By John Harrington

Football is the only topic of conversation in the parish of Ballymore Eustace and Hollywood this week.

Split in two by the Kildare-Wicklow border, the clubs on either side of the divide both contest County Intermediate Football Finals this weekend.

On Saturday, Ballymore-Eustace play Kilcock in the Kildare Intermediate Final replay. The following day, Hollywood play An Tóchar in the Wicklow Intermediate Final.

Were both clubs to win their matches, there would be the tantalising prospect of the two teams from the same parish then playing one another in the first round of the AIB Leinster Intermediate Football Championship.

“I don't like pre-empting what might happen, but there would be a great buzz in the parish if that came to pass,” says Ballymore-Eustace club secretary, Bernie Barrett.

“We'd all know each other very well. The trainer for Hollywood is a Ballymore man, Jarlath Gilroy, so that's added interest to it as well because he's part of our own club and he's training Hollywood.

“We'd both be rooting for one another in our respective county finals this weekend, but it would interesting were we both to win them!”

Gilroy was actually Ballymore Eustace manager back in 2010 when they won both the Kildare and Leinster Intermediate Championships, so it would be quite the role reversal were he to find himself plotting to take down his own club in the provincial championship.

“Jarlath would have to be a Hollywood man for one day if it came to pass,” says Hollywood Club Secretary, Lucy Mooney, with a laugh.

“The craic would be very good because we'd have home venue. So it literally would be all roads lead to Hollywood.

“Pretty much everyone would know each other in the two clubs. Sure it's only a couple of hundred yards down the road and you're into Ballymore territory.

“The club-houses are probably three miles apart. Ours is on the Western side of the N81. And Ballymore's is also on the Western side of the N81 as well and the border flicks back and forth.

“The players of both clubs would know each other very well.

“A good number of them would have gone to school together in St. Kevin's Community College in Dunlavin.

“Now, more of the Ballymore people would go to the CBS in Naas, but Hollywood would also have a few lads who would have gone to the secondary school in the CBS in Naas as well.”

Before anyone gets too carried away with the idea of a one-parish battle in the Leinster Championship, there’s the not inconsiderable hurdle of a County Final to win first for both clubs.

For Hollywood, it’s a chance to once again pull off something of a loaves and fishes miracle, because returning to senior championship football after a short hiatus in the intermediate grade would be a considerable achievement for a club of their size.

“We'd be a very sparsely populated area,” says Mooney. “Dunlavin comes in on one side of us and Vallymount would be on the other side.

“We'd nearly have to have everybody who comes through our primary schools playing GAA. We're probably punching above our weight, really.

“We're underdogs a lot of the time and we like taking on the big guys and flattening them now and again!

“We were senior for a long time. We won Intermediate in 2017 but we went back down again in 2019.

“Last year we had a tough year, but this year things have been on the up again for us.”

In their way on Sunday stand a talented young An Tóchar team who looked really impressive when dismantling Kilcoole in the county semi-final.

Hollywood had a tougher time of it against Carnew in the other semi-final, but their greater experience could be a factor in their favour on Sunday.

“It'll hopefully be a game of football, anyway,” says Mooney. “An Tóchar are coming with a good, young team. I heard someone on local radio say that their six forwards are all 19 or under. Little fliers, I'd say.

“Sure we can only do our best. Don't let them get the ball, I suppose!”

As for Ballymore-Eustace, they’re very much a team on the up and up. Kildare Junior Champions in 2019, they’ve been energised by the influx of a new generation of young players of a very high calibre.

“Like many clubs around the country we just had a big gap between the generation of players who were aged 28/29 down to those who were five or six years younger where we just didn't have as many boys coming through," says Barrett.

“Then it just happened that there was suddenly a big bunch of boys in Ballymore and a lot of them were interested in football so we're just lucky we have a good crop now. At U-17 now right up to lads who are 23 or younger we have a really good crop of players in that age-group.

“A lot of them would have been on various development squads in Kildare.”

Ballymore-Eustace were underdogs going into the drawn match against Kilcock last week and showed real character to pull the match out of the fire when trailing by four points with time almost up.

It was club secretary Bernie Barrett’s own son, Shane, who hit a last-gasp equaliser, and the hope in the club now is that the lessons learned from the drawn game will serve their young team well in Saturday’s replay.

“It was a very dramatic match,” says Barrett. “Some would say we were lucky, others would say we fought back well. It was very dramatic, we came back in the last two minutes of the game with four points so it was great comeback in the end from the lads, in fairness to them.

“It was a great learning experience for them because they're a very young team. It's brilliant for them to have gotten this far and to have another opportunity now on Saturday.

“We won Junior in 2019 so it's brilliant to be in an Intermediate Final so soon after that. It's a very young team so hopefully their prospects will be good for the next few years.

“It would be massive for us to get up into the senior grade because it's a long time since we were there.”