Ballina project is still developing
By Thomas Conway
Believe it or not, Gaelic football has existed in Ballina for years. Down through the decades - when the village consisted of one or two small shops, a few pubs, and the GAA field - bands of hurlers would get together once the championship season had culminated and start lacing leather footballs around the pitch. The talent was probably there, but the organisation and the willpower just wasn’t.
Were it not for Kevin Byrne, Ballina would not have got to where it is today. Over the past two to three seasons, the man originally from Mountrath, Co. Laois, has brought together players from across the parish and beyond, moulding together a powerful football force which has now achieved senior status for the first time in the history of Ballina GAA club.
It is a colossal achievement, one which many would have deemed almost impossible some years ago, when Ballina were routinely losing North junior finals to Portroe, and the club’s entire focus was devoted to hurling. But this year Ballina has managed to strike an optimal balance between hurling and football. The hurlers may have found themselves embroiled in a relegation battle, but many inside the club will tell you that the success of the footballers helped to re-energise the hurling side at a time when the threat of relegation was looming ominously above them.
Reflecting on Ballina’s journey, Byrne reveals that becoming a senior football club was embedded in the long-term vision which both he and the players created at the beginning of last year’s junior campaign. They knew they had the potential to blossom into a seriously competitive outfit, if they invested sufficient energy and effort into the cause.
“At the start, back in 2020, when we first came together, we emphasised that this was a much larger project - one which would take place over a number of years,” he revealed.
“Our ambition back then was to become a senior football club, and since then the players have led the way. So, this is great for the players, for the entire squad, but also for others within the club. Because there is great talent in the club, in the juvenile ranks. And this now gives those younger players a pathway to senior football. It gives them something to aspire to, which you need as a younger player.”
Many of those younger players would have watched on from the new stand last Sunday in Semple Stadium. Some of them will probably already have identified a role or a position in which they might be able to contribute. And one or two may well be recruited into the senior set-up in 2023.
After all, strength in depth has been one of prime reasons that this Ballina team has flourished over the past two seasons. Strength in depth, and tactical fluidity. Byrne openly admits that the group-stage loss to Mullinahone sapped Ballina of confidence, but it also allowed them to reframe and reassess. In the aftermath of that game, they made a series of small but significant structural adjustments, which Byrne feels enabled to the free-flowing brand of football witnessed last Sunday in Semple Stadium.
“We felt we didn’t do ourselves justice in that game back in August, but our game-plan has evolved since then,” he said.
“We’ve made little changes, such as playing Tom Lee as a sweeper in front of our full-back line, which I think has given a bit more defensive stability and allowed our half-backs and midfielders to get forward more. Then obviously Steven (O’Brien) coming back to full fitness was a huge boost.
“But that defeat by Mullinahone, that did give us a little bit of a jolt. It probably ridded us of any complacency which we might have had and allowed us to make some corrections in terms of our overall game-plan.”
That game-plan may evolve further in the coming weeks, as Ballina look to translate their county final winning form into the Munster Championship where they will be away to the Limerick or Waterford champions in the semi-final in late November. Right now, however, Byrne feels it’s important to celebrate and cherish this moment. Ballina is buzzing. It is now, officially, the home of football - for a few days at least.