Keegan, Regan, omens and reasons

In his captain’s profile ahead of the Mayo SFC final, Lee Keegan enlightened us on several different levels.

He admitted that Kobe McDonald was now officially his favourite footballer after the 17-year-old’s sensational semi-final display for Crossmolina against Keegan’s Westport. It seems to bode well for the future of Mayo football then that Keegan also rates Joey Holmes, the same vintage as young McDonald, as one of his two toughest players to mark in training. And you could see exactly where Keegan was coming from when Joey struck for three points in a four-minute spell during the first-half of Saturday’s final replay with Ballina Stephenites. The young full-forward had the Ballina backs in all sorts of bother, also earning the free that saw Killian Kilkelly score the first of his six points.

Five-time All-Star Lee Keegan also admitted to having developed a close companionship with a sweeping brush and described himself a “weirdo” because folk acoustic is his favourite music. Nothing weird about that at all Lee – and never apologise for it. But as for the sweeping brush?

Unfortunately it was probably of more use as a crutch to “cleanaholic” Keegan last week after the bone-crunching tackle by Padraig O’Hora that forced both players off in the early stages of the drawn final. Westport named Keegan to start the replay yet he played no part while Ballina Stephenites didn’t name Padraig O’Hora to start yet there was Swannee, at centre-back, when the ball was thrown in. You can’t believe half of what you read these days.

It says something about their love for the game though, that both Westport captain Keegan and his Ballina counterpart, Evan Regan, when asked about what they hoped to be doing in ten years’ time, both answered ‘still playing’. Regan said he’d still be trying to kick 2s with the aid of a zimmer frame but it’s possible he’ll never again kick a two-pointer so important as that which brought Ballina Stephenites to parity with Westport in the fourth minute of stoppage time on Saturday. It was his second of the game, his fourth across the two finals and quite simply, factored alongside his goal in either match and the six points he added from singles, Ballina Stephenites wouldn’t have got close to winning their third Moclair Cup in succession without him.

How long is it now that this season’s top scorer of the Mayo SFC has been deemed surplus to Mayo’s requirements, with Regan instead offering dietary advice to players who could only dream of his scoring statistics? Food – quite literally – for thought. (It’s over six years by the way since Evan Regan’s last outing with Mayo, as a substitute in their All-Ireland ‘James Carr’ Qualifier victory over Galway at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick on July 6, 2019).

Lee Keegan said his wish for ten years from now is to be playing junior ‘B’ with two functioning hips. You can be sure the St Patrick’s Park hierarchy hope their captain meant he’d be playing for Westport’s second team and that the first hadn’t tumbled all the way to junior ‘B’, for that’s how far down the ladder their West Mayo rivals Burrishoole will have slipped if not reaching next season’s junior ‘A’ quarter-finals.

It’s 25 years since Burrishoole contested the Mayo SFC final and memories of them losing three intermediate finals in succession 2010 to ’12, and another in 2018, in their failed efforts to win promotion back to senior, remain fresh, particularly in light of their relegation earlier this month to the third tier of championship football in Mayo.

And Kiltimagh lost three intermediate finals in five years between 2016 and 2020 but ended up in this year’s junior championship, which is where Shrule/Glencorrib have long since been – despite taking Westport to a replay in the county intermediate championship semi-final back in 2016 and appearing in a Mayo SFC final 20 years ago. All of which should serve as a salutary warning to Moy Davitts who are still coming to terms with losing consecutive intermediate finals. Sympathy leaves you not a single inch closer to victory the following year.

There are simply no guarantees in football, like how Westport were tipped to add to their first Mayo SFC title in 2022. Will they ever have a better chance of landing a second than when leading by 10 points with 10 minutes left to play on Saturday? Eoghan McLaughlin is good, very good in fact, and in many people’s estimations was the best performing player in this year’s championship (Evan Regan’s heroics in both finals surely place him in that same bracket), but to pin the cause of defeat upon McLaughlin’s 48th minute injury both inflates his influence by a ridiculous proportion and falsely absolves his teammates for their cataclysmic collapse.

Quite how for three quarters of the match they had been able to dictate most of the play but then, particularly in the final five or six minutes, were totally overwhelmed around the middle third and lacking the smarts as to how to retain possession from their kickout, or stunt Ballina’s momentum, will make for a long post mortem this winter. You’d feel certain about one thing though; it wouldn’t have happened on Lee Keegan’s watch. The GPS man would have found some way or other to stop or to slow the game and have the clock count out the opposition.

How remarkable is it that the senior football finals in Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon have all gone to replays this season. Ballina Stephenites will only hope there’s no bad omen in them winning at the second time of asking because the only other instance of a defending champion winning a Mayo SFC final replay is Crossmolina Deel Rovers in 2006 – and they’ve yet to win another since. But Westport will hope there’s an omen in their defeat because the last time the three-in-a-row was accomplished in Mayo, by Castlebar Mitchels in 2017, the beaten side Ballintubber bounced back to win the next two championships. That, though, was a Ballintubber side with far more credit in the bank than the Covies.

And then there’s the aforementioned Crossmolina who will look at how close they came to overcoming Westport in the semi-final and remind us too how they had already beaten the eventual champions in this year’s championship.

But having won their third straight Mayo SFC title for the first time since 1929, Ballina Stephenites’ next mission domestically will be to try and become the first club since Castlebar Mitchels in 1954 to win four on the trot. Undoubtedly, they are already the team to beat.

2026 can hardly come quick enough.