Photo: Performa Sports via Twitter
It was only in 2010 that Ballintubber finally made the breakthrough to win their first ever Mayo SFC title but this afternoon at MacHale Park they claimed the Moclair Cup for the third time in five years when they dethroned defending champions Castlebar Mitchels on a 2-9 to 1-9 scoreline.
It was Castlebar that the Tubber lads bested on each of the two previous times they’d won the title and once Cillian O’Connor had blasted home their second goal with only ten minutes played in today’s decider they always looked the likelier to prevail in this one too. They went in two points to the good and looked well in control until Barry Moran’s palmed goal for Mitchels, which briefly got the defending champions back on level terms.
But it was the Abbeysiders who regained the advantage with a free from Cillian and although Aidan Walsh got Mitchels back to parity, two points from Diarmuid O’Connor and one from Stephen Broderick gave Tubber a three-point cushion. It was always going to be a hard ask for Mitchels to break down the challengers’ well-worked defensive system but points from Danny Kirby and Richie Feeney left just a point between them with less than ten minutes to go.
The O’Connors have been central to Ballintubber’s push for county honours this year and it was late points from Padraic and Cillian – the latter a monstrous free – that saw them home.
The new county champions won’t have too much time to celebrate today’s success, as they now go on to face the formidable Roscommon champions St Brigid’s in the Connacht club championship on November 9th. Last year’s All-Ireland club champions thrashed St Faithleach’s by 3-12 to 0-7 in the Roscommon club final this afternoon and they’ll be a tough nut for the Tubber lads to crack in three weeks time.
Well done Ballintubber, you can’t beat class in the forward line
Proof if proof were needed in tight games as this one was, it’s the team with the best forwards who usually win out. As I said after their hammering of Knockmore, Ballintubber looked like a team on a mission and today when the match was there to be won, it was Tubber who had the belief to go on and win it. I’ve a feeling we haven’t heard the last of them this year but for now there entitled celebrations,
‘entitled to their celebrations’
Great win for Ballintubber. I thought their tackling and team play was fantastic. The O’Connors were class again today. Diarmaid is going to be a star going forward. Alan Dillon is just unbelievable. His drive and hunger to win is just fierce. Defensively Ballintubber were sound and the likes of Ruaidhi O Connor, Cathal Hallinan, Michael Plunkett and others just shut the door time and again to the Castlebar attack. St. Bridget’s will be a lot tougher test but the Tubber Boys will give it everything to progress. I’m sure Peter Ford, who won his first county title today as a manger, will have his homework done.
I dunno where this leaves Castlebar. To lose 3 county titles in 5 years to their biggest rivals must be more than hard to take.
Well done to Ballintubber . Not a great game but interesting nonetheless. Enjoyed watching the county players. Though none dominated they all did reasonably well. Cunniffe was at fault for Cillians goal but battled hard as always, Barry had some good moments as had Ritchie. For Ballintubber Jason did well while Cillian and his younger brother showed touches of their undoubted class. Top man for me though was Alan Dillon. What a wonderful player. Despite the fact that some Mayo fans have wanted him to retire over the last few years he keeps on delivering as he has done throughout his career. A credit to himself his club and county, Long may he continue.
Well done to Ballintubber
Well done Ballintubber, a great footballing side. Alan Dillon was really good again. Diarmuid O’Connor is shaping up very well given his age and experience. Newcomb for Castlebar looks good also. I was expecting a bit more from Broderick, I think he is a class player.
Well done and congrats to Ballintubber. They seem to have a jinx on Castlebar and Castlebar seem to know it judging by the way they set themselves up today with most of their better players deployed to mark the Tubber stars thus handing Tubber a psychological edge. Early on Castlebar seemed to plan on using Barry Moran as a target man but he kept moving around and the rest of the Castlebar players did not know where to find him. Or so it seemed to me.
Good luck to them in Connacht Club. Both St Brigid’s and Corofin seem to have a fairly ruthless streak about them this year judging by today’s results.
Well done to Ballintubber. Certainly Diarmuid O Connor has the makings of a top class IC forward. If tubber can give those forwards a good supply of ball they will do serious damage and could well go a long way this year.
Also well done to Moy Davitts on winning the minor – their first county title at this grade.
Well done lads great win by they way I wonder who will be captain next year well done to Bally hauls as well
Congrats Ballintubber! Wasn’t a classic by any means but still an enjoyable game – defensive as expected but with some magic moments. Echo all that has been said above, and I said it over in NY earlier this year that Diarmuid O’Connor is going to be immense for us in Mayo. I thought Ruaidhri played very well yesterday too and Padraig chipped in at some really crucial moments. Has the venue been decided for the 9th November?
Commiserations to Castlebar though – they must be bitterly disappointed with the loss especially after going so far last year, but they never stopped battling. Strong argument to be made for a couple of call-ups to the Mayo panel there too.
Didn’t make the first minor game but really enjoyed the second – congrats to Moy Davitts and their army of supporters – as someone said yesterday it’s great to see the country clubs winning 🙂
Well done to Ballyhaunis on their intermediate win yesterday too.
Congrats to Ballintubber and hard luck to Castlebar. The team with the better forwards as has been said here already usually wins. Even when it was level, you kind of felt Ballintubber had it in them to pull through. Its been a long 18 months for Castlebar.
I agree that DOC will be a future star for the county team. I though the attendance was a little disappointing but the fact it was on TV might have stopped a few from going.
Tubber now play Brigids in 3 weeks. Is that a Connacht quarter or semi final does anyone know?
That’s a semi final Steve and it’s down to be played in MacHale Park.
It’d be great to see Ballintubber win Connacht this year, not least because they would then play the London champions Tir Chonaill Gaels over here in London. It’d be good to get a chance to see them in the flesh.
Well done Tubber.
Ballyhaunis had easy victory versus Dromahair yesterday. Tougher task ahead vs St. Croans, the Roscommon champions.
By the way, keep an eye out for a 19 year old from Ballyhaunis in the future.
Morgan Lyons is the real deal.
He, Keith Higgins and Niall Prenty are players of real class who will not look at all out of plave at Senior level next year.
Hup the Town !
The Keith Higgins reference is moot, obviously.
Poor game to watch but a fair result. Congrats to Ballintubber – three county medals must be very satisfying for the likes of Alan Dillon at this stage.
From a Mayo county team point of view, Tom Cunniffe didn’t have his best display, but Barry Moran won a lot of ball in the middle and scored a fine goal, reminiscent of his major against Galway in July. Diarmuid and Cillian were impressive for Ballintubber. They’ll give Brigid’s a rattle, that’s for sure.
I agree Anne-Marie. I too have been banging the drum for Diarmuid, so much so, that I believe he will be a more complete footballer than Cillian. I think that he, and Conor O’Shea, shipped excessive undue criticism for their performances against Roscommon in The Hyde earlier this year. There were far more senior and experienced players that day who were far more culpable. Diarmuids 2 scores in the second half were fine examples of the range of his technical abilities. The first a clean strike from distance from the right half forward position, with a little bit of “outside of the boot” to help it on its way with the wind. The second score, a fisted point, saw him use his pace and power to cut in from the left corner forward position to put it over. In this instance, he showed his footballing intelligence as, at one stage in his run, it looked like a goal was on albeit from a narrow angle. He wisely decided though that in a relatively low scoring game with chances hard come by that the certainty of a point was better than giving the keeper a chance to make a name for himself. His defensive play were solid also as he never left his wing back exposed behind him, and tracked a lot of off-the-ball runs that often go un-noticed. He took a few hits and never let it get to him and also held his position on the field when attacks were going down the opposite flank meaning that he was always available for the cross-field ball. Diarmuid and Adam Gallagher at no’s 10 and 12 should be the bedrock of our attack for the foreseeable future.
Yesterdays performance by Alan Dillon once again confirmed that he is one of the finest players to have kicked a ball in this county. What a fantastic example he is to any young footballer. Takes the hits, gets up without fuss, and does his talking with the ball. Some of his passing yesterday was an absolute joy to watch, and not just hollywood stuff for the sake of it, effective, defence splitting passes. As Gibbons said in his speech, the man is an inspiration considering his injury troubles of the past three years.
Well done Ballintubber and well done Alan Dillon. I’ve repeatedly said it “our best player over the last 10 years”. (along with Keith Higgins).
Looks like the Ref missed a clear penalty for Castlebar. We should stop complaining about Meath refs untill we put our own house in order.
There was a penalty decision to be made, but I think the ref was correct. The Mitchels man (can’t remember who it was) went down very easily, looking for the penalty I thought. The ref didn’t buy it and fair play to him for that.
THERE WAS NO PENALTY DECISION OR HARSH REFEREEING DECISIONS IN THIS GAME.
ALL THE CROWD COULD SEE WAS A CASTLEBAR FORWARD TRYING TO CON THE REF SOCCER STYLE.
THE TOWNIES WERE FOUND OUT ONCE MORE !
EAMONN McANDREW HAD A GOOD GAME OVERALL AND LET BOTH TEAMS GET ON WITH SOME HEAVY HITS
The Irish Independend–independend–reporter saw it differently. Good luck to Tubber in Connaught.
No need to shout Mr T – next time take the caps lock off, like a good man.
Willie joe “my good man”
unfortunately the caps lock was “locked in position” and all text was in capitals and where i am based you dont have the luxury of someone to fix the issue immediately.
That’s fine, Mr. T – cap locks come across as a bit shouty, that’s all. Good to see the IT helpdesk finally showed up to sort it!