Brilliant Ballivor make amends
November 27, 2011Nine years on from their famous IFC triumph over Navan O'Mahony's, Ballivor returned to the Pairc Tailteann winners' enclosure on September 25 last when once again the Brew's Hill outfit were their victims, only this time in the JFC final.
A 2-14 to 1-8 victory capped a wonderful campaign for the maroon and whites who are looking forward to getting back up to the intermediate grade, from which they were relegated in 2008 by Oldcastle. And after seeing off all-comers this year, they will relish the chance to test themselves against stronger opposition.
"We're not going up to intermediate just to make up the numbers," insists Brendan McLoughlin, whose place in the annals of Ballivor GAA is forever secure after he became the first man from the south Meath club to lift the Matthew Ginnity Cup.
"We have high hopes of doing well and making the knockout stages next year. We have a good panel and good young players like Adam Gannon and Tommy Raleigh coming through. Most of us have intermediate experience and know what's required. We believe we can make an impact at that level."
The corner back admits there was a fierce determination in Ballivor to make amends for the heartbreak of last year's JFC final defeat to Ballinabrackey.
"It was a hard one to take because we thought we should have won it," he recalls.
"But as the old saying goes 'you have to lose one to win one'. We regrouped very well this year and managed to win all our games. We expected a tougher game from O'Mahony's in the final, but the early goals deflated them a bit. It was a great achievement to go through the campaign unbeaten because the junior championship is so hard to win. All you have to do is look at the record of Meath junior clubs in the Leinster championship to see how competitive it is.
"After a few disappointing years, this has given the club a huge lift. Our panel was our real strength this year. We could bring on lads who were every bit as good as those starting. The challenge now is to build on this success and do well in the intermediate championship next year."
McLoughlin explains how good cooperation and communication between Ballivor and neighbouring hurling clubs Kildalkey and Killyon was central to their historic success.
"The big thing this year was that everyone pulled together. There was no clash between the three clubs when it came to training sessions or anything like that. We enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the two hurling clubs. It helped that our trainer Pat O'Halloran was also the Kildalkey manager," he says.
"The dual player issue has always been huge in Ballivor. We had 10 players on the Kildalkey team that started the SHC final against O'Mahony's and two others came on as subs. We had another 10 or so involved with Killyon. Apart from me, Kevin McKeown, Joe McLaughlin and Richie Shercock were the only other non-dual players on the Ballivor panel."
The Ballivor captain is fulsome in his praise of manager Paddy Doyle - who celebrated his 50th birthday only days before the county final - and his backroom team. He also believes the decision to bring Meath U21 manager Liam Harnan on board in an advisory capacity after the group campaign was an inspired move.
"You have to hand it to Paddy Doyle. He has stuck with us through thick and thin over the last five or six years, and he really deserved this. Pat O'Halloran - our trainer, Eamonn Carroll and Jimmy 'Spider' Kelly - our selectors, you have to give them a lot of credit too. And Liam Harnan was a massive help to us when he came in after the Trim game."
Ballivor were the most impressive Matthew Ginnitty Cup winners in many years, racking up an astounding 15-109 in just eight outings. They signalled their intent with a 0-21 to 0-6 drubbing of Kilbride in their Group B opener before edging out Slane by a point, 1-8 to 1-7. They were comfortable 2-13 to 0-5 winners over Wolfe Tones in round three and provided further evidence of their title credentials when defeating a strong Ratoath outfit by 3-8 to 1-10 in their next outing at Summerhill.
There was nothing to separate the teams in the opening half and they went into the break level on 1-3 to 0-6 after Padraig Geoghegan found the net for the champions-elect. Ratoath resumed with a fortuitous goal from Gareth Rooney and they looked set for victory when leading by 1-9 to 1-4 at the end of the third quarter. But then Paul Kelly netted to revive the maroon and white challenge , and after Francis Doran left the minimum in it, substitute Edward Kirby banged in a third goal to complete the Ballivor comeback.
Paddy Doyle's charges rounded off their group campaign in style by trouncing Trim's second team on a 4-18 to 1-3 scoreline. They maintained their 100 per cent record with another highly impressive win over the Donaghmore/Ashbourne seconds in the quarter-final. After going into the break on level terms, 0-7 to 1-4, Ballivor blew their Dublin-border opponents away in the third quarter when they registered 2-6 without reply. The youthful Adam Gannon top-scored with 1-4, while Derek Doran, former county player Mairtin Doran and Padraig Geoghegan weighed in with 1-1, 0-4 and 0-3 respectively. Tommy Raleigh, Joseph McLaughlin, David Raleigh and Keith Keoghan also got in on the scoring act.
Surprise packets Curraha provided the semi-final opposition and Ballivor needed to dig deep for a 1-10 to 1-8 victory. After a slow start, the favourites settled to their task and an Adam Gannon goal helped them to a 1-7 to 1-1 interval lead. Despite losing goal-scorer Alan Carroll to injury, Curraha outscored Ballivor by 0-7 to 0-3 in the second half, but the Westmeath-border club had done enough in the opening period to secure a place in the final for the second year in-a-row.
Navan O'Mahony's surprise appearance in the decider meant all the pressure was on Ballivor. With last year's disappointment still fresh in their minds, Paddy Doyle's men were desperate to make amends and they were well on their way to doing so when goals from Joe McLaughlin and Adam Gannon gave them a six-point cushion, 2-5 to 0-5, at the break. The O'Mahony's second string reduced the gap to three points heading into the final quarter, but Ballivor refused to panic and closed out the game with six unanswered points.
Favoured by the wind in the first half, Ballivor opened the scoring through the impressive Padraig Geoghegan after two minutes. Cathal Smyth replied from a free for O'Mahony's before Mairtin Doran restored Ballivor's lead. David Murtagh tied up the scoring again in the eighth minute, but it would be the last time as McLaughlin struck the opening goal two minutes later to give the maroon and whites a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
McLaughlin and Derek Doran tagged on points to make it 1-4 to 0-2 before Adam Gannon crashed home Ballivor's second goal in the 20th minute following a move that had stretched the length of the field. O'Mahony's recovered to grab the next three points, but McLaughlin had the final say to leave Ballivor in a strong position at half-time.
Calvin Ryan, who had been introduced late in the first half, scored the first two points of the second half to extend Ballivor's advantage. Gannon's pointed free left eight points between the sides before O'Mahony's were handed a lifeline when Murtagh converted a 42nd minute penalty after Sean Keating was fouled.
Shane Crosby's point reduced the deficit further before Murtagh slotted over another free - after Murtagh had a second goal ruled out for taking a free too quickly - to leave just three points in it. Ballivor needed something special at this stage and it was provided by the experienced Mairtin Doran who pointed a brace of frees to put daylight between the teams again.
O'Mahony's hopes of staging another recovery were all but ended when they had corner back Cormac Reilly sent off on a second yellow card seven minutes from the end. Ballivor were then awarded a penalty which Gannon opted to tap over, and they added three more points - including one from substitute and former Meath hurling star Fergus McMahon - to seal a famous success.
A delighted Paddy Doyle said after the final whistle: "We decided last January that we were going to make another big effort to try and win the title. The best thing that happened to us this year was our performance against Curraha in the semi-final - that was our wake-up call, we were fortunate to get out of that game with a victory.
"We knew that if we played like that again, especially in the final, we wouldn't win anything. We corrected the mistakes and now we can look forward to the IFC next year."
Ballivor lined out as follows in the JFC final: K. McKeown; D. Raleigh, T. Fox, B. McLoughlin; K. Canavan, S. Heavey, S. Corrigan; B. Perry, N. Kirby; J. McLaughlin, P. Geoghegan, M. Doran; T. Raleigh, D. Doran, A. Gannon. Subs used: C. Ryan, C. Keegan, F. McMahon and P. Kelly. Tweet
