Ballinderry to face Crossmolina in emotional Croke final

Sunday's All-Ireland Intermediate Club Football Final between Derry club Ballinderry and Mayo outfit Crossmolina at Croke Park is certain to be an emotional occasion.

The game was scheduled to take place two weeks ago but was postponed following the tragic death of Róisín Cryan, the fiancee of Crossmolina and Mayo player Conor Loftus.

Having endured tragedies of their own down the years, including the sudden death of 23-year-old player Aaron Devlin from meningitis in 2015, Ballinderry reached out to the Mayo club after the devastating news.

Both agreed that getting the game played was "secondary" as Crossmolina processed their grief.

But following consultations with the Cryan and Loftus families, Crossmolina now feel ready to play although emotions are certain to be raw at Croke Park.

'2001 and 2002 senior champions'

The game will be a meeting between the 2001 and 2002 All-Ireland Senior Club Champions, with Ballinderry having won the latter final by overcoming Nemo Rangers 2-10 to 0-9 in Thurles.

Thus this Ballinderry side has the opportunity to become the first team from the club to win an All-Ireland title at Croke Park.

Ballinderry's run to the intermediate final also featured their semi-final win over another historical football powerhouse in Austin Stacks of Kerry, who clinched the senior crown in 1977.

The Shamrocks outfit's fall into the Derry Intermediate Championship in 2024 was something of a jolt for a club that remains second in the county's all-time roll of honour with 13 senior titles behind Bellaghy's record 21.

However, the largely youthful Ballinderry side summoned an immediate response by winning the Derry intermediate title to regain their senior championship status. They followed that by securing Ulster intermediate honours with victory over last year's All-Ireland Junior champions Arva in the provincial decider.

"You can sit down and huff that you've been put down to the intermediate or you can do what we did, where we had a meeting and everybody looked at each other in the eye and said, 'listen, we're here because of ourselves and it's up to us to get ourselves out of it'," Ballinderry goalkeeper Ben McKinless told BBC Sport NI prior to the news of Róisín Cryan's death.

Keeper McKinless, who was previously part of his county's squad, believes the relative youth of the Ballinderry augurs well for the club re-establishing themselves back as genuine contenders for senior honours in Derry, Ulster and beyond.

Ballinderry's last Derry senior title came in 2013 when they also went on to clinch provincial honours.

"It is good too that the team is so young. You look at the likes of our main players and it is Niall [O'Donnell] and Ruairi [Forbes], Tiernan [Rocks] and Shea [McCann].

"Then you have, I don't want to say older men, but you do have the likes of Darren [Lawn], Ryan [Bell] and Gareth [McKinless], who are carrying you through there as well but it's great to see that our main players throughout the year have been the younger men.

"The men who will carry this team for another 12, 13, 14 years. It's probably something we've been lacking in the last while."

Derry centre half-back and 2023 All-Star McKinless is a cousin of the Ballinderry keeper.

In addition to Conor Loftus, the Crossmolina squad includes another Mayo forward in Jordan Flynn, who has also featured in many big games at headquarters.

Keeper McKinless insisted that Ballinderry's previous glories are not a burden for the current crew.

"Every time you pull the jersey on, you take pride that you're wearing a Ballinderry jersey and that you're representing your club, your community and that you're playing with the boys you grew up and went to school with," he said.

"You're playing in front of people who watched you grow up as well."

Goalkeeper Mickey Conlan was a particular hero of McKinless after playing in the 2002 All-Ireland winning side who also included the likes of Enda Muldoon, Kevin McGuckin and Conleith Gilligan plus Gerard Cassidy and Declan Bateson who hit the goals in the final victory at Semple Stadium.

"You watched them playing football as well as you grew up. The likes of big Enda, Kevin McGuckin….big Mickey C as well.

"I grew up idolising him as a goalkeeper and obviously now, it's nice to emulate some of the success as a goalkeeper as well."