Minors steal the show
November 27, 2011After their MFL Division Four success of 2010, the Ballymachugh's minor footballers repeated the trick this past season at higher level on the championship stage.
Along with assuming the role as club Public Relations Officer at the start of 2011, Ronan Baxter has been involved in Ballymachugh's underage scene since 2006 and this year oversaw a success which saw the club's minors "re-write the history books", as he so elegantly described it.
"We had huge success this year at minor level this year," Ronan enthused. "We had been put into Division Three at the start of the year, after winning Division Four of the league the previous year, and we objected to it because we felt we were strong enough to compete at a higher level, so we were moved up to Division Two for the league and the championship."
It was up the players to justify their existence in the second tier from early on in the season and they dually did so when the league started in February, as they handed Ballinagh (3-6 to 0-7), Drumalee (1-11 to 0-9), St Finbarrs (1-8 to 0-5) and Redbridge (0-16 to 0-13) to move into the semi-finals of the competition, where they were to meet Ballinagh once more.
Played at PJ Duke Park in Stradone on April 22, the game saw Ballymachugh finish second best to a Ballinagh-Cornafean selection on a score-line of 1-16 to 0-8 after a tough hour in which 'the Hughs' simply weren't at the races.
"We got to the semi-final of the league against Ballinagh and we were missing a few players through injury and suspension," said Ronan. "They ended up beating us well and the lads felt that they just didn't do themselves justice that day. We regrouped and switched our focus on the championship."
Tough training sessions and stern challenge matches were the order of the day as Baxter and Coyle primed their charges for the championship and when the first round draw threw up some familiar opposition there would be plenty of incentive to go around.
"In the championship we drew Ballinagh in the first round and beat them in extra-time by 2-17 to 2-10," said Ronan. "I have to admit that we were slightly fortunate to force a draw at the end of normal time that day, but the team showed great character in extra-time not to let the chance slip away.
"In the semi-final we played Castlerahan in Ballyjamesduff, because we were told there was no other neutral venue for that weekend, and ended up winning the game convincingly to book ourselves into the final, where we played an amalgamation of three west Cavan clubs called Shannon Gaels/Dernacrieve."
In the final, it was Stephen Harten's last minute points that sealed a historic first ever minor championship crown for Ballymachugh at the expense of a gallant Shannon Gaels/Dernacrieve side at Kingspan Breffni Park.
Hartens superb winner off his non dominant foot brought to a conclusion a fantastic battle and a game which had thrills and spills from the first minute until the last. Amazingly, Harten's match winner was only 'the Hughs' second point of the half after the Shannon Gaels/Swanlinbar/Corlough combination stepped it up a gear when the game restored for the second half after Ballymachugh dominated proceedings in the first 30 minutes.
The Gaels trailed by the odd point in three when Ballymachugh landed what was the only 'haymaker' of the day and how important it would prove to be. Good work by Adon McFarlane resulted in Mark Kiernan gaining possession and his hand pass was collected by Liam Buchanan and in an instant the Ulster MFC medalist blasted the ball into the Gaels net off the underside of the crossbar.
Buchanan's strike proved arguably as important as Harten's winner as it provided an invaluable leg-up to Ballymachugh and just enough of a cushioned lead to absorb Dernacrieves gutsy but ultimately futile second half fightback. With Noel Denneny excellent in a third midfielder role and Antony Baxter and Mark Kiernan in inspirational form, the Gaels were forced to work overtime to stymie Ballymachugh's efforts at consolidating the advantage lent to them by the only goal of the game.
Powered forward though by 'Man of the Match Aaron O'Hara, the amalgam fought the good fight and a point apiece from Nevin O'Donnell kept Ballymachugh honest in the dregs of the second quarter. Noel Denneny's whooper of a point from all of 42 metres in the 24th minute seemed to signal that Ballymachugh's name was on the cup.
The Gaels came out for the second half in a mood to spoil the party and set about reducing their opponents half time lead with vim and vigour. O'Donnell pointed within 28 seconds of the throw-in and then Aaron O'Hara left just the goal between the sides after 35 minutes.
However, for all the Gaels efforts domination of matters from open play, a tally of 14 wides compared to their opponents four hamstrung their efforts greatly. Ballymachugh struggled to get out of their own half but the Gael's proceeded to drop four shots into Darragh Goldrick's mid-rib and found Antony Baxter's hoovering up of ball in front of his own full-back line further frustrating. Slowly but surely though, the Gaels won their game of catch-up with the amalgam drawing level at 0-8 to 1-5 with 13 minutes left to play. It was all hands to the pump for both sides as the tempo of the game remained unremittingly high.
The race to the chequered flag was a frenetic affair and with three minutes left to play the sides were still locked together after Nevin O'Donnell had cancelled out Mark Kiernan's superb free from 50 metres. It was anyones game as the finishing line beckoned. Then Harten struck. In the moments preceding the final whistle, Nevin O'Donnell flashed a shot across the goal which Goldrick saved brilliantly and cleared down the field. Scenes of joy and jubilation followed from the Ballymachugh contingent as history was made.
The Ballymachugh team that started that day was: Darragh Goldrick; Michael Coyle, Diarmaid O'Reilly, Ronan Lyons; Killian Goldrick, Anthony Baxter, Darragh Kiernan; Kevin O'Reilly, Liam Buchanan (1-1); Jamie Coyle, Adon McFarlane, Stephen Harten (0-1); Pauric Kelly, Mark Kiernan (0-4), Noel Denneny(0-1). Sub: Mannix Kiernan.
"We played well in the first-half and were deservedly leading at half-time," Ronan commented on the win. "In the second-half, they got level with ten minutes to go but we dug deep in the dying stages and got two vital scores which got us over the line."
"The win wasn't that surprising. Myself and John Coyle have been involved with the team for the past six years and Eugene Duffy came in two years ago, so we knew what the players were capable of. The talent has always been there and for Ballymachugh to win a Division Two minor championship was a very big thing for the club."
The success would be backed up by the Under 14s capturing the Roinn C league title at the end of May after defeating St Joseph's by 4-10 to 3-10 at Kingsoan Breffni Park to put the club on a high.
Seniors come
up just short
While the club's minor footballers went on to steal the show this past August, the seniors came up just short in their bid for promotion from Division Three of the All County Football League.
Under the managership of Gabriel Keogan at the start of the season, Ballymachugh were in red-hot form at the start of their campaign having won their first six games to put themselves in a promising position for a return to Division Two early on in the season, before disaster struck.
"This year we would have had a full squad available to us in comparison to previous years and our priority was to get promotion from Division Three and have a decent run in the championship. We started off quite well by winning our first six league games, but we lost our seventh game to Mountnugent in the middle of May and went on to lose the next three games after that and it practically ended our hopes of promotion," the PRO reflected.
The defeats left Ballymachugh scrapping for a semi-final place, but come the end of July the intermediate championship would take priority.
"We had Crosserlough, Laragh and Kill in our group and we were confident that it was a group that we could come through to get into the quarter-finals," said Ronan.
"We played Crosserlough in Ballinagh in our first game and while Crosserlough didn't look great on the day, we had underperformed and ended up losing the game 0-10 to 0-5."
After that, Keogan would part company with the team and Brendan Sweeney, who was also serving his first year as chairman with the club, came in to take the reins, and Ronan explained that things improved:
"The next day against Laragh there was massive improvement and we ended up winning the game by five points, which left our last game against Kill a 'do-or-die' match to reach the quarter-finals. We played Kill in Lavey on the first Friday evening in August. The game finished 0-10 apiece and we ended up losing out on the quarter-finals on score difference."
A mere couple of points cost Ballymachugh a place in the last eight of the Cavan IFC, and as things unravelled a Crosserlough side which they had underperformed against in the opening round went on to reach the final against Drumgoon, who defeated Kill comfortably in the quarter-finals.
While it had been disappointing, Ronan pointed out that some improvement had been made from 2010.
"There has been a slight bit of improvement since last year, but at the beginning of the season we wanted promotion and we didn't get it, so it was a disappointment," he said
"We had a few stand out performers in James Kiernan, who would have been our top-scorer, and Anthony Baxter, who has just come out of minor and has been one of our most consistent performers from wing-back. Philip Donohoe would have had a good year at midfield for us as well."
Hurlers make history
The slight improvement of the club's senior footballers would be overshadowed by the huge strides in which Ballymachugh's hurlers made in 2011, as they recorded a long-awaited Cavan SHC success in late September.
After reaching the league final in August, the team - again under the reins of devoted clubman Sweeney - pushed odds-on favourites Mullahoran St Joseph's all the way before the St Joseph's club forced a late draw. In the replay on the 3G pitch at Kingspan Breffni Park, 'the Hughs' looked set to record a famous win but a late goal from Mullahoran forced extra-time, where the champions would scrape a 3-5 to 0-12 victory.
Gutted by the defeat, Sweeney's team regrouped in the weeks ahead to push for the senior championship crown when they met the same opposition on September 25.
The game would see Mullahoran's remarkable 21-year hold on the Cavan SHC crown come to an end when the Hughs put in a five-star performance to score a 4-8 to 1-6 victory at Kingspan Breffni Park.
The winners would trail by 0-2 to 1-3 at half-time, but came flying out of the traps for the second-half to fire in goals via Lonan McKenna, Alan Donohoe and Padraig Sheridan, which saw them take a commanding lead.
Against a resilient Ballymachugh defence, Mullahoran never looked like regaining parity in the game and in stark contrast Sweeney's charges put their foot on the throttle as Liam Buchanan-Goldrick and Stephen Harten added points to their team's tally before a goal from the latter secured a historic first county hurling title for Ballymachugh
Ballymachugh (SHC final v Mullahoran): P Martin; A Hawe, P Baxter, J Smith; J Halton, K Smith, D O'Reilly; B Devine (0-5), K O'Reilly (0-1); A Baxter, A Donohue (1-0), S Harten (1-0); L McKenna (1-0), P Sheridan (1-0), L Buchanan (0-2). Subs: Kieran Goldrick, J Leahy, Killian Goldrick.
"There have been massive strides made in hurling in the club. We were very unlucky to lose the league final after drawing with Mullahoran the first day and losing the replay after extra-time," Ronan stated. "Brendan Sweeney was in charge of the team and they've improved massively, with a lot of young lads having stepped up to the mark. They've injected young blood to the set-up and hopefully they'll have a lot of success in years to come."
On the underage scene, Ronan added: "The underage structure in the club is brilliant and this year we had seven minors that moved up to the senior team this year and they've made their mark. We had five minors that won an All-Ireland schools title with Granard and we had two on the Cavan team that won players the Ulster Minor Championship title. We also had seven players on the Cavan minor hurling team, so we're definitely hopeful of making further strides in the next few years on the senior football and hurling front." Tweet
