Ballina take their place at football’s top table

By Thomas Conway

These are halcyon days on Shannonside. A couple of kilometres downstream, a city is in celebration mode, but Limerick isn’t the only settlement on Ireland’s longest river which is currently bubbling with optimism and pride. Ballina is buzzing.

Talk of three-in-a-row fills the air, swirling around the village streets and creating a sense that something iconic might indeed be possible. Ballina are a long way from a county senior football final, but following the heroics of recent seasons of back-to-back junior and intermediate county titles, you sense that they are building towards the ultimate glory. Once a team tastes success, it usually can’t get enough of it.

Ballina might not have the resources of the Limerick senior hurlers - they might not have a lucrative sponsor or an endless team of performance specialists, but one thing they do have is a hell of a lot of ambition.

This is now the third chapter of their remarkable rise. Consecutive county titles in 2021 and 2022 have earned them a seat at the top table, alongside the heavyweights, the traditional powerhouses. Ballina are neither a heavyweight nor a traditional football powerhouse, but they might become one before the year is out.

They’re nestled in a tricky group, alongside two of those aforementioned heavy hitters – Loughmore/Castleiney and Ardfinnan. Throw in Moycarkey-Borris and you have a mouth-watering contest on your hands - an all-out battle for two spots between four teams with every intention of progression.

But Ballina boss Kevin Byrne is process driven, and his approach this season has been no different to any other year. Ballina have lost a few players, but they’ve also gained several new ones, and the manager believes that a new generation of footballers is rapidly emerging within the club.

“The most encouraging thing for us as a management team has been the presence of the younger players within our panel - many of whom have only come through in the past year,” he began.

“Obviously, Charlie King is probably the most prominent of those - Charlie is an outstanding footballer and anybody looking at underage football in Tipperary will testify to that.

“But we have other players there as well, the likes of Cathal O’Donnell, Steven Coughlan, Kian Donnelly. All of them are pushing for places on the starting fifteen, and we have others then who are showing promise but might need a little longer to develop in terms of their physical conditioning.

“But on the whole it’s very encouraging for us to see that Ballina football is about more than just one group of players. There is a conveyor belt of new talent starting to emerge and come through - who will challenge the players that are already there within the set-up.”

It isn’t easy being a dual club, not this day and age. The demands placed on players are growing ever more extreme, and close collaboration between the respective management teams is absolutely essential if the project is to work.

But Ballina, Byrne believes, have managed to strike the right balance. There is a significant cross-over between the two squads. Many of Ballina’s hurlers are also accomplished footballers. Allowing them to thrive in both codes requires careful management and constant monitoring.

“It’s gone very well,” he said.

“The two management teams keep in close contact with one another, and because we share ninety per-cent of the players, it’s not going to work for either side if we don’t cooperate, so we’ve put an emphasis on cooperation. We’re trying to prove that dual clubs can exist in North Tipperary, and hopefully we’ll be able to do that over the course of this season.”

Just how long that season lasts remains to be seen. How Ballina adapts to senior championship football should be intriguing to observe. Byrne acknowledges that already, his side have been adjusting to the higher pace through their exploits in the county league, but he also recognises that there is work to be done, particularly when it comes to turnovers and transitions.

“It’s something that our players and us as a management team discovered during the course of the league - that senior football is a step up from intermediate football just like intermediate is a step up from junior,” he added.

“Everything happens that little bit faster in senior football, the tempo is higher. But we’re working on developing our game plan, because we know that at this level the transition from defence to attack has to be faster - that’s one of the main challenges, to increase the speed of your transition. But that’s certainly something that we’re looking to improve on.”

As Byrne emphasises, Friday’s clash against Ardfinnan is just as big a game to the south club as it is to the northerners. Both sides will be eager to start their championship campaigns on a high and establish a springboard for moving forward. Prevail on Friday and suddenly your world opens up. Ballina will be hoping for victory. Achieve that, and the possibilities are limitless.