No shortage of success
December 30, 2010The plan for Ballybay Pearse Brothers in 2010 was simple - improvement on the previous year.
In his first year as club PRO, Cillian McAviney also took over as Coaching Officer with Ballybay to go along with his already demanding duties of lining-out with the club's senior and reserve team each weekend from March to October.
"I was doing a bit of everything with the club this year, I suppose, explained Cillian. "I was playing with the seniors and I was also joint-manager of the Under 16s. I was involved with the Under 13 and 15s as well.
"I would prefer the coaching role to any of them, if I'm honest. You get a lot of enjoyment helping young players improve and the club needs to keep producing good young players."
As for the objectives at senior level for Ballybay in 2010, they were straight forward, according to Cillian:
"At the start of the year we had Noel Marron in as manager and he had Sean McGuinness, who was in his second year with the team, and Barry Cunningham as selectors.
"I suppose we just wanted to get back to the league final after getting there the year before. In the championship we hadn't won a first round game in the senior championship since 2002, and that was something that Noel reminded us of, so we wanted to put things straight there too."
After opening with a win, the first set back in the Senior Football League came for Ballybay in mid-April when fell to a ten-point defeat away to Monaghan Harps. A week later and a hard-earned one-point win over Drumhowan (1-10 to 1-9) was undone when Marron's men met Truagh and were made succumb to a 2-9 to 1-8 defeat.
Despite racking up four goals against Scotstown the following week, Ballybay would see two more points go by the way side after conceding 2-15. A hard-fought draw at home to Latton (0-10 to 0-10) followed, before the narrowest of defeats to Magheracloone (3-8 to 2-10) and an uplifting win against Clontibret (2-12 to 0-8).
"It was very much a mixed league campaign," stated the club PRO. "We did win our first game in the league, but we were floating around mid-table after that and got another few wins under our belts before the championship started which was important."
D-Day for Ballybay came the third week into August when they squared off against Monaghan Harps in a bid to capture their first opening round win in the Gormley uPVC Senior Football Championship for eight long years. As it turned out, they'd have to wait a week longer for the victory as a draw against the Harps forced a replay, where Marron's charges emerged 2-12 to 1-11 winners to end the drought.
"We drew the first game against the Harps after we had got a good lead up and let it slip. We were a point ahead in the last few minutes and they drew it in the end," explained Cillian.
"We played the replay the following Tuesday night in Inniskeen and won it by four points. It was Shane McGuinness and Hugh Malone that got the goals that made the difference for us on the night and it was a great feeling afterwards because we had been waiting a long time for a first round win in the championship."
Marron's team hardly got time for a breather though. Just three nights later they would in championship action once more against Magheracloone and despite a spirited comeback against the south Monaghan side, they would end up finishing on the wrong side of a 1-17 to 1-7 defeat to be dumped into the backdoor of the competition, where a 2-12 to 1-10 loss to Carrickmacross ended their championship campaign.
However, the curtain hadn't been brought down on Ballybay's season just yet, with the matter of league safety still to address for the Pearse Brothers. With the pressure on, Ballybay bounced back from their disappointing championship exit to score a vital win over championship conquerors Carrickmacross (2-8 to 1-8) to pave the way towards a finish in the top five of the SFL.
"We won our last few games to finish fifth," stated Cillian. "We said at the start of the year that we wouldn't be a yo-yo team, going up and down from senior to intermediate, and thankfully we won those game to stay safe and ended up just missing out on the semi-finals."
Juniors clinch Division Three title
In early September, Ballybay's second string stole the show when they defeated Clontibret to claim the Reserve Division Three Football League title.
Under the management team of Gerry West, Andy Wylie and Peadar Donaghy, the team blended young blood with experience and finished top of the Division Three table, after an impressive campaign, to move into the semi-finals and play Oram for a place in the competition's decider.
Cillian, who was apart of the successful team, fills us in on the rest:
"With the junior team we had a few older fellas like Darren Smyth and James Leonard and things mixed well together with the younger and the older lads.
"We beat Oram in the semi-final after finishing top of the table and went on to play Clontibret, who probably would have been favourites in the final. We beat them by 1-12 to 0-10 and we had led for most of the game, so I don't think there could be any arguments over who were the better team on the day."
The success had also come in the middle of the club's senior footballers' championship campaign and Cillian, for one, felt that it had been a lift to everyone in the club and gave the seniors the ammunition to finish out their own respective league campaign in the manner which they did.
"It was a good boost for the seniors before they went into their championship game with Carrickmacross and the last few games of the league," he said. "In the Reserve Championship we were unfortunately denied the double by Aughnamullen, but we were still satisfied with the league win and I'd just like to mention Christy McQuillan, who is our kit-man. He's a very important part of our set-up and is brilliant at his job with the club."
St Pat's prove a winning combination
Just over a month later, the club shared in more silverware when Ballybay/Drumhowan amalgamation St Patrick's defeated Corduff to capture the county Minor Football League Division Two title.
Having suffered defeat to Corduff in the championship semi-final, St Pat's were given the chance for revenge when they met the same opposition in the league final in the curtain-raiser to the Monaghan SFC final at Inniskeen.
John Duffy and Fergal McArdle were the team management from the Ballybay side and helped prepare the team for their big showdown with Corduff on October 10 at Grattan Park.
The Saints couldn't have asked for a better start when Ballybay senior Shane McGuinness set-up Thomas Kerr to fire their opening goal. Further points from Kerr cushioned his side's lead, but Corduff were never going to throw in the towel that easy and brought the deficit back to one point by half-time, 1-3 to 0-5.
The opening stages of the second-half saw a scoring-drought occur for both sides which lasted 12 minutes, but it was Corduff that enjoyed the better of it when the scores started going over again and moved into the lead. Kerr hit back with scores to put Pat's back in the lead and four minutes from time McGuinness wrapped it up for the amalgamated outfit when joint captain Anthony Mulligan and John Paul O'Neill combined to send him through for a brilliantly-taken goal which ensured the title for St Pat's.
St Patrick's (MFL Div 2 final v Corduff): Ronan Markey; James Allister, Barry McGuirk, Ryan Wylie, John Paul O'Neill, Ciaran Duffy, Owen McCluskey, Thomas Kerr (1-5, 3f), Conor Duffy, Cathal Mooney, Cathal Mooney (0-1), Shane McGuinness (1-1), Anthony Mulligan (0-1). Subs: Ronan Duffy, JP O'Neill.
"Shane McGuinness and Thomas Kerr are both 17 and were apart of the senior team this year as well," stated Cillian.
"Cathal Mooney would have been joint-captain of the minor team from the Ballybay side as well. Shane and Thomas should be on the county minor panel next year with all going to plan, because they're both very talented forwards. Shane's a great man to get you a goal and Thomas is a reliable free-taker and we'll be hoping that they will be two players to continue shining for the seniors. Ryan Wylie is another that played with the minors and represented Monaghan and Ulster at Under 16 level this year."
The success didn't stop either there for Ballybay's youngsters. An Under 14 Division Three Shield title and an Under 12 Division Four triumph rounded off an exceptional year for the club's juvenile footballers. One that Cillian felt saw the Under 12s of Ballybay shine as bright as any other team in the club.
"The Under 12s won Division Four after beating Drumhowan in the final. They're a really good side with a number of quality players," he enthused. "There's a few lads there like Shane Monaghan, who was captain, Ryan McCann, Colm Lennon, Simon Brown and Abraham Dickson that deserve a special mention because they're all 12 and people were wondering how we were in Division Four when they saw them lads playing."
Cillian didn't forget to give a special mention those that have been working hard behind the scenes at the club either.
"The committee are doing great work for the club," he stressed.
"The likes of Cathal Hand, who is now on the county board as a juvenile officer, has done great work with Ballybay and our chairman Francis Linden is stepping down this year and it's a well deserved break for him because he's certainly served his time with this club and done a lot of great work.
"With the juvenile this year, we wanted to get more involved with the local primary school here, so we ran a lunch time league for the kids. I started in the end of September and ran the whole way through October and was very successful. I ran it and refereed it myself and Martin Murphy got the 'Player of the Tournament' award."
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