North meets North as 'Rocks roll into town
Ballina Stephenites captain Evan Regan in action against North London Shamrocks in McGovern Park, Ruislip last year. The Mayo and London champions are meeting in the AIB Connacht Club SFC for the second year running.
Player retention has always been an issue for GAA clubs in London given the transient nature of the Irish emigrant. It’s one of the reasons why so many of the clubs, in the past decade in particular, have invested so much of their time and resources in developing homegrown talent.
North London Shamrocks are a prime example and only a couple of weeks ago their predominantly all-London born junior team were unlucky to lose the county junior ‘B’ football final by two points to Fulham Irish. It would have completed a glorious double as on that very same day, October 19, the club’s first team were crowned London SFC champions for the second year running.
But the issue of player retention remains, even in this age of young Irish travelling to the English capital to take up more professional and secure employment than many of their forefathers. And so it was that of the North London Shamrocks side who faced Ballina Stephenites in last year’s Connacht Club SFC, seven were not on the pitch for the start of last month’s 2025 London SFC final against Tir Chonaill Gaels – with six of the absentees no longer even part of the panel.
The seventh is team captain Nathan McElwaine, a member of the London senior team this year but who only came off the bench in Shamrocks’ recent county final triumph, as did former Ballina Stephenites player Rory Morrin.
It’s probably fair to say that of all this year’s additions, none had so big an impact for Shamrocks on the final as Michael O’Reilly. The aforementioned Morrin had actually been named to start at full-forward but it was O’Reilly to whom that honour went instead and the Moycullen native, who scored a goal against Westport in the 2022 Connacht Club SFC, ended the final with 2-01 to his name. He flicked a first-half free by Joe McGill to the net and in the second-half punished a poor Tir Chonaill Gaels kickout by firing home a rocket.
Shamrocks, however, have retained all their scorers in last season’s 0-15 to 0-9 defeat to Ballina at McGovern Park in Ruislip. McGill, the club’s 2024 Player of the Year, kicked four points that day, including a free, Ciaran Diver struck three, and there was a point apiece by Thomas Lenihan and Michael Carroll, who was named Man of the Match in the recent county final.
There’s a strong Donegal influence to the team, with McElwaine and fellow defender Diver joined by the excellent Daniel Clarke (who scored the other NLS goal in the county final) and Paddy Dolan, while Eoin Flanagan has not only played senior inter-county football for his native Sligo but for New York and London too.
Flanagan is a no nonsense corner-back and it shouldn’t be lost on Ballina Stephenites just how solid the Exiles are defensively; not only did they keep a clean sheet against the Moysiders on the back of winning their first-ever London SFC title last year but they conceded just one goal across quarter-final, semi-final and final combined in their run to this season’s county title.
They’ve been aided by the arrival of talented Donegal underage goalkeeper Ronan McGeehin from St Eunan’s in Letterkenny and Bellaghy native Marc Friel, while Louth import Ben McKenna offers considerable strength around the midfield area along with Liam Murphy, a dual star who has just won a London SHC title with St Gabriel’s also.
But none of the above is to alter the reality that three-in-a-row Mayo champions Ballina Stephenites are red-hot favourites to emerge victorious from next Saturday night’s rematch with Peter Witherow’s side. It’s the third year in succession that the Green and Red will commence their provincial campaign against the London champions, having seen off Fulham Irish in 2023, but an overdue floodlight repair at MacHale Park means that unlike that game, this one will be played at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence.
You wouldn’t blame Niall Heffernan if he had given his players the whole of last week to take a break from football, not only because they played two county finals in the space of six days but the dramatic nature of how they completed the club’s first three-in-a-row in almost a century. That deserved to be absorbed, appreciated and celebrated. And it was.
North London Shamrocks will look at how potentially they might be able to frustrate and trouble Ballina but whether they have the tools of a Westport who were able to both construct a ten points lead in one game and fight back from eight points behind in the other, or indeed Crossmolina Deel Rovers who beat Ballina fairly and squarely during the group stages, remains to be seen.
Unlike NLS, the Ballina Stephenites team is largely the same as that which took to the pitch in Ruislip last year, with Brendan Collins’ recent absence only due to injury while Ciaran Treacy has been preferred of late to Luke Feeney. But with Collins touch close to returning from his hamstring issue, it’s possible that all fifteen starters in last year’s game will see game time again on Saturday, albeit Padraig O’Hora is a definite candidate for resting given the torture his body endured in those two games against Westport.
Between the 22nd and 55th minutes of the drawn county final Ballina were outscored 0-14 to 0-3 and after 49 minutes of the replay they were trailing 1-14 to 0-7. They were at their best both days when the gloves were off. Three points behind with five minutes to play on day one and ten points behind with ten minutes to play on day two, the North Mayo outfit had no choice but to shed their typically prescriptive style and play more off the cuff. It suited them.
If they continue to be overran for such lengthy periods as against Westport, the day will soon come when a better team lands a fatal blow. But if Ballina themselves could find how to deliver more in-game consistency, perhaps through greater use of Sam Callinan’s attacking potency off which the excellence of Evan Regan, Frank Irwin, Conor McStay, Dylan Thornton and Mike Murray can undoubtedly flourish, then they could easily land a knockout punch or two themselves.
The first will surely come on Saturday.
