Ballina aim for first part of County Football double

By Thomas Conway

BALLINA v KNOCKAVILLA KICKHAMS

Pairc Shilean, Templemore

Saturday, 20th November

Throw-in @ 2.00pm

Referee: Sean Everard

It's that time of year again in Ballina. As autumn turns to winter, this is usually the point in the calendar when some kind of Ballina football team togs out in the cold and takes to a frost-bitten pitch.

Success is never guaranteed, and in recent years, their near-neighbours Portroe have eclipsed them on the football stage, completing a three-in-a-row of North Junior ‘A’ titles from 2017-2019, and reaching the 2019 county-final, in which they were beaten by Mullinahone.

Last June however, Ballina denied Port a fourth consecutive title, beating them in the delayed 2020 final. They added another North title to their collection a few weeks ago, again overcoming Portroe, this time on a scoreline of 0-16 to 1-06.

A native of Mountrath, Co. Laois, Kevin Byrne has been living in Ballina since the early 2000s and can recall the club’s 2004 North Junior title success. That particular team was loaded with talent, but so too is this one.

The current Ballina outfit boasts an array of skilled footballers from right across the age spectrum. Their origins are no secret. Like many clubs across the North division, Ballina produces a steady stream of well-coached and capable underage footballers, some of whom vanish once they exit the juvenile set-up - disenchanted by a lack of playing opportunities.

The presence of a junior football team at least provides some sort of pathway for those players. Potential can be a dangerous word, but along with his selectors, Tom Meskell and Martin Neary, the Ballina manager has invested heavily in this team. He knows that this particular group have all the attributes to fulfil their promise, if they maintain their present run of form.

“It’s a team with great potential,” Byrne said.

“I would say that Ballina is a club which has had potential in football for many years. And I think the club has realised that potential at underage level, but we just haven’t carried it through into adult football often enough. So, I think this group really does have a lot of potential, but how far they go is up to themselves.”

There is a slightly novel aspect to this Ballina side. Willie Connors is in town, and he’s brought an entourage with him. The current Tipperary senior hurler is a former Tipperary senior footballer, having also featured extensively on various county development squads, including both minor and under-21 teams. A combustible ball-carrier with an excellent ability to read the game, Connors provides a massive boost to the Ballina set-up, as do his two Kiladangan club-mates, Dan & Tom O’Meara. Byrne is effusive in his praise of the trio, all of whom committed to the side at the beginning of this year.

“Since the hurling finished, we’ve been integrating them into the panel and into the team,” he revealed.

“And again, those lads bring huge potential and experience into the team as well. We’re delighted that they made the effort to join us - they got their football-only transfer earlier on in the year, or it could even have been last November, but they had always made the commitment to us that when the hurling finished, they would come and play with us. So, they’ve been as good as their word, and they’re a great addition to the panel.”

Hurling will always remain the vernacular in North Tipperary, but that doesn’t mean other languages can never be spoken. For Tipperary to thrive at senior level, the county will have to draw on all its reserves of talent, and to do that, playing opportunities are crucial.

Many of Tipperary’s elite Gaelic games athletes choose to pursue hurling over football, as is their prerogative, but without a coherent pathway to high-level football, secrets may go undiscovered. Initiatives are needed to address this, and one such might be the revival of a Tipperary junior football squad, as suggested by Kevin. He emphasises that certain players could really benefit from exposure to a high standard of football on a consistent basis.

Byrne added: “Obviously Steven is involved with the Tipperary seniors, but we do have a number of players who were part of the under-20 panel, and we have a few going for the trials at the moment as well.

“I think that if there was a Tipp junior panel, it would be good to get some of our players involved, and I think that they would certainly hold their own. Because obviously, the more matches they play, the more football they play, that will bring them on.”

The more immediate question is whether those players hold their own against Knockavilla Donaskeigh Kickhams on Saturday, with their under 19 footballers also in a County ‘A’ Final against Clonmel Commercials. Opportunity beckons.