AIB Connacht Club SFC: St. Brigid's dominate Ballina

AIB Connacht Club SFC Semi-Final

ST. BRIGID’S 1-21 (1-1-19) BALLINA STEPHENITES 3-8 (3-1-6)

Kevin Egan at King & Moffatt Dr. Hyde Park

2023 AIB Connacht champions St. Brigid’s are back on the glory trail as they played some scintillating attacking football this afternoon at Dr. Hyde Park to overcome Ballina Stephenites.

The Mayo champions got some traction close to goal, hitting the net three times to stay in contention, but they simply couldn’t match their hosts around the middle third, particularly on the St. Brigid’s 45m line where Brian Stack, Paul McGrath and Man of the Match Ruaidhrí Fallon were absolutely imperious.

In 2025, St. Brigid’s have shown no huge affinity for kicking two pointers and here again, they hit just one on a pristine playing surface. However when they moved the ball through the hands and looked to pick apart Ballina with their accurate passing game and direct running, they were impossible to stop.

Two high balls from Frank Irwin gave the Stephenites a dream start. The first was touched past Conor Carroll by Dylan Thornton for the game’s opening goal, the second just about crept over the crossbar to make it 1-1 to no score.

There were 13 more scores before half-time, 12 of them for the hosts. Shane Cunnane got them settled into the game with a point off the outside of his right boot, Senan Kilbride hammered the ball past David Clarke after snaffling a loose handpass across the full-back line and the scores started to flow freely as Brigid’s players spilled through the middle and created one overlap after another, setting up points for Ciarán Sugrue, Conor Hand, Ben O’Carroll, Brian Derwin and McGrath.

Evan Regan scored a highly unorthodox goal for Ballina with an overhead kick, struck with his back to goal while Brigid’s scored with just one out of six attempts from distance, Ruaidhrí Fallon hitting the target when Ballina backed off him and allowed him the shot. Ben O’Carroll and Bobby Nugent were lively but were also guilty of missing gilt-edged chances that on another day, they’ll need.

Today, they were comfortable.

The second half was more of the same, St. Brigid’s racking up the white flags, reeled in only by Ben Thornton hammering a low shot past Conor Carroll to keep Ballina in touch.

In the final quarter St. Brigid’s ran their bench and Ballina did pick some holes in the Brigid’s back line to tack on 0-6 from the 48^th minute onwards, but they still couldn’t stop the bleeding at the other end.

In possession St. Brigid’s were in complete control, looking after the ball and giving U-20 attacker Charlie O’Carroll a chance to shine as he came off the bench to kick two fine scores, ensuring smooth progression through to what should be a fantastic Connacht decider against Maigh Cuilinn at the same venue in a fortnight.

Scorers for St. Brigid’s: Ruaidhrí Fallon 0-4 (1tp), Ben O’Carroll 0-3 (0-1f), Senan Kilbride 1-0, Bobby Nugent 0-2 (0-1f), Brian Derwin 0-2, Paul McGrath 0-2, Ciarán Sugrue 0-2, Shane Cunnane 0-2, Charlie O’Carroll 0-2, Conor Hand 0-1, Ronan Stack 0-1.

Scorers for Ballina Stephenites: Evan Regan 1-3 (0-2f), Dylan Thornton 1-0, Ben Thornton 1-0, Mike Murray 0-3 (1tp), Sam Callinan 0-1, Frank Irwin 0-1.

ST. BRIGID’S: Conor Carroll; Robbie Dolan, Seán Trundle, Ruairí Smith; Ruaidhrí Fallon, Brian Stack, Paul McGrath; Shane Cunnane, Eddie Nolan; Ciarán Sugrue, Conor Hand, Bobby Nugent; Ben O’Carroll, Brian Derwin, Senan Kilbride. Subs: Charlie O’Carroll for Kilbride (44), Eoghan Derwin for Nugent (44), Ronan Stack for Smith (46), Mark Daly for Cunnane (51), Eoin Sheehy for B O’Carroll (59).

BALLINA STEPHENITES: David Clarke; Liam Golden, Seán Regan, Luke Jordan; Ciarán Boland, David Tighe, Sam Callinan; Mike Murray, Frank Irwin; Niall Feeney, Pádraig O’Hora, Dylan Thornton; Evan Regan, Luke Doherty, Conor McStay. Subs: Ben Thornton for Boland (29), Ciarán Treacy for Tighe (47), Luke Feeney for N Feeney (59).

Referee: Barry Judge (Castleconnor, Sligo).