Halftime team talk reset Ballinamore as Breen praises reaction to Eoghan Rua goal

One of the hardest jobs in management has got to be the halftime team talk. You’ve got to get your message across about what needs to be done in a positive manner but you can’t ignore the negatives either. It is a delicate balancing act and by the look of it, Brian Breen, Barney to one and all, and his management team did just that in Saturday’s Connacht LGFA Intermediate Final.

Trailing 0-7 to 0-5 at the break to a dominant Eoghan Rua, Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins could have been dead and buried had the Sligo women converted half of their missed chances and the consensus in the stands was that the Leitrim champions were facing down the barrel of defeat.

So how did Barney and his management team of Aoife Smith, Patrick McKiernan, Gavin Brennan and Dawn McKeon turn it around? “First of all, you have to be realistic and say we’re still in the game, we were only two points down. Number 2, is if we keep going the way we’re going, we won’t win the game so we have to change. You have to let themselves sort it out themselves, trust them to sort it out. We felt that in the first half, a lot of our key players were not playing up to the standard.

Megan never hit the panic button in final frantic minutes as Ballinamore claim Connacht title

“So we gave them an opportunity to do so and, in fairness, they did. They played better as a team, as a unit. We found in the first half we were making very simple, elementary mistakes. We needed to clean that up and we did and that was the key difference apart from being a total team display.”

Yet it still must have been difficult at the halftime interval to try and address what went wrong for Ballinamore in that first half? “It was hard, yeah but in fairness to the girls, there is very little you can do on the line once the game starts. I suppose halftime came at the right time for us - all we really spoke about was that we didn’t want to leave it behind us.

“It was a great opportunity to be there - are we going to be happy to be there or are we going to take it one step further and do something about it. We felt at halftime that we were leaving it behind us, the girls decided that was it and they would take it to them which we did.”

Another big factor was how Ballinamore reacted to Eoghan Rua’s goal that put them four points up and if Barney acknowledged luck played its part in Ballinamore’s goal, it was luck he felt their performance deserved: “It was important that they did that and we spoke about that as well, what happens if we go three or four points down. 

“The next five minutes is the most important thing and how you react to that and in fairness to them, they reacted magnificently. Let’s be fair, it was a fortuitous goal we got but it was what we deserved at the time, it got us back into the game. Roisin put over another point after that to equalise.

“I felt then that they were getting an extra 10%, even though they were out on their feet, and I only felt there was going to be one winner at that stage.”

The former Leitrim manager and 1994 Connacht Championship winner highlighted the role of the squad in the absence of star Laura O’Dowd while also singling out Megan McGovern’s impact on the game: “Megan was an engine in the middle of the field and that inspires everyone else. I’m not saying Megan wasn’t playing well in the first half but she just took the bit between her teeth and she inspired others to move on.

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

“I always say that the team that starts is never going to be the team that finishes. That is why we emphasise the squad - we knew Laura was going to be missing today, had she been injured after five minutes, it might have been different. We planned without her and restructure the team around it. We said everyone has to up their own performance 10% for her and they did do that.”

As for the All-Ireland Semi-Final which will see Ballinamore come up against either Antrim’s Glenavy and Derry’s Steelstown on the weekend of December 2-3, all Barney said was “We’ll focus on a bit of enjoyment tonight and see what happens during the week.”