Ballycomoyle's revival continues
April 30, 2011The days when Ballycomoyle were happy just to fulfil their junior championship fixtures are long gone. Thanks to a successful underage policy and a change in attitude across the board, the small club situated on the outskirts of Castlepollard has been making great strides and is expected to make a strong bid for junior championship honours in the coming year.
"There has been a culture change in the club," secretary Helen Coyle proudly explains.
"While hurling is still number one with many of our players, they are also taking their football much more seriously. I can never see a situation where we won't be playing second fiddle to hurling because of where we're situated. All the hurling clubs around us are senior and successful, and it's hard to compete against that. But there's no reason why we can't be successful in football as well. The players are good enough."
For the first time in many years, Ballycomoyle reached the knockout stages of the junior football championship. Building on their junior shield success in 2009, which was the club's first adult title in 19 years (when they last won the junior championship), Ballycomoyle suffered only one defeat in seven games in the group section before going on to lose their quarter-final to Tyrrellspass.
Under the management of Cavan man Pauraic Cullen, whose selectors were John Smyth, Mickey Connell and Pat Shryane, Bal' recovered from a comprehensive first round loss to Milltownpass (2-3 to 3-11) to register wins over St. Fintan's/Multyfarnham (1-8 to 1-6), St. Joseph's (2-8 to 0-8), Delvin (1-9 to 2-4) and Loughnavalley (3-10 to 0-8). They also had draws with St. Paul's (2-6 to 1-9) and Milltown (2-8 apiece).
Ballycomoyle travelled to Kinnegad to face Tyrrellspass' second team in the quarter-final and the signs looked encouraging when they raced into a three-point lead inside 10 minutes. But a lapse in concentration in the second quarter saw Tyrrellspass swoop for goals from Niall Seery and Ray Sheerin which gave them a 2-3 to 0-4 cushion at half-time.
Pauraic Cullen's charges gradually clawed their way back after the restart and when Jim Ward hit the back of the net midway through to level the scoring, the stage was set for a grandstand finish. Tyrrellspass, however, quickly responded with a brace of points from Sheerin. Ballycomoyle got one back, but they couldn't salvage an equaliser as Tyrrellspass prevailed by the narrowest of margins, 2-7 to 1-9.
"It was heartbreaking to lose in those circumstances, but that's the way it goes and hopefully we'll learn from it. It was far from ideal that Tommy Doyle had to play two games that weekend (he won an All-Ireland 'B' medal with the Westmeath minor hurlers the previous day), but we weren't using that as an excuse," Helen says.
"Overall, we had a very good championship with Milltownpass, who were by far the best team in it, and Tyrrellspass, the only sides to beat us. We drew with Milltown who ended up in the final, so we know we're not too far off the pace."
With Pauraic Cullen remaining on as manager and five more minor players graduating to the junior squad, Helen sees no reason why Ballycomoyle can't challenge for the Hugh Daniels Cup this year.
"It's important that we push on from last year," she says.
"We made great progress and if we can do the same this year, we should go very close. We will also be targeting promotion from Division 4 of the league. We competed well in both Division 4 and Division 7 last year, and that is something we were very pleased about.
"It's only now that we are starting to reap the benefits of the work that has been done at underage level over the last 10 years. Five or six minors came through last year and we have another four or five coming through this year. The squad is getting stronger all the time."
Ballycomoyle fielded an under 21 team for the second year running, but their campaign was ended following a one-point first round defeat to Shandonagh.
Ballycomoyle's revival has coincided with a successful period for St. Michael's - the underage amalgamation of Ballycomoyle and Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall. Last year, St. Michael's contested county finals at under 14 and minor level, and while both ended in defeat, the experience will undoubtedly stand the players in good stead.
"Our young players are being exposed to a higher standard of football and that is bringing them on. The young lads who are now coming onto the junior panel have the benefit of playing at a high level and have belief in their own ability. They have a winning mentality which mightn't have been the case in previous years."
St. Michael's were bitterly disappointed to lose the minor Division 2 final to Moate All-Whites at Lakepoint Park. At half-time, they held a big lead, but were reeled in after the resumption by an impressive Moate side. The Ballycomoyle mentors involved with this team were John Smyth and Johnny Corrigan.
The St. Michael's under 14 lost their Division 2 final to St. Loman's in similar circumstances at Ballynacargy. They dominated the first half and, helped by goals from Warren Casserly and centre back Ciaran Fagan, took a commanding 2-6 to 0-2 lead into the break. But the Mullingar side staged a remarkable second half comeback as goals from Evan Maleady, Ronan O'Toole and Michael Browne steered them to a 3-6 to 2-6 victory. The Ballycomoyle mentors were Seamus Leahy and Gerry Farrelly.
St. Michael's also reached the under 16 Division 1 semi-final, only to lose to Caulry. Dermot McKenna was the Ballycomoyle mentor involved with this team.
Ladies football and Scor are two other areas of the GAA Ballycomoyle have put a lot of work into in recent years. While the adult ladies team found life in the intermediate championship to be much tougher than the junior championship, which they won in 2009, the under 14s provided hope for the future when defeating Kilbeggan Shamrocks in their county final. The under 16s can also look back on the year with much satisfaction after reaching the last four of the 'A' championship.
"Our adult team found the step-up from junior to intermediate to be very big and unfortunately they didn't win any of their championship games. But I wouldn't lose heart. The club is only 10 years in existence and a lot of the players we started out with are now only starting to come through to adult level. Michael Lynch has taken over as manager from Marius Reilly and hopefully we'll have a better year than last year," the secretary continues.
In Scor and Scor na nOg, county titles were won by Sarah Fagan, the junior question time team and the senior ballad group. Sarah won her first Scor na nOg solo singing title in 2010, and has retained it for 2011. The question time team of Peter McKenna, Andrew Leahy and Killian Daly won their second county title this year, having won previously in 2009.
Ballycomoyle's senior ballad group of Grainne Healy, Siobhan Murphy, Micheal Fagan, Doreen Farrelly and Catherine Daly retained their county title in 2010, having first won it in 2009. They were beaten at the Leinster stage by Offaly's Clara, who were All-Ireland champions for the second year running.
2010 was notable for the fact that five Ballycomoyle footballers won All-Ireland hurling medals with the county. Dan Carty was one of the stars of Westmeath's Christy Ring Cup winning team, while Tommy Doyle and Tommy Gallagher won All-Ireland minor 'B' medals. Gallagher also collected an All-Ireland under 16 'B' medal and was joined on the team by fellow Ballycomoyle clubmen John Egan and Brendan Doyle (Tommy's brother).
The Ballycomoyle team which suffered an agonising JFC quarter-final loss to Tyrrellspass was: Niall McKenna; Seamus Carroll, James McHugh, Robert Cooney; Paul Dermody, James Boyle, Keith Weldon; Billy Ryan, Dan Carty; Ronan Fagan, David Cunningham, Jim Ward; Alan Fitzsimons, Tommy Doyle, Steven Bardon. Subs used: Brian Caffrey, Joey Williams, Pauric Fitzsimons and Gerry Rynne.
Ballycomoyle's under 14 girls championship winning panel was: Bibi O'Reilly, Ciara Walsh, Shannon Farrelly, Marie Egan, Niamh Smith, Amy McNicholas, Laura Coyle, Anne-Marie Kennedy, Sarah Fagan, Kelly Coyle, Caoimhe McCrossan, Shauna Coghlan, Saoirse Farrelly, Katie Egan, Aoife Fitzsimons, Rachel McMullan, Ailsa O'Connor, Roisin Gilsenan, Orla Nea, Meave Charles and Cliodhna Daly. Tweet
