Familiar result as derby fails to catch light
Conor McStay and Sam Callinan combine to bottle up Knockmore defender David McHale, while their Ballina teammate Niall Feeney gets ready to land further assistance during last Saturday's Mayo SFC semi-final at St Tiernan's Park, Crossmolina. Pictures: Michael Donnelly
Twelve months on and nothing has changed. Not a jot. The scoreline of Saturday’s thoroughly underwhelming encounter of sworn enemies was an exact copy of last year’s Mayo SFC Final when Ballina Stephenites also totally dominated their neighbours.
Add to the fact that their chance to win a third consecutive Moclair Cup next Sunday brings with it an opportunity to exact revenge upon a Westport side whose 2022 county final win denies Ballina from actually chasing four-in-a-row, and the mantle of this Stephenites team being one of the best in the club’s history is unquestionable. Only Castlebar Mitchels have reached as many consecutive finals in the past 40 years, that when they contested five from 2013 to ’17. Prior to that, Garrymore contested a fifth straight final in 1977.
These are heady days for the men from the Moy.
On paper, Knockmore came better equipped than when losing to their arch rivals in last year’s final. Players who had struggled with injury then – or who were suspended – were fit and raring to go. Well, almost.
Darren McHale, who had stuck 2-2 past Ballintubber in the semi-final, was limping from the get go and an early rub from the physio couldn’t save the Mayo attacker from departing the action before half-time.
And not even that they had back on the sideline he who had masterminded Knockmore’s 2020 and ’21 county title triumphs could alter the result this year.
“We have to give great credit to Ballina. They laid down the marker from the start and things just didn’t flow for us. We needed to get a start and didn’t,” said Ray Dempsey afterwards.
The Knockmore manager was frank in his assessment of the situation his club finds itself in.
“It's slipped in Knockmore, it’s as simple as that. Ballina have took full advantage of that and are going for three-in-a-row.
“It’s not easy to get back but we’ll have to keep plugging away. There is a good few players coming through and we were very unlucky to lose Darren early, our inter-county player. We took a few knocks out there that we couldn’t afford to take. Ballina have a lot of very experienced players who have been around the block.”
Dempsey added: “From a Knockmore point of view, we’ve been competing at the very end of the championship but we probably have to go away and find character within the group and men that can stand up and deliver when it really counts. I don’t think we’re too far off it but Ballina have got the upper-hand in recent years and their experience, drive and desire came out there.”
It was impossible to argue with the former Mayo player. And viewed over a wider prism, Knockmore have scored a total of just 0-23 in their last three championship meetings with Ballina, a 0-10 to 0-7 semi-final defeat in 2023 included.
An early brace of Conor McStay points for the Stephenites on Saturday was interjected by one from Pearse Ruttledge but that was Knockmore’s last of the first-half until the 29th minute by which time Evan Regan, from frees, and Niall Feeney had added two points apiece, sending Ballina into a five points advantage. And the champions could have been even further in front but a third minute goal chance for Luke Doherty drew an excellent save from Colm Reape who smothered the ball just as the full-forward tried to dance his way past the Mayo goalkeeper.
Doherty found a stubborn opponent in Adam Naughton, one of the few Knockmore players to dominate their dual, while there wasn’t much more that could be asked of corner-back Sean Holmes who not only held Evan Regan scoreless from the play for the entire match but kicked Knockmore’s second point of the match just before half-time – the final pass being Darren McHale’s last contribution.
Knockmore had gotten zero return on their tactic to go long in the first-half so it was no surprise to see Dempsey summon the creativity of Kevin McLoughlin for the start of the second – except by the time the former Mayo attacker had his first touch of the ball, Ballina had gone from 0-6 to 0-2 in front at half-time to 1-8 to 0-2 in front after 34 minutes.
“Going in at half-time we probably weren’t overly happy,” admitted Ballina Stephenites coach Cora Stanton afterwards.
“We felt we should be a little further ahead. We were doing things we wouldn’t normally do, taking an extra play, taking shots that weren’t on, but in the second-half we got dominance again around the middle.”
Centre-back Padraig O’Hora was the furthest man forward to latch onto a Frank Irwin free that rebounded off an upright and punch the opening point of the second-half. And after a foul on wing-back David Tighe saw Regan convert the free, it was from the kickout that Ballina manufactured the game’s only goal. Colm Reape’s arrow towards the right sideline was intercepted by Conor McStay who immediately slipped in Luke Doherty and unlike with his first-half chance, he shot low and early this time, with the ball nestling sweetly into the bottom left corner.
Pearse Ruttledge, another who left it all on the pitch for Knockmore, fired over his side’s third point, and two more came on 37 and 42 minutes, from Caolan Hopkins, another of the half-time subs, and Liam Durkan. So with Evan Regan uncharacteristically missing a free from dead centre, you couldn’t yet say the game was totally out of Knockmore’s reach. However, Aiden Orme was experiencing a frustrating afternoon in front of the posts and Ray Dempsey withdrew their other main marksman Peter Naughton in favour of Shane McHale’s bulk around the middle.
Nothing changed though, except the scoreboard in Ballina’s favour, as points by the midfield pairing of Frank Irwin and Mike Murray, either side of another Regan free, saw the Green and Red hold a 1-11 to 0-5 advantage after 48 minutes.
Orme finally found his range with a two-point free but Irwin caught the resultant kickout to launch an attack that he finished with a point before almost bagging a goal moments later, when a raid forward by O’Hora saw Irwin race onto possession and fire a shot that Reape did well to parry.
Sub Dylan Coleman curled over a consolation point but with Durkan striking timber late on and further wides by Orme and Sean Holmes, so ended a disappointing day for Knockmore.
As Ray Dempsey said, it won’t be easy to get back. But they’ll keep plugging away.
For Ballina, they’re just one step away from completing a first three-in-a-row since the 1920s.
“It’s where we wanted to be at the start of the year,” admitted Mike Murray afterwards.
“It takes a huge effort from a massive group of people. It’s not easy to get back there, it’s a long year when you get to a final, but we’re thrilled, really happy with that performance.”
Scorers – Ballina Stephenites: Evan Regan 0-0-4f, Luke Doherty 1-0-0, Conor McStay, Niall Feeney and Frank Irwin 0-0-2 each, Padraig O’Hora and Mike Murray 0-0-1 each.
Knockmore: Pearse Ruttledge and Aiden Orme (1tpf) 0-0-2 each, Sean Holmes, Liam Durkan, Caolan Hopkins and Dylan Coleman 0-0-1 each.
Ballina Stephenites: David Clarke; Liam Golden, Luke Jordan, Ciaran Boland; Sam Callinan, Padraig O’Hora, David Tighe; Mike Murray, Frank Irwin; Dylan Thornton, Conor McStay, Niall Feeney; Evan Regan, Luke Doherty, Brendan Collins. Subs: Luke Feeney (for Collins 30, inj), Ben Thornton (for D Thornton 45), Keith Tighe, Ciaran Sweeney and Barry Walsh (for Doherty, Irwin and Murray 60).
Knockmore: Colm Reape; David McHale, Adam Naughton, Sean Holmes; Darragh Staunton, Kieran King, Nathan Armstrong; Pearse Ruttledge, Connell Dempsey; Darren McHale, Aiden Orme, Aaron Timlin; Liam Durkan, Peter Naughton, Charlie Bourke. Subs: Conor Flynn (for McHale 30, inj), Kevin McLoughlin and Caolan Hopkins (for Bourke and Staunton ht), Shane McHale (for Naughton 39), Dylan Coleman (for King 47).
REF: Kevin Connelly (Hollymount-Carramore)
