Long overdue success for Ballina

By Liam Hogan

The scenes after the presentation of the Liam Devaney Cup to the winning joint-captains David Grace and Michael Breen were joyous for Ballina players and supporters, especially for their very young ones with their hurleys in hand, waiting to acknowledge their heroes.

It was back in 2013 when the Blues captured their last piece of adult divisional silverware, winning the North Intermediate title with victory over Shannon Rovers.

“I was one of the water boys that day,” revealing winning manager Adrian Hurley.

“Brendan McKeogh was manager that year and he came back with us this year.”

Ballina went on to win the county title, but the current manager refuses to look that far ahead.

“We won’t be making comparisons. There are a lot of games to be played yet. We are taking each game as it comes, starting next Friday night,” he said of their rematch with Burgess in the county championship.

Looking back on this latest win, Hurley said his team had great belief coming into the final.

“We brought the energy and a good performance on the back of tremendous commitment by the players,” he continued.

“We felt a bit unlucky in the game against Burgess last year. Burgess played well for a lot of the game and ran out of steam in the end.

“We dug deep against Templederry in our semi-final last Tuesday and dug deep again.

“This is a very young team with ten of the players that played against Templederry last Tuesday are under 21 or younger.”

He agreed that Ballina in the past often stared victory in close run games but could never complete the story and the team put in extra work in the training field over the past few months.

“We reviewed the clippings from the Nenagh Guardian last year to encourage us,” he revealed.

“Yet, we never allowed outsiders to have too much influence on us. When you see what commitment these boys have both in the gym, the conditioning and the work on the field,” paying tribute to joint-captain David Grace who will miss the entire championship due to a shoulder injury he received before the campaign began.

Just two weeks after playing outstanding role in Tipperary’s All-Ireland senior hurling final victory against Cork, 2025 continues to be a great one for winning captain Michael Breen. He said that this win is massive for the club and paid tribute to the younger players on the team.

“The last few years we got a bit of joy with our footballers. It kept the momentum going,” he said.

“But this is really special. There are lads on today’s team that I coached in Cul Camp. These boys are really energetic and bring loads to the team. These are days to dream off.”

He added: “We had a plan and executed it very well. They got a three-point lead at the start of the game, but we brought it back.

“Jack Collins played the sweeper role very well. He played well with last year’s Tipperary under 20 team. He has pedigree and his story is only beginning. He deserves the man of the match award.”

Speaking of the man of the match, Jack Collins was the team mascot when Ballina won the 2013 North Intermediate final when his father Sean was on the winning team.

“We said on Friday night it’s been twelve years since we won a hurling final at any level,” he said.

“We said it won’t work unless we play to the level we are capable off and I think we did do that today. Everything improved massively. Our accuracy, our workrate and it played a huge part in our success today.

“Look, Burgess have beaten us countless times over the years. I don’t know what the record is but it’s on the good side of the column. We know they have the talent and if you give them any chance at all.

“We met a few months ago and outlined our plans for the year. It was a matter of getting our systems right, work hard and get lads free into space and it worked.”