On Sunday at MacHale Park this year’s county Junior football championship reaches its climax as Achill and Balla battle it out for possession of the Pete McDonnell Cup. Days like this are the very essence of club football and so to mark the occasion we’ve got a bonus episode of the Mayo News football podcast to preview the JFC decider.
Host Rob Murphy and I chat about Sunday’s final and what it means to both teams, touching along the way topics like Balla’s blockbuster midfield pairing back in the Nineties, the great Scanlon Cup battles that took place for decades in Achill and the contrasting occupations held by players from the two competing teams on Sunday.
Then we hear from the opposing camps. Rob takes the temperature in Balla where he speaks with selector John Dempsey as well as with Conor Walsh and Sean Burke, both of whom are on the Balla playing panel this year. After that we head west in the company of adopted Achill man Edwin McGreal who settles in for a discussion with club stalwarts Michael Joyce, Cormac Murphy and Packie McGinty. Following that, Ed joins his Mayo News colleague Mike Finnerty to preview the decider.
This bonus episode of the Mayo News podcast is now online and available to listen to on iTunes and SoundCloud. You can also listen to it directly on the Mayo News website as well as here on the blog using the SoundCloud player below or the one on the right.
The Mayo News football podcast club series is brought to you in Association with the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation. Support the Hospice’s ‘Buy a Brick’ campaign to help build a Hospice unit in Mayo – full details here.
Brilliant Willie Joe absolutely fab. Shame there are no mayo players playing in final but will enjoy it all the same. I don’t think I have been in McHale park this late in September bar the homecomings
Bhi an podcast go hiontach ar fad. A great interview by the 3 Achill lads also from the Balla lads. Packie, Hughie, Michael and the committee have done trojan work to get the dressing rooms/sports facility completed at Davit park . It was nice to hear Packie giving praise to the peole of Achill and in particular to our UK Achill diaspora who backed this incredible facility for the young people of Achill. As Micheal O Muircheartaigh said at the opening of Scoil Acla ‘ the GAA facilities in Acaill are second to done and are as good as anything that is found in big towns in Ireland”.
We are all hoping that this Achill team will be successful on Sunday. We have a very balanced team and have some young players that have donned the Mayo jersey. Doran, Gallaghers, Cooney, Lavelle, Fadian and Joyce are fine young footballers and no doubt will feature for the county in the future. Go neiri le foireann CLG Oilean Acla i gCraobh Soisear De Domhnaigh agus ta suil orm go mbead corn McDonnell ag teacht go Acaill. Acaill abu!
Where do you think would be the best place to hop the wall Quietman?.
Excellent podcast.Just saw on the News where a club in Cork city had to call an EGM to beg for more members to keep it viable. Balla (rural town) can boast of having over 230 in a Cul camp.Volunteerism is the heart of the GAA, well done to all concerned.I enjoyed the anecdote about Ronan Golding and Nike, but could they have afforded him! Best wishes to both teams but Balla abu.
I’d imagine the McHale road side or the Albany end fbd
Great podcast, fair play lads.
All the best to Balla on Sunday. They’ve a serious group of players there and will keep improving if they stick together. I also hear that they don’t sssttop.
Quietman Balla have three all Ireland under 21 medalists, two all Ireland minor medalists and a number of other county under age players. Achill have Eddie Doran all Ireland minor medal as well as Colm cafferkey and Ciaran Boylan junior county players. And there’s probably more I don’t know about.
There’s a lot of quality on both sides on Sunday agus go n-eiri Le Bhalla Alain!
Balla can realistically aim to get to senior in the next few years. The depth of players is coming through to add to experience.
Matthew Flanagan, Padraig McLoughlin, Tom Reynolds, Ciaran Kilkenny, Conor Walsh, Ger Flanagan, Cillian Golding, Barry Duffy, Val Roughneen, Shea Benson, Colm Murphy and Jack Harte.
best of luck to balla on sunday great football club always love watching them. felt very sorry for them in 1993 in the senior championship were they came up against a castlebar mitchells side that had pat holmes , john maughan john Brennan o’reilly and a few more that left there own clubs to play for mitchells that year . so here hoping 25 years on balla can do it on sunday.
Check out the latest news Wille Joe.
When did Balla get relegated from Intermediate??