A Wylie young fox
December 31, 2009It would be fair to say that Ballybay Pearse Brothers did everything that was asked of them in 2009 - and then some! Having topped the intermediate charts in such emphatic fashion the previous year, they went into the new term determined not to relinquish their senior status at the first time of asking. Demotion would have seen them pigeonholed as a yo-yo club.
All fears of relegation were quickly dispelled as Ballybay produced a series of impressive displays, holding their own (albeit without winning a game) in the senior championship and achieving a top-four finish in the senior league before beating county champions Clontibret at the semi-final stage on October 24 to clinch a welcome Owen Ward Cup final berth. Though they were pipped by Scotstown in the league decider on November 15, to miss out on the silverware, Ballybay can certainly look back on the season as a whole with a lot of satisfaction.
Drew Wylie is one of the emerging young talents providing the pulse in this exciting new-look Ballybay outfit and it was no surprise when Banty called the player into his county senior panel towards the end of the '09 calendar year. The senior call-up completed a stunning year for Drew, who is justifiably hoping for even bigger and better things with both club and county in 2010.
In their first year back senior since capturing the 2008 intermediate double, Ballybay did themselves proud and proved their worth as a top-flight club. Looking back over the season in general, Drew was a happy man: "We were delighted the way the year went," he confirms. "At the start of the year, our main aim was to stay up senior and once we accomplished that we set our sights higher and qualified for a semi-final spot in the senior league. We had a good win over Clontibret and we were delighted to take part on the Owen Ward final, even if it was disappointing to lose it…"
While defeat came as a definite blow, the players are not sitting around licking their wounds. They realise they did well to get that far in the first place. "To be honest, we were delighted just to be back playing senior football again. Our main aim was to preserve our status and we're pleased to have done that. We feel that we proved ourselves and that we set down a marker. We had some decent results against the bigger teams in the county and we held our own.
"Our first game of the season was against Latton, who were county champions, and we beat them, which was a great start. Overall, we were comfortable as a senior team and we proved our critics wrong."
The year went a lot better than Ballybay's previous campaign in the top echelons in 2007. Drew says he felt much more "involved" in the team this time around and his performances all year were extremely convincing, attracting the attention of the county selectors and marking him out as a player to watch in 2010. But it's a team effort and the versatile young footballer is quick to share out the praise. "A lot of boys pulled together this year. We put in a lot of effort in training and we made a huge effort in our matches. We were delighted the way things worked out."
Is the team more mature now? Are Ballybay coming of age? "We have a couple of experienced boys in there like Sean Gorman and Hugh Malone and Fergal Smith and even Jap, and those boys provide the leadership. That helps bring the likes of myself along and we then have a couple of 17- and 18-year-olds coming on as well and we will only get better. I think this is a team that could bring major success to the club. We could have a very good side a couple of years down the line.
"This hasn't just happened overnight. A lot of work has gone into developing this team. Our oldest player is only 29 and at that age is definitely still young enough to feature for a few more years. I would certainly be hoping to challenge for the senior championship in a couple of years. Of course, we're not going to get carried away or lose the run of ourselves, because you never know what's around the corner or what's going to happen down the line, but we're hoping it'll all stick together and we'll go for it again in 2010."
Reaching the league final was a brilliant bonus for Ballybay in '09. "It definitely was," Drew enthuses. "As I've said, our aim was to stay up and anything after that was a bonus. Once we realised we had secured a semi-final spot we started to think we were in with a shout of winning it. We came up against Clontibret and we knew it would be a test, but they were also involved in the Ulster club, and we pulled through, only to be beaten in the final. But getting to the final was a big achievement for a team that had just come up from intermediate. We believed we could beat Scotstown in the final but unfortunately we didn't perform on the day. Things just didn't go right for us on the day and we had nobody to blame but ourselves. But there's definitely a cup or two in this team and we'll keep going."
Ballybay didn't manage to win a game in the SFC but still gave a pretty decent account of themselves. "We played Inniskeen first and we drew with them. We were missing a few players for the replay and they beat us well. In the back door, we lost to Clontibret by four points. All in all, we put up a good show, especially against Clontibret, and we can draw a lot of encouragement from that. We were maybe lacking a bit of experience and didn't take our scores when the opportunities presented themselves. But we showed that we can compete with the best. They scored three points in a row just before half time and that stunned us and left us with a mountain to climb. But we're learning all the time and getting to the league final will give us an extra bit of experience, so we'll be even stronger in 2010."
All things considered, Ballybay made tremendous strides in '09, cementing their senior standing and announcing their arrival as a force to be reckoned with. "It was tremendous," says Drew. "A lot of hard work was invested by the players, and the management also put in a lot of effort. The whole club pulled together and you could see the results of that unity out on the pitch. It would have been nice to have finished the year with some silverware in the clubhouse but we achieved everything we set out to achieve at the start of the year and reaching the league final will give us all some valuable big match experience. That should come in handy next year."
Having represented Monaghan at minor and U21, Drew was thrilled to get the call-up into Banty's senior squad towards the dying embers of 2009. "It's a great honour," he concludes. "It's a new set-up there now with Paul Grimley on board and it's something to really look forward to. I'm looking forward to playing for Banty and it will only improve me as a footballer. When I was younger, I often thought about playing for Monaghan one day, but it's a different set-up and I have to take my chance. At the very least, I should be able to gain a wee bit of experience and bring it back to the club." Tweet
