The Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins footballers hope to end a 31 year wait for a Leitrim Senior Football title on Sunday.
By John Harrington
When it comes to the Leitrim Senior Football club championship, no club has a greater tradition of success than Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins.
They sit proudly on top of the roll of honour with 20 titles, eight more than their nearest rivals.
Their halcyon days are very much in the rear-view mirror, though. Ballinamore haven’t won a county title since 1990 and only contested two since then, which by their own admission is a real fall from grace for a club of such renown.
“We got the Final in '98 and I was involved in that myself and we were beaten by Melvin Gaels in that. Then the next senior Final was 2019. So it is a famine, most definitely it is,” says Ballinamore club chairman, Diarmaid Keegan.
“The focus is there to put an end to that famine now this weekend. We would take inspiration from the previous winning teams, the teams that have gone before us. There's massive support from previous players and winners for this current team.
“Even the older generation who won three-in-a-row in the sixties, you'd see so many of them at the matches. And all they want is for this group of players to get across the line.
“There would be massive support coming from those players. And also the players from the great teams we had in the eighties. The likes of Brendan Conway, Paul Kieran, Olly Honeyman, they're at every game the lads play, supporting this crop of players.”
You would imagine the long wait for a title would generate a burden of expectation in Ballinamore, but Keegan doesn’t quite see it like that.
Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins take to the pitch for the 2019 Leitrim SFC Final against Glencar-Manorhamilton which they lost by a single point.
If anything, the desire to end the long wait is concentrating minds rather than weighing on them.
“I would say there's a serious focus around,” he says. “There's obviously a serious focus among the squad and the management and the whole club as a general group. But also with supporters.
“While we are reasonably confident, we know that we have a serious battle ahead against Mohill. There would be great rivalry between ourselves and Mohill now at the moment. We're two teams that are close enough to each other in terms of talent, Mohill maybe just have a slight edge on us at the moment.
“There's excitement, there's confidence, but moreso than anything, there's a serious focus about the place, that would be my reading of the whole thing at the moment.”
Much of Ballinamore’s confidence is sourced from the fact that they’re extremely well prepared for this County Final.
They’ve been managed for the last three years by former Fermanagh manager, Dominic Corrigan, and in that time have been a continual work in progress.
“This year you can really see the benefits of Dom Corrigan and his management team,” says Keegan. “It has taken those few years for the lads to fully adjust to his training methods. You can see the strength and conditioning is really paying off on them.
“They're a different team in my opinion now than they were in 2019. There are a few extra players in, a few young lads have come in this year and have really lifted the whole thing.
“They've put the pressure on some of the older lads which is obviously no harm. Two or three lads have come in and really lifted the whole thing. They're starting and playing well. Definitely the last couple of years with Dominic are beginning to pay off.
“Dominic is just an unbelievably passionate man about football, he really is. His knowledge and the work the man does behind the scenes talking to fellas and organising things. It's 24/7 with him.
“As he was saying, he won't be sleeping a whole pile this week because he'll be concentrating on what he has to do and what the team has to do. His experience is invaluable. Even simple things like organising challenge matches and stuff like that, having contacts, that type of thing.
“He's such a passionate man about football, it's great to have him. Kinawley is only 12 or 13 miles down the road so he's local to the scene, he knows the scene as well. We're very lucky to have him.”
Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins manager, Dominic Corrigan.
As good a coach and manager as Corrigan is, he can only work with the players that are available to him, and Ballinamore as a club have striven hard in recent years to overhaul their underage coaching structures to good effect.
They won the Leitrim minor championship four years ago, and graduates of that team such as Tom Prior, Senan Harte, and James Honeyman are now members of the senior football team.
Another very talented young footballer, Michael McKiernan, son of Pat ‘Beezer’ McKiernan, has also forced his way onto the senior team this year to give them an extra attacking dimension, so it looks like the supply lines in the club are in good order.
The bounce the team has gotten from the younger generation has convinced many in in the club that this will finally be the year they end their long wait for a county title, but that’s tempered by the knowledge that the formidable Mohill team they face on Sunday are reigning champions for a very good reason.
“With their greater experience you have to peg them down as the favourites,” says Keegan.
“I know we were in the final in 2019, but Mohill know what it's like to win. They know what it takes to get across the line on the big day. So, you would have to favour them to a certain degree based on that.
“But our lads are so focused on what they have to do. They're concentrating really hard on what they have to bring to the table.
“We're there on merit, we're not just going to make up the numbers. If Mohill do win it they're going to know they were in a battle, that's one thing for sure. We’re ready for it.”
If Ballinamore could end the famine and win a first county title in 31 years, what would it mean to everyone in the club? Keegan can barely bring himself to think about the emotions that would be unleashed.
“I've talked to other players that I would have played with back in the 1990s. When you talk about it, you'd nearly be getting emotional thinking about it.
“We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. There's a real focus, that's what we're looking at. The lads are working so hard at training, there's that real focus.
“And if we get across the line there will be an outpouring of joy. There are lads that have been on that team for years like Liam Ferguson, Wayne McKeon, Shane Moran, Denis Dolan...you would love to see them guys get across the line for all the hard work they've put in over the years.
“You can say they deserve it, but you only get what you deserve to a certain degree. I would love for them lads in particular to see this team get across the line and to win one.”
Sunday, October 17
Leitrim Senior Football Championship Final
Sean O’Heslins Ballinamore v Mohill, Avant Money Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada, 3.45pm
