Ballina’s All Ireland League season began on a disappointing note on Saturday in Heffernan Park, but the display from the home side was much better than the scoreline suggests. It was a day when decisions certainly did not go Ballina’s way but, hopefully over the course of the season, that will right itself.
An early penalty for Corinthians awarded by referee Henry Richmond, who was to become the game’s dominant character, for a Ballina player venturing offside at a ruck allowed Corinthians full back Simon Keller the opportunity to kick the Galway men in front.
A fine break followed by Ballina when Laurence Leonard took clean possession at a lineout. Damian Togher and Kieran Lindsay combined well to put Luke Sweeney into space and the Crofton Park man galloped into space in the midfield. The ball was recycled well by the Ballina pack and the next phase looked promising with Lindsay, Bradkey Nealon and Chris O’Neill making further inroads. Unfortunately the final pass to Darragh Whyte was adjudged forward with the line at his mercy and a gilt-edged opportunity was missed.
O’Neill then received a yellow card for a high tackle reducing Ballina to 14 players.
The Ballina boys raised their game and some fine drives by Aiden McNulty, Conor Mason and Fergal Tully kept Ballina’s positive momentum. However, deprived of a player in the backline, the Corinthians outhalf, Mark McDermott kicked a crossfield kick to stretch the Ballina defence. Cathal Evans fielded it wide on the right and although he appeared to have been tackled brilliantly into touch by Darragh Whyte, Evans lobbed the ball back infield where the onrushing winger Michael O’Reilly sprinted over to score leaving Ballina with a 0-8 deficit.
Ballina centre partnership was restored when O’Neill rejoined Ronan Molloy and the home side benefitted from a great ruck clean out by Leonard assisted by John Keaveney and Shane Clarke to make another assault on the Corinthian line. A high tackle on Lindsay went unpunished by referee Richmond, Ballina got too narrow on the right and a knock-on allowed Corinthians to exit unscathed from the first half with an eight-point lead.
A pushover try for Corinthians early in the second half proved ominous, extending their lead to 13 points and Ballina rang the changed. Young guns, Dylan Prendergast, Evan Ferguson, Mark Walker and Liam Jones were brought into the fray. Ferguson made an immediate impact with a trademark tackle resulting in a turnover to Ballina. Prendergast released Henry Hewson who supplied the flying Joe Murphy who made significant ground, Lindsay, in support carried it forward, his pass found O’Neill who was cruising through only to be caught by a last gasp tackle by Corinthians full back Keller.
A break by Corinthians winger Adi Donovan through a rejigged Ballina midfield saw the powerful winger make significant ground until tackled brilliantly by Whyte. However the momentum was with Corinthians and the recycled ball was moved left to second-row, Colin Raftery who was standing on the wing to score in the corner and extend the lead to 18.
Some thundering tackles by Billy McVann, Liam Jones and Laurence Leonard kept Ballina in the game in the final quarter before an ambitious cross-field kick by Prendergast looked to unlock the Corinthians defence, but unfortunately it drifted into touch.
Ballina tried to force the issue as time ticked away but handling errors allowed Corinthians to set another attack where winger Michael O’Reilly was the net beneficiary getting in for another try which Keller converted to leave 25 between them at the end.
The home side were very disappointed leaving the field. The hard work done in preseason was not reflected on the scoreboard and emotions were raw, however on mature reflection, the Moy boys will take a lot of lessons from the game and will look to produce a much-different result on Saturday week.
BALLINA: D Whyte, B Nealon, C O’Neill, R Molloy, J Murphy, K Lindsay, D Togher; C Mason, B McVann, S Clarke, H Hewson, M Feeley, F Tully, L Leonard, L Sweeney
Replacements; M Walker, E Ferguson, A McNulty, L Jones, D Prendergast