Cool heads paid off for Grainne and Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins

Improbable at halftime, Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins’ stunning victory in Saturday’s Connacht LGFA Intermediate Club Championship Final was down to cool heads and focusing on doing the simple things according to captain Grainne Prior after a dramatic 1-10 to 1-9 victory over Eoghan Rua in Markievicz Park.

When they ask you to be captain of a team, they don’t tend to tell you about the media duties that come with the job and with her teammates celebrating away in the dressing room, the Observer finally got the chance to catch up with Ballinamore’s captain after an exhausting round of interviews with the streaming services and local radio.

But just as she had on the field all day, Grainne was more than equal to the challenge, even if it was a triumph she wasn’t expecting! “It still probably hasn’t sunk in yet, we didn’t have the smoothest year, we didn’t have our best year. Earlier in the year, we didn’t think we were going to win anything this year so it is great to keep going. Even though we didn’t get the A, we said we’d give the B our best shot and see what we can do in Connacht and yeah, it is amazing.”

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It was a close run thing for Ballinamore with Eoghan Rua delivering a powerful first half display that threatened to end O’Heslins’ dreams as Grainne admitted: “They had so many wides and if they had gone over, it would have been a done game at halftime but I think at halftime, we knew ourselves that we hadn’t got going yet.

“We were only about 50% going at that stage so we knew we had it in us and we were only two points down. The second half, they kept fighting and fighting but I think we said we’d do the simple things right, just keep the heads, keep the cool and it paid off thank God.”

Joking about over who would claim Ballinamore’s vital goal - “They probably will be fighting over it, knowing them!” she joked about teammates Roisin McHugh and Sarah McLoughlin - Grainne didn’t underestimate the importance of that goal: “When they got their goal, you could have gone one of two ways. It would have been easy to drop the heads and say that was it.

“It was the last ten minutes of the game and they were four points up. We had barely been ahead the whole game so those five minutes were the golden five minutes, we said we had to keep pushing on. You have to have a bit of luck on your side and thank God, some did come for us and once we got that goal back, we knew we had it in us and knew we had to keep plucking away and wait for the clock to run out.”

Those final few minutes were frantic and nerve-wracking as Ballinamore first grabbed the lead and then repulsed repeated Eoghan Rua attempts to equalise and Grainne revealed that it is a fine line to thread between being cautious and not inviting the opposition onto you.

“You don’t want to be messing around, trying to hold possession and the next minute they get the ball and go down the pitch. We did have to keep pushing forward, there was a few times where you thought it might be better to keep it in our pages, keep passing it around but that would have been too risky so we said we’d keep pushing on.”

Equally important was manager Brian Breen stressing to his players what was at stakes at halftime: “Barney was saying he was playing in two Connacht Finals and they never got across the line, that drove us on. He was saying he knows what it is like to be here and lose by one or two points and noone is going to remember those teams, you have to be the winning team to be remembered, to make history.”

Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins guts and resilience defies Eoghan Rua first half onslaught to claim Connacht Intermediate title

BALLINAMORE SEAN O'HESLINS 1-10 EOGHAN RUA 1-9

Even saying the words, Connacht Champions brought a smile to Grainne’s face and reinforces what it means for Ladies football in Ballinamore: “That just sounds crazy even when you say it because at the start of the year we had no intention of being here. We’re delighted, it means so much to everyone, it means so much to all of the past players who are still involved with us and all of the young girls who are looking up to us and everyone in the club - it is not only the ladies team, it is the whole club.

“It is such a great day for us and it is the first Connacht title ever brought back to the club, it is great for everyone.”

Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins now have an All-Ireland Semi-Final to look forward to, naturally leading to questions about whether Laura O’Dowd or Emma McGovern might be back for the clash against the Ulster champions: “When you are playing this time of the year it is always a good sign. I don’t know now, we’ll have to put the coins together to see what we can do. We’ll enjoy tonight and have to do our homework for the next game.”