Stephenites display the hallmark of real champions

Maybe you’re still playing underage football now, or maybe you haven’t pulled on a pair of boots in three or four decades. Either way, if you’ve ever been on a training pitch with a football team at any level, some trainer has told you about the importance of following the ball into the square and being there to take advantage if something unexpected happens.

Nine times out of ten, you’ll arrive on the scene and have nothing to do other than crane your neck up and see the ball fly over the bar or sail wide of the posts. Then straight away you’ll turn and either sprint (senior) or jog (junior B) back to your position to be ready for the kickout.

But then there’s always that moment when the ball hits the post, or drops short, or when the keeper tries to make a catch but it gets spilled. That’s when you need to be there to either clear your lines, or get a touch on the ball to knock it to the net, depending on what way you’re shooting. Follow it in and be ready, was the shout we all heard back at an U12 session once upon a time.

Saturday’s county final replay can best be described as the day when Ballina Stephenites followed the ball in, and they were there to take advantage when the break fell their way.

Now, the next point we will make warily and with no small amount of trepidation. The reason for that caution is that Ballina Stephenites were never a bigger price than 5/1 to win the Moclair Cup in 2025, never out of the top three or four teams in terms of the public perception, and yet Evan Regan’s cup acceptance speech made it clear that they felt they were “written off all year”.

If the Ballina players were able to feast so mightily on the few measly scraps of criticism that were there to be foraged over the past couple of months, one can only imagine that they will go full Heston Blumenthal and create an almighty banquet on what’s about to follow.

If ever there was a final where one team prevailed by capitalising on the other’s misfortune, this was it.

Lee Keegan’s absence was the first wallop of the battering ram against Westport’s walls, and while Ballina will retort quite reasonably that they didn’t get a full hour out of Pádraig O’Hora either, the loss of Keegan was magnified and multiplied when Eoghan McLaughlin’s leg gave way.

McLaughlin was in contention for Man of the Match honours when he went down, but it wasn’t just his good form that was lost, it was more than that. He was also bearing the weight of Keegan’s absence from the middle and shoring things up brilliantly in his own defensive arc. Would Luke Jordan have found that gap and had the freedom to take seven steps before drawing the foul that led to Evan Regan’s goal, if McLaughlin was in that space? We’ll never know, but it’s doubtful.

When Westport conceded the second goal and Ballina began to turn the vice and squeeze, McLaughlin’s ability to carry the ball upfield, take time off the clock and alleviate pressure would have been invaluable. Instead, Westport couldn’t retain the ball, they created just one score in the last 15 or so minutes of playing time, and while Ballina were able to use their bench to gain traction and impact in key areas – Ben Thornton’s late catch on the uncovered stand side of the pitch the case in point – more often than not, Westport were looking to the sideline for patching and repairs rather than transformation.

There were other ways where the rub of the green favoured Ballina. When it came to the goal that kickstarted it all, it wasn’t just Jordan’s steps. The GAA rulebook is quite clear in that a 13 metre free is not supposed to be taken quickly, and while every good coach would applaud what Regan did and say that it’s better to seek forgiveness than permission in that situation, Kevin Connelly should have pulled it back to be retaken.

No doubt the game state at the time led to a lack of protest, but that was still the first domino that fell. Mark Moran’s block on Luke Doherty’s shot was brave, but possibly unnecessary as there were other bodies in the way and a goal from that distance was unlikely. Instead Ballina get a 45, the ball isn’t caught and Dylan Thornton touches it to the net. Follow it in, and you might get lucky.

At this point, there’s no doubt that Ballina readers are so apoplectic at what they will perceive as a slight on their success, that hunting parties are being formed to try and find this writer in order to mount his head on a spike. That fury could well lead to the next bit going unnoticed.

It is perhaps the true hallmark of real champions, of clubs and counties that have the right mentality, that they are the ones who invariably win those championships where the bar is lowered ever so slightly.

How many times has it been said of Kerry that if there is a mediocre All-Ireland, they are the ones who will find a way to win it, often with a team that isn’t even hailed as anything special inside their own county?

That’s not to say that this Ballina group isn’t special. Evan Regan may have elevated his game to an incredible level on Saturday, but within the sanctuary of the dressing-room, there will be plenty of acknowledgement among the group that there were plenty of other established stars in the group who produced a seven out of ten performance in this replay. They did enough to chip in and keep the team close enough to enable Regan to carry them home, but not nearly as good as they can be either. They missed goal chances, they conceded kickouts, and they needed the break of the ball – but they still found a way to win. That’s entirely commendable, just not in the same way as saying they were comprehensively the better team across the full hour of action.

In any county, much less one where there are so many good players spread across so many different clubs, you don’t win three championships in succession without finding different ways to win games.

Within that, you also have to find new ways to muster up the ravenous hunger needed to outlast so many other capable opponents in a championship where perhaps as many as 10 of the 16 teams that line up at the starting line each year are legitimate contenders to win the big prize. And if blowing up perceived slights in order to portray them as full-on character assassinations is what it takes, then of course that’s what a team will do.

All of that makes it even more fascinating to see how Ballina fare in advance of a championship where this time, they actually will be written off as huge outsiders. Sure, they will be expected to beat North London Shamrocks, but Sunday’s Roscommon final between 2023 All-Ireland finalists St Brigid’s and a Pádraig Pearses team that put Corofin to the sword in Tuam last year was a truly heavyweight battle, with a replay this coming Saturday likely to sharpen the sword of the winning side even further.

And should Ballina come through that, they will take on Maigh Cuilinn, another side that will be on the shortlist of All-Ireland contenders. Seán Kelly looked back to his brilliant best on Saturday night against Salthill-Knocknacarra, Dessie Conneely and Fionn McDonagh formed an excellent one-two punch in the corner, and with every game Peter Cooke gets under his belt, he will improve.

For this championship, let this column be the first to say that Ballina will have a lot to find if they’re to join Castlebar on the Roll of Honour with a fourth Connacht title. Over to you, lads.