Living’ on the edge is extra special for Breaffy

AbbVie Mayo SFL Division 1 – Final 

Breaffy 2-23 

Crossmolina 2-22 

(AET, 2-17 apiece at full-time) 

Anthony Hennigan at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar 

For a long time on Saturday evening it seemed as though Crossmolina Deel Rovers were going to be the story. And in many ways they still are. But anyone even mildly familiar with the Breaffy backstory will appreciate the sweetness and significance of them winning what for sheer captivation, could rival any club game to have gone before it.

This Mayo SFL Division 1 final offered twists and turns, mastery and mistakes, individual brilliance and exceptional teamwork, but also left the large attendance utterly clueless about who would lift the David Gavin Memorial Cup until referee Ronan Gurren blew full-time after well over 80 minutes of spell-binding action. His final whistle signalled Breaffy’s first time to win a senior final in MacHale Park since 2004, when the club won the intermediate championship for the first time and joined the senior ranks where they have remained since.

Breaffy captain and full-back Mark Dervan on Saturday wore the same number as his late clubmate after whom the Division 1 Cup has been named, which added a poignancy to the post-match presentation made in the company of David Gavin’s parents Michael and Angela, and his girlfriend Ciara O’Malley. The Blue and White claimed league crowns in 2007, 2017 and 2021 but did so without ever having to win a final at the county ground, so what was rare was beautiful.

Of course, the league is not the title Breaffy craves most of all, but the belief that may come with winning a final as tight and epic as this could well help the West Mayo outfit in their quest to end a run of five Mayo SFC final losses since 2013, the last three by a combined total of five points.

There’s no doubt they did it the hard way. Sean Deane’s side had just narrowed their arrears from five points to one when they lost wing-back Mark Ward to a second booking in the 56th minute. They still managed to get their noses in front, as late as the third minute of stoppage time, yet Breaffy were dragged kicking and screaming to extra-time by a Crossmolina Deel Rovers team looking to complete a back-to-back Division 1 and 2 double.

The fourteen men then fell behind during the first added period but even though each side raised five flags across all of extra-time, it was goalkeeper Jack Livingstone’s two-point free that ultimately was the difference. Livingstone had kicked another during regulation time too, and given the tightness of the exchanges throughout it’s worth recognising the importance of Breaffy’s four two-point scores compared to Crossmolina scoring nothing from outside the arc. This season’s new playing rules have bordered on the revolutionary and there’s no question but that football is infinitely more enjoyable – to play and to watch – because of them.

The result was heartbreaking for a Deel Rovers side who despite the more wasteful of the two, had for a long time looked the more likely winner. But if proof was required of Crossmolina’s ability to cut it at senior championship level, this was it. The current All-Ireland intermediate champions, complete with their raft of teenagers, were a breath of fresh air and on this evidence, deserve to be considered genuine Moclair Cup contenders upon their return to senior next month.

Breaffy had begun brightly and as well as two points by Aidan O’Shea, including one from a free, and one by county colleague Davitt Neary, Conor Beirne rattled a goal attempt off the post. But the teams were level at 0-3 apiece after eight minutes with Oisin Deane and James Maheady, two, on target for Crossmolina, before Maheady’s third pointed free negated O’Shea’s third point, all within the opening ten minutes.

Breaffy’s defensive indiscipline continued with Maheady presented with two more frees, but one of those he kicked wide from close range. Still, with Kobe McDonald opening his account, Crossmolina led 0-6 to 0-4 with a quarter hour played. Two points remained the margin when a pair of Aidan Cunningham points for Breaffy were cancelled out by Patrick Leddy, who backed himself after two recent wides, and Oisin Deane.

Crossmolina, on a number of occasions already, had the look of a side that was ready to tear through Breaffy for a goal, with Conor Loftus looking at his menacing best, but it was actually the chasers who shook the net first, as an excellent cross-field pass by O’Shea released midfielder Oisin Tunney who ran in from the left wing and buried the ball past Patrick Loftus on 29 minutes.

With Aidan Cunningham swiftly curling over from outside the arc, in two kicks Breaffy had amassed five points to lead 1-8 to 0-8 at half-time.

Whatever was said by manager Brian Benson and perhaps by selector John Maughan too, at half-time, worked as desired because Crossmolina reemerged like a team possessed. In the space of ten minutes they scored 1-4 uninterrupted; Maheady linked up with Diarmuid Coggins whose brother Niall supplied the major finish in an excellent move in the 35th minute, with Maheady, two frees, and Conor Loftus, twice from play, supplying the points that saw Cross’ move four points in front.

Aidan O’Shea and Jude Lavin, who would prove a lively addition off the bench for Breaffy, eventually scored their side’s first two points of the half, however, a second goal for Niall Coggins, saw Crossmolina hold a 2-12 to 1-10 lead by the end of the third quarter. It was a move that all began when full-back Kevin Mulhern’s fingertips diverted a Conor O’Shea pass down at the other end, just as Breaffy looked to create a goal chance of their own, with Mulhern then outfighting Joe Mellett for the loose ball and sending his side marching upfield where Dylan Flynn’s pass teed up the lethal Coggins.

Cunningham hit back with a timely two pointer and Lavin a single, to reduce the margin to two points, while a converted ’45 by Kobe McDonald was met with Jude Lavin’s third point in his fourteen minutes on the pitch.

Substitute Fionan Duffy fired over a pair of frees either side of Jack Livingstone’s two point free for Breaffy, the latter assuming dead-ball responsibilities from Aidan O’Shea and the now substituted Pierce Deane, who had missed four frees between them, with one from O’Shea dropping into the goalkeeper’s arms from dead centre and just 25-metres out.

And all the impetus looked with Crossmolina when moments after their opponents had Mark Ward sent to the line, their team captain Mikie Loftus got forward to fist the ball over and give his side a 2-16 to 1-16 lead with 57 minutes played. Little did anyone know the drama to follow.

Breaffy levelled when Mellett picked out Davitt Neary who smashed home a cracking goal into the top left corner, and when Fionan Duffy overcomplicated an attack at the other end, turning down a fisted point in search of creating a goal chance instead, the intercept by Conor Melly gave further oxygen to Breaffy for whom Conor O’Shea earned a 63rd minute free which Livingstone struck between the posts for a one point lead.

One more play was allowed and McDonald and Maheady worked the ball out right to Patrick Leddy who, with nerves of steel, slotted over a superb Crossmolina point with the last kick of normal time to the leave the scoreboard reading 2-17 apiece.

Conor O’Shea, a growing influence in this game, and Rory Martyn for Breaffy, and Jordan Flynn for Cross’, all kicked their first points of the game in the early minutes of extra-time, before Niall Coggins and Patrick Leddy moved Benson’s boys one point ahead once more. But it was Jack Livingstone’s second two-point free at the close of the first period that finally gave 14-man Breaffy a lead they were never to surrender.

Conor O’Shea pushed them two ahead at the start of the second-half but while Fionan Duffy had a free negated by Breaffy sub James Minogue, James Maheady kicked his first point from play to leave it a one point game with two minutes left to play. Duffy, however, was unable to score either of two frees from two-point range down the stretch while Maheady was millimetres from diverting a Niall Coggins pass to the net, as Breaffy held on. Just.

Scorers – Breaffy: Aidan Cunningham 0-2-2, Jack Livingstone 0-2-1 (2tpf, 1f), Davitt Neary 1-0-1, Aidan O’Shea 0-0-4 (1f), Oisin Tunney 1-0-0, Jude Lavin and Conor O’Shea 0-0-2 each, Joe Mellett, Rory Martyn and James Minogue 0-0-1.

Crossmolina: Niall Coggins 2-0-1, James Maheady 0-0-7 (6f), Patrick Leddy and Fionan Duffy (3f) 0-0-3 each, Oisin Deane, Kobe McDonald (1 ’45) and Conor Loftus 0-0-2 each, Mikie Loftus and Jordan Flynn 0-0-1 each.

Breaffy: Jack Livingstone; Conor Melly, Mark Dervan, Conor Beirne; Mark Ward, Robbie Fadden, Daire Morrin; Oisin Tunney, Conor O’Shea; John Deane, Pierce Deane, Davitt Neary; Aidan Cunningham, Aidan O’Shea, Niall Carter. Subs: Jude Lavin (for Carter 36), Yousif Coghill (for P Deane 39), Joe Mellett (for J Deane 40), James Minogue (for Beirne 58), Rory Martyn (for Cunningham 60+3), Ben Murphy (for Mellett 70), Gavyn McManamon (for Tunney 79, inj).

Crossmolina: Patrick Loftus; Diarmuid Fox, Kevin Mulhern, Matthew Gordetskyy; Mikie Loftus, Josh Moyles, Diarmuid Coggins; Conor Loftus, Kobe McDonald; Dylan Flynn, Oisin Deane, Niall Coggins; James Maheady, Patrick Leddy, Jordan Flynn. Subs: Fionan Duffy (for Fox 40), Darragh Syron (for D Flynn 53), Sean Og McGuinness (for M Loftus 59), Keelan Hegarty (for D Coggins 60+3).

REF: Ronan Gurren (Aghamore)