SPORT Page 1-20 Club Final v2.indd

Transcription

Pic: Michael McLaughlin
FIXTURE
FIXTU
ALL-IRELAND CLUB SFC FINAL
CASTLEBAR MITCHELS V
BALLYBODEN ST ENDA’S
THURSDAY, MARCH 17
CROKE PARK AT 4PM
TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016 • THE MAYO NEWS
ALL IRELAND SFC CLUB FINAL PREVIEW
1
ONE GREAT TEAM DESERVES ANOTHER
MIKE
FINNERTY
DANIEL
CAREY
EDWIN
MCGREAL
SEÁN
RICE
BILLY JOE
PADDEN
CIARA
GALVIN
The Mayo News, worth waiting for every Tuesday
BASQUELS FLY MAYO
FLAG IN BALLYBODEN
Feature
MIKE FINNERTY
THE BIG MATCH ZONE WITH MIKE FINNERTY
BETTING ODDS
COFFEE MORNING
TO WIN
THE last Cas
Castlebar Mitchels fund-raiser ahead of
the final will take place this morning (Tuesday) in
Bosh Bar, Li
Linenhall St from 10am. All money
raised from tthe coffee morning fundraiser will go
towards the training fund.
Castlebar 2/5
St Vincent’s 5/2
Draw 8/1
HANDICAP
Castlebar (-2) 10/11
Ballyboden (+2) 11/10
TICKET DETAILS
GENERAL a
admission for Thursday’s game is
€25, with un
under-16s being charged €5. Tickets
are available via www.gaa.ie, www.tickets.ie or
at Kavanagh
Kavanagh’s SuperValu and Casey’s Centra,
Castlebar.
FIRST GOALSCORER
Neil Douglas 5/1
Andrew Kerin 7/1
Danny Kirby 15/2
Stephen Keane 10/1
Barry Moran 10/1
Conal Keaney 10/1
Richie Feeney 12/1
Colm Basquel 12/1
Ryan Basquel 12/1
Paddy Durcan 33/1
SEASON TICKETS
SEAS
CÁIRDE Mhaigheo and Croke Park Season
Ticket holders have free access to the club
finals. Simply log on to your account, go
to ‘Special Purchases’ and follow the
details
d
you will have received by
email
e
from the season ticket office.
THE REFEREE
SUPPORTERS’ TRAIN
S
CONOR LANE (CORK)
IT’S a first All-Ireland senior club final for the
Banteer-Lyre official, but he did take charge of
the 2013 All-Ireland Minor Final when Mayo beat
Tyrone at Croke Park.
Lane’s last big game was on Sunday week last
when he took charge of Galway’s draw with
Meath at Pearse Stadium in the National Football
League.
A BRIEF GUIDE TO
CASTLEBAR MITCHELS
THE club was formed on December 11, 1885
and it’s almost certain that Mitchels took their
from John Mitchel, the Young Ireland leader who
was banished to Tasmania in 1848 after being
found guilty of treason.
After the formation of the club, their colours were
green and yellow. Mitchels won their first Mayo
senior championship title in 1888. They have won
the title on 29 occasions in all.
LAST SIX MAYO TEAMS
IN SENIOR CLUB FINALS
2014: St Vincent’s 4-12, Castlebar Mitchels 2-11
2005: Ballina Stephenites 1-12, Portlaoise 2-8
2003: Nemo Rangers 0-14, Crossmolina 1-9
2001: Crossmolina 0-16, Nemo Rangers 1-12
2
THE sspecial Castlebar Mitchels supporters’ train is ssold out. It leaves Castlebar at
9.30am, arriving
arri
in Connolly Station at
12.40pm. The
Th return train departs Connolly
Station at 7.30pm,
7.
to arrive in Castlebar at
10.32pm.
READY TO GO Castlebar Mitchels’ Paddy Durcan is pictured alongside Darragh Nelson from
Ballyboden St. Endas ahead of Thursday’s All-Ireland Club SFC Final in Croke Park. Pic: Sportsfile
1999: Crossmaglen 0-9, Ballina Stephenites 0-8
1997: Crossmaglen 2-13, Knockmore 0-11
KEY NUMBER
9
GAMES that Mitchels have played to reach this
year’s All-Ireland Club Final.
DID YOU KNOW?
THERE are three sets of brothers in the Castlebar
Mitchels squad: the Feeneys (Alan and Richie)
and the Durcans (Paddy and James, who are
also twins) and John Ger and David Stenson.
DID YOU KNOW?
THERE are only four married men in the Mitchels
panel: Niall Lydon, Ronan Burke, Richie Feeney
and Ciaran Naughton.
PICK A NUMBER
22
HOURS it took Castlebar Mitchels to travel to
Chicago in 1960. A party of 92 made the trip,
which saw plane engines go on fire on two
separate occasions before a safe landing.
UP FOR THE MATCH
THE Ballyboden St Enda’s club have organised
an ‘Up For The Match’ event in Ballyboden
tomorrow (Wednesday) night, March 16. RTÉ’s
Darren Frehill and Ryder Cup-winning captain
Paul McGinley are among the guests, and
Ballyboden are promising a warm welcome for
Castlebar Mitchels fans who are in Dublin
tomorrow.
TV/RADIO
FOR those not in Croke Park on St Patrick’s
Day, the game will be live on TG4 and Midwest
Radio and (for those living abroad) on GAAGO.
The RTÉ highlights programme airs at 9.30pm.
WEATHER FORECAST
THE Mitchels Facebook page reports that the
forecast is looking excellent for St Patrick’s Day
with dry weather and sunny spells promised.
Temperatures ranging from 11-14 degrees.
THE MAYO NEWS • TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016
WO of Ballyboden’s best and brightest
young footballing stars have very strong
Mayo connections — and their dad and
thirteen aunts and uncles would normally only love to see a Mayo team win
an All-Ireland title!
That’s the scenario facing the Basquels ahead
of Thursday’s All-Ireland club final against
Castlebar Mitchels, as Ballyboden’s brilliant forwards, Colm and Ryan Basquel, prepare to go
into battle for the Dublin champions.
The talented young brothers are sons of Noel
Basquel (who is a selector with the team), a
native of Mountbrown, Aughagower, just outside
Westport.
Their mother, Bernie Ryan from Tipperary, is
a former All-Ireland ladies football winner with
Dublin.
Colm (19) won a Leinster minor and under 21
medals with Dublin in 2014 2015 respectively,
and also captured a Sigerson Cup medal with
UCD last month.
Ryan (23) lined out with the Dublin minors in
2010 and played three years Sigerson for UCD.
He was also selected for a Dublin ‘Blue Star’
award in both 2013 and 2015.
Colm has moved from corner forward to centre-forward for Ballyboden since Ryan had his
jaw broken during the Dublin Final win over St
Vincent’s last year. He had scored three points
from play before his injury.
However, Ryan came on during Ballyboden’s
All-Ireland semi-final victory overClonmel Commercials and will be pushing hard for a starting
place against Mitchels.
Speaking to The Mayo News, their uncle, Tony
Basquel (a well-known member of the Mayo
Association in Dublin), admitted that the whole
family are Mayo GAA fanatics.
“Both Colm and Ryan would have very strong
connections with Mayo. They spent a lot of time
down in Mountbrown when they were young
kids, and would have been out farming and helping their uncles.
“They’d be very close with their granny, Kathleen, and they would have always supported
Mayo growing up.
TALENTED
Colm Basquel
T
“It’s very unusual that we’d be supporting a
Dublin team against a Mayo team,” added Tony.
“We’re all Mayo fanatics, and we’d follow Mayo
all over the country. We don’t miss too many
matches.”
Tony Basquel is one of fourteen children (including four sets of twins) who were born and raised
in Mountbrown, and is one of a handful of siblings who have settled in Ballyboden GAA club’s
catchment area in Dublin.
Tony served as club treasurer for six years and
is currently heavily involved in fundraising. His
brothers Noel, Frank (who runs Trubake, Ballyboden’s team’s sponsor) and Gerry are all active
members of the GAA club as well.
“There have always been a lot of people from
the West of Ireland involved in the club, probTUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016 • THE MAYO NEWS
We’d
all be
supporting
Mitchels if
’Boden
weren’t in
the final!
ably because it’s not far from the M50 and people from the West would gravitate towards the
area,” he explained.
“Ballyboden would be the equivalent of a large
club in an urban area, it has a real community
feel to it.
“I’d imagine there would be between 5,000 and
10,000 people in Croke Park on Thursday supporting Ballyboden. The whole community has
really got behind the team.”
Two of Tony’s brothers who are based in the
United States are flying home for the big match
— Fr Tom (Colm’s godfather) and Gerry (Ryan’s
godfather) while the rest of the Basquel family
will also be cheering their nephews on.
Their grandmother, Kathleen (who will be 90
in Au
August), is ‘Colm and Ryan’s biggest fan’
explai
explained Tony.
As for
f the outcome of the match itself, the
Basqu
Basquels are hoping for a good match — and
may the best team win.
“M
“Mitchels have beaten previous All-Ireland
win
winners and they have a lot of experience
be
behind them that should get them over the
lin
line.
“But Ballyboden are a fine team, and I think
it will be a good, open, enjoyable game.
“And who knows, we might have the future
M
Mayo number 11 [Colm Basquel] been
m
marked by a future Mayo number 6 [Paddy
D
Durcan], he laughed.
“The ironic thing is that we’d all be supp
porting Mitchels if Ballyboden weren’t in
tthe final. Now we’re all very involved and
in
intertwined with the club up here — but
we
we’re not Dubs!”
And back in Mayo, Padraic, Michael and Joe
keep the
t home fires burning in Mountbrown.
Hom
Home is where the heart is.
INJURED Ryan Basquel
3
One life,
one club
We were sick and
tired of being a joke
of a team, being
pushed around on
our own pitch.
We didn’t want
that anymore, we
wanted to change
that attitude
Ronan Burke explains why Castlebar
Mitchels means so much to him, his
family, and his team-mates
Interview
w
MIKE FINNERTY
MF: It’s been some journey for the
Mitchels and for you personally. Can
you believe all that’s happened during
your fourteen seasons with the senior
team?
RB: It’s unbelieveable to think we’re
going out to Croke Park again for a second All-Ireland final.
We got relegated in 2001 so we were
Intermediate when I made my debut in
2003, and we were four years Intermediate.
Getting out of there was one of the
hardest things we had to do, there were
good teams down there – the likes of
Belmullet and Burrishoole. . .
We found it so tough to get out of
there.
When Paul Jordan [manager] came in,
he started turning the club to where we
should be going. He started turning the
players’ attitudes to where they should
be.
We weren’t fully focussed before 2005
or 2006, but we had a great bunch of
under 21s coming through, young lads
like Ger McDonagh and Dougie [Neil
Douglas].
It went on from Paul [Jordan], to Peter
Ford, Tommy O’Malley, Pat Holmes,
Alan Nolan, Shane Conway, and now
Dec Shaw and Declan O’Reilly.
It’s been stepped up all the time.
We know we’re very lucky to be where
we are, but at the same time this team
has put in huge work over the last five
or six years and I think we deserve to
be going out there again.
MF: What changed for Mitchels? When
did it change? How did you the club go
from a middle-of-the-road senior team
to two All-Ireland club finals in three
years?
RB: Things probably changed in 2009,
when we got beaten by Charlestown in
the semi-final of the Mayo senior championship.
At that stage we were making the
knock-out stages every year but we were
never taking the next step.
If we were honest with ourselves, we
weren’t making the effort that we needed
to be making.
4
We sat down in January 2010 and we
talked it out.
We said, ‘We can have another few
years of this, having crack after games,
enjoying ourselves, but does the club
deserve that? Does Mitchels deserve
that?’
Mitchels means everything to me, I
know it means everything to the lads,
and we decided that day to give it everything we had for a few years.
We had to get back into the gym, leave
the social life to one side for a while.
There’ll be plenty of time for that when
we retire. Which might be soon enough
for me [laughed].
Nobody came in to talk to us about
that back in 2009/2010. We sat down
ourselves and made the decision.
We were sick and tired of being a joke
of a team, being pushed around on our
own pitch. We didn’t want that anymore,
we wanted to change that attitude.
MF: I know there were guys who were
in that room six or seven years who are
no longer there. But they all played a big
part in this story?
RB: 100%. I played with most of them,
going back to guys like Diarmuid Byrne,
Eamonn Kennedy, Shane Fitz’. . . They
didn’t all win county senior titles but we
looked up to them, and without them
we wouldn’t be where we are today.
Guys like them, and Kevin Filan, they
deserve huge credit.
We know we’re very lucky to have two
county titles and two Connacht titles,
but at the same time it won’t mean anything to us unless we can this All-Ireland.
We don’t want to be another team coming down from Croke Park, talking about
what we could have done, or should have
done, in five or ten years time.
It would kill us if we can’t seal the deal
this time.
MF: Is the 2014 All-Ireland final going
to a big factor? Because you all know
what it’s like to wake up on the morning
after as a beaten team, you all know what
it feels like to be second best when the
whistle blows.
RB: Walking off that pitch two years
ago, after being beaten by Vincent’s, a
lot of people felt that the better team
won, but we felt we hadn’t shown up.
Richie Feeney got black carded, we’re
www.cashinprint.ie
T: 094 90 26622 E: [email protected]
Breaffy Road Business Park, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
Pic:Sportsfile
KEY NUMBER
5
MINUTES gone in the 2014
All-Ireland club final when
Castlebar’s Richie Feeney
received a black card from
referee Eddie Kinsella.
not going back on it, but honestly we
thought we’d never get back there again
as we walked off the pitch that day.
That night was one of the worst nights.
.We were absolutely empty inside. And
for a long time afterwards we couldn’t
imagine ever getting back to Croke
Park.
Going out this time, we know we can’t
let that happen again.
We’re very lucky to be getting a second
chance, we know that. But we don’t want
to be another one of those teams that
end up talking about it down town. . .
We’d be embarrassed to show our faces
down town if we lost this.
But we have a real belief within ourselves.
We believe we will win the next day.
MF: What did you and the lads learn
from the 2014 final?
FACTFILE
Name: Ronan Burke
Club: Castlebar Mitchels
Age: 31
Lives: Rockvale
Status: Married to Aisling
since New Year’s Eve
2015.
Occupation: Electrician
Did you know? Ronan also
works as a fireman. He
reversed his car into a
wall when responding to
one of his first call-outs.
RB: I think the occasion got to us two
years ago.
We seemed to be rushing the whole
day and something just didn’t feel right.
The game passed us by.
But we still had enough goal chances
to get back into the game, and maybe
even sneak it. We didn’t deserve it, we
know that, but we still could have snuck
it.
It’s hard to explain. . .
It’s what every player dreams of, it’s
what every player wants to do, but now
we know the dressing-rooms, we know
the warm-up area, we know the stadium,
we know the pitch, so there are no surprises.
That will all count for us going up there
the next day.
It’s just going to be about giving it everything for sixty minutes this time.
We want to be the best team, we want
to win this All-Ireland. This club is everything to us.
MF: I know Mitchels means a lot to you
and your family. Do you remember the
first time you got involved with the
club?
MF: Standing here in An Sportlann,
looking around at the photographs, the
cups, the medals, it’s hard not to be
struck by the incredible history of the
Mitchels.
Is that something you are very conscious of as well?
RB: I started out very young. . My father,
Johnny, along with Mick Ruane, Paddy
Kerrigan, Doc [John Doherty], the four
of them looked after MacHale Park. Dad
spent a lot of time up here on Saturdays
and Sundays, and I spent a lot of time
up here with him.
Mick and Paddy were very good to me,
they’d give me a few pound, and I got
involved in it a lot.
I remember when I really got passionate about the club.
It was when I started getting autographs
off the players, a lot of guys that I ended
up playing with in the end.
I still have them at home — lads like
Dec’ Shaw, Ronan Ruane, Diarmuid
Byrne, Joe McCabe, John Maughan. . .
The club meant everything to me.
At under 10, I was actually the ‘C’ team
‘keeper so it was only at under 12 that I
got my first ‘real’ game at half-back.
I knew then that this was it for life.
When times were bad, sure I could
have moved away, but the club means
an awful lot to me, it means a lot to my
family, it means a lot to my wife and
kid.
It was something I wanted to do my
whole life – to make my father proud,
make the club proud, make everybody
think that the Mitchels were up there.
RB: We think we’re representing one
of the biggest clubs of them all. You can
see the buzz downtown, all the kids are
walking around in jerseys, you can see
how much it means to people.
It means so much to us too, but we
can’t be thinking about that. All we can
be thinking about is what’s happening
inside the group.
We want to make the town proud, we
want to come back as All-Ireland champions.
We want to be walking around in ten
years time, and bump into each other,
and just be able to smile when we see
each other. We’ll know, we’ll have that
twinkle in our eyes, even without talking about it, that we’re All-Ireland champions.
We don’t want to leave it behind.
MF: There’s obviously serious competition in squad to make the team, to get
on the field at some stage on March
17.
How badly do you want it? Would it
complete the experience to get gametime? Does it matter as long as Mitchels
win?
RB: Of course it matters [smiles]. I
wouldn’t be training every Tuesday and
every Friday, and going to the gym, if it
didn’t matter. I want to get on the pitch,
there’s no doubt about that.
I got minutes in every match except
the semi-final so I would love to get on
the next day. But, at the same time, if
we win then I’ll be happier than every
man in the squad.
All I can do is keep pushing, keep trying. I believe I deserve to be one of the
six lads brought on but, at the end of
the day, this is no place or time for sentiment.
The best fifteen and the best six subs
will get game-time, and if we come home
with that cup it won’t make any difference.
MF: Life off the field is busy for you.
You got married on New Year’s Eve, you
have a little daughter, two day jobs.
It’s busy?
RB: : Of course, I’d love to keep playing, keep going, but we’ve a young kid
[Kayla, 15 months] as well. Getting married was great, the whole team was
there, we had a great day.
I have two jobs around town — I’m a
fireman and I’m an electrician, and
they’re crazy busy too. But, in all fairness, the fire brigade and my boss, Kenneth McDonnell, have been very understanding.
And for this month there’s only one
thing anybody wants to concentrate
on.
I’ll go back to everything else after
Paddy’s Day a happier man!
Best wishes to Castlebar Mitchels in
the All-Ireland Club Final
PETALS
.IE
HAIR & BEAUTY
HOPKINS ROAD, CASTLEBAR, COUNTY MAYO
SHOP ONLINE • BOOK ONLINE • 094 9035787
NOW OPEN
SUNDAYS
10am - 5pm
m
HON THE MITCHELS!
5
Castlebar know what’s needed
Column
DOWN ON THEIR LUCK Castlebar’s
Niall Lydon is consoled by DaithÌ
Murphy of St Vincent’s after the 2014
All-Ireland club final at Croke Park.
BILLY JOE PADDEN
So, who’s
going to win?
round club team in the country at the
minute.”
TOM PRENDERGAST
FORMER MAYO SELECTOR
“I’D be very confident that Castlebar
will win. They’re a team I admire.
They’ve a great work ethic. They’re a
team that’ll find a way to win.
“They’ve got leaders all over the pitch.
Ger McDonagh was tremendous against
Crossmaglen. Paddy Durcan is a real
inspiration. ‘Big Bird’ Barry [Moran]
and Danny Kirby were very strong.
Eoghan O’Reilly was superb in the
county final. Ray O’Malley does so much
work. ‘Dougie’ [Neil Douglas] is having
a great year.
“As long as they stay true to themselves and to what it is that’s got them
this far, I don’t see them being
beaten.”
Pic: Sportsfile
WAS sitting in the press box on
Level Seven of the Hogan Stand last
Saturday week when I noticed
Michael Darragh McAuley jogging
out on to the field at Croke Park.
The National League match between
Dublin and Cork had just ended but
McAuley wasn’t there on county business, he was on club duty with Ballyboden St Enda’s.
It turned out that the Dublin champions had got permission for a work-out
at Croke Park ahead of this week’s AllIreland club final. They wanted to get a
feel for the place.
McAuley knows it well, of course, and
guys like Paul Durcan, Stephen Hiney,
Darragh Nelson and Conal Keaney would
find their way around the stadium quicker
than most.
But a lot of the Ballyboden lads probably wouldn’t have kicked a ball in Croke
Park before.
Not alone are Castlebar Mitchels familiar with Croker, but they also know the
way an All-Ireland Final day unfolds.
That experience that they gained two
years ago against St Vincent’s will be
invaluable this week.
Everything from the journey to Dublin,
the pre-match meal, the warm-up area,
the timings, the pre-match formalities,
the way the pitch plays, and the way the
arena looks when there’s a crowd of
20,000 or 30,000 spread around.
None of this will be new to Castlebar
Mitchels this time.
Thinking back on my own Croke Park
experiences, the first time you play there,
Vox pop
p
I
it’s an occasion more than anything.
We were young, impressionable Mayo
minors, but the occasion was what I
remember more than the game.
The next time you go back, it’s easier
to compartmentalise the occasion and
enjoy the build-up, but also to concentrate on the game.
That will be the case for each and every
Castlebar guy now.
I think they are going to relish this
second chance to make history. They
are at their peak now, showed the men-
tal toughness they possess against Crossmaglen, and to me they seem ready to
take that final step.
HEN I was growing up in
Belmullet and we played
Mitchels at underage or
adult level, I always felt
that they had a certain culture and a tradition that never changed.
They were always an honourable sort
of club to come up against; they played
hard and fair, had some very talented
W
They are at
their peak
footballers, and they carried themselves
with the swagger of any big town
team.
We also developed quite a rivalry with
Mitchels at Intermediate Championship
level back in the noughties, and I had
some great battles with Castlebar teams
that included club stalwarts like Shane
Fitzmaurice and Kevin Filan.
But I couldn’t escape the feeling that
those teams were capable of more. That
there was more in them.
Now Mitchels are back where they feel
they belong in Mayo, and have a couple
of Connacht club titles for good measure.
A young, talented group of footballers
have broken the mould with guys like
Tom Cunniffe, Richie Feeney and Barry
Moran, the county lads, leading the way
over the last ten years.
If Castlebar do get over the line on
Thursday, and I firmly believe they will,
then these guys deserve a lot of the
credit.
They saw with Mayo what hard work,
dedication, sacrifice and commitment
could achieve, and they brought that
same attitude back to the Mitchels.
And with everybody else buying in too,
the last few years have seen Castlebar
compete with the very best in Ireland.
A win on St Patrick’s Day would be for
the parents, the coaches, the club volunteers and the unsung heroes.
We wish Mitchels the very best of
luck.
DANIEL CAREY
JAMES HORAN
FORMER MAYO MANAGER
“I’VE seen a lot of Castlebar Mitchels
this season, and I think they’re a fantastic team. They’ve all the attributes,
the key foundational attributes you need
for a successful team.
“They’re strong, they’re together,
they’re brave, they’re honest. They’ve
an awful lot of those things going for
them. So they’ve a very solid structure.
And if things go their way and their
scoring, shot selection and decisionmaking are all good against Ballyboden,
I’d definitely fancy Mitchels to pull off
a win on St Patrick’s Day.”
JOHN MAUGHAN
FORMER MAYO MANAGER
“THERE’S a steeliness in this squad
that I have never witnessed in a Castle-
bar team before. The bench has been
superb, particularly in the last two
games. They’re six or seven points a
better team than they were two years
ago, just because of the quality and
younger fellas getting that bit older,
stronger and more mature.
“Ger McDonagh epitomises an awful
lot that is good about the team. That
last ball he won against Crossmaglen
was just pure commitment. He knew
that he was going to get injured. What
passion and desire! Anybody who knows
their football would have seen exactly
what he was doing.”
KEVIN FILAN
EX-MITCHELS FORWARD
DAVID BRADY
EX-MAYO PLAYER
“ANYTHING that has gone before is out
the window on club final day. Being
favourites or who’s playing well coming
into the game don’t really count for much,
especially in club football.
“Patrick Durcan is an outstanding talent – the way he carries himself, the
way he plays ball, the way he contributes to a game-plan. He is a defender,
but he adds so much more from an
THE HOLY GRAIL The Andy
Merrigan Cup will be collected
by the winners of the AllIreland Club SFC Final on
Thursday. Pic: Sportsfile
BEST OF LUCK
Tel: 094 9035582
Best wishes to Castlebar Mitchels in the All-Ireland Final
from all at GrifÀths Motor Group
A bluffer’s guide to Ballyboden
MIKE FINNERTY
camogie teams, two senior ladies football squads,
and their senior footballers.
MAYO/DUBLIN WEDDING BELLS
WHAT’S RARE IS WONDERFUL
BELIEVE it or not, but Ballyboden’s County Final
win over St Vincent’s last year was only their
third time to win the Dublin championship
title.
Their breakthrough success in 1995 was achieved
with the help of a few Mayo lads (see Daniel
Carey’s piece with Tom Prendergast on page 16)
while they didn’t manage to repeat the oracle
again until 2009.
BALLYBODEN’S BACK STORY
THE Dublin champions are based on the Firhouse Road in Templeogue and their catchment
area covers Ballyboden, Rathfarnham, Knocklyon, Ballycullen, Ballyroan and Firhouse.
According to their club’s website, Ballyboden
fields 70 teams in football, hurling, camogie and
ladies football.
This huge number of underage and adult sides
includes two senior hurling teams, two senior
6
THE Ballyboden St Enda’s PRO, Sinead Ryan,
has been a regular visitor to Kilmaine (and the
Valkenburg nightclub on occasion!) for many
years.
The locals in that part of the South Mayo world
are going to be seeing the TV3 producer even
more now after she tied the knot with Derek
O’Dea recently.
The former Kilmaine footballer, who also lined
out with the Mayo under 21s back in the day,
married Sinead a few weeks ago.
It should make for an interesting build-up to
the game when the O’Deas and Ryans meet up
on St Patrick’s Day.
BOYS IN BLUE FROM ‘BODEN
THEIR list of former past star players reads like
a ‘who’s who’ of Dublin football with current
‘Boy in Blue’ Michael Darragh Macauley top of
the list along with the likes of Conal Keaney,
Colin Moran, Declan O’Mahony, Darragh Nel-
son, Ciaran Maher, Brian Stynes, Paul
Bealin, Jim Stynes (RIP) and Sean Doherty.
Armagh’s Enda McNulty has also worn
the club colours in recent years.
attacking point of view.
“I see a similarity between Ballina and
Castlebar. There’s no reliance on one
marquee player. They’re a complete
team. I think Castlebar are the best all-
“I THINK we’re gonna win it. I’d be
very, very disappointed if we don’t. I
think it’s probably a better balanced
team now. The likes of Ger McDonagh
and Donie Newcombe are two years
older, more mature. They’ve worked
an awful lot on their skills. They’re just
better footballers.
“The two Decs [O’Reilly and Shaw,
managers] spring the bench early, and
that helps keep the panel happy. It’s a
very long year, and it’s only human, if
you feel you’re not gonna get a game,
you switch off a little bit. But there’s a
real good vibrancy within the team, and
they’re picking guys on form.”
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with ‘Boden back in the day and are still
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Plus, two former Irish rugby internationals — Girvan Dempsey and Eric
Millar — have also worn the club colours
in the past, with Millar returning to play
a bit with Ballyboden after he hung up
his rugby boots a few years back.
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7
The men behind the Declans
Michael Durkan and
Eamonn Smith are
key men in the
Mitchels’ set-up
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER Castlebar
Mitchels’ selectors Eamonn ‘Benji’ Smith and
Michael ‘Duther’ Durkan are pictured at An
Sportlann, Castlebar. Pic: Michael McLaughlin
Ballyboden’s
‘Big 5’
The Dublin champions have
star performers in key areas
Interview
MIKE FINNERTY
LL the successful teams have turning
points.
One moment or game that their whole
season swings on.
For Castlebar Mitchels, believe it or
not, it was a Mayo Senior League match on April
19 against their neighbours, Breaffy.
“We were struggling early on in 2015, and I
remember coming back from Kilmaine after losing in the league,” recalls Mitchels selector,
Michael ‘Duther’ Durkan.
“I was driving the van we got from Shaws for
the gear. I was going to ring up and ask them
how long I was going to have the van!” he
smiles.
“We lost to Breaffy the following week but
there was a big improvement. We sat down that
evening and had a team meeting.
“We brought training up the country to Athlone
for a weeks then to get the whole squad together,
and that was the turning point in our season.
“We were training twice a week together that
early in the year, and I think that turned it. We
haven’t lost since.
“I won’t go into what was said in meetings, but
it was hot and heavy,” he adds. “No punches were
pulled, but it was all for the good of the club and
the team.
“We’ve won 24 games in a row since that Breaffy
match. Four challenge games, and twenty competitive matches.”
Durkan is also the Mitchels’ logistics manager
and, along with Eamonn ‘Benji’ Smith (team
trainer/coach), is part of the Castlebar management team that have orchestrated this run from
Mayo to Connacht to Croke Park.
So, what’s the secret of their success?
“There’s a willingness in the squad to learn,
from every mistake, from every game,” offers
‘Benji’ Smith.
“They take it on board, and move forward.
That’s been a huge factor, I believe, in why we’re
Feature
MIKE FINNERTY
A
PAUL DURCAN
THE Donegal goalkeeper transferred to
Ballyboden last April and has played a
significant part in their run to the AllIreland club final — despite the fact that
he has been living and working in Dubai
since late last year!
Durcan has been flying in and out of
Ireland for Ballyboden’s last four games,
but has paid his way with some outstanding performances.
An All Star in 2012, Durcan has only
conceded one goal in his last five club
championship matches — against Portlaoise in the Leinster Final — and his
kick-outs have been a huge part of Ballyboden’s strategy all season.
DARRAGH NELSON
in an All-Ireland Final.
“The individual commitment to the group is
something that I wouldn’t have seen before. The
level of dedication that they give, the impact it
has on their social lives, how they train, how
they prepare, it’s brought it to a new level for
me.
“They set the standard within the group themselves, and anybody who’s not getting to that
standard is let know.
“They drive each other on, and we just facilitate.
“It’s player-driven.”
“I’ve been involved with different football and
soccer teams, but this group of players are on a
mission,” nods ‘Duther’ Durkan. “Their will-towin is second to none.
“There’s Premiership footballers not putting
MICHAEL ‘DUTHER’ DURKAN ON...
THE MANAGEMENT TEAM
BEATING CROSSMAGLEN
“The lads are brilliant to work with, they’d do
anything for us, and we’re a tight-knit group the
four of us.
The two Declans are as good as I’ve ever seen
as managers.
I’m just a small cog in a wheel but I do my job,
because if I don’t do it then I’m told about it!
We all have our own roles.
If we can take this next step then we can look
back and talk about it for the rest of our lives.”
“I can’t remember the last few
minutes on the line. It was
just mad. There was a lot
going on.
The hairs were standing on
the back of my neck when
we were walking off the
pitch, with all the Mitchels
supporters cheering us of
the field. I’ll never forget
that.”
in what they’re putting in. That’s the bottom
line.
“Everything comes second to football for these
lads.”
‘Benji’ is a native of Limerick but has been living in Castlebar since 1993. He’s been part of the
Mitchels ‘family’ ever since.
“I’ve been involved as a manager and selector
with minor and junior teams, so the club is in
me,” he chuckles.
“I followed every game when they got to the
All-Ireland in 2014 so the opportunity to work
with these players was too good to turn
down.”
‘Duther’ is Castlebar born and bred, and admits
that Mitchels’ run to the All-Ireland Final in 2014
was something particularly special.
“I was Parke manager that time, and I think I
was caught in a TV clip the day Mitchels won
the County Final with my two hands up in the
air. . Parke had actually lost a game that morning
so I don’t know how well it went down,” he
laughs.
“I’m a Mitchels man through and through, I
played all my football with them for years.
“Myself, Mick McDonnell, Eoin Keane and
Deccie Shaw travelled together to every game.
“The Connacht club final was probably the best
Mitchels game I ever saw as a supporter. It was
some win.
“Now, being involved, you don’t realise how
good the games actually are.
“The final at Croke Park was the same old story,
a Mayo team losing up there. We were very disappointed, but the lads have showed some character to bounce back again.”
“The two Declans [Shaw and
O’Reilly] would have played with
each other, and we all know
each other socially from the
town as well.
We get on well. We all have
our defined roles but we work
together well as a team. The
four of us discuss things
before training, and we all take
different parts of the session.”
BEATING CROSSMAGLEN
“The first twenty minutes we were wondering if
we were going to turn up at all.
It’s a credit to the team that they were able to
turn it around.
We knew what Crossmaglen would bring to the
table, and we knew we had to match that. We
spoke about that.
It was something that we were confident that the
lads would deliver on. But it came back to the
honesty, character and desire that we talk about.
It came bursting out of guys in the second half
that day.”
LOCAL Declan Shaw
8
MICHAEL DARA MACUALEY
A THREE-TIME All-Ireland winner with
Dublin, as well as being a two-time All
Star at midfield, MDMA is the man that
makes Ballyboden tick.
He is the dynamo that drives their
midfield engine, and his athleticism,
stamina, hard running and competitive
nature means that he will have to be
curbed by Castlebar on Thursday.
The 29 year-old knows Croke Park like
the back of his hand and, in the absence
of the suspended Declan O’Mahony, is
going to be ‘Boden’s main source of
possession.
He is also likely to be detailed to keep
the likes of Paddy Durcan and Barry
Moran in check around the middle.
LOOKING THE
PART Michael Darragh
Macauley is pictured at
Ballyboden St Enda’s
clubhouse on Firhouse
Road, Templeogue,
Dublin. Pic: Sportsfile
CONAL KEANEY
LONG before he was part and parcel of
the Dublin hurling team — with whom
he has featured in both the half-back and
half-forward lines in recent years —
Keaney was one of the Dublin’s football
team’s star performers.
Best of luck to Paddy Durcan, Donal Newcombe and all
in Castlebar Mitchels from
The 33 year-old Ballyboden cornerforward won five Leinster senior championship medals under the likes of Tommy
Lyons and ‘Pillar’ Caffrey — and lined
out against Mayo in that infamous 2006
All-Ireland semi-final.
He is a big player for Ballyboden, racking up 0-15 in their last four matches.
This includes a sprinkling of frees from
the right wing.
He’s a powerful ball-winner who could
do damage.
boden’s run to the Leinster club title that
he was officially chosen as the star performer in the provincial championship
by AIB.
The talented number 15 clocked up 1-11
in Ballyboden’s four games in the Leinster club championship, and also weighed
in with seven points (five frees) against
Clonmel Commericals in the All-Ireland
semi-final.
He also put away a pressure penalty
in the Dublin County Final over St Vincent’s and his accuracy from free-taking
ANDREW KERIN
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SO impressive was Kerin during Bally- guard at Croker.
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AN All-Ireland under 21 winner with
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The Ballyboden captain has been brilliant all through his club’s run to their
first All-Ireland club final, and isn’t afraid
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9
Soldiering together
in a common cause
THREE
MEN
AND A
FINAL
DANIEL CAREY
T
John Maughan, Shane Fitzmaurice
and Kevin Filan talk Mitchels
Featuree
DANIEL CAREY
T was, perhaps, early summer 1993
when Tommy O’Malley spotted
John Maughan kicking a ball around.
Castlebar Mitchels were heading
off to play Corofin in a challenge
match, but were stuck for numbers.
“I was coerced into coming along for
the spin, that I might stand in goal,”
Maughan told The Mayo News with a
smile in An Sportlann recently. “I think
I played the first half in goal. But I took
it upon myself at half-time [to say that]
bad and all as I was, I might have been
a little bit better out the field. So I got
a run-out at full-back, or maybe at centre-half back, in the second half.”
Maughan had ‘no intention’ of playing
senior club football. He ‘hadn’t played
for six or seven years’, after his intercounty career was cut short by bad knee
injuries. Having managed Clare to a
Munster title in 1992, he had gone back
running – something he hadn’t been
able to do for ‘five or six years’ – and
thought he might be able to ‘play a little bit of junior’. But Mitchels manager
Tommy O’Malley was a good friend –
and he could be persuasive.
“I found it hard to say no to Tommy,”
the former Mayo manager laughs ruefully. “And I got in trouble at home, in
my old club Crossmolina, and we played
them ... I recall a few fellas going round
trying to decapitate me! But sure, it’s a
bit of fun.”
By the time the business end of the
championship came around, Maughan
was a fixture at number six. Mitchels
beat Balla in the county final, Clann na
nGael (after a replay) in the Connacht
final, and Carlow kingpins Éire Óg in
I
10
the All-Ireland semi-final. He also lined
out at Croke Park for Mitchels’ first AllIreland club final, where they were sunk
by Nemo Rangers.
“We simply were not anything near
as good as them,” the Mayo County
Council procurement officer admits.
“That’s the bottom line. We knew were
in for a serious trouncing after the first
ten or 15 minutes.”
Training ‘in eight inches of muck’
proved unsuitable preparation for the
carpet-like quality of Croke Park. The
standard of GAA pitches is just one of
many ways football has changed since
Maughan’s playing days.
“Pitches have come on a tonne, [as
has] the level of professionalism at club
level,” the former Army officer explains.
“Clubs are on a par now with where
inter-county football was maybe ten
years ago, and very much on a par with
where they are now when it comes to
data analysts and that kind of stuff.
“It’s not that we didn’t love our football when we were playing it,” he adds.
“[But] if you’re playing football now at
any serious level, it’s part of your lifestyle. It’s part of your daily routine – not
your weekly routine, your daily routine.
Everyone has the gear-bag with them
now, and they’ll have their protein drinks
… [There’s] recovery sessions, pool,
weights, strength and conditioning. So
it’s a huge, seismic shift.”
Those comments are echoed by former
Mitchels player Shane Fitzmaurice, who
says much of the off-field work is ‘driven
by the players’. His ex-team-mate Kevin
Filan agrees, explaining: “It’s managerled, but player-owned.”
While the commitment levels involved
in playing club football have clearly
risen, Maughan thinks there used to be
a greater spread of teams with ambitions of winning the Moclair Cup. The
Mitchels teams he was part of had great
HE nature of shift work means
Shane Fitzmaurice finds himself
near An Sportlann in Castlebar
two or three times a week, playing ball with his sons.
Ninety per cent of the time, he’ll meet
a current Mitchels player or two up there
– coming out of the gym, kicking ball
themselves, or doing some shooting
practice.
And he leaves with a spring in his
step.
Fitzmaurice – a garda sergeant based
out of Ballina station – soldiered for a
long time in the Mitchels midfield, and
won championship titles at intermediate
(2005) and junior (2014) levels. His senior debut came shortly after the 1994
All-Ireland club final, though manager
Tommy O’Malley had brought him in to
give him a flavour of the serious stuff
towards the end of 1993.
He was part of the Mitchels minor team
that won the 1994 county title on the
same day as the seniors lost to Hollymount. He could scarcely have imagined
that Castlebar’s next senior decider
wouldn’t come until 2010. There was a
spell in the intermediate ranks in
between.
“When I started off, we had ... big games
every year. Next thing, it was like falling
off a cliff – down below playing teams
you had never played before, and all
those teams absolutely mad to beat
Castlebar,” he told The Mayo News.
Though his age-group had been successful at under-16, minor and under-21
level, Fitzmaurice was only one of a
handful playing by the time they dropped
to intermediate in 2001. But they got the
show back on the road, they won league
and championship titles in 2005 under
manager Paul Jordan.
Players came and went. Niall Lydon
and the Feeney brothers were the first
batch of the current crew to make an
impact. Barry Moran and Tom Cunniffe
came slightly later, while Ger McDonagh, Donie Newcombe and Neil Douglas
‘brought a huge amount, in their attitude
and their training’, says Fitzmaurice.
The 2010 final against Ballintubber was
overshadowed by the deaths of Ger
Feeney and Donal McEllin, and the game
was ‘a non-event’, as the midfielder puts
it.
The following year, there was a repeat
final – with the same result. By the time
the promised land was reached in 2013,
the former Mayo player had hung up his
boots.
“I was probably a little bit more stubborn than Shane – I wasn’t leaving until
I got a county medal!” says Kevin Filan,
who was still part of the senior squad
as a 40-year-old in 2013.
“It was great for me to win [one], but
I felt for the likes of Shane, Brian Hennelly and Eamon Kennedy – especially
them three lads, because they were there
ON HOME GROUND
Shane Fitzmaurice, John Maughan
and Kevin Filan are pictured in the
Castlebar Mitchels’ dressingrooms earlier this month.
Pic: Conor McKeown
We knew we
were in for
a serious
trouncing after
the first ten or
15 minutes
battles with Crossmolina, Ballina, Knockmore, Hollymount and Kiltane.
“There were a lot of strong teams –
unlike today, [where] at the start of the
year, you can nearly identify the two or
three [contenders] … I would suggest
that the quality of club football was
better then – there was a greater spread
of quality teams,” he says.
Maughan now trains the Mitchels
minor team, which his son is a member
of, and one of his daughters is coming
home from Sweden for the game.
He feels there’s ‘greater cohesion’ in
the current squad than the class of
1993-4, ‘because all the boys are homegrown’ and many grew up ‘playing
together’. He praises the ‘very strong
Bord na nÓg’ in the club, and notes that
many of those who managed current
members of the senior squad in their
underage days will be ‘very proud’
watching on next Thursday.
It’s a Wednesday evening, and the
VITAL GOAL
CASTLEBAR Mitchels reached the
1994 All-Ireland final, but might well
have lost the 1993 county semi-final
replay to Crossmolina were it not for
a magnificent goal from half-back
Declan Shaw.
pitches beside An Sportlann are a hive
of activity. The Mitchels under-16s are
playing Parke, while Filan has just overseen a minor training session. The current run to the brink of All-Ireland glory
has given ‘great impetus’ to club members at all levels, says Maughan.
“It makes a big difference, that the
team you’re following is in an All-Ireland
club final, as distinct from a team that’s
labouring down at intermediate level,”
he reflects. “They’re looking up at their
role models. It gives them hope, and
they all want to be winners.”
I can only
imagine
what’s going
on in Richie’s
head
AGONY Kevin Filan is pictured after the 2014 All-Ireland club final.
DID YOU
KNOW
CASTLEBAR Mitchels played in the
Asylum Grounds, Pigeon Park, the
Lawn and the Hat Factory Field
before moving into MacHale Park,
which was officially opened in May
1931.
since ’95/’96.”
The involvement of Hennelly and Fitzmaurice made the junior win of 2014
‘really sweet’ for Filan. Fitzmaurice himself jokes that their final victory over
Achill is ‘a sore point’ with John Maughan,
who was advising the islanders that day.
And the midfielder credits Declan Shaw
(current joint manager of the senior
team) with helping to bring him out of
retirement to play for the second
team.
“When I saw Declan Shaw was getting
involved, I knew there’d be good organisation there,” he explains. “I hadn’t
played in a year or two. There was a lot
of good younger fellas, and one or two
of them – or more – have broken onto
the [senior] panel since.”
Filan – who has the full set of junior,
intermediate and senior medals – enters
the Studio downstairs in An Sportlann,
having done a training session with
Maughan’s minor team.
He jokes that his stand-out memory of
Pic: Ray Lohan
the successful 2013 campaign was the
first game against Davitts ‘because it was
the only one I started!’
They had been so long waiting to win
the Moclair Cup that they were, he said,
‘afraid to dream any further’ than the
county title, but once that was achieved,
belief surged through the team.
“We didn’t fear anyone else after that
and we felt like we’d nothing to lose,”
he elaborates. “And for a good few fellas
on the team, it felt like it was an opportunity that wasn’t going to come around
again.
“So we put everything into it. You had
one day off in the week, but that wasn’t
a problem … It gives you a little glimpse
into what would be like to be a professional sports athlete.”
It is, Filan says, ‘hard to put a finger’
on what went wrong in the 2014 AllIreland final. They’d had a full dress
rehearsal two weeks beforehand, spending 40 minutes on Croke Park, so there
were ‘no surprises’. There were a couple
of ‘small things’ – two or three minutes
late getting out on the pitch; their warm-up
over-ran. Diarmuid Connolly ‘just had
one of those days’, while Richie Feeney
was black-carded.
Next Thursday’s return to HQ offers
a shot at redemption.
“I can only imagine what’s going on in
Richie’s head,” said Filan.
“Did he think he was going to be back
in an All-Ireland in 2016 to right the
wrongs? I’m sure he’s got a point to
prove.”
11
‘Mitchels must make the
most of now’ - Maughan
An evening with Ballyboden
The Dubliners’ river
of talent runs deep
Feature
DANIEL CAREY
NIALL SCULLY
NE of the men who played in the 1994
All-Ireland club final with Castlebar
Mitchels has emphasised that the current team need to make hay while the
sun shines.
Former Mayo manager, John Maughan, wore
the number six jersey in Mitchels’ first All-Ireland
final, and points to the decline which followed
as proof that the current crop have to ‘maximise’
what they have in ‘the here and now’.
Mitchels reached the county final again later
in 1994, but following a defeat to Hollymount,
they didn’t return to the showpiece event of
Mayo club football until 2010. And a full 20 years
elapsed before they won the Moclair Cup again,
in 2013.
“When you see that it was 16 years [between
finals], that’s horrific,” the Mayo County Council procurement officer told The Mayo News in
An Sportlann, Castlebar recently.
“But it just goes to prove, when the opportunity
presents itself, you’ve got to take it, because you
don’t know what’s happening down the road.”
Maughan, who led Mayo to All-Ireland finals
in 1996, 1997 and 2004, is clearly a big fan of the
current Mitchels squad. He has noticed ‘a huge
air of confidence in their own ability to deliver’,
and feels their victories over ‘the two big guns’,
Corofin and Crossmaglen Rangers, has put them
in pole position to go all the way. But, with one
eye on the 2016 championship – now just two
months away – he adds a note of caution.
“You’d be a little bit worried about secondseason syndrome, which is a facet of [almost]
every [team] ... with the exception of Crossmaglen,” he begins.
“It’s a long stretch [especially] for the lads
involved at inter-county level. You take the likes
of Paddy Durcan, Barry [Moran],Tom Cunniffe
… Now they’ll be asked to go back into the intercounty scene straight away, and keep that
going.
“You can imagine the appetite waning in year
two, so that’s why it’s so important [to take the
chance] when you’re presented with it.”
He noted that the age profile of the squad is
O
A
A CLEAN SWEEP Proudly displayed at the Castlebar Mitchels’ All-Ireland club final press night were, from left to right: the Tommy Hoban Memorial Cup
(Mayo Senior League), the Moclair Cup (Mayo Senior Championship) and the Shane McGettigan Cup (Connacht Club Championship). Pic: Michael McLaughlin
encouraging for the future, and says its current
success has been in the making for a long time.
Reflecting on Mitchels’ drop to the intermediate
ranks at the turn of the century, he suggests:
“A dip like that focuses minds and gets everybody rallying, saying ‘Listen, how could a club
of this stature be playing intermediate football?’
It’s slightly embarrassing, to say the least, with
the history and tradition that’s here. And it always
takes a couple of guys to come and put their
shoulder to the wheel and drive the thing on
Best wishes to Castlebar Mitchels in the
All-Ireland Club Final from all at
again.
“It’s not a one-year thing. It’s something that
has been built over a couple of years, and the
work that has been done by Shane Conway and
Pat Holmes two years ago is standing to them
now. Then you had a bit of a dip the following
year, which often happens after a final.
“But… I think this group are very smart,
grounded, focused and intelligent and experienced, and they’ve a great spread of good footballers.”
Best wishes to Castlebar Mitchels in
the All-Ireland Club Final from all at
Delaney’s
SERVICE
STATION
EURO' CHAMPS
CURRENT senior managers Declan Shaw and
Declan O’Reilly were both part of the travelling
party when Castlebar Mitchels were crowned
European champions in Amsterdam in 1994,
beating Brussels in the final. Eoghan O’Reilly’s
father Tom was team captain.
in the All-Ireland Club Final from
LEO DOHERTY
MENSWEAR
Moneen, Castlebar 094 90 38680
Ashlawn
Main Street, Castlebar
DAVITT COLLEGE
CASTLEBAR
(094) 90 22875
Pearse Street, Ballina
(096) 60888
www.leodohertymenswear.ie
Newport Road, Westport 098 50796
12
SUMMER’S evening in Rathfarnham,
a bustling suburb of south Dublin.
The Ballyboden senior footballers
have finished training. They shower
and head for the clubhouse.
The captain, Darragh Nelson, is the last to leave
the dressing-room. He makes sure all is tidy and
pulls the door behind him.
Darragh is an inspirational centre half-back.
He has played for Dublin. After each Dublin
game, manager, Jim Gavin, nominates two of his
players to clean the dressing-room.
Good habits can last a lifetime.
Darragh has been with Boden since he was a
tot. He has fond memories of stretching over the
railings to get a glimpse of his heroes.
And now he’s there himself. And no matter
what happens from here on in, his match-saving
injury-time point against Clonmel Commercials
in the All-Ireland semi-final is cemented in
gold.
And yet, amid all the elation of that victory,
Boden still took the time to compliment Commercials on the purpose of their football. And
these few weeks later, they are still doing it. And
it will be the same following St Patrick’s Day –
win, lose or draw.
At the Boden press night, the chairman, Brendan
Moran, got up to speak. His brother Kevin played
for the Dubs, Manchester United and Ireland.
Brendan’s offering was as far away from an Oscar
speech as Castlebar is from Chicago.
It was a short paragraph. Very short. But
Brendan’s words will stretch for miles. And for
the generations to come. He says that the four
teams that have made the club finals are all winCURRENT
senior
ners. And
themanagers
kids that go to Croke Park to supDeclan
portShaw
themand
willDeclan
leave with dreams in their heart.
O’Reilly
wereallboth
part
ofresult.
the Helping to guide the
It’s not
about
the
travelling
party
when
Castlebar
young
along
the right
pathway in life is the Boden
Mitchels
were crowned EuroBible.
pean champions
in of
Amsterdam
On the walls
their clubhouse are pictures of
in 1994,
the Paul McGinley and
two beating
of their Brussels
favouriteinsons,
final.Pádraig
EoghanHarrington.
O’Reilly’s father
They loved the time they
Tomspent
was team
captain.
on the
Firhouse Road.
That’s the club’s base. It’s the most cosy of venues. It has a railed off pitch, a pavilion, a clubhouse, car park, ball wall, dugouts, electronic
scoreboard and a neat press box.
On match days, Danny Griffin would bring you
in for a cup of tea and a Club Milk. And maybe
even a slice of cake. Danny is the sponsorship
manager.
Trubake are the sponsors of the senior footballers. Frank Basquel is the owner. Noel Basquel is
a selector with the senior footballers. The Basquels
come from Mayo. Just outside Westport.
Boden’s own river of talent runs deep. They
need many pitches to cater for all their teams.
They are one of the biggest clubs in the country.
And a club of many departments and activities
off the pitch. Their programme of events to celebrate 1916 is a treasure.
Remarkably in the four codes – football, hurling, camogie and ladies football – they have won
39 senior championships. That’s Dublin, Leinster
and All-Ireland titles. It’s some haul.
But Boden hide it well.
Boden only set
sail in 1969
leo.dohertymenswear
DID YOU
KNOW
CLUB chairman Brendan Moran is a
brother of former Republic of Ireland
soccer international Kevin Moran.
SHARING THE MOMENT Ballyboden St Enda’s manager Andy McEntee congratulates Colm Basquel (whose family are originally from Aughagower)
after the Dublin champions beat St Loman’s of Mullingar in the Leinster club SFC semi-final. Pic: Sportsfile
NE day, Gerry O’Sullivan was asked
how are Boden so successful. He was
surprised by the question. He had to
think for a minute. And then he revealed
the answer that everybody knew already
– hard work.
Sinéad Ryan is now the club PRO. Life couldn’t
be more hectic for her right now. There’s the
All-Ireland final to prepare for. And the other
not so little matter of her recent wedding – to
a Mayoman, Kilmaine’s Derek O’Dea. Her fellow committee members tell of her commitment to the club. In the busiest and most exciting period of their history.
And it’s been a short enough history. Boden
only set sail in 1969. A merger between Ballyboden Wanderers and Rathfarnham St Endas.
The two All-Ireland titles have been won by
the ladies footballers.
Bill Day was the man that began it all in the
O
schools. His job was to drive the Minister, John
Wilson, a hero of the Polo Grounds final of 1947.
Bill was also from Cavan. The long journeys
would be shortened by tales of the bouncing
ball.
The camogie team won five successive Dublin Senior Championships. Their manager was
Richie Sweetnam. He carried all the modesty
of a Kilkenny hurler.
The senior hurlers also secured the five-ina-row. But the boss man, Liam Hogan, kept
looking at the bigger picture for Dublin hurling. His constant message was that hurling
should be played on a firm sod and under the
summer sunshine. Not in October under the
floodlights. He quipped that lights were for
growing onions.
Andy McEntee manages the footballers. A
member of a footballing Royal family. He’s been
perfect for Boden. Hard work is also his bot-
tom line. That’s what has seen them topple
Dublin heavyweights like Crokes and Plunkett’s.
And saw them climb off the floor against Noel
McCaffrey’s Clontarf in the semi-final.
St Vincent’s were the hottest of favourites in
the final, but Boden came through, just like they
did in Leinster and on that epic day in Portlaoise.
This team is full of heroes. And role models
for the kids. Just like the ones Darragh Nelson
had to stretch to see when he was a child.
Now, Boden are a step away from Everest.
But even if the Andy Merrigan Cup doesn’t
return to a bonfire at Páirc Uí Mhurchú, Castlebar folk will always be welcome.
And the great Danny Griffin will make sure
to have the kettle boiling, and a plateful of cakes
on the table. Fresh from the Trubake oven.
Niall Scully is a sports journalist for The Herald.
13
KEANE
MITCHELS’ MEMORY LANE
AND ABLE
Castlebar’s Stephen
Keane went from
impact sub to starter
in the semi-final
Interview
DANIEL CAREY
HEN the Castlebar Mitchels B team
played their opening game of last
year’s Mayo Intermediate Championship against Westport, Stephen
Keane was at corner forward.
He scored a point which was was eventually
awarded after the umpires disagreed, and Mitchels actually led early in that game before being
eventually overpowered.
Fast forward nine months, and Keane started
the All-Ireland senior semi-final against Crossmaglen Rangers. Having come off the bench
against Aghamore, Knockmore, Clann na nGael
and Corofin, he’d been on the field in the closing
stages of games when the fat was in the fire. Barry
Moran singled Keane out as one of the subs who
‘did very, very well’ in the provincial decider,
and he got on the score-sheet after replacing
Niall Lydon.
The decision to start him in Breffni Park came
as a surprise – those outside the camp might
have felt Cian Costello and James Durcan were
ahead of him in the pecking order. But though
small, there’s an edge to his game, and he didn’t
panic despite Mitchels’ slow start.
“I was always confident that if we got a tenminute spell going that we would clock up a few
scores,” he told The Mayo News at the recent
Mitchels press night.
“And I think it showed in the second half – we
W
Times Past
SEÁN RICE
IT is now an intrinsic art, but when Jimmy Deffely first paraded his skills round the various
playing fields of Castlebar, the solo run in Gaelic
football was in its infancy.
Before it became a basic feature of the game
players were only allowed to take three steps
with the ball, no more. Beyond that, a foul was
called, and a free kick awarded to the opposition.
As Jimmy, a Mitchels and Mayo stalwart of the
1920s and thirties, said in an unpublished interview with Michael Murphy thirty years ago:
“Having hopped it, you could carry the ball a
further three steps, but by then the impetus of
the move was curbed by the opposition”.
Kiltimagh native Seán Lavin devised and implemented this new tactic while playing for Mayo
against Dublin in the early 1920s. And its introduction eventually changed the whole character
of the game.
Lavin, who later captained the 1928 Irish Olympic team, won possession at midfield, soloed, toe
to hand, past flabbergasted Dublin opponents
before lashing the ball over the bar from 20 yards.
It was a blinding piece of creativity.
The score was disallowed, ‘the referee affronted
by a culchie making his own rules’. But soon everyone was at it, the new skill sweeping through
clubs and counties like wildfire. No force could
prevent it becoming an essential characteristic
of the game.
Like everyone else, Jimmy Deffley had to adapt
to the new style. But it had a big effect on catchand-kick football, he said, and was to eventually
greatly undermine that crucial skill.
just didn’t panic, and we just came out on the
right side of it. It was a tough game, a good battle.”
Though substituted after 52 minutes in Cavan,
his day wasn’t over. Eagle-eyed viewers may have
spotted on TG4 that during a skirmish deep in
injury time, the ball flew in Keane’s direction.
He bounced it calmly, and then placed it at his
feet in the Mitchels dug-out – before being set
upon by two Crossmaglen players.
A teacher at St Gerald’s College, Keane now
finds himself back at his alma mater – ‘a big football school’ and ‘a positive place to be around’
with ‘good staff’ and ‘good students’. He’s in his
third year there now, teaching maths as a sub.
He had thought about travelling, or looking for
work in Dublin or London. “But the football really
has always been in the back of my mind,” he
explains. “So it’s something I’ve put first for the
last few years … We know how it feels to be
putting everything else on hold and not seeing
the benefits. Thankfully, in the last two or three
years, we’ve had a bit of silverware to show for
it.”
Few players have so epitomised the 21-man
game approach which, in Mitchels’ case, is clearly
more of a philosophy than a cliché. Keane has
also been taking a sensible approach to the hype
enveloping the county town in recent weeks.
“Ah, [we’ll] just take it how it goes, really. You’re
not going to go looking for it [but] you’re not
going to go hiding from it. I suppose if it’s there,
it’s there. But we’re just trying to stay focused at
the same time – on football, on the next training,
next match.”
And they don’t come much bigger than the next
match.
one of his most prized possessions.
PIG’S BLADDER
DID YOU
KNOW
MITCHELS are unbeaten in both league
and championship since losing a Mayo
Senior League game to Kilmaine last April.
THINKING BIG Castlebar Mitchels’ Stephen Keane is hoping to start this week’s All-Ireland club
final at Croke Park. Pic: Michael McLaughlin
Best wishes to the Mitchels team
from Máire and Amy at
KELLY’S
Five Star Rated Good Salon Guide
Castle Street, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
T: 094 9022973
DIFFERENT times, different challenges as Mick
Flynn, a strapping young star of the Mitchels’
glorious fifties, recalled one of their star players
going missing before the game. It was 1953 and
the team had gathered at Ellison Street corner to
be conveyed to Charlestown for the final against
Ardnaree. All were there with the exception of
ace centre forward John Joe McGowan.
Having found out from his father that John Joe
had left early in the morning with his bird cage,
Mick and a few colleagues located their star ‘in
a field trying to attract birds to his cage an hour
DODGING THE CAMERA
TOM Tiger Lacey was suspected of being overage when he lined out for Castlebar Mitchels in
the county minor final of 1946 against Foxford at
Bohola ... suspected by the officials of Foxford at
GMIT Mayo Campus wishes
Castlebar Mitchels the best of luck
in the All-Ireland Club Final on
St Patrick’s Day
Check out our programmes at
www.gmit.ie/mayo
or contact us on 094 902 5700
for further information
Castle Inn
Castle Street, Castlebar
094 9023324
WATCH THE
MATCH LIVE ON
THE BIG SCREEN!
least. And so intent were they on getting evidence
of this breach of the rules that a young curate
spent most of the match trying to take a photograph of the Castlebar player.
Lacey, however, was equally determined to avoid
the prying eye of the camera – to the extent that,
as they gathered in the centre of the pitch at halftime, he walked around with an overcoat over
his head.
Eventually he became so annoyed at the persistence of the curate that eventually he threw
off the coat, squared up to the priest and spat out
the words: “Here father, take me photograph, and
if me face doesn’t crack the camera, me fist
will.”
Best of luck to Castlebar
Mitchels footballers, selectors,
manager and backroom team
from
The
We would like to take this opportunity to
wish all a very happy St Patrick’s Day
14
JOHN JOE’S BIRD CAGE
EST
1932
HAIR & BEAUTY SALON
AROUND the time of that interview – made to
coincide with the centenary of the club – Brian
Hoban, the winner of several county senior medals with Mitchels, recalled the early 1920s, when
as youngsters they kicked a pig’s bladder around
the place which they had substituted for a football.
Money was scarce and the bladder was used
until they secured a new football, having collected
the cost from houses around the town.
In addition to his collection of senior trophies
Brian, who played at midfield, won a county junior medal with the Mitchels in 1923 and it was
before the game was due to start’.
So intense was his concentration on the job in
hand that John Joe forgot everything ... and wondered why his colleagues were disturbing him.
They rushed him home. He ate his dinner off a
plate in the car on the way to Charlestown and
proceeded to give his customary outstanding
performance as the Mitchels headed for their
fourth county senior title on the trot.
Cllr
UNIT7
MENSWEAR
MAIN STREET, CASTLEBAR
Best wishes to
Castlebar Mitchels
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COMHAIRLE CONTAE MHAIGH EO
MAYO COUNTY COUNCIL
Mayo County Council
extend good wishes to
Castlebar Mitchels
in the
All-Ireland Club Final 2016
Blackie
Gavin
WORKING FOR YOU
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“Let’s raise the bar one more time”
15
The boys of summer
A big Mayo
contingent played
for Ballyboden
back in 1995
Feature
DANIEL CAREY
ERE’S a quiz question for you:
how many Mayomen won
Dublin Senior Football Championship titles with Ballyboden
St Enda’s in 1995?
If you answered five, the prize is yours.
Ballintubber duo Tom Prendergast and
Tony Duffy, Ballycastle’s Michael Gardiner, and Claremorris pair Gabriel
Cuddy and Anthony Joyce all saw action
during a campaign which will live long
in the annals of the Knocklyon club.
Prendergast and Duffy had both been
members of the Ballintubber team which
won the Mayo Intermediate Championship title five years previously. As the
former explains, thoughts of a run to the
Leinster semi-final were far from their
thoughts when they transferred.
“I was living in Dublin, and I’d been
travelling up and down the previous
couple of years, playing with Ballintubber,” Prendergast told The Mayo News.
“Things weren’t going too well at home,
and I started playing with Ballyboden,
probably their fifth team. I played a couple of games – probably illegally! – just
over the [1994] Christmas period or
thereafter. They said ‘Would you sign?’
I mulled over it and did, and played for
the Junior Bs, the intermediates, and
then the seniors within a few weeks.”
His meteoric rise mirrored that of the
team, who didn’t lose a game until going
down to Éire Óg in the Leinster semifinal. That run included league, championship, and cups put up by AIB and
the St Vincent de Paul. To the best of
Prendergast’s knowledge, Ballyboden
had never won a match in the senior
championship before 1995. But they kept
winning that summer.
“We just got into a groove, and I think
by the end of the year, we were so confident going out that we just didn’t think
we were ever going to lose,” the former
Mayo selector reflected. “And we were
a very hard-working team … very difficult to play against.
“It was just very enjoyable. I’d been
playing for Ballintubber, where we’d
been mediocre at best for the previous
few years – losing more games than we
were winning. Going from that to a
situation where you’re winning week in,
week out was … very enjoyable. It was
a beautiful summer as well, probably the
best we’ve had in 30 years. Every night
you went training it was hot, the sun was
shining.”
Prendergast says he and Duffy ended
up with Ballyboden because a work colleague had ‘played a bit of junior’ with
H
16
DESERT
KING
Tom King will be watching
this year’s final in the UAE
Every night
you went
training it
was hot
Interview
rview
w
EDWIN McGREAL
McGREAL
F circumstances were different, Tom King would be
at home in Castlebar preparing for this week’s AllIreland senior club football
final.
The 26-year-old was one of
the main men on the Mitchels’
march to St Patrick’s Day two
years ago, but he’ll be watching
this year’s decider from the
Middle East.
“I do miss it massively,” he told
The Mayo News. “It’s worse
watching, as you have no control
on how the game will go. I always
said what I miss most is sport
and the family. I always get anxious watching the games.”
Work and love brought him to
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in 2014.
He was due to follow his girlfriend, Anna, there in 2013, but
an extended championship run
with Mitchels and an invitation
into the Mayo squad delayed
his departure.
“I was lucky to get a call-up
for Mayo for an FBD League
game, which was a nice reward
for playing well with the club.
I was never actually released by
I
them – “It wasn’t like we were approached
or had a profile”. Starting at the bottom
rung of the ladder meant they earned
their spurs and ‘got a good bit of respect
from club-mates’. Apart from the Mayo
contingent, the team included Kerryman
Paul Curran, who passed away in October 2014.
“Although there was a highish proportion of non-natives, the team spirit was
really strong,” said Prendergast. “We
bonded pretty well as a group, and that
unity stood to us over the course of the
campaign.”
Erin’s Isle were beaten in the county
final thanks to a late Damien Bolger goal.
Brian Stynes, Ballyboden’s best-known
player, was forced to come off with 11
minutes remaining.
“Brian was obviously struggling badly
with his shoulder,” Prendergast recalled.
“He couldn’t lift his arm above his head,
which isn’t much good when you’re playing midfield, and needed to come off.”
STORY
Former Mayo
senior selector
Tom Prendergast
H
THE CUPS THAT CHEER The Ballyboden St Enda’s team of 1995. From left, front row: Stephen O’Shaughnessy,
Tom Prendergast, John Kiernan, Kevin Cardiff (club president), Ben Molloy (captain), John Kirwan (club chairman),
Brendan Young, Damien Bolger, Tomás Ó Riordáin. Second row: Danny Griffin (sponsorship manager), David
Naughton, Gabriel Cuddy, Tony Duffy, Ger Flaherty, Phelim McCabe, Gary Colleran, Paul Stafford, Shane Heraty,
Patrick Greville, John Joe O’Sullivan (Football Committee chairman). Third row: Enda Timoney (trainer), Seán
Fitzmaurice (manager), Liam Callan, Donagh O’Farrell, Plunkett Walsh, Philip Wardick, Brian Stynes, Paul Bealin,
Ken Murray, Paul Curran, Frank Rafferty (selector), Pat Conway (selector). Back row: Bill McAllister (selector), John
McAllister, Michael Gardiner, Andrew Moran, John Keegan, Anthony Joyce, Fergus Reid (sponsor).
IS replacement was controversial.
Paul Bealin had been Stynes’s
partner in the Dublin midfield
when they won the All-Ireland
title the previous month. But Bealin had
played for St Kevin’s, Kilnamanagh in the
Dublin Intermediate Championship earlier that year before transferring to Ballyboden.
He had been training with his new club,
but had played no part in their championship run, and was assumed by many people to be ineligible. A welter of objections
followed, but none succeeded, and Bealin
played in the Leinster Championship
games against Edenderry and Éire Óg.
The controversy ‘overshadowed’ Ballyboden’s first county title ‘to an extent’,
Prendergast remembers, ‘because it got
a lot of negative coverage’.
“Whatever the ethical or moral rights
or wrongs of it, when it was adjudicated
on, it was found that Ballyboden had done
nothing illegal,” said Prendergast. Rule 32
of the GAA’s Official Guide was subsequently changed at the 1995 GAA Congress.
Prendergast met some of his former
team-mates at a ten-year reunion in 2005.
Those he met were ‘really great people,
working extremely hard, adding a huge
amount to their community’. The clubhouse bar served as a social centre for the
area, and the members were ‘very welcoming’. The Mayoman spent three years
with Ballyboden and is ‘a little bit disappointed’ that they failed to repeat the
success of his first season.
“There was definitely the ammunition
there to have a really good crack at Dublin again, and possibly even a Leinster
title,” he says now. “But the world is full
of ‘cudda woulda shoulda’ stories.”
James Horan. We never spoke
after that game, so in my head
I knew I’d be going to Dubai.”
So not long after their March
17 defeat to St Vincent’s, King
was packing his bags to join
Anna in the UAE. He now works
for a digital marketing agency,
House of Comms.
“I love the lifestyle,” he explains.
“It’s great weather and good pay,
but I miss the homely feeling.
Everything over here revolves
around work. For now Dubai is
home and I’m working hard to
build my career, but I would
love to move back home one
day.”
Prior to his departure for Dubai,
King had a hectic sporting
career.
Soccer was his first love, and
he was signed by English league
side Plymouth Argyle for two
years, capped at underage level
for Ireland and had trials with
Manchester City.
After being released by Plymouth, he came home and played
with several different League
of Ireland clubs, most recently
Mervue United. He juggled
Mervue commitments with
playing Gaelic football with
Castlebar Mitchels, and for most
of 2013, he was confined to a
role off the bench.
However, he started the 2013
county final, left with the man
Ballintubber
G.A.A. Club
FLASHBACK Castlebar Mitchels’ Tom King is pictured on the field at Croke Park after the 2014 All-Ireland Club Final defeat
to St Vincent’s. Pic: Ray Lohan
I miss it
massively
of the match award, and was a
key man as Mitchels took out
fancied teams like Corofin, St
Brigid’s and Dr Crokes.
Burt King admits Mitchels did
not hit the high notes against St
Vincent’s.
“It is something that still plays
on your mind. We didn’t play to
our strengths that day, which is
our running game. We put Barry
[Moran] in full-forward and put
in a lot of ball which was mopped
up.
“But no regrets, they were the
keeps in touch with Mitchels
players through Facebook and
WhatsApp.
He tunes into most games via
TG4 or Midwest Radio. He had
hoped to get off work to come
home for the final, but was
unable to do so. His advice for
his former teammates?
“Just enjoy it and stick to the
normal game plan. They have
enough experience now to do
that and see it through and make
it a historic day for a great
club.”
in the All-Ireland Club Final
from all at
FADDEN’S
JEANSTORE
Best wishes to Richie
Ri hi andd all
ll the
th Castlebar
C tl b Mitchels
M
team,
management and backroom team in their All-Ireland
Final from all at Ballintubber GAA Club.
better team on the day and, with
Diarmuid Connolly in that form,
it is hard to stop him. He scored
2-3 from play.
“I loved every minute of the
build-up. Playing in Croker is
always a dream and to do it with
your club-mates was special.
The difficult part was blocking
out the expectations of your
family and the town, trying to
treat it as just another game.”
King has been home a number
of times since. His family have
visited him in Dubai, and he
Linenhall Street, Castlebar
Tel. 094 90 21260
Best of luck to
the Castlebar
Ca
Mitchels
Team & Management
on St Pat
Patrick’s Day in the
All-Ireland SSenior Club Final
WESTPORT GAA CLUB
17
School of hard knocks
Castlebar
Mitchels have
triumphed over
adversity
Analysis
is
We’re right
behind
ye, lads!
NIGEL QUINN
EDWIN McGREAL
AL
THEY may be appearing in their second
All-Ireland club final in three years, but
Castlebar Mitchels found out all about
losing before they hit on the winning
formula.
In 2010 and 2011 they lost county finals
to rivals Ballintubber. In 2012 Mitchels
fell at the quarter-final stage to the same
opposition.
They were at a crossroads, and Ballintubber were becoming a nut that Castlebar just couldn’t crack in a bid to win
the Moclair Cup, a trophy which hadn’t
been in their grasp in 1993.
Mitchels were progressing nicely
towards rectifying that in 2013, but there’s
no doubt that Ballintubber’s surprise
quarter-final defeat to a Declan Sweeneyinspired Knockmore definitely did
Castlebar no harm.
They ended up facing neighbours
Breaffy in the county final. Mitchels were
trying to win their first senior county
title in 20 years, Breaffy their first ever.
With pressure on both teams, it was an
uninspired contest, but Castlebar finally
made the breakthrough, winning by six
points.
That win liberated them and they were
like a new team in Connacht, beating
the 2015 All-Ireland champions Corofin
and the 2013 kingpins St Brigid’s en route
to a Connacht title.
They surprised many, but not themselves, by beating a fancied Dr Crokes
of Killarney in the semi-final but fell
short in the final against a Diarmuid
Connolly-inspired St Vincent’s.
Reaching an All-Ireland final in the
ITH 60 minutes on the
clock in Breffni Park on a
cold February night, a town
held its breath. Our-red
and-yellow-clad warriors were battling it out (quite literally
at times), with the mighty Crossmaglen
Rangers for the right to run out on the
hallowed turf of Croke Park on St
Patrick’s Day.
The clock on the scoreboard of the
Cavan venue reverted to zero with the
60 minutes up, leaving all present in
limbo as to how long was left to hang
on to the slenderest of leads. Watches
were checked, phones pulled from
pockets, and stewards were put on time-
W
UPS AND DOWNS
Ballintubber’s Jason Gibbons
(9) celebrates after the 2011
Mayo SFC Final as
Castlebar’s Sean Ryder (7)
and Tom Cunniffe leave the
field. Pic: Michael Donnelly
Best wishes to Castlebar Mitchels team
and management in the All-Ireland Senior
Club Championship Final on St Patrick’s Day
from all at
Aghamore
GAA Club
2013/14 season was scarcely imaginable
though at the end of their 2012 season
and three consecutive championship
defeats to Ballintubber.
That monkey hasn’t quite come off
their backs. There’s no doubting, after
two Connacht titles, that Castlebar are
the best team in Mayo of this current
age. But in a head-to-head, battle they’ve
always struggled with Ballintubber.
Mitchels beat them in Clogher in the
2014 championship, their first championship outing since the All-Ireland final,
but the ’ Tubber men had the last laugh
that year, winning the county final against
Mitchels.
Castlebar’s 2015 success saw them avoid
Ballintubber too after they were knocked
out in the semi-final by Breaffy, who
Castlebar convincingly beat in the
final.
Once again, liberated from Mayo,
Castlebar found another level in the race
to St Patrick’s Day. They dethroned AllIreland champions Corofin in the Connacht final and, in arguably their most
impressive victory of this era, outfought
Crossmaglen by a solitary point in an
absorbing All-Ireland semi-final.
And if one player encapsulates the
evolution of this Castlebar Mitchels team
from 2010 and 2011 county final losers
to All-Ireland favourites, it is Neil Douglas.
When Castlebar first started reaching
county finals in 2010 and 2011, Douglas
was their go-to scoring forward. If there
was one criticism of his play, it was that
he did not always bring colleagues into
the game as much as he could have.
He missed a few frees in the 2010 final
that he would normally kick, and one
Best of luck to
Castlebar Mitchels
in the
All-Ireland Club Final
from
year later they lost again. Douglas again
spurned chances he would have expected
to score. He and Castlebar must have
been wondering what they had to do.
Fast forward to now and Douglas is
playing deeper (as more of a creative
influence) and vital in the gestation of
so many of Mitchels’ scores, rather than
on the end of the moves as he used to
be.
And yet in the 2015 county final, it was
Douglas who stole the show in front of
goal. He put the memory of those two
final defeats in 2010 and 2011 to bed with
a stunning hat-trick.
The biggest step still awaits them.
Mitchels had to learn about losing county
finals before winning them.
They’re well on course to follow a
similar trajectory for St Patrick’s Day
deciders.
All-Ireland Club Football Final from all at
CASTLEBAR
Credit Union
YOUR FIRST CHOICE
FIRST CHOICE
FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES
MARKET SQUARE, CASTLEBAR, CO MAYO
www.castlebarcu.ie :: [email protected]
Tel: 094-9022969
18
keeping duty as fingernails were chewed
down to a dangerously low level.
With one last display of defensive
heroics, the final whistle finally came,
followed quickly by relief which then
turned to righteous celebration.
This bunch of players, who have risen
from the embers of the 2014 All-Ireland
defeat, have galvanised the town behind
them. A huge supporter base has built
up following them on their epic journey,
from Hyde Park to Tuam Stadium and
on to Breffni Park.
It’s a tribute to them that even with a
general election looming, the week following their semi-final win they were
the only story in town. You could not
pass a familiar face on the streets or in
the shops of Castlebar who did not want
to stop to regale you with stories of that
famous night. From that result, the team
has now earned support and respect
right across the Mayo GAA community
and further afield.
Once the local papers hit the shelves
with all the post-game reaction, plans
were already afoot for getting to Croke
Park. The local hostelries are taking
names for buses and the club has chartered a special supporters’ train to ferry
the masses to the capital.
For the second time in three years,
the town has moved the St Patrick’s Day
Parade to facilitate the club and its supporters, and there is sure to be more
red and yellow than green around the
county town again this year. In fact, the
town has been awash in club colours
since the county final, with bridges lit
up, bunting across the streets and flags
adorning businesses and homes alike.
Castlebar Mitchels is in its 131st year,
and this maturity can be seen both on
and off the pitch. The squad has moved
on from an average age of 24 to 26, now
bringing with it a huge level of experience gained from the 2014 run.
Off the pitch, the club has firmly
planted itself back amongst the community with the aid of the team and
a more inclusive approach which can
now be seen in the considerable support behind it.
No stone has been left unturned by the
club in their bid to bring the Andy Merrigan Cup to Castlebar this year. And
hopefully the parade on Sunday will
have the biggest VIP in club football amongst its ranks.
Mitchels Abú!
DADDY’S GIRL Chloé Lydon is pictured supporting her dad, Niall, on the
day Castlebar beat Crossmaglen in the All-Ireland club semi-final.
Pic courtesy of Kathleen Murphy
Wishing Castlebar Mitchels all the
best in the All-Ireland
from
SHAWS
Garden Centre
mayonews.ie
facebook.com/
themayonews
twitter.com/
themayonews
SUPPORTING MAYO FOOTBALL
Councillor Cyril Burke
e:[email protected]
All-Ireland Club Final on St Patrick’s Day
from
Breaffy GAA Club
Tel: 094 90 21792
Good luck to Castlebar Mitchels team and
management in the All-Ireland Senior Club
Championship Final
from all at
Best wishes
to the Castlebar
Mitchels Team and
Management in the
All-Ireland Club
Football Final on
St Patrick’s Day
Tel: 087 6891821
Westport Road,
Castlebar
Nigel Quinn is the PRO of Castlebar
Mitchels.
Parke
Keelogues
Crimlin
GAA Club
Best of luck to the
Castlebar Mitchels team and management in
the All-Ireland Senior Club Championship
Final on St Patrick’s Day
from all at
Balla GAA Club
19
Time for ‘unsung heroes’ - Brady
Interview
view
DANIEL CAREY
EY
AVID Brady believes next
Thursday’s All-Ireland club
final is a time for unsung
heroes to stand up and be
counted.
The former Mayo footballer was
on the Ballina team that won the
Andy Merrigan Cup in 2005, and
points to the role played by unheralded Stephenites substitute Aidan
Tighe in achieving that famous victory.
Asked what advice he would offer
Castlebar Mitchels ahead of next
Thursday’s game, Brady said: “No
matter what happens, there’s going
to be an incident … that will be a
defining moment. A lot of the time,
we think of a fantastic score or some
exquisite play. But most of the time,
it comes down to natural hard graft,
the unspectacular.”
The Sunday World columnist feels
Mitchels are ‘a fantastic team’, and
he believes that team ethic is ‘what
wins club All-Irelands’. At intercounty level,‘major players need to
come up with major performances’,
but at club level, he believes, finals
are won by ‘normal, unheard-of, hard-
D
Your one
chance is the
next chance
working’ club players rather than
marquee names.
“There will be incidents,” he warned,
recalling the black card which ended
Richie Feeney’s participation in the
2014 final.
“And when these incidents happen
at certain times in the game, players
need to say: ‘Right, now, for me, it is
the time to stand up’ … It’s about
being constant in their application
of their game-plan – and Castlebar
have a very, very good game-plan.
“I always knew I’d play well, but it
was up to the lesser lights to play
great,” he added.
“We had a player come on in the
final that [had] never played championship for us throughout the year.
And he came on, and in the last ten
minutes, he made a goal-line save
that actually won the All-Ireland for
us. We always talk about it.
“It’s going to be something that just
takes sheer grit, determination and
willingness to put their head on the
block – like Aidan Tighe did with us
in Ballina, and won the All-Ireland
for us ... It’s your unsung hero that’s
willing to stand up to the mark, and
it is going to be your subs, and it is
going to be a team effort.”
Ballina’s title win came six years
after a heartbreaking final defeat to
Crossmaglen Rangers. Mitchels are
appearing in their second decider in
24 months, having lost to St Vincent’s
in 2014.
“If [Mitchels] look at this as [being
about] revenge and making up for
the past, they’re wasting their time,”
the outspoken Newstalk analyst commented. “For us … it was about [taking] what we did wrong in ’99 and
making it work for us and to our
advantage in 2005 … We learned the
lessons from the past, and for us, I
think that was a big thing that we
took into the 2005 final ... It wasn’t
about ‘this is our chance’, because
you only ever get one chance – and
that’s the next chance.”
HIS FINEST HOUR Ballina Stephenites’ David Brady lifts the Andy Merrigan
Cup with manager Tommy Lyons after the 2005 All-Ireland Club Final Pic: Sportsfile
Club is family for Feeneys
Feature
ASSUMPTA FEENEY
(WIFE OF RICHIE)
RICHIE’S religious when it
comes to preparing for a game.
He’s convinced he needs a good
sleep, not just the night before
a game, but especially two nights
before a game. He’d nearly be
in bed before our five month
old, Caoimhe, and there has to
be chicken in the fridge for a
chicken pasta.
I met Richie when I was 19.
We were both going to college
in GMIT in Galway so I’ve been
there through for the Mayo U-21
days, the seniors, and, of course,
the Mitchels.
My father, John, first met
Richie at a Mitchels’ game. Dad
was doing umpire and it was a
fairly tense game. Richie kicked
a point, Dad flagged it wide,
and Richie wasn’t too happy.
He told dad he should ‘open his
eyes’, not knowing who he
was!
20
Thankfully, they got over it!
We got married on New Year’s
Eve 2014. Of course, we had to
organise it around the football.
Richie said there was no other
time to get married!
Two years ago we had a wedding the weekend of a big
Mitchels’ game and all the girls
went to it by themselves. The
lads couldn’t even come to the
meal.
I’d always watch the Castlebar
matches with Richie’s mother,
Kathleen, and my family. I do
get nervous watching, it’s hard
to watch, you feel for them.
When he gets the ball you’re
thinking ‘please score’ or ‘don’t
lose it’. But I’d always be very
proud of him.
There seems to be more
demands on Richie this year,
even more demands than when
he was in with Mayo.
He trains three nights a week
with Castlebar and if he’s not
training he’s swimming or going
to pilates or something. I’ll
always be asking what time is
training or trying to figure out
SHARING THE MOMENT Castlebar Mitchels’ Richie Feeney is
pictured with his wife, Assumpta, and daughter Caoimhe (five
months) and the Moclair Cup after the Mayo SFC Final.
when I could have a sleep in.
Once he comes in the door I’m
running out to do a few
things.
Richie wouldn’t be a great
man for changing nappies and
I find he doesn’t tend to hear
the baby monitor at night either
[laughs]. Caoimhe’s a great girl
though.
She came with us to see her
Daddy in the County Final when
she was only three weeks old.
I go to every game, and only
missed one or two around the
time Caoimhe was born.
There’s a great bunch of wives
and girlfriends involved with
this Mitchels team.
We’re great friends and we
look forward to nights out. After
the game we’ll meet up and
we’re always texting each other
to see who’s going to the
matches.
Thursday will be great, we’ll
be travelling up on the day and
my mother will have Caoimhe
kitted out in the Mitchels’ colours at home and watching it
on TV.
The 2014 All-Ireland final was
so awful, so hard to watch.
When Richie got the black
card I didn’t understand it, it
had just come in a few months
before that. I thought it was like
rugby and that he’d be back on,
but at half-time someone told
me he wouldn’t be back. That
was hard to get up from. He
was doing so well that year. We
don’t talk about games coming
up, we carry on as normal.
After games I tend to take the
mickey out of him, but the
build-up is lovely.
There’s club colours up everywhere and people from Ballintubber, where we live, are
even coming up to it. When
Mitchels have lost to Ballintubber before though, we just had
to keep the heads down [laughs].
You couldn’t even go to the
local shop, we’d be like hermits
not leaving the house.
Everyone is behind them in
the run up to Thursday though.
We can’t wait.
In an interview with Ciara Galvin

SPORT Page 1-20 Club Final v2.indd

Transcription

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