Carlow's Ballon flying high
Ballon celebrate after winning the Carlow Intermediate Football Final.
By John Harrington
What a difference a year has made for Carlow GAA club Ballon.
Last year they were down in the dumps after losing three county finals – Intermediate and Junior C football, and Junior LGFA.
This year they’re walking on air after completing a clean sweep of the same three championships, with a Division 2 Football League title thrown in for good measure.
Their Intermediate footballers inked another memorable chapter on Friday night when defying the odds by beating Cloughbawn of Wexford in the first round of the Leinster Championship to elevate the feel-good factor in the rural village even higher.
“If you drive now through Ballon there's just red and white flags everywhere,” says Ballon club secretary, Jennifer Grogan. “The round-about has even been painted, it's just a savage buzz.
“The fact that we lost the last three finals last year, two of them after replays, made it even more special to come back and win all around us this year.
“It's all thanks to the hard work of the players, management, and committee members who are all really dedicated. These things don't happen by themselves.
“It's a very vibrant club and we're doing a lot of fund-raising as well at the moment to expand the clubhouse so there's a lot going on there too to try to improve things for the future.”
Ballon celebrate after winning the Carlow Junior LGFA Final.
That future looks like a very bright one.
Their 31-man panel that won both the Carlow Intermediate Championship and Division 2 League this year included nine teenagers and 27 players aged 25 or under.
A very talented generation of young footballers has come through together and, just as importantly, stayed together.
As a small rural club Ballon are always keenly aware they need to make the most of what they have.
“When the lads brought the Cup back from Dr. Cullen Park there were kids lining the streets and the lads and the ladies have brought the trophies to the school which is great because you want to be inspiring all the children in there to stick at it because we need to hold onto every player we have,” says Grogan.
“It’s a small rural village with a shop and two pubs and we wouldn’t have a big catchment area at all because there’s two other clubs in the parish, Fighting Cocks and Kilbride.
“The three clubs are actually amalgamated from U-12 up to minor level as St. Martin’s.
“They go off to st. Martin's from U-12 to minor but we're still very much involved with them and do what we can for them to keep them all playing.”
Ballon footballers bring the silverware won this year to Ballon National School.
How Ballon have won this year has been as thrilling for their supporters as what they’ve won.
Their young team plays a swashbuckling brand of football with a big emphasis on making the opposition’s net ripple.
Not only have they scored lots of goals, they’ve developed a happy habit of scoring them at dramatic and decisive moments.
In the Carlow final against Tinryland an injury-time goal helped them to a two-point victory and against Cloughbawn on Friday they scored two injury-time goals to pull the match out of the fire.
“The way we've won those matches has just made it even more special,” says Grogan. “The scenes on Friday night, you'd have sworn we'd won a final, everyone was on the pitch afterwards.
“People probably don't expect much of Carlow teams in Leinster and we were underestimated, but these young lads just don't seem to know when they're beat.
“They just don't give up. They were all dead on their feet but they just don't give up.
“We have some absolutely phenomenal players. Young lads who just don't know anything other than going for goal whenever they can.”
Ballon National School children hold aloft the Carlow Intermediate Football Cup.
Ballon will now play Dublin champions Naomh Olaf in the Leinster quarter-final.
It’s a classic battle between a rural David against an Urban Goliath that boasts 284 adult players playing on 17 teams.
The relative size of both clubs suggests the Dublin club should prevail, but Ballon’s fearless young team will back themselves like they always do.
“That's just it, the confidence is high,” says Grogan. “St. Olaf's might be a big Dublin club, but they can only start 15 players. You can have as big a club as you want, but you have to have 15 hungry lads there to get it over the line.
“And sure, look, when you get this far every game, you just take one game at a time. We've shown all year we won't give up until literally the final whistle.”
