Memory of mauling the inspiration for Killererin’s winning streak

THIRTEEN months ago, Killererin’s footballers sat disconsolate in a Salthill dressing-room trying to come to grips with a 15-point mauling by Caltra in the Galway county final.

Even the most optimistic among that panel would have struggled to predict the year the tiny parish near Tuam has enjoyed since then.

Seventeen games the club has played since that October nadir, and not once have they had to face a losing changing room in all that time.

That run has taken them to within 60 minutes of a Connacht title, for which they challenge Ballina Stephenites tomorrow in the Mayo side’s own back yard. “We’d been there and thereabouts in Galway the last five or six years really,” explained manager Billy Joyce. “We won the county championship in ‘99 and lost the final to Annadown in 2001 by a point.

“Last year was the biggest disappointment though, when they went down so heavily to Caltra in the final.

“The lads sat down and made a group decision that they had to redeem themselves after what happened against Caltra. You have to remember that this is a very small village and the lads see each other the whole time.

“They couldn’t leave it like that. To come back and win a county title and get to a Connacht final shows the strength of character this team has.”

For that, Joyce himself deserves much of the praise. Although he’s been a club man for 35 years, he had decided to take a step back after years in various management and administrative positions, before being persuaded to manage the side this season.

A holder of two Connacht club medals and five with the county from his days in the 1970s as a midfielder, the father of Nicky and uncle to Pádraic and Tommy nevertheless brushes aside his part in the story.

This is not about Billy Joyce, he insists, nor should it be just about Pádraic Joyce.

Never mind that they won their county semi-final without the Galway star or that, despite Pádraic’s massive and unexpected influence in the final, he still failed to score. Time and again, Killererin still get painted with the ‘one-man team’ brush.

“Since 1999, Killererin have only lost three championship matches. Two of those were to teams that won county finals and the other was to a team that went on to win the All-Ireland final. That’s not the record of a one-man team,” the manager points out.

That sort of success has certainly kept them busy this year. Eight times they’ve taken the field in the past eight weeks, and seven days after the Connacht final they will contest the Galway senior league final.

Somehow, like Ballina, they have no injury woes to report despite the heavy schedule.

For now, the focus is on Connacht where, despite their two previous games, we are yet to see whether or not this team has the potential to emulate Caltra on St Patrick’s Day next year.

Against Sligo’s Tourlestrane in the first round, a single point was the difference as both sides spurned good scoring chances.

Leitrim’s Annaduff were the opponents after that, but a 16-point margin of victory didn’t illuminate anything new about the Galway champions.

“We weren’t disappointed at all by the game against Annaduff,” claims Joyce. “We didn’t really need to learn anything about ourselves because, all year, we’ve been winning games by a point or two so we knew what we could do. It was actually no harm that we got a game where we were fairly comfortable.”

Stephenites will be a different prospect and Joyce feels this weekend’s contest may be too close to call.

“I don’t know too much about them but they’ve won the last two Mayo championships and any club that can say that has to be good,” he said.

“They have the two Bradys, David and Ger, and the county midfielder McGarrity.

“Mayo football is always good though; they have a great record in the club championship and Balllina will be no different on Sunday.”