Western derby has potential to throw up some major drama
Aidan O'Shea and his Breaffy teammates will aim to cause another upset when taking on bitter rivals Castlebar Mitchels on Saturday.
Breaffy v Castlebar Mitchels
Mayo SFC Semi-Final
It’s ten years ago since Breaffy qualified for their first ever Mayo SFC final. Castlebar Mitchels’ victory that day, achieved in spite of a missed first-half penalty by Neil Douglas, was their first of four in five seasons whereas Breaffy won none of four finals in eight years, a second defeat to Mitchels in 2015 included. Football can be a cruel business.
Douglas is one of just five survivors from that Castlebar team of 2013 likely to feature in next Saturday’s semi-final against Breaffy who, coincidentally, also fielded five of their ’13 team in the surprise victory over defending champions Westport in this year’s county quarter-final.
Aidan O’Shea, Tommy O’Reilly, Rory Martyn and Michael Hall, who was a key member of Mayo’s All-Ireland winning minor team that year, all started the 2013 Mayo SFC final, whilst Conor O’Shea was sprung from the bench in what ended as a six points defeat (1-11 to 0-8). The Durcan brothers, Paddy and James, were already key cogs in a Castlebar Mitchels team which also featured Donie Newcombe and Neil Douglas, all of whom started against Ballintubber in last Saturday week’s sensational quarter-final where Mitchels’ closed a late four points deficit to win by three after extra-time. Aidan Walsh, another of the 2013 team, played his part in that Mitchels’ recovery when replacing James Durcan six minutes from the end of normal time.
Managing Castlebar Mitchels now are two men who were pivotal, as players, in the 2013 final which, it’s worth remembering, was the club’s first county senior football title in twenty years – the longest famine since Mitchels ended a 24-season barren run back in 1930. Barry Moran and Neil Lydon scored two points apiece from play and subsequently helped drive their team to win that year’s Connacht Club SFC crown, beating none other than defending All-Ireland champions St Brigid’s in the final, before Castlebar themselves advanced to the All-Ireland Club decider where they were eventually beaten by St Vincent’s.
The duo, as joint managers, have done an impressive job these past two years in nurturing some of the young talent that has emerged within the club, like Donnacha McHugh and Sean Morahan in defence, with Morahan looking certain to follow McHugh’s lead and earn his call from Mayo senior boss Kevin McStay. Nor does Bob Tuohy need much of an introduction at this stage, having impressed on his first county appearances in this year’s National Football League and scoring, albeit fortuitously, the goal that sparked Ballintubber’s downfall last Saturday week. Anthony O’Boyle, be that beside Tuohy in midfield or out on the wing, is a powerful runner with no shortage of finesse in the final third either, while the likes of Ethan Gibbons, Ultan O’Reilly and Paddy Heneghan have relieved much of the scoring burden that for so long rested on the shoulders of Neil Douglas.
Whether their great escape against Ballintubber (who led 0-9 to 0-5 with three minutes of normal time remaining) could be the catalyst to a first county title in eight years, much like how Westport beat Mitchels at the death in last year’s semi-final and went on to claim the trophy, only time will tell. But one’s thing for certain, to play down the threat of Breaffy would be for Mitchels to dice with death next Saturday.
Westport had entered this month’s clash with Breaffy as 1/4 favourites with the bookmakers to win the game while Breaffy were 11/2 shots. The support for the Coveys was based on more than just that they were Moclair Cup holders; in seven rounds of this year’s Mayo Senior Football League they had scored 145 points – an average of almost 21 points per game. That average dropped a mere fraction when they scored 59 points in three group victories but it’s worth nothing their concession rate had also reduced from nine points per league game to eight points in championship. And yet Breaffy beat them.
The secret to the success of Gerry Jennings’ team was what he himself was renowned for – defending. Managing to hold a team of Westport’s resources totally scoreless from play in the second-half, to only three pointed frees after half-time, and to concede nothing at all for the entire final quarter, speaks volumes about the application and discipline of the Blue and White.
Few might have expected the 1-8 scored by Breaffy to be enough to win the game but that was up there with the most any team had scored against Westport this year, in league or championship, so Jennings and co knew it was a case of figuring out how, by scoring that sort of tally, they could still give themselves a fighting chance of victory. And figure it out they did.
The emergence of Jack Livingstone as replacement to long-time goalkeeper Rob Hennelly has brought big benefits, not least his communication with a defence in which Conor Beirne, Mark Dervan, Daire Morrin and others have developed an exceptionally mean streak, conceding no goals in three of their four championship games.
And Breaffy remain incredibly strong across the middle third, even with Aidan O’Shea’s deployment close to the opposition’s goal. Matthew Ruane, Conor O’Shea and Robbie Fadden are capable of dominating midfield against all-comers, with Ruane sure to relish taking on his younger county teammate Bob Tuohy.
And for all that Breaffy will look towards the experience and menace that Aidan O’Shea and Tommy O’Reilly exude, they’ve a great foil too these days in Davitt Neary who has brought great energy to an attack that has managed to find the net at least once in all of its last three outings.
Having lost only narrowly to 2022 finalists Ballina Stephenites in the opening round (0-12 to 0-11), Breaffy will be keen to prove that beating Westport was no fluke either. One things for sure, if they manage to get by their neighbours they’ll have certainly reached the final the hard way.
