“The truth be told we had this Ballina team ear-marked as being the team to watch for in this competition. We knew going into the Munster championship that Ballina were probably the strongest team from the rest of the counties,” Gneeveguilla manager Seanie O’Leary states, without a hint of Kerry yerra.
I suppose tradition says the Kerry and Cork clubs do best in the competition but we’d have known about Ballina a bit, certainly since the Mountcollins game,” he says.
Ballina accounted for Limerick champions Mountcollins – in Mountcollins – by 3-12 to 0-3 – and result made Kilcummin native O’Leary take notice, even though his Gneeveguilla team were still a couple of results away from a possible meeting with the Tipperary champions.
“Mountcollins wouldn’t be too far from Brosna and Duagh here in Kerry and I’d have known through them that Mountcollins are a fair team. The big thing for me is the trouncing they gave Mountcollins in that (quarter-final),” O’Leary says.
Ballina had it somewhat tougher against Waterford champions Mount Sion in Borrisoleigh, winning 0-16 to 2-5, but O’Leary points out that the winners had Tipperary football Steven O’Brien sent off early in that game, which puts some context on the final score.
No complacency, then, for Gneeveguilla, despite having beaten a well-rated Boherbue team in their semi-final in Mallow, a venue they return to for Saturday’s Munster Final?
“No, as I said, we’d rate this Ballina team highly, so there’ll be no complacency. Maybe going back to Mallow will be a slight advantage, maybe it won’t. Some people or players when they go on this (provincial) tour they’d like to see new venues, maybe play in the likes of Pairc Ui Chaoimh or Semple Stadium. Mallow is a fine ground, good pitch, I don’t know if it will be a big bonus to us, but that’s where the game is on anyway,” O’Leary says.
The Gneeveguilla manager is delighted to report a fully available squad for the game, but says preparations over Christmas, and since their semi-final win over Boherbue, has been hugely interrupted by Covid complications.
“Like every other club, I’d say, the Covid has hit us hard over the Christmas. We’ve had a few cases but it’s more the close contacts that the self-isolation that has affected us,” O’Leary said. “Maybe it was better to get it out of the way over the Christmas so at least we have everyone available now. After the Boherbue game we gave the lads a week off, but since then we’re only getting them back in dribs and drabs.
“We did everything we could to keep it out but you can see it is everywhere now. We have a couple of lads coming back from isolation this week but we should have everyone available all going well. You just never know.
“We’re looking forward to it. It’s totally different going outside your own county to play. We’ve watched a couple of videos on Ballina – their games were streamed – and they are a good side. They’ve four inter-county players, O’Brien and Willie Connors with Tipperary, though Connors got injured playing against Kerry at the weekend in the hurling so he’s out. They’ve a ex-Limerick footballers and another from Clare. They seem to have picked up a few good footballers from around that area, so we’ll be prepared for a tough challenge.”
