Ballymacelligott keep All-Ireland final focus inside the white lines
OLD HEADS: Ballymac's Dan O'Shea pushes Oran Bergin of Grangenolvin away from goal as Aidan Breen awaits devlopments in Saturday's All-Ireland Club JFC semi-final in Rathkeale Pic: Brendan Gleeson
All-Ireland Club JFC semi-final: Ballymacelligott (Kerry) 2-13 Grangenovlin (Kildare) 0-16
IT’S a short turnaround to the All-Ireland final but there should be room still in both camps for the time-honoured sagacity of playing the game next Sunday and not the occasion. Or the venue.
For the likes of JFC finalists Ballymacelligott and Tyrone’s Clogher Éire Óg, the Croke Park build-up is very real now, and a real concern in many respects. How could it not be when, more than likely, most will never run out on the GAA’s field of dreams after next Sunday? And most hardly thought it would ever come to pass.
“We have to be careful with that, the whole Croke Park thing,” mused veteran midfielder and talisman Aidan Breen afterwards.
“Since we won Kerry, Croke Park has been on people’s minds. But if we lose next week, it won’t matter if the game was on below in our training field. A final is harder to lose. And it will be no compensation if it’s in Croke Park. The venue is not really a consideration until afterwards. We want to win, not just play in Croke Park."
In the closing quarter of Saturday’s semi-final win over the Leinster champions, Ballymac showed clips of their mercurial best, rattling off three killer points in as many minutes when their long-time lead was down to a point and under grave threat. Central to that again was Breen, with a fetch here, a steal there and a vital assist for the first of those three points from Daire Keane.
At 35, Breen has seen enough to read the little details better than most, like the crucial tip his fellow midfielder Darragh Broderick knocked down to him for the Keane score. Broderick had one of his best outings from frees, confidently knocking over 0-6 with his left peg. The Kerry side needed every one of them on a day when they started and finished well but left a lot of hanging questions in the middle.
And speaking of the middle, Breen and Broderick know too well that a repeat malfunction off kickouts next Sunday will spell curtains for their chances. Grange’s midfield siblings Cillian and Conall Bergin dominated in the middle third, and when they didn’t their voracious colleagues picked up the scraps. Ballymac were nowhere near good enough on loose possession.
“Grange were very good in fairness, they dominated the breaking ball, and were very intense. Things weren’t running for us,” Breen reflected, “we got a black card, Mairtin McKivergan have to go off for a gumshield and they got a score off that, but we hung in there. Darragh (Broderick) was really magnificent on the frees. Mairtin then got a massive score, Jack Joy got two, it was the young fellas with Darragh’s frees that got us there this time. It was always a battle, I think we got a bit of luck.”
Luck looked to be the least of their necessities early doors when Niall Collins rattled in their first goal in the second minute and Adam Sheehy followed him in two minutes later via an improvised volley. A couple of Broderick frees later and Ballymac were 2-2 to 0-1 to the good. All very straightforward.
“It’s a unique situation for a Junior club playing in an All-Ireland semi-final, we don’t know what they’re like, they don’t really know what we are like. It’s a weird one, the two goals might have slackened us a bit, but it was more down to the opposition on this one, they harried and hustled us, we had to earn everything, they were all over us like a rash all day. Hopefully we learn from it - it’s not a bad way to go into a final, we just have to try and be better.”
Ballymac took a 2-5 to 0-7 lead into the interval, by which point they were down to 14 men after Dylan Dunne’s black card pull-down. The Kerry men were flat-footed in the contact and too often forced to chase and foul. In Grange wing forward Fionn Bergin – the third of four brothers – the Kildare men had a marksman too happy to make Ballymac pay for their indiscipline. He finished the half with 0-7 from frees.
An early two-point free from Broderick after the break settled the Munster champions, but Grangenovlin were persistent and dominating Ballymac’s kickouts. Jack Joy was still carrying the fight but around him the Kerry men were taking on water. Things got ‘chaotic’ according to Breen, and it’s as good a word as any as Grange’s dynamic centre back Dylan Costigan made it a one-point game (2-10 to 0-15) after 54 minutes. A penny for Ballymac’s chances at that stage but this group has repeatedly shown the facility to get up off the canvass.
“We did show a bit of composure in the end there,” Breen said, “and every day someone different is stepping up which is a good thing. But I keep reiterating just how good Grangenovlin were, it was such a dogfight.” Breen was in the vanguard of that counter-punch as Keane, McKivergan and Donal Daly grabbed points, though the latter should have been the goal to put things to bed.
Ballymac were immediately aware of the comprehensive win for Clogher in the other semi, and Breen can’t have been the only one to recognise that a fitful display at Croke Park will be brutally exposed.
It will be a short week and a chance to get another few percentiles of fitness into the likes of Daire Keane, Micheal Reidy and the returning Brian Lonergan. And to work on midfield and tracking runners out of possession. Most of all, getting them ready for a full 60 minutes, and not just parts therof.
D Broderick (0-6, 1 2pf, 4 frees), N Collins, A Sheehy (1-0 each), J Joy, D Daly (0-2 each), A Breen, M McKivergan, D Keane (0-1 each).
F Bergin (0-9, 5 frees, 1 2pf), C Bergin (0-2), T Cullen (0-2), D Costigan, K McGloin, O Bergin (0-1 each).
C Leen; E Creedon, D O’Shea, E Moriarty; D Dunne, T Brick, M Reidy; A Breen, D Broderick; A Sheehy, M McKivergan, J Joy; N Collins, D Daly, D Keane.
: D Galvin for D O’Shea (blood, 14-27); D Galvin for D Dunne (43); J O’Keeffe for Creedon (53); C Dunne for Sheehy (56).
C McMahon; G Ivory, L Gannon, L Doyle; P Huntingdon, D Costigan, B Cullen; Cillian Bergin, Conall Bergin; K Holligan, J Gannon, F Bergin; T Cullen, O Bergin, N Doyle.
: K McGloin for L Gannon (half time); T Doyle for J Gannon (40), A Phelan for F Bergin (60).
: J Molloy (Galway).
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