Balla all-rounders are a talented bunch
Joint captains of Balla Secondary School in Mayo Seán Brohan, left, and Ryan O'Donnell with the cup head of the upcoming Masita All Ireland PPS Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan Football Final against St Ciarán's College Ballygawley in Tyrone during the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Finals 2026 launch at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
The boys of Balla Secondary School in Mayo are clearly a talented bunch.
Eight of the team that will start Saturday’s Masita Post Primary Schools All-Ireland ‘C’ Final against St. Ciaran’s, Ballygawley also played in the FAI Schools Senior B National Cup Final two weeks ago.
Many of the same faces have also been treading the boards this week in the school’s production of the musical ‘Grease’, so fancy footwork clearly comes naturally to them.
“They’re multi-talented alright,” says senior football team manager, Gareth O’Donnell.
“We’re just hoping that they get through the last night of the musical on Thursday and then can rest up Friday before the game.
“It’s been a great few weeks between the soccer final, the schools musical and now the football final at the weekend, just a serious buzz in the school.”
This is the first time in their history that Balla have reached an Post Primary Schools All-Ireland Football Final and it’s quite an achievement when you consider they’re a relatively small school of 450 co-educational students that traditionally draw their players from just three clubs – Balla, Mayo Abbey, and Ballintubber.
They’ve always produced competitive teams, but this year’s group has something a little bit extra.
“Coming up through the school, they would have had a bit of success at first year, at juvenile and junior level, so I suppose the ingredients have always been there,” says O’Donnell.
“But as we found out over the last few years, we've had a lot of good teams, but we've always come up against other good teams in semi-finals and finals.
“So, I don't know, is it that we've got a little bit of the rub at the green this year that we haven't got in previous years? But there's big character in that team too which has stood to them.”
The Balla Secondary School senior football team.
That character was very obvious in the Connacht Final when they beat a very fancied Gortnor Abbey team that included Mayo football’s rising star, Kobe McDonald.
Balla showed great grit in the face of both McDonald’s precocity and the dreadful weather conditions to win well by five points in the end.
“When we came out at halftime, it descended into a bit of snowstorm but our lads threw everything on the line that day,” says O’Donnell.
“The breaking ball, there was tackles being put in all over the pitch, and it kind of summed up our year, really.
“We've been the underdogs in a lot of our games. So, it was brilliant to finally get over the line.”
Having shown great defensive tenacity to come through that Connacht Final battle, Balla display their attacking flair in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Munster champions Carrigaline which they won by 3-17 to 2-9.
Their trio of outstanding forwards, Charlie Fallon, Oran Murphy, and Liam Glynn all cut loose as they put the Cork side to the sword in impressive style.
“Yeah, that was a totally different game,” says O'Donnell. "The weather was quite good and we had a great surface and our forwards were allowed to play football. It was probably our best 30 minutes in the first half.
“We led by eight, having been into the breeze in the first half in the semifinal and the lads came out really kicked on in the first 15 minutes of the second half and kind of put the game to bed.
“So it probably showed both sides of our team. The difference from the Connacht Final where we had to dig it out and have a solid defence versus the last day where our forwards could come alive and play the football we know they can.”
Joint captains of St Ciarán's College Ballygawley in Tyrone Micheal Mullin, left, and Darren McAnespie with the cup ahead of the upcoming Masita All Ireland PPS Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan Football Final against Balla Secondary School in Mayo during the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Finals 2026 launch at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
As good as Balla were in that All-Ireland semi-final, their opponent’s in Saturday’s Final, St. Ciaran’s, Ballygawley, were even better on the other side of the draw when defeating Leinster champions St. Paul’s, Raheny by 5-20 to 0-4.
Players like outstanding centre-forward, Shea McDermott, and powerful centre-bavck, Micheal Mullin, have already made a big mark at inter-county level and the supporting cast is of a very high calibre too.
“Yeah, They have a lot of their own Tyrone minors and under-20s who both won All-Irelands last year, so we definitely know what we're up against,” says O’Donnell.
“They had a huge win in their All-Ireland semi-final which brought our convincing win back down to earth when you see the score that they had up.
“They have top quality forwards when they're scoring 5-20, but also to only concede four points in an All-Ireland semi-final, you know they're going to be good at the back as well.
“We’ve been underdogs in a lot of our games this year. We were underdogs in the Connacht Final and then we went to play Carrigaline in the All-Ireland semi-final as well, they're a huge school, probably three times our numbers.
“So, I suppose anyone looking at it objectively would see a school with two or three times the pick and would have them down as favourites, as would probably be the case now on Saturday again.
“I think Ballygawley have double our numbers, but you can only put 15 out on the pitch and I'm confident the lads we send out on Saturday will give it everything and will hopefully be there, thereabouts, come the last few minutes.”
Saturday, March 14
Masita All-Ireland PPS Dr Eamonn O'Sullivan Cup (Senior C Football)
Balla Secondary School v St. Ciaran's, Ballygawley, Father Tierney Park, Ballyshannon, 2pm
