Ballina would have a big enough pick.
A lot of new houses built around there in the last 20 years.
Was it definitely their senior team, or a weakened version of it?
Hack must have notions. Good to win anyway.
Is Willie back or?
Or.
Iād say heās unlikely for the first run of games.
The Junior goes on into October does it? Hopefully he makes it back at some point this year; ye probably have a chance of going alright if yeāre actually playing challenges & doing the odd training?
Weāve an okay team with everyone. Need Willie fit to do anything major though.
The football kills us really. No one else will have much done this year though, so could be the leveller we need
Huge fall off from underage though for whatever reason.
Ballina were always a small club who would have been C divisions under age and the odd time crept up to B for a long time and would have been a middling enough intermediate team for a most of their history. Their numbers have grown considerably in the last decade and have a nice set up and pitch and this is probably as good a side as they have had in a long time. Donāt think they ever had a hurler play senior championship hurling for Tipp until Breen and OāBrien came along.
Iād have remembered them underage playing B as ballina/Ballinahinch at a time when combos had to play A. They have huge numbers coming in as beginners the last few years.
In the 2000s when Smith OāBriens were going well they used to play each other every year in a challenge match as part of the Brian Boru festival. From what I remember Ballina beat them more often than not.
Shane OāBrien moving to Newmarket was a big blow in the mid 2000s.
What was that all about again?
He was an odd enough sort. Think he had family roots in Newmarket and boarded in Flannanās. Played minor hurling and football for Tipp and I think even made an underage International rules squad which went to Australia for a tour. Transferred to Newmarket who were winning everything an minor and under 21s in Clare when he was around 20 and played for the Clare under 21 hurlers and Newmarket seniors for a few years. Assume he saw it as a potential gateway to playing senior intercounty and Newmarket looked like a coming force and were probably a bigger carrot than slogging away for an intermediate side going nowhere.
Come to think of it I think Darragh Egan also played in that Aussie Rules tour, he was an excellent minor hurler and footballer. Too tall and too strong for your average 17 or 18 year old.
Also played football with Doonbeg as an isolated player with that Ronan Goode from Cork that was playing for NoF
Christ I used to hate that Ronan Goode, as sly a lad as you could meet on a field. Newmarket used to have another lad in around midfield with him OāHanlon who was an awful hot head who would turn into a complete liability as soon as his man would start getting the better of him
That mid 2000s crop from Newmarket were box office.
They were a grand group off the field for the most part but had three or four lads who were complete shapers which would mean that you would never lack motivation against them.
Plus their āsupportersā were the biggest shower of shaved apes i have ever seen who expected that group to be a dominate as the 60s and 70s teams and would turn on their own players as soon as the going got tough at all. No wonder most of them would rather play soccer these days.
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The new normal.
ā¬10 to watch a live streamed game on the Tipp website.
Jesus its even more depressing when laid out like that. Lads who give their life to helping out with the club relying on Twitter updates
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Itās the anti climax that fellas were given a bit of hope a few weeks ago that thereād be a few Club games to look forward to on summer evenings, now to be told, āsorry lads, download Twitter and weāll give ye a few updatesā.
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Thereās auld lads in every single club in the country, some of them bachelors, and their social life revolves around the club, going to matches and then off for a few pints after win, lose or draw.
Awful for them to be denied that enjoyment. And most of them wouldnāt know what twitter is.
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