A FAMINE turned into a feast as Ballinderry reeled in Austin Stacks to seal an All-Ireland final showdown with Connacht kingpins Crossmolina at Croke Park next Sunday.
After going over half an hour without a score, the Shamrocks challenge looked to be fading faster than the diminishing light at Parnell Park when Ruairi Forbes ran into trouble, leading to a Daniel Kirby point that pushed the Stacks lead out - 0-5 to 0-2 with 22 minutes remaining.
Tralee tails were up. Three points is far from an insurmountable lead, but it felt that way in Dublin on Saturday afternoon.
Because there was a bit of a back to the future feel about this game. After all, what we witnessed in the first half was the kind of fare that - with the wraps being taken off the new rules in the coming weeks - is expected to become a ghost of Gaelic football’s past.
Packed defences, lateral passes and only a handful of scores to warm the mitts of those who converged on the capital from opposite ends of the country; Jim Gavin has loaded up his sleigh and promised a free-flowing utopia banishing such ills.
Ballinderry won’t care one bit about what is coming down the line.
Their hands forced, bravery was required to get them out of the hole in which they found themselves. Without a score since Charlie Crozier curled over a free eight minutes in, frustration could be felt.
Austin Stacks, even without injured midfield maestro Joe O’Connor, were holding firm. They sat in and forced Ballinderry to shoot from distance, resulting in one wide ball following another.
Even when they lost Kirby to a black card for the final 10 minutes of the first half, it was Billy Lee’s side who posed the greater threat on the counter. Stacks grabbed the only score of that period – and it could have been even worse for the Derry champions.
Beating the Ballinderry press from the kick-out, goalkeeper Michael Tansley found Michael O’Donnell out on the wing. After a quick look up, his lofted ball just evaded Ryan O’Neill’s reach and was gathered by nippy forward Paddy Lane.
A goal at this stage, in a game of this nature, could have been critical. But, rather than going for broke, Lane checked back and popped over the bar. It was a big let-off.
And, having looked to create space through the middle early on, Ballinderry’s attacks towards the end of the half became ragged and predictable, even if Ryan Bell was offered little protection from the pulling and hauling of Dylan Casey.
A second major scare came from the throw-in, a calamity of errors presenting Stacks with another goalscoring opportunity – a lack of killer instinct proving costly once more as they dawdled too long before O’Donnell’s shot struck Oisin Duffin’s back and dropped into the grateful arms of Ben McKinless.
All-Ireland ambitions hanging by a thread, Ballinderry were living dangerously. When Kirby slotted over to extend their lead to three, Jarlath Bell turned to Davy Harte.
“We need a score pretty quick to settle things down...”
They had now gone 32 minutes without raising the white flag but, cometh the hour, cometh the man. The experienced Darren Lawn, drafted in from the start having been in and out all year, carried the fight from the first bell, and wasn’t about to back off now.
Rampaging up the right, his score brought Ballinderry to life. Ryan Bell, starved of the ball up top, roamed out the field and started to make things happen.
Playing against a congested defence, the dinked ball into the forwards was opening Stacks up – and when Conor O’Neill profited from one such Bell pass to reduce the gap to one, momentum was theirs.
All they had to do now was make it pay.
The introduction of Daniel McKinless was crucial as he was a constant outlet for that short pass, while brother Gareth was growing in influence, arriving at just the right time to level it up.
This was where Stacks really missed O’Connor; without anybody capable of going with the Derry star, he provided the impetus for Ballinderry to hem their illustrious opponents in.
Bell, then Ryan O’Neill after being found by Lawn, moved them two points ahead. From no scores in 32 minutes to five inside eight as the game was turned on its head. Casey, falling over, curled over the kind of score that should have galvanised his side into action.
But now it was they who could find no way through, no room to manoeuvre, a wall of white and blue sending them back up and around in search of space. Ballinderry had broken their hearts.
Lawn was again at the heart of the move that led to Daniel McKinless splitting the posts, and when Ryan Bell let out a roar after making it 0-9 to 0-6, the jig was all but up. Stacks knew it; the Ballinderry supporters in the stand knew it, with Crozier and super-sub McKinless sealing the deal in the dying moments.
Overcoming adversity, forcing themselves back from the brink – even if it didn’t quite reach that stage – has become familiar terrain. They beat the weather, they beat the bookies, now the journey continues.
Back in the early Noughties, the Shamrocks succeeded Crossmolina as All-Ireland senior club champions – a few decades on, a huge step in the right direction awaits for one or other.
“It’s something these guys have been doing all year – they’ve put us through the wringer an awful lot of times, but you can’t question their character and their commitment,” said Bell.
“They just keep going, we said to them at half-time to go out and die with their boots on... you can’t ask much more of a team really, you know?
“People say we’re in a transitional period, but all you have to do is go into that changing room now and that’ll tell you what it means to those lads. It’s been the same all year.
“But look, it’s great and everything else, but once the dust settles there’s no point going to a final if you’re not going to push on and try and win it.”
Ballinderry: B McKinless; A Mullan, O Duffin, R O’Neill; E Devlin, G McKinless (0-1), R Forbes; N O’Donnell, C Crozier (0-2, frees); T Rocks, C O’Neill (0-3, 0-1 free), S McCann, D Lawn (0-1), R Bell (0-2), S Coleman. Subs: D McKinless (0-2, 0-1 mark) for Coleman (34), J Bell for O’Donnell (41), E McCracken for Mullan (60), M Quinn for Lawn (60)
Yellow cards: N O’Donnell (15), D Lawn (30), A Mullan (51)
Austin Stacks: M Tansley; C Griffin, D Casey (0-2), J Nagle (0-1); A Heinrich, J O’Shea, P O’Sullivan; M O’Donnell, R Shanahan; F Mangan, G Horan, D Kirby (0-2); C Purcell, S O’Callaghan, P Lane (0-2, 0-1 free). Subs: E Carroll for O’Callaghan (39), L Casey for O’Donnell (48), D O’Brien for Mangan (48), C Browne for O’Sullivan (51), J Kissane for P Lane (55).
Black card: D Kirby (20-30)
Referee: J Henry (Mayo)
