Ballymac GAA 4-15 (27)
Austin Stacks GAA 1-16 (19)
Our Minor team played Austin Stacks GAA in the Final of the County League Division 1 competition on a mostly sunny/blustery evening in John Mitchells pitch on Friday Evening, August 8th, in front of a big crowd where the Ballymac contingent were in fine voice to support our lads.
In the opening period, it was Austin Stacks who found the early momentum with an early goal and a two-pointer effort giving them a 6 point advantage midway through the first half. However, as the half progressed, our lads clawed our way back into it with a fine two pointer effort from Jack Joy and with the ever-industrious Máirtín McKivergan finding the back of the net with a well taken effort to bring us back all square. The men from the rock responded with a fine two pointer to give them a two-point advantage following on from our goal. Michael Quirke produced two fine scores towards the interval, but Stacks showed resilience to find a number of scores of their own to go in 1-11 to 1-09 ahead at the break.
The second period remained nip & tuck for the first 10 minutes with Stacks continuing to hold onto their advantage, but Ballymac remained in touch with scores from Jack Joy, Gearoid Healy, Eoghan Joy and also from the eventual Man of the Match, Michael Quirke. But, as the old cliché goes, “Goals win Games” and it was our Captain Ciarán O’Connell who found the bottom right corner to score our first of 3×3 pointers in the second half. This was followed up by a beautifully fisted effort by the impact sub, Luke Griffin from a high ball into the square. Our third came from the penalty spot which was calmly slotted into the bottom right corner by the impressive Jack Joy. Ballymac ran out well deserved winners by eight points.
The fulltime scenes will live long in the memory as our Captain Ciarán O’Connell accepted the Minor Division 1 trophy on behalf of the team, management and club overall. In his acceptance speech, Ciarán mentioned Luke Silles RIP and how he was our driving force from the heavens in the last 15 minutes. The players, each and every one of them, have been a credit both on and off the field to themselves, their families and to the club as a whole in recent months. Our management are immensely proud of them and so should the club as a whole.
Over the course of this county league campaign, we scored nineteen goals and conceded only three over the five games so, immense appreciation to all the lads, the panel, the sixteen’s who contributed immensely to this victory and also to the immense support we received from young and old alike. The future of our club is indeed very bright!
Ballymac Abú!!!
Jack Joy (1-06) Michael Quirke (0-4) Máirtín McKivergan (1-01) Ciarán O’Connell (1-00) Luke Griffin (1-00) Padraig Reidy (0-01) Eoghan Joy (0-01) Gearoid Healy (0-2)
