Breaffy know they have it all to do to reach Mayo GAA’s promised land

SPORT rarely follows favoured Hollywood scripts but as Breaffy Banisteoir Konrad Coghill accepts from the outside, the stars are beginning to align in the west Mayo club’s direction.

The club is celebrating its 70th anniversary. Their manager was club captain in 2003 and lifted the McDonnell Cup, and since then the club has never looked back.

A consistent senior side over the last 19 years, they straddled underdog status throughout all of 2023 and overcame a fancied Westport side with apparent ease in the quarterfinal.

In their ranks is Gaelic football’s greatest leading man, Aidan O’Shea, but as he stresses post-match on each occasion, it’s the supporting cast of Breaffy GAA that wins them games.

Michael Hall, an All-Ireland winner with the Mayo minors, sits in the Dr. Mickey Loftus Suite in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park evidently buzzing as he represented his club on the press night.

A product manager with Flutter Entertainment, the wing-back delightfully explains what being a club man is all about: “People at work think I’m crazy, travelling the length and breadth of the country for training. They’re from rugby backgrounds and just don’t get it at all.”

Hall adds: “It keeps me on the straight and narrow.”

But there’s a sentimentality too.

“I remember back during the anniversary celebrations, the planting of trees for people who are volunteers and who don’t get the same attention as players or managers but are so important to the community, as well as ex-players.

A lot of the lads I played with in 2013 were there on the pitch that day too; they came into my head after the final whistle the last day.”

Behind every successful team is an ensemble of devotees, carrying the can for the on-field talent to flourish.

A club with players all over the country, whether it be Limerick, Dublin or Galway, training sessions each Wednesday in Athlone during the championship have helped ease the burden of travel on Coghill’s tight-knit unit.

A block of training along the banks of the Shannon is much more glamorous than 'beginning in January in the muck, wind and rain in Ballyheane', Dáire Morrin tells me.

On the leading actor, Aidan O’Shea, both Hall and Morrin gush with pride in letting people know what club they play for. “You tell them Breaffy, and 'Oh that’s O’Shea’s club, what’s he like?' is the guaranteed response.”

Morrin, another of Breaffy’s conveyor belt of talent, remarks: “The Aidan O’Shea you see in games is the exact same in training.”

Essentially, he’s a club man. “He probably doesn’t get the amount of recognition he deserves, whether it be spending time presenting medals in our club and other clubs across the county, ” said Hall.

A veteran at this stage, Hall knows Ballina will provide a stern test in Sunday's county senior final.

There’s a thirst for revenge, as losing to the Stephenites in the first round of the championship hurt, but Coghill accepts that was a different encounter.

“The conditions were brutal and we didn’t give it our all that day,” he recalls.

Quick to take ownership, Coghill praises the north Mayo outfit. “They’re a serious team, with Callinan, O’Hora and young Feeney on the edge of the square.”

The current crop of inter-county stars in ‘Heffo’s army’ has been ably aided by the experienced heads of David Clarke, Ger Cafferkey and Evan Regan, a trio that seem to have turned back the clock during this year’s white heat encounters.

For Breaffy however, it’s bizarre to bill them as underdogs, with their All-Stars Mattie Ruane and Aidan O’Shea in tow, but Ballina is still viewed as a steelier foe having outmanoeuvred Knockmore and Belmullet in the knockouts by slim but all-important margins.

But you wouldn’t bet against Breaffy. After all, it is their birthday.

Konrad Coghill asserts: “Unfortunately, the championship is way more ruthless than that and doesn’t care if Breaffy GAA is 70 or three this year. The bottom line is we have to go and win the Moclair Cup, then we can talk about scripts, bonfires and bashes thereafter.”

For experienced Stephenites full-back Ger Cafferkey, the dour semi-final against neighbours Knockmore was a game that, subconciously, both teams didn't want to lose.

He says: “We were lucky that we got two two-pointers – two points in quick succession – and I think that was the difference between the teams. Other than that it was very tight.”

On the year so far, the former Mayo player asserts: “A lot of the league for us was just getting our feet back under the table after last year, and building again and getting some new players blooded. It was relatively successful. We had a disappointing end to it, but for us it was all about development.

“So far in the championship it's much the same. It's all about getting better. The two-week breaks are great. We're just trying to tweak something every two weeks. It's a nice little gap between games. It's better than week on week.”

After losing last year's final to Westport, what could tip the balance this year for Ballina?

“Hopefully just a small bit more experience throughout the panel,” says Cafferkey.

“For most of my senior career we were fighting a relegation battle. Even the experienced members of the team, most of us hadn't been at that stage before (in a final).

We've a couple of players in Liam Golden and Luke Feeney who haven't been at this level before, so they've added fresh blood too.”

Breaffy versus Ballina Stephenites in the Connacht Gold Mayo Senior Football Championship final throws in at 4 p.m. in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park next Sunday (October 29).