St. Ciaran's and Castlebar Mitchels take centre stage in Mayo B hurling final

The county senior B final clash between Castlebar Mitchels and new boys on the block, St. Ciaran's, may be the undercard of this year’s county hurling deciders, but there is no shortage of enthusiasm from both teams in terms at the prospect of winning a title.

The arrival of St. Ciaran’s – which is an amalgamation of seven junior hurling clubs in the county (Ballina, Ballyvary, Caiseal Gaels, Gaeltacht Iorrais, Westport and Claremorris) – has brought the number of senior clubs in the county to four, thus ensuring the competing teams had at least three games each in the group stage.

Both St. Ciaran’s and Mitchels knew their fate was always likely to be sealed before they faced off with both Tooreen and Ballyhaunis, the dominant forces in senior hurling for the last 20 years in particular.

However, senior is where they want to be, as Castlebar Mitchels selector John Waldron pointed out at press night ahead of the final on Saturday (October 21) in Westport (throw-in 3.30 p.m.).

“The gap between Tooreen, Ballyhaunis and ourselves is huge but there are encouraging signs to suggest that can change, though it will take a lot of time and a lot of effort,” said John, who is part of a three-man team with John Enright and manager Mark Deeley.

These are hurling men through and through, and already the green shoots are beginning to appear, with Castlebar winning the junior B title by beating Caiseal Gaels in what turned out to be cracking final.

“Look, we knew this is a big step up but we have a lot of young players coming through, particularly at Under 21 level, which includes a good few minors, and given time I think these lads will mature and prosper,” said John.

Castlebar have already beaten St. Ciaran’s in the first round of the senior championship but John expects the final can go either way. Yet you sense this is one game that Castlebar – who reached a county senior title only four years ago when they lost out to Tooreen (0-18 to 1-13) – want to win.

Taking on the major task of whipping blokes from junior clubs from all over the county into a senior championship team is Sean McGahon from the Moytura club.

He knows only too well it is going to be long haul but he has broad shoulders and smiles when I asked him if he felt this was going to be a huge challenge given the dominance and experience that Tooreen and Ballyhaunis have established over the years.

Said Sean: “The most important thing is that we have a great bunch of committed players and that’s always a good start. But I’m relishing it and so are the lads.”

He added: “Patience is going to be just as important as training and learning, and it will take a few years for this lads to get to improve as a team.”

McGahon believes the loss of Adrian Hession as GPO to hurling in Mayo was huge as he had been responsible for so many of these junior clubs emerging, clubs who now have provided players to form the senior club that is now St. Ciaran’s.

“Adrian (Hession) is a huge loss as he did enormous work in promoting and developing underage hurling and in many ways is responsible for so many of the junior clubs that have emerged under his tenure,” said Sean.

He feels the tragedy is that hurling will lose out and this is something that should be addressed sooner rather than later.

On the clash with Castlebar, Sean said he is looking forward to it and expects his team will have learned a lot from not just losing to Castlebar in the opening round, but also taking some heavy beatings from both Tooreen and Ballyhaunis.

“At end of the day it is a great learning curve for us,” he said.

That was a view shared by Kealan Gallager, who is one of a number of Westport players on the St. Ciaran’s team.

“The senior championship gave us the opportunity to extend our season as the junior league and championship were over,” he said.

He knew the challenge they were facing. “I’m 23 and one of the older members of team as we have a lot of lads who are just 18 and 19, so given time we can only get better and better as a group,” said Kealan.

He expects a much improved performance from their opening game when they lost to Mitchels by four points.

Added Kealan: “We will come on from that game and from further training sessions together as the team gels more. So we are really looking forward to have another crack at Castlebar.”