There’s nothing quite like Mayo’s ‘Old Firm’ derby
The rivalry between Tooreen and Ballyhaunis is as intense as any other in Mayo, with Tooreen currently enjoying the upper-hand and looking to win a fifth straight Mayo SHC title for the first time since the 1990s. Picture: David Farrell Photography
It’s the case that opposites attract when it comes to Tooreen and Ballyhaunis. The villagers and the townies just can’t get enough of each other. Next Sunday they will contest the Mayo Senior Hurling Championship Final for the thirteenth time in fourteen seasons – and the 22nd time in 29 seasons. That’s not to forget all the times they have met in the group stages also. And no matter when or where they draw their hurls, their encounters always fascinate.
The last two county finals couldn’t have contrasted any more in style yet each enthralled in its own right. In the space of twelve months the great rivals had played a low-scoring final in Ballyhaunis (2023) where the home side lost 0-13 to 0-8 but only after having shot a dozen wides, while in Tooreen the following season (2024) the hosts prevailed 1-21 to 0-22, after extra-time had been required to separate the sides.
Tooreen subsequently came up agonisingly short in their attempt to win a fifth consecutive Connacht intermediate hurling championship title last year, losing very narrowly in the final to Tynagh-Abbey/Duniry who themselves were pipped right on the line by Watergrasshill of Cork in the All-Ireland final at Croke Park.
The year before had begun with Tooreen, rather famously, in Croke Park themselves, where they heartbreakingly lost the All-Ireland final by two points at the hands of Monaleen. The Limerick side had to wait until six minutes before full-time before getting their noses ahead of the Mayo and Connacht champions for the first time. And after that aforementioned 0-13 to 0-8 county final win against Ballyhaunis later in the year, 2023 ended with Tooreen somewhat unfortunate to lose an All-Ireland semi-final at the hands of Castlelyons of Cork, 1-12 to 0-13.
All the while, Ballyhaunis have had to watch on with envy as their fiercest rivals tested and proved themselves against some of the best intermediate sides in the country.
It’s 2016 since the Black and Red last enjoyed lifting the TJ Tyrell Memorial Cup on home soil, having only won the county championship once since then – and that success away to Tooreen coming in the Covid year of 2020 when cancellation of the provincial championships denied Ballyhaunis from challenging for the Connacht title that Tooreen have won in 2017, ’19, ’21, ’22 and ’23.
That the Blue Devils remain the only non-Galway club to have won the Connacht intermediate club championship is a source of great pride for them but also, no doubt, a source of great frustration for their biggest rivals too. The mission of Ballyhaunis first and foremost next Sunday, however, is to try and prevent Tooreen from winning an eighth Mayo SHC title in nine seasons. Achieve that and then – but only then – can they look at leaving their own imprint on Connacht.
It’s fair to say that neither team has been tested to date in this year’s county championship. Are they ever, you might well ask! It’s seven years since Castlebar Mitchels disrupted the monopoly and reached the county final at the expense of Ballyhaunis, but Mitchels lost this year’s semi-final against Ballyhaunis by a dozen points having already been beaten by fourteen points by Tooreen. And when St Ciaran’s, the amalgamation of junior clubs Moytura, Caiseal Gaels, Ballina Stephenites, Westport, Ballyvary, Claremorris and Gaeltacht Iorrais, took on the ‘big two’ this season, they lost those two matches on a combined scoreline of 6-60 to 1-15.
The hard work that has been invested in broadening the playing base throughout the county is taking its time to bear fruit, particularly when you consider that Tooreen’s ‘second string’ has already won this season’s county junior hurling championship with a fifteen points win over Moytura in the final. While of the Mayo team that lined out in this year’s Nickey Rackard Cup final, eleven hailed from Tooreen and Ballyhaunis while there were as many Galway-born players making up the rest of the team (Ryan Duffy and Simon Thomas) as there were players from other Mayo clubs (Conor Murray of Castlebar Mitchels and Joe Burke of Moytura).
And there’s also the fact that when Tooreen inflicted their 38-points beating on St Ciaran’s in the recent county semi-final, they did so without Liam Lavin, Mayo’s most lethal forward of the past couple of seasons, Mayo full-back Oisin Greally or dual star Sean Regan even on the pitch.
But when you have someone of the calibre of Fergal Boland to add back into the mix after another season spent with the Mayo footballers, and he can score 2-7 from play before retiring to the dugout with more than a quarter of the game still remaining, it’s easy to understand Tooreen’s dominance of county and province for most of the past decade.
And yet Ballyhaunis won’t back from the challenge. In fact, they’ll relish it. And the club certainly wasn’t afraid to add a little fuel to the fire when their delegate this year informed the July meeting of Mayo GAA County Board about their dissatisfaction that Ray Larkin is the manager of both the Mayo and Tooreen senior hurling teams.
It's for Ballyhaunis to say how much of their dissatisfaction might centre around the selection of only three of their players compared to Tooreen’s eight on the Mayo team which started the Nickey Rackard Cup final defeat to Roscommon in Croke Park last May, but delegate Padraig Regan said it was his club’s view that it was “unfair” to have the manager of the county team managing a club team also.
The comments were made after confirmation that Larkin was to remain in charge of the county side for another season, having led Mayo to the last two Nickey Rackard Cup finals while also overseeing Tooreen’s last four Mayo SHC title wins, their provincial honours and run to the All-Ireland Club intermediate final.
Ballyhaunis also alleged that some of their players had at different times been told not to play football for their club. “We’re not happy,” said Padraig Regan.
The dual nature of the Ballyhaunis club does add an extra layer of difficulty in preparing for a game of this nature, particularly with so many of their side also having to focus on an upcoming Mayo SFC Relegation Final against Mayo Gaels. All-Star nominee Jack Coyne, Keith Higgins, Eoghan Collins and the considerable Phillips clan are among those with feet in both camps.
But Tooreen have not been immune from such distraction either; Fergal Boland, Conal Hession, David Kenny, Liam Lavin and Cillian Mooney all played on the Aghamore side that beat Ballyhaunis in the Mayo SFC Relegation Playoff a fortnight ago while Fionnan Burke, who started at corner-forward for Tooreen against St Ciaran’s last time out, occupies the same spot on the Kiltimagh team that has reached the semi-finals of the Mayo junior football championship.
Burke, a county minor footballer only two years ago, scored a brace of points in the hurling semi-final but next weekend might make way for the return of Liam Lavin while room would also be made in the Tooreen defence for a fit Oisin Greally. Otherwise it’s an exceptionally settled unit, one that includes immense defensive experience in Michael Morley, Stephen Coyne, David Kenny and Joe Boyle, with Conal Hession having moved further forward into midfield alongside the ever-reliable Daniel Huane.
The question of how Ballyhaunis can limit the impact of Tooreen’s attacking riches is anything but straightforward to solve, however, they may well hone in on last year’s county final where Tooreen’s twelve second-half wides were as much due to the intensity of the pressure applied by the opposition as they were outright inaccuracy.
There’s little that Brian Hunt hasn’t done or seen on the hurling field and he sits behind an excellent half-back line of Diarmuid Phillips, Daniel Hill and Eoghan Collins. Mark Phillips runs a tight ship at full-back so add to that the tenacity of corner-back Shaun Morley and experience of goalkeeper Donal O’Brien, and their combined best – in front of a vociferous home support – will certainly make life uncomfortable for the visitors.
A big blow to Ballyhaunis, however, is the absence of Jason Coyne from the attack, which has left a lot of the scoring burden, from play at least, on the shoulders of Ryan Kilbane and Michael Farrell. The engine of Jack Coyne will drive the team on from midfield, likewise Kieran McDermott will impose himself upon the central third, and Cormac Phillips is more than capable of scoring double digits if the Tooreen free count allows, but so much will have to go right if the consistently excellent Keith Higgins is to win his fourteenth Mayo SHC title having won his first in 2002.
The margin between the teams is very thin, as evidenced by last year’s extra-time final, but until we see otherwise from Ballyhaunis, it’s hard to back against a Tooreen team containing the attacking threat of the Boland boys, Fergal and Shane, Liam Lavin, Eoin Delaney, Sean Kenny and Brian Morley.
Verdict: Tooreen
