Ballinagar captain enjoying loss of pressure in great extended season

A GREAT rocking, roller coaster of a journey has brought Ballinagar to Leinster Junior Football Championship glory and just one step away from a huge All-Ireland final day out in Croke Park.

An All-Ireland semi-final against Galway and Connacht champions, An Ceathra Rua in the first week of the new year will ensure that Ballinagar will have to curtail their festive activities somewhat but they wouldn't change that for the world.

It is a place that Ballinagar never expected to be. When Ken and Ann Beatty booked a family holiday several weeks ago to Las Vegas for just after Christmas, running into the new year, they did so without any thoughts of an unexpected fly landing in the ointment for their trip of a lifetime – a sort of celebration for Ken's 50^th birthday. That fly is of course more like a beautiful butterfly and while it means that their son, Jacob, a valued Ballinagar panel member, and girlfriend will curtail their holiday and return home in advance of the All-Ireland junior football semi-final on January 4-5 – Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon seems the obvious venue for this game -, it is very much a first world problem. Jacob has made a great contribution to Ballinagar's run of success, he had the game of his life when he was man of the match in the junior football final win over Kilcormac-Killoughey in 2022 and has continued to work hard, popping up with important scores during more limited game time this year. Aborted holidays in “off season” in December and January was just not on the agenda for anyone in Ballinagar until very recently.

There was a stage earlier in the year when Ballinagar's chances of competing in an All-Ireland final in Croke Park looked as realistic as those of Santa landing in O'Connor Park with Rudolph to watch the Offaly senior football final in October. After beating Raheen in the first round of the Intermediate Football Championship, they hit a major bump in a second round defeat to St Brigid's and slipped into reverse with a very poor loss to Tullamore in round 3.

Everything took off from their quarter-final win over Kilcormac-Killoughey. Ballinagar had to work hard for the result and it was far from straightforward but they were clearly the better team, their football considerably better than the previous two games. Nothing special took place that day in Durrow but Ballinagar had reached a fork in the road and headed down the right one.

Their season took off after a great semi-final win over St Brigid's in Rhode. Ballinagar came flying out of the blocks that day, opened up daylight and then held on for dear life in the closing quarter before an injury time Jamie Ballesty goal secured a final berth.

That final against Raheen was a huge occasion, a parish derby with a huge background story to it. A vast web of family connections, an amalgamation process between the two clubs that just failed but when the dust settled, the teams just went out to play football and Ballinagar were better that day – starting very well, hitting a rut when they went behind in the second half and showing terrific character to find a way to win the game late on.

For most in Ballinagar, that win was all that mattered and the Leinster Club Junior Football Championship an excuse for another party. The management and squad, however, had an entirely different view and their season has reached dream territory. A comprehensive win over Ballon of Carlow in the first round was followed by real dog fights against Wolfe Tones of Louth and Kildare's Ellistown – Wolfe Tones brought them to extra time, only a point separated them in the semi-final against Ellistown as Ballinagar scraped into the final by the seat of their pants.

Against Dunsany of Meath last Sunday, Ballinagar played arguably their best football of the year as they stormed into a 2-6 to 0-1 lead after 22 minutes. They only got three points from frees after that but were always in control as they won convincingly by 2-9 to 0-8.

The whole adventure has been great for Ballinagar. They have a hard core of players capable of playing at a much higher level but they couldn't be where they are without the collective. Some of their second tier of players have made noticeable improvements as the campaign has gone on and it should leave them all healthy for next year's Senior “B” Football Championship, where Ballinagar will be facing into a considerable step up in opposition.

Team captain, Geordi O'Meara is very much in Ballinagar's top tier of players. He has played minor and U20 football for Offaly but he has also got better as the season went on. Man of the match against Dunsany and close to it in other games, he has been representative of the sense of freedom that Ballinagar have played with in Leinster.

The pressure was immense in the knockout stages in Offaly and asked after receiving the cup on Sunday, was it fair to say that this was off in Leinster, he smiled:

“It is fair to say. When you get to Leinster, you don't know what you are coming up against so you go out and just play football really. You go out and play with the lads you won a county championship with. It is probably a bit more open game, a lot less physicality. It is a pleasure to play in Leinster and it would be a dream for Ballinagar to get to Croke Park. We will give it absolutely everything and see what happens.”

He talked about what the win means to him and his club.

“It is impossible to put into words. It means everything to the club, especially the old lads in the club who have seen Ballinagar struggle in the last couple of years and for them, this is unbelievable.”

The wider O'Meara family are synonymous with Ballinagar GAA Club and the generation before Geordi experienced mostly pain. His father Patrick and uncle Paul were young men, just heading towards the end of their teens when Ballinagar won the Junior Football Championship in 1988 and lost the 1989 intermediate football final – they were on those panels while their cousin Mickey was the star forward on those teams. After that, however, Ballinagar entered the doldrums for over two decades and were in survival mode.

Asked was he conscious of this, O'Meara reflected:

“I know the brief outline of it but I wouldn't know the full story. My father has me well told about what was going on in the past and to see him and his happy face and him coming over to hug me, it means everything.”

With his first cousin, Conor Bracken also flying in the Ballinagar attack, O'Meara's goal helped them build up a very decisive early lead. In the second half, he got all their three points, two delightful frees and a wonderful '45' to keep the gap big enough not to cause heart attacks for supporters.

“We made a serious start. We got the two goals at a good stage of the game. We probably stepped off a small bit at the end of the first half and let them back a small bit. They kicked the last three scores of the first half.

“The second half was just about managing the game and trying to tag on as much as possible. We always knew they would come at us but thankfully we held out.”

At 2-6 to 0-1 ahead, there was an opportunity for Ballinagar to really bury their opponents. Instead they got a bit sloppy as Dunsany got three points to trail by 2-6 to 0-4 at half time and leave the door open by a fraction for the second half.

O'Meara admitted:

“A small bit of complacency, we took the foot off the gas a small bit and coming out with the ball, we got turned over a small bit too much than we wanted. That allowed them back into the game.”

However, he was always confident that Ballinagar would hold out.

“We never really felt any threat. They put in two or three high balls in but we dealt with them fairly okay. We were fairly solid.”