Ballina Stephenites crowned Mayo champions after low-scoring final

Breaffy’s quest for a first senior title continues following their 0-6 to 0-4 defeat.

Ballina Stephenites 0-6

Breaffy 0-4

Colm Gannon reports from Hastings Insurance MacHale Park

BALLINA STEPHENITES RECLAIMED their place at the top of the tree in Mayo football and in the process claimed their 37th Moclair Cup seeing off Breaffy on a score of 0-6 to 0-4 in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.

This contest won’t live long in the memory for the neutral on an evening that saw both sides rack up the wides with Breaffy hitting 11 wides (seven in the second half) and Ballina eight — but there will be little care paid to that on Moyside.

The game was in the balance right until the final moments of injury time when Luke Feeney got in for Ballina’s sixth of the day and only their second of the second half to seal the win for Niall Heffernan’s side after a fine run by Evan Regan.

Ballina led by three points at the break after half-an-hour of football that was far from edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Breaffy set up to contain and force Ballina to take shots from tricky angles and after a bright start that saw the Stephenites lead 0-2- to 0-1 after six minutes, another 16 passed before the next score of the game.

robbie-fadden-and-ger-cafferkey Breaffy’s Robbie Fadden and Ger Cafferkey of Ballina Stephenites. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Conor O’Shea registered the first point of the evening from a free from close range after Davitt Neary had been fouled two minutes in. Not long after, Evan Regan levelled it up from a free after Sam Callinan had been fouled on the burst.

Ballina went into the lead for the first time six minutes in thanks to a neat Conor McStay effort from a tight angle on the right – but for the next quarter-of-an-hour they kicked five wides and dropped a number of other efforts short of the target.

Regan registered his second of the day after Luke Feeney was fouled after he collected the ball from another Callinan run from deep, Feeney himself pointed the final score of the half from a mark from close range to send Ballina in leading 0-4 to 0-1 at the short-whistle.

Breaffy closed the gap to just a single point inside the opening two minutes of the second half thanks to points from Conor O’Shea and James Minouge and it looked like the game could burst into life, but it failed to catch fire.

Frank Irwin landed Ballina’s fifth point of the day from a ’45 in the 38th minute after an Evan Regan shot had been put past the post by Jack Livingstone.

aidan-oshea-during-the-parade Aidan O'Shea during the parade. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Three minutes later, Aidan O’Shea pointed from a free from close range and that was the last score of the game until Feeney’s effort deep in injury time as both sides continued to pile on the wides as the pressure ramped up.

But it was to be Ballina’s day as Breaffy’s quest for a first senior title will have to wait for another year.

Scorers for Ballina: Evan Regan 0-2 (2f), Luke Feeney 0-2 (1m), Conor McStay 0-1, Frank Irwin 0-1 (’45)

Scorers for Breaffy: Conor O’Shea 0-2 (2f), Aidan O’Shea 0-1 (1f), James Minogue 0-1.

Ballina

1. David Clarke

2. Liam Golden, 3. Ger Cafferkey, 4. Padraic O’Hora

5. Ciaran Boland, 6. Sam Callinan, 7. David Tighe

8. Frank Irwin, 9. Dylan Thornton

10. Niall Feeney, 11. Mark Birrane, 20. Jack Irwin

13. Evan Regan, 14. Luke Feeney, 15. Conor McStay

Subs

19. Sean Regan for Liam Golden
12. Mikey Murray for Dylan Thornton
26. Ciaran Tracey for Mark Birrane
22. Brendan Collins for Jack Irwin.

Breaffy

1. Jack Livingstone

2. Conor Beirne, 3. Mark Dervan, 4. Conor Melly

5. David Livingstone, 6. Micheal Hall, 7. Daire Morrin

8. Conor O’Shea, 9. Matthew Ruane

10. Davitt Neary, 11. Robbie Fadden, 12. Rory Martyn

13. Tommy O’Reilly, 14. Aidan O’Shea, 29. Oisin Tunney