Ballybrown GAA club are reaping what they sowed
The Ballybrown senior hurling team.
By John Harrington
If you travel through the village of Clarina on the south-west outskirts of Limerick, you may well feel a sense of optimism in the air.
The fortunes of Ballybrown GAA club have always been a weathervane for the mood of the locality, and they have a fair wind in their sails right now.
Ballybrown play Adare in the first of Sunday’s Whitebox Limerick SHC quarter-finals, and they’ll go into the match as favourites after an impressive championship campaign to date.
They’ve built impressively on last year’s promotion from Group 2 of the Limerick SHC by winning three of their five matches in Group 1 this season.
The nature of some of those wins has added to the feel-good factor in the club right now.
Ballybrown hadn’t managed to beat either Patrickswell or Kilmallock in championship hurling since the last time they won the county title back in 1991 but have scalped both this year.
They share a parish with Patrickswell and it has tended to be a one-sided local rivalry as they’ve only previously beaten them once before in senior championship hurling, so this year’s six-point victory felt like a real monkey off their backs.
The victory over Kilmallock was even more impressive – a 10-point win in the final group match over the 2021 champions that sets them up nicely for Sunday’s quarter-final.
Ballybrown players in a team huddle after their recent Limerick SHC victory over Kilmallock.
They had an off day against Na Piarsaigh but another positive barometer of the team’s current form was the performance against reigning champions Doon in Round 3 when they were beaten by a point in a game they really should have won.
The most satisfying thing from the club’s point of view is that the team’s form this year hasn’t come as a surprise.
You reap what you sow, and Ballybrown are being rewarded for years of sustained hard work at underage level that is now really bearing fruit.
“We're very pleased with them,” says Ballybrown club chairperson, Pat Gavin.
“Without sounding too cocky, we would have expected to go well this year. We knew coming into the start of the championship that training was going very well. We were in a very good place coming into the championship and we knew we were going to go well.
“There's a great buzz and atmosphere around. Training has been excellent. Since the very start of the year there has always been a minimum of 28/29 at every session and they've all bought into the new manager, Kevin Lally.
“You look at the team we have at the moment and most of them have had a lot of success coming up through the ranks at U-14, minor, and U21.
"We won three Limerick minors in a row (2019 to 2021) and the Limerick U21 Final in 2022 and there’s a nice blend now of those younger lads with the older boys who have been there for a while.”
Ballybrown GAA club have a very vibrant underage section.
There are a lot of familial links between this Ballybrown team and the one that won the club’s two county titles in 1989 and 1991, but their rise to prominence owes as much to nurture as it does to nature.
The club has put a big emphasis on developing robust underage structures and also has a vibrant link with Ballybrown National School.
Gavin himself went into the school around 15 years ago to supplement the coaching being done there and ever since club coaches have been regular visitors.
The teaching staff in Ballybrown NS have also done huge work to promote the game over many decades.
Teacher Barry Lordan, a native of West Cork, honed the skills of countless young Ballybrown hurlers for the best part of 37 years while current principal, Seamus Barry, would have also coached many of the current Ballybrown seniors.
Former National Chairperson of Cumann na mBunscol, Joe Lyons, was Ballybrown NS principal for 15 years until his retirement in 2021 and another driving force behind putting Gaelic games at the heart of the school’s culture.
Ballybrown NS players celebrate after winning the 2022 Leader Cup.
He’s not all that surprised to see the club senior team going as well as it is now because they’re backboned by a special generation of hurlers who won all before them at primary school level.
Ballybrown captain and Limerick senior hurler, Aidan O’Connor, was the star of the show back then just like he is now.
“When we won the OLO Cup (Limerick city schools) and the Leader Cup (all Limerick schools) in 2014, Aidan was in fifth class and we would rarely have fellas in fifth class on the team because Barry Lordan always insisted every fellow in sixth class should be getting his place on the team and the fellas in fifth will come on the following year,” Lyons told GAA.ie
“But Aidan was excellent. And I do remember in the OLO Cup final we played Milford National School from Castletroy at the Gaelic Grounds and was a very, very tight match.
"We had a couple of frees from a difficult angle and playing into small goals as you would for schools matches matches and Aidan converted both of them.
"I can remember organising a match when Aidan was about in second class we organised a match for fellas in first and second class against Lisnagry National School.
“They were a togging out and Barry Lordan called me over and he said, 'Mr Lyons have a look at this boy's hands', and Aidan put out his hand and he just big, strong hands and Barry said, 'that boy is going to be a great hurler'.
“He was always very strong, extremely fast, extremely athletic. He has it all, Aidan is a smashing player altogether.”
Aidan O'Connor has excelled this year for Ballybrown.
O’Connor has been in sensational form so far in the championship for Ballybrown. He's scored 2-47 in five matches and is the focal point of an exciting attack that has banged in 13 goals so far in the campaign.
The son of Joe O’Connor who captained Limerick to the 1992 National Hurling League title, he clearly has similar leadership skills to go with his undoubted ability.
“Making Aidan captain is after standing to him,” says Pat Gavin. “He's really put his shoulder to the wheel and has been absolutely outstanding.
“But we have a lot more than Aidan O'Connor. When you look at our scorers and the goals we're getting, there aren't many Aidan O'Connor goals. He's working hard for the team and it's other guys who are getting them.
“Colin Coughlan has been excellent at centre-back but more than anything though it's been a real team effort. They're absolute work-horses all over the field. They defend from the full-forward line back and it's just savage work-rate which is what you need.”
Beaten at the quarter-final stage in 2024 and 2023, there’s a feeling in Ballybrown that their talented young team is now ready to go at least one step further this year.
A win on Sunday would secure them a semi-final spot against defending champions Doon who they surely won’t fear having given them such a good game in the group phase.
On current form Ballybrown should have too much for Adare on Sunday, but Pat Gavin has been around too long to be in the habit of counting unhatched chickens.
“We're only taking it one game at a time and we can’t forget that Adare gave us a small bit of a clipping when we played them in Mick Devitt last year,” he says.
“They will fancy themselves and I don't blame them. They're a very traditional club and they'll believe that they'll have a chance and they do have a chance.
“We're not looking beyond this game but would love to get another crack off Doon.”
Timing is everything in sport, and sometimes off the field as well as on it.
On Saturday the club will launch a fund-raising drive to begin Phase 2 of their development plan which will see the construction of a new dressing-room and gym complex.
Such is the goodwill in the community right now that you can be sure it will be well-received, especially if the launch is followed by another win on Sunday.
