Stalwart brothers playing their part as jilted Ballinagar set their sights sky high

TWO brothers immersed in Ballinagar GAA Club all their life have been playing a very important background role in their sensational push for glory this year.

Brendan and Dermot Cuskelly have given a lifetime of service to their local club. From Knock, a townland with a Daingean postal address but across the parish boundary in Killeigh, the wider Cuskelly family is synonymous with Ballinagar GAA Club.

Brendan was a key player on Ballinagar's first great side, the 1988 junior football champions, who could not cope with a rampant Vinny Claffey as Doon beat them in the Intermediate Football Championship final a year later.

His brothers, Pascal and Declan were also key players on that side while younger sibling Dermot emerged onto the scene in the early 1990s. Work took Pascal and Declan out of Ballinagar and down south and after a couple of defeats in intermediate semi-finals in 1990 and 1991, Ballinagar stagnated before slipping into reverse and entering a prolonged period in the doldrums.

As the older heroes of that side drifted off, the decline set in and Ballinagar fought valiantly to stay at intermediate level for a few years before being inevitably relegated to junior, the future looked black. The second half of the 1990s into the 2000s was a bleak time for Ballinagar GAA Club. With numbers and fielding teams a continuous headache, some players stayed on past their sell by date. Brendan and Dermot Cuskelly were two that stayed loyal to the cause with Brendan playing on into the mid 2000s and Dermot going into the 2010s.

Lion hearted, completely committed warriors, Brendan played his best football at wing back before manning the defence at centre or full back while Dermot played mostly at midfield. Two other brothers, Paul and John also played in the 1990s and 2000s as Ballinagar stayed on the road – there was a few years in the late 2010s when they were closer to making the drop to Offaly's fifth tier, junior “B” than going up back to intermediate.

Unknown to them at the time, Ballinagar's stars began to change when a huge house building programme took place in the village and outskirts around the 2000 mark. This brought several new families into the area and a golden generation emerged as the parish underage club, Na Fianna won U-14, 16 and minor football titles in 2016 and 2019.

Ballinagar players backboned those wins and as some of those began to make county squads, the wheel turned for them.

The Cuskelly imprint remains on Ballinagar. Tullamore import, Benny O'Brien is the manager with Brendan and Dermot Cuskelly the selectors. O'Brien has vast experience, having led his native St Brigid's of Kiltoom to Roscommon and Connacht title some years ago as well as managing Tullamore senior footballers and coaching Offaly minor and U-20 footballers.

The Cuskelly's provide the much needed local passion and knowledge, the necessary understanding of the political dynamic in the club and the relationship with neighbours and other clubs, that no outsider could grasp. No Cuskelly will play in Sunday's Leinster Junior Football Championship final against Dunsany of Meath in Navan. Sean Cuskelly, a son of Dermot is a sub but the Cuskelly presence will be felt powerfully on the field in corner back Adam Joyce and wing back Aaron Gorman – Adam is a son of John Joyce, a Cloneygowan native and Elaine Cuskelly while Aaron is a son of Paul Gorman, a long serving Cappincur stalwart, and Olive Cuskelly. Elaine and Olive are sisters of Brendan, Dermot et-al while another son of Paul and Olive, Eibheann Gorman is also on the subs bench.

Adam Joyce and Aaron Gorman are two of the many Ballinagar players who have really grown into themselves and come of age during this campaign, showing steady improvement in their defence.

For Brendan and Dermot Cuskelly, their involvement is a labour of love, Ballinagar's progress is a dream come true. Like so many of the natives in the area, it is something they never thought they would witness and Dermot reflected this week:

“Not in my wildest dreams. I grew up in Ballinagar and played football with St Mary's and then Killeigh-Raheen at underage and developed onto the Ballinagar team. At the time, we were lucky to have a team scraped together. The Mick Dunne's and Martin Dunne's were there and they were quite competitive coming on from the back of winning the junior in '88. We competed well but never got near an intermediate final. My whole career was trying to keep it going, that was as much as I could contribute at the time. We just didn't have an abundance of players like what came now. To think we would win a county title never mind Leinster, it wasn't even on the radar.”

As a sixteen year old Dermot played junior “B” football for Ballinagar in 1992. He still has memories of a last minute Crinkle goal beating them that year and these resurfaced last week when two members of that team, goalkeeper Bill Kavanagh and Jim Dolan were buried.

He made the intermediate team in 1993 and stayed playing until about eight years ago. He saw far more defeats than victories, many of them morale sapping, as they went back to junior – they were very close to beating Killeigh in a junior football semi-final in the early 2000s but there were plenty of years when they were gone early. “We always competed but we probably didn't have enough in reserve to beat the teams that went on and won it. We were never made a show of and I tried to stay on the road as long as I could”, Dermot Cuskelly said.

Marriage to Trish Quinn of Rhode and three young kids, a busy work life with ESB as he undertook extra exams and moved up the ladder plus the fact that he was ten years older than the next youngest on the team all contributed to his decision to call it a day at 39 years of age. “You still think you can offer but when you are not able, you are not able,” he smiled.

The Cuskelly's became entrenched in Ballinagar GAA Club but it was not an inevitable path for them. Their parents, Sean and the late Maureen reared a big family of ten children, six boys and four girls, and life was busy. They had a farm and home and work was the priority for Sean who didn't come from a footballing background. The sight of Brendan burning rubber, lucky that there were no speed vans in operation in those years, as he raced into venues with throw in time approaching was a familiar one for a few years in the 1990s. “It reminds me Deccy Crombie now, flying in, togged out, ready to go” Dermot recalled. “That was it, with a lot going on at home and farming, football wasn't a priority for my father and that was just it. He discouraged us from playing nearly at some stages. He was rearing a family of ten of us. If we wanted to play football, we cycled over to Geashill for underage. It was never a lift over or back.”

After giving up playing, Dermot got involved in underage and was a selector when Na Fianna won U-16 football in 2016. Na Fianna won U-14 the same year, they won minor in 2019 and those wins sowed the seeds for Ballinagar's current health. He also coached with Naomh Molaoise Ladies Football Club, where his daughters, Katie and Ella play.

He enjoyed working with Brenden Donagher and Vinny Ryan with Naomh Molaoise and seeing them progress but when Ballinagar came calling, he couldn't say no. When Dermot and Brendan came in as selectors in 2023, there was turbulence in the club. Ballinagar had won junior in 2022 but that management had departed suddenly in less than perfect circumstances some time after the end of season.

Former club chairman and one of Ballinagar's best ever footballers, David Gorry took up the reigns for the start of 2023 and immediately asked two of his long time playing colleagues, men he trusted fully, Dermot and Brendan Cuskelly to come in as selectors. David approached and got Benny O'Brien in as manager a few weeks later and it has been a fantastic roller coaster ride since.

With work busy, family life hectic and Trish “giving out about it”, Dermot had taken a step back from Na Fianna minors. “I did take a step back, for about a week and then David asked me to get on board. I said I might never get this chance again and thankfully David showed faith in myself and Brendan.”

David Gorry's vision and ambition was continued on by the new management. “We went up to the north to see if there was anything we could pick up. We were never going to be selectors who would sit on the fence, that wouldn't sit well with me. David got Benny on board then in May or June 2023. The players were buying into what David was doing and we knew this would be a two or three year project.”

Benny's first question to the new selectors was if they had anyone on the team. “We didn't really. I told him about nephews but we were never going to put family interests first. My own young lad hasn't got a run. He has trained hard but is a bit too raw yet. He is coming on grand in his own way and is really enjoying the experience. For them to be training with a group of lads playing at a high level, is bringing them on in leaps and bounds.”

2023 was a real “learning curve” as they were destroyed by Raheen in the first round of the championship. They rang the changes after that and got a last gasp equaliser against Tullamore but still needed a result against eventual champions Daingean to qualify. Injury stricken but with Daingean already through, Ballinagar were able to beat them and earn a quarter-final spot against Erin Rovers.

They suffered a devastating defeat against the Pullough men in a game that was there for the taking.”Inexperience caught us. With the breeze on our back, we should have saw the game out. We had the legs on them and it still rankles with us, we just couldn't put it away.”

Before Christmas, the manager and two selectors reviewed the year and all agreed that there was unfinished business, that they would give it another year. “Benny said there is huge growth potential in them and that if we get a full year under our belt we will give it a new go.”

At the start of the year, they invited every player in to meet them on an individual basis, to get anything off their chest that they needed and say what needed improving.”Some lads mightn't be good at speaking in a group situation. It was very positive. Every one of the young lads all felt they could push on and do more. When we put it to them, they all felt they could do more in the off season, a weights programme and be fitter.”

The management got them programmes, what's app groups were set up where progress could be charted and it all paid off.”We were only doing what senior teams have been doing for years but it was a first for us,” Cuskelly confessed. “They were accountable to each other and they were honest to each other.”

The hard on field training started in January and a good run in the league helped boost confidence before they lost to a strong Ferbane side in the semi-final.”That gave them the belief that they could do something and we kept building bit by bit without getting too excited.”

With every team qualifying from the group, championship was different this year but a sense of crisis was not far away by the end of that phase. Ballinagar had started very well with a great win over parish rivals Raheen but the wheels came off in bad defeats to St Brigid's and Tullamore. The loss to Tullamore in Cappincur was particularly disturbing and there was an atmosphere that day that was not good on the field, and off it among supporters.

“It was poor, it was disappointing and it wasn't what we were about,” he admitted.”Anything that could go wrong did go wrong as well, I felt. We were just relieved to beat Raheen after the previous year. We didn't want another ten point mauling and we felt we were in a better place. We drew with them in the league and we knew we were there or there abouts with them. Training never went better after we beat Raheen in the championship. To be fair to the lads, we never talk about a game that is gone past. It is always the next game and they trained really well.”

They beat Clara senior Bs in a challenge game and everything was “buoyant” but St Brigid's taught them a lesson. “We just didn't perform. The format did allow it but you never want to lose like that. We had beaten them in the league and we knew they weren't nine or ten points better. That hurt us and we regrouped. Tullamore had two goals scored in the first half and we ended up losing by two goals. We couldn't put our finger on what was wrong.”

For Cuskelly, the situation was short of a “crisis” but he still regards that Tullamore defeat as a “turning point”.

“It was more disappointing. We wanted to put down a marker against Tullamore but they were better than us on the day. After that, an honesty conversation was had among the group. That our standards had dropped off and we kind of refocused and reset.”

They played Kilcavan, just across the Laois border, in a challenge game and there was a palpable lift up after that. Ballinagar had lost heavily to them earlier in the year and Kilcavan were going well on their way to the Laois title. Ballinagar played much better and were much closer this time. It was the first sight of light at the end of the tunnel in a few weeks. “We could see that it was coming back,” he recalled as they came through a tough quarter-final against Kilcormac-Killoughey.

Ballinagar were the better team that day and fully deserved to win but were never comfortable and it was not a performance that suggested they would be playing a Leinster final at a time of year when players and mentors are in real peril of being brought on Christmas shopping expeditions.

“That gave us a new lease of life,” said Cuskelly who did not agree that the “pressure was now off” for the semi-final against St Brigid's but: “We felt we were better than in the championship group game against them and that if we got our ducks in a row and went at them like men with no backward step, that we could get a foothold in the game. That is the way it went. We tore out of the blocks that day and I think we caught them by surprise. Croghan being Croghan came back into it and there was only a point in it at the end. The last minute goal at the back post gave a gap but that to me was the real turning point. That was when lads manned up and stood up. That gave us great belief and once we got over it, we were just so happy. It was like we had come full circle from a year previously when we lost to Pullough.”

The final pairing could not have been made up. Their parish neighbours Raheen, players they were friends with and socialised with, played underage with, won medals. An intricate web of family ties and connections through both teams and clubs. And at the back of it al, you had a failed amalgamation process a few years ago – a night of high drama when Ballinagar voted in favour of joining with their neighbours but Raheen fell just short of the majority required.

“This was what it was all going to be about, the match ups, who marked who, the local rivalry, the amalgamation process and all that went with it. To be fair, we never spoke about it. We know all those lads, played soccer with them and drank with them over the years. You know yourself what went on but at the same time we had to win a final and that was it. You park it and the way we won the final was special. We started off really well, lost Jack Sheil and went a couple of points down. Ballinagar twelve months earlier folded against Pullough when we got caught. We probably didn't have the belief then but we never panicked and a lot of lads matured. They gave great performances that day. Morgan (Tynan) scored a couple of great points, Robbie (Gallagher) was on form, Geordi (O'Meara) settled us, Brian Malone solid in the backs. The spine of our team was taking shape and was working.”

He knew the whole back drop to the final was special. “All of that was there but to be fair to the young generation of lads, that would have been on my radar and Brendan's but it wasn't on Benny O'Brien's and it wasn't on the players. That went over their head so in a way, for us to give motivation, we didn't need to dwell on that. This was a county final and this was an opportunity for this group of lads to make their own history. Forget about everything else. Do you want to win this game or not and are you better than the team you are playing? We always focused on the match-ups, how can we mitigate their strong players. Let it be Crombie or Hyland or Lalor, all the good players they have throughout the field.

“That is the way we approached it. I don't think the young lads buy into our history. They are creating their own. Benny would be very good with that. His attitude would be it is good to know about it but it is for our generation to talk about and slag in the pubs. It is huge for the older lads but the young lads just want to play football together. It was really special. To win a Leinster final in your first year and a half was a weight lifted off their shoulders.”

Ballinagar celebrated well with the party lasting into the third day before they hit the wall and refocused. Members of the beaten Raheen team, the Cappincur squad who had lost the senior “B” final and the Tullamore panel that won the senior football title the same weekend all visited Ballinagar at different stages. After Wednesday, however, the plug was pulled, they returned to training on Friday evening and decided they would give Leinster a go, see where the road led them.

“No disrespect to any team but they don't dwell on the past, Ballon was the next team and in hindsight it was great the way the games fell for us. Ballon were the easiest of the three oppositions. They were like ourselves, probably a little less structured. They just went out and played football, we played football and we were better. We got up a great score and it gave lads great confidence. Everything was a first and everything was massive.”

They had a two week break after beating Louth's Wolfe Tones in extra time in the quarter-final and were “worked like dogs”. “You could just sense the group wanting it. Especially after the win in Ballon, they wanted it. You could see the way lads were stepping up. Before, lads would be reluctant to speak in the dressing room but were now leading it.”

They came through a very tight semi-final against Ellistown, with the death of a local stalwart Jim Dolan coming into the equation that week.

The improvement of some Ballinagar players has been noticeable in Leinster. An injury to Ray Daly opened the door for Jacob Beatty to get his chance while Jamie Ballesty also got in. “We try and match up what we are meeting as best as we can. Conor McGuinness got his chance last week and did very well. Eoin McGuinness was very unlucky, he was very close to starting and showed great form against Ballon and Wolfe Tones but tinged his hamstring and is out for a couple of weeks. The two McGuinness's, Jacob and Jamie have really taken their chance.

“We were ten points up against Ballon and had the luxury of using our five subs but against Wolfe Tones and Ellistown we needed our subs. Dean Pierce came on, they all added to it. They didn't take from it. The midfield that ended up against Wolfe Tones was our junior “B” midfield, Eoin McGuinness and Shane Finneran. Adam Strong went off injured with cramp and Morgan went centre forward. The training sessions are really good and lads are really pushing.”

In Morgan Tynan, Adam Strong, Diarmuid Finneran, Robbie Gallagher and possibly Geordi O'Meara, Ballinagar have a quintet of players who will at least be on the radar of Offaly senior football management, even if they won't all be on the panel.

This makes them a very strong junior side and Cuskelly is quick to add Brian Malone to that list. “They are exceptionally strong players. We are under no illusion, they are very good players but the thing I like about them is they have never missed a training session. They never come up with excuses. Just because they are fringing on Offaly teams, they never miss and always turn up. When you have those quality players turning up, it puts the onus on everyone else. We are really lucky to have them, they are great lads to have around the place. They keep the tempo going in training, they drive on the runs and sprints and they are maturing themselves. They are starting to see their own potential and they are getting a taste of it. I throw Brian Malone into that category, he is maturing into a great centre back, solid.”

Again, it is something that goes over the head of the younger players but at the back of it all for many in Ballinagar is that they almost went out of existence earlier this decade. Dermot Cuskelly backed amalgamation and was in the room the night they voted in favour of it.

“We looked for the amalgamation to better those lads you are after naming there. The county lads, to give them the highest platform ever and if a Ballinagar man was on an amalgamated team and played for Offaly, that was our goal. Don't hold him back as many a good footballer regresses if he only plays at junior level. That was genuinely the wish of our end. It didn't go through for whatever reason. It wasn't on our side but it didn't go through so the next best thing is to try and get up there yourselves.

“Maybe we have been lucky with the way it went. After winning the junior, maybe the disappointment of last year was a great learning curve and maybe it would have been a year too soon if we had won it last year. Now we are facing into senior B three years later. I think we are under no illusions about what is facing us next year.”

Cuskelly does not evade the question when asked about the mood on that tumultuous night when Ballinagar opted for marriage and were rejected at the exchange of vows by Raheen. “You nearly don't have words. You are just. . . You probably feel a little bit. . . .”

The missing words were left hanging in the air but when “numb” and “angry” were suggested, he quickly agreed. “Yeah, numb and then angry. You know the politics behind it and it wasn't everyone in Raheen that voted against it. I have very good friends in Raheen who voted for it and it didn't come through. They were probably as disappointed as we were. Look we were disappointed, we were angry. There is no point in telling a word of a lie but you just park it and move on. You can't do any more about it. They are still your neighbours, they are still your friends. We play underage together so you just have to move on and that is it. It could have been an awful lot worse of a fallout. I don't think it was too bad. Again the players probably don't know the history of it. They want to win a match and that is it.”

For Ballinagar and the many people in Raheen who did back amalgamation, the driving force was a very straightforward one: to provide the highest possible level of football and make senior. The nature of the outcome that night means that any future amalgamation talks won't be initiated by Ballinagar and the goalposts have changed for them. They now want to reach senior on their own for the first time since the 1890s when the GAA was on its knees, and there was less than a handful of teams competing in senior football.

“Absolutely. We are only one step away. Cappincur done it. Ballycommon done it, Daingean are pushing to do it. Clonbullogue have done it. We are going to push to do it. If them, why not us. We are not mentioning any more than senior B next year. Our goal was to win intermediate this year and we done that. Everything else is a bonus even though we are taking it very seriously.

“Our short term goal is to win next Sunday and see where that takes us. The village are behind us and the people are buzzing. There is a quiet sense of happiness there. It is kind of surreal in a way and to be part of it is great. You think this only happens other clubs or the bigger clubs. For once, this is our day in the sun and we don't want it to end really. It is there to be won and Dunsany is no different. They haven't won junior in a while and now they are in a final on their own turf. It's not going to be easy. Meath football is not easy. They are going to be tough and dogged. It would be a rare Christmas present to get over the line.”

This type of footballer wasn't present during Cuskelly's own long career and he knows it may not come again for a long time. “No and that is the one thing we do tell the lads, that opportunities don't come knocking every year. They know themselves. They have won a bit underage but they also know what it is like to lose. The group are used to winning together, they like to win together and they are a tight group. They are well aware that these opportunities don't come too often. In their lifetime, it might never come again and we will hopefully take it.”