Simple tactics deliver stunning result for rising ‘Robe

Nine years ago, Ballinrobe Community School was stuck playing colleges football in the ‘C’ grade so to play – and win – at Connacht’s upper echelon appeared fanciful more than anything else.

The last two years, however, has seen the South Mayo school defeat “traditional big guns”, as manager Damien Egan describes them, St Colman’s College of Claremorris, St Jarlath’s College of Tuam and now, St Gerald’s College of Castlebar – last year’s Connacht ‘A’ champions. Last Wednesday’s win has left Ballinrobe one game away from a place in the Connacht PPS senior ‘A’ semi-finals.

“Creating a belief system in the school to go toe-to-toe with these lads, it takes a colossal amount of hours of training and work. But as the boys rightly said, they were not just happy with one win, we have a chance now against Summerhill to kick on into a semi-final,” said Damien Egan after his side’s three points victory at Flanagan Park.

“The atmosphere, the noise, everything coming up to Christmas, it’s just great,” said Egan, who credited his players’ second-half performance after being five points down at the break, with a special mention an excellent defensive effort and to Tom Lydon, who kicked 10 superb points.

“We got stuck in more in the second-half. We tweaked our kick-outs a little bit and when you have a man like Tom Lydon inside, we very simply kick the ball more into him and sometimes it's the simplest tactics.

“In the first-half we stood off too much, second-half we got stuck in. Gerald's got a goal against the run of play but to our lads in fairness, we stood up. A team like Gerald’s, a very good team, other teams might die, but we kicked on even more and we drove on and probably got a deserved win in the context of the overall game.” 

Egan added: “I thought defensively too, Gerald’s have some notable, very good forwards, but the likes of Daithí Butler, Eoin O’Dea, a lot of our defenders really stood up as well. Rory Gilrane kicked a great score unusually off his right foot in the second-half, but collectively I suppose the likes of Tom (Lydon), when he stood up everyone else maybe got the hint to step up as well and down the stretch, we managed it quite well.” 

When games like this are viewed, one must wonder whether it’s tactics and mindset that need to change more than the rules. Egan is unsure what the future holds on that front but believes Gaelic football is a simple game when played right.

“Football is about winning the dirty ball and moving it quickly. It always was, and you saw there in the second-half some of the quality scores we got. That always was the case. You'd hope it's still the case in the future. But sometimes, as I say, it's just a simplistic message that worked well.” 

Ballinrobe Community School must now get ready for a showdown with Summerhill College of Sligo in their final group game with their destiny in their own hands. For Damien Egan, he feels that if his team can replicate their second-half display of last Wednesday, they’ll have every chance of advancing to the last four.

“Summerhill beat us last year in the last game so we'd be under no illusions but again as I said to our lads there, the second-half performance… if we recreate that for Summerhill, we'll give them a good go. If we take a step off them, like in the first-half, they'll cause damage. So it’s very simple, we just have to train over the Christmas now and hope for the best that we'll do the job.”