A dream journey but Breen wants Ballinamore to win in Croke Park

Playing in Croke Park is one thing, winning there another, a fact that Brian Breen knows all too well and one he is sure to drive home to his Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins players ahead of next Saturday's CurrentAccount. ie All-Ireland LGFA IFC Club Final.

Ballinamore take on Cork's Glanmire in the Intermediate decider and Brian, or Barney to one and all, knows well from his own storied history with Leitrim in 1994 that you've got to make the most of these opportunities: “Isn’t it brilliant,” said Barney when asked about Saturday's game, “We’ve had a chance to reflect on our semi-final win but it is every man, woman, child’s dream to get to play in Croke Park.

“It is what you live for really and Ladies football is no different to men’s football. As a manager it is my dream as well and to be fair, this wasn’t part of our target but it has been a roller coaster ride, an adventure and we’re here and it’s brilliant.”

Fortune favours the brave

THE LAST POINT

But the Ballinamore manager also stresses that a great prize awaits: “Obviously you don’t want to look too far beyond what is in front of you and we’re not doing that, we haven’t done that before. The whole carrot at the end of it, the prize is a day in Croke Park but now the whole emphasis will be there is no point in getting your day out in Croke Park if you’re not going to make the most of it.”

It is a simple message but one that sees Ballinamore both embrace the occasion and try to keep it at arms' length at the same time, the focus still very much on performing on the day: “We’ll refocus and it is all about the win now, winning the game and how you go about doing it. It is not nice I suppose but it is all about winning -  at the end of the day you won’t be remembered for coming in second best and while we’re there, we have a fifty-fifty chance of winning it so let’s go for it.”

Enjoying the occasion meant Ballinamore got swept up in the emotion of their dramatic semi-final victory over Steelstown, something Barney was all too happy to embrace: “We met on Sunday morning after the game and everyone was there to a woman and we discussed what went well, what areas we need to improve on and we came up with a to-do list we need to work on. We’ll be working on that.

“But it is important that they enjoyed that night, it is important that on the occasion that not so much that they celebrated it, it was a night off but nothing too late, nothing too serious. Christmas lights coincided with it, it was a last minute decision and they were all down there to a girl and it is important to soak that up when it is there.

“But now it is time to knuckle down again, get back into your bubble, to reject whatever is in your head or all the social media that is around and put the head down and look to give us the best opportunity to come out with a win on Saturday.”

Barney will draw on his own experience with Leitrim in 1994 on how to keep the pressure away from his players, even if he admits it was a lot easier almost 30 years ago! “I remember that vividly because that was the experience John O’Mahony had at the time. He more or less said to us ‘just close yourselves in your own bubble, don’t be accepting phone calls’. 

“At that time, there was no mobile phones, no social media, no facebook so it was a little bit easier but he said get somebody else to go to the shop for you, don’t be answering phones, screen your calls, so on and so forth. Everybody wants a bit of you now, everybody wants to tell you how to win and that’s all great, there is nothing wrong with that. 

Brian Breen patrols the sideline during Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins' victory over Steelstown Picture: Willie Donnellan

“The problem could be parents telling them what to do, what they think you should do and maybe it is against what we’re saying. Everybody means well in what they say but sometimes the information might not be the same as the information we want to give them and it is important that they filter that out. That’s what I mean by a mother or a father, with the best of intentions in the world, telling them what to do but maybe not the right thing.

"It is important that we tell them to stay focused, stick within their own bubble, listen to instructions from people they should listen to and filter everything else out.”

Glanmire stand between Ballinamore and a fairytale end to the year and Barney is cautious,  travelling to Mallow to witness their semi-final win over Na Fianna of Meath: “We’ve honed in a bit on them last week, I actually took a spin down to Mallow  to look at them. It was a funny game, they had played an All-Ireland camogie semi-final the day before, so had Na Fianna from Meath, their opposition and it was a really subdued game.

“I’m thinking if I had asked eight or nine of my girls to tog out the next day and play another All-Ireland Semi-Final, it would have been very, very hard for them so in that sense, the game probably wasn’t as high a standard as our game but I expect it to be totally different.

“Glanmire was a team of two halves, first half they were scrappy, second half their intensity was a lot better, they were a lot more clinical and they have some super players on their team. Bear in mind, they contested the last four Cork Intermediate finals in a row, they won an All-Ireland Junior title I think back in 2018 so they’re a team that has been around a while, a team that has been on the periphery for a while and we cannot afford to take them lightly.”

Ballinamore have lived on the edge, needing a goal with the last kick of the game to see off Steelstown in the semi-final and their manager is the first to admit that: “We do realise that what, over the course of the hour in the semi-final and even against Eoghan Rua, may not suffice for us. 

“To be honest, we’ve been riding our luck a bit in those games but the good thing about it is that we’ve kept ourselves in the position that one score will win the game for us but we’ve also realised that the win we got against Steelstown was a once in a lifetime win as well.”

Yet the manner of those wins over Steelstown and Sligo’s Eoghan Rua has generated huge self-belief in this Ballinamore team and a resilience that leads to a confession from their manager as Barney admits that up to taking charge of O’Heslins this year, he had never seen a Ladies game in his life.

“I had very little experience of women football as a game, I’d be embarrassed to say that I’d never really seen a women’s football game in my life before that, I’d be embarrassed saying that. But the one thing I felt they needed was that they were very nice so we got a bit of steel into them. 

“The importance of that resilience, the importance of having respect for the opposition but not too much you know. Don’t like losing, get to the stage where you don’t like losing - don’t accept losing as if it is ok. Gradually that has been built into them and since our County B Final, they’ve realised that.

Bonus territory as Breen struggles to get his head around dramatic victory

“We’ve built a bit of momentum and that’s a momentum that you build and it is easy to keep snowballing it, that whole resilience of trying to churn out a win and trying to get into that position throughout the whole of a game, that is there for you, that’s important and they’ve grown into that. In fairness to them, the last two games you cannot fault them for their never say die attitude.”

As for next Saturday’s Final, Barney believes Ballinamore have every chance of glory but stresses they need to perform on the day: “Where it is a once in a lifetime trip to Croke Park, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to win an All-Ireland title. We’ve got to realise that as a group and I think we do.

“We’re there, we’re in with a chance and having a look at the opposition, we have a good chance but we’ll be really cautious. Croke Park is a really unforgiving place if you don’t take that opportunity, the day can go by you very, very quickly so that is one thing that is key, which team can adapt to the conditions of Croke Park and the surroundings better.”