ballintubber’s quality is obviously significant.
Aghamore, who failed with a recent proposal to have a preliminary quarter-final round introduced into the 2026 Mayo SFC, will look to pick up an early win on the road against Mayo Gaels before hosting Crossmolina. It’s a long way out but already the third round meeting between Ballintubber and Aghamore, at a neutral ground, looks like it could decide which of the two advance to the quarter-finals and who does not.
It’s a cliché but ‘Group of Death’ befits the conglomeration of four teams all of whom reached last year’s senior quarter-finals and in the case of Knockmore, the semi-final also. Indeed to think that either one of Knockmore, Belmullet, Breaffy and Ballaghaderreen is already guaranteed to end up in a relegation semi-final will heighten the importance of not finishing bottom in any of the other three groups.
There are no two senior teams separated further geographically in the county than Belmullet and Ballaghaderreen so the fact that neither has home advantage for that tie and that they will meet on neutral soil in Round 3 is something of a leveller and will add to the interest because above all groups, this is one where it’s not hard to imagine a scenario that has all four teams still with a chance of topping the group heading into the final round but also with a chance of finishing bottom of the table.
Belmullet produced a stunning six points victory away to Castlebar Mitchels in the opening round last season so won’t be fazed at visiting North Mayo rivals Knockmore in Round 1 but they let a decent lead slip when losing by one point to Breaffy in Round 3, which ultimately cost them top spot in their group. It only adds spice to Breaffy having to visit Tallagh this year while Ballaghaderreen, as the only club to win all three of their group games last season, will hope to build upon that, with their second round game at home to Knockmore particularly eye-catching.
