Ballina Stephenites 0-06 Breaffy 0-04
The most successful club in the history of the Mayo senior football were crowned county champions for the 37th time after a disappointing decider in Castlebar.
Ballina Stephenites won the ultimate war of attrition despite only scoring two points from play during the course of a disappointing contest that failed to live up to expectations.
Their second score from open play arrived in the fourth minute of added time as Luke Feeney's point sealed Ballina’s first Moclair Cup win since 2007 and consigned Breaffy to their fifth Mayo SFC final defeat in 10 years.
Konrad Coghill’s side failed to score in the 23 minutes and shot 11 wides over the course of their latest final loss. Breaffy were also beaten in the finals of 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020.
Ballina were bouncing back from last year’s final defeat to Westport, and did just enough to win their sixth successive game of this championship campaign.
Niall Heffernan’s Stephenites side had led at the end of an underwhelming first half by 0-04 to 0-01.
Breaffy’s only score came from a Conor O’Shea free in the second minute as the West Mayo side squandered a number of scoring chances and found the going tough against Ballina’s tight-marking defence.
The Stephenites deployed Sam Callinan as a man-marker on Breaffy’s top scorer in the competition, Aidan O’Shea, and also had Padraig O’Hora patrolling the space in front of the full-forward.
As a result, O’Shea was unable to exert any influence on the scoreboard.
Up at the other end, two frees from Evan Regan and a fine score from play from Conor McStay meant that the Stephenites led at the end of the first quarter by 0-03 to 0-01.
The pre-match favourites were also dominant around the middle of the field with the Irwin brothers, Frank and Jack, Dylan Thornton and Niall Feeney all prominent.
Breaffy’s highly-rated midfield partnership of Conor O’Shea and Mattie Ruane also found it difficult to impose themselves on the game.
So the supply to Breaffy’s forwards was erratic, and the few chances they did create weren’t taken in that opening half.
Ballina’s scores also dried up in that second quarter as they drilled wides and left shots short of Jack Livingstone’s goal.
In fact, the only white flag raised by either side before the break came from the boot of Ballina teenager, Luke Feeney, who converted a close-range mark.
That 30th-minute effort left the Stephenites three points up at the interval.
Unfortunately, things didn’t get much better from a scoring perspective in the second half.
However, Breaffy did up the ante and shot two quickfire points after the restart from Conor O’Shea (free) and substitute James Minogue (their only score from play) to close the gap to the bare minimum.
But Conor O’Shea then missed a gilt-edged chance to level the game for only the second time from a free and Ballina hit back with a well-struck '45 from Frank Irwin to give themselves a little breathing space in the 37th minute.
Remarkably, that was to be their last score until the fourth minute of added time as the game continued to resemble an arm-wrestle where neither side seemed capable of forcing the issue.
Breaffy’s final score of the game came in the 42nd minute from an Aidan O’Shea free (his only score of the contest) as the underdogs were unable to draw level at any stage.
They did create a goal chance in the 48th minute, but Davitt Neary was denied by a good save by two-time All Star goalkeeper, David Clarke.
Ballina also had two opportunities to score goals that would have broken Breaffy’s resolve, but both Evan Regan and Dylan Thornton were denied by Jack Livingstone stops.
So the Stephenites were still clinging to a one-point lead when Aidan O’Shea was off target with a 50m free in the closing stages.
Ballina’s defence held firm in the dramatic closing stages, with Ger Cafferkey using all his experience wisely, and Luke Feeney fired over the insurance score deep in added time.
Ballina Stephenites: D Clarke; L Golden, G Cafferkey, P O'Hora; C Boland, S Callinan, D Tighe; F Irwin (0-1, '45), D Thornton; N Feeney, M Birrane, J Irwin; E Regan (0-2, 2fs), L Feeney (0-2, 1 mark), C McStay (0-1).Subs used: S Regan for Golden; M Murray for Thornton; C Treacy for Birrane; B Collins for J Irwin.
Breaffy: J Livingstone; C Beirne, M Dervan, C Melly; D Livingstone, M Hall, D Morrin; C O'Shea (0-2, 2fs), M Ruane; D Neary, R Fadden, R Martyn; T O’Reilly, A O’Shea (0-1, 1f), O Tunney.Subs used: J Minogue (0-1) for Tunney; C Flynn for Neary; C Golden for O’Reilly; P Deane for D Livingstone.
Referee: G McMahon (Davitts)
