Ballintubber boss Johnson relishing challenge of retaining Mayo title

KEVIN Johnson looks like a man at ease with himself and the world. A man enjoying his work with Ballintubber.

And why wouldn't he be. In his first year with the club he won a county senior title.

But he does accept that the pressure is now on Ballintubber as defenders of the crown, which brought to mind that line from Henry the IV: 'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.'

"That's what comes with the territory when you are champions. We are the target now this year but we're back in the final and it is a great place to be, and that was always the aim," he said

The Sligo native (Eastern Harps is his club) teaches in Salthill but relishes the journey to Ballintubber for training and for matches.

"They are a brilliant club to work with, very professional. There is always a buzz at training and what I enjoy most is watching some of the new players learning from the older ones, while I myself am always learning. They really are a joy to work with as a team and a club."

Johnson was new to the Ballintubber set-up when he took over the reins from Tony Duffy and came in at a time when they club were rebuilding.

It was his first big challenge at senior management as up to then it had been a coaching role to various team, and he knew Ballintubber were up there when it came to the Mayo championship. He was up for the challenge

"I suppose we freshened things up last year and that was a big help in winning the title and hopefully that will work again this year as we have some good young players coming through.

"That has continued this year with new players developing, and that infusion of pace and youth was vital in this year's championship.

"They are blending in with the older club players, and, of course, the guys who play county bring that other dimension with their vast experience, so I'd like to think we have struck a very healthy balance."

Their semi-final win over Ballina was a strange game. Were Ballintubber as composed as they appeared to be?

"I think we set ourselves up well. We were well organised and coming into the game we had a lot of the work done and I suppose were composed and patient because we knew what this young Ballina team would bring having seen that performance against Breaffy, where they played some great football.

"From a Ballintubber point of view it was about making sure we didn't concede anything early and stay with them.

"The the most important thing was to take our chances and there was a five-minute period at the end of the first half that we got three scores, which probably flattered us a small bit. We went in 0-5 to 0-2 when it could have been a bit closer," was his honest assessment.

At the end of the day it was about working hard and getting the job done in their semi-final.

"I think we worked very hard and brought a real honesty to our game,” Kevin added. “We brought the fight and focus to it all in the two weeks leading up to it trying to improve areas of our game that didn't work as well against Belmullet.

"The focus was really on Ballintubber and we always believed if we maximised our potential and we worked hard we would bring a big game and get a big game out of our lads and the first 20 minutes - although we only scored two points - worked really well and we were on it, making good turnovers."

But when you talk about Ballintubber, the word ‘experience’ invariably dominates the discussion.

"We have a lot of experience and top inter-county footballers with Cillian (O’Connor) up there in the full-forward line and we have Alan Dillon and Alan Plunkett, who have been around a long time, while Diarmuid (O'Connor) and Jason (Gibbons) know the ropes.

"What we have tried to work on is that we have found new players and a lot of credit must go to the club coaches at underage. I'm lucky to be the senior manager.

"Last year Ciaran Gavin was coming from the minor set-up and he brings a lot of pace. This year we got Noel Geraghty, who brings a lot of pace and energy, and the likes of Jamsie Finnerty, who started the Connaught club final last year.

Kevin also had the luxury of being able to watch their prospective opponents in the semi-final having already booked their place in the decider.

"It was lovely to be in the county final and watch the other semi-final. I expected a good battle. Ballaghaderreen got a good start and once they went five up they were going to be hard to catch.

"They have loads of pace and energy and a lovely balance of youth and experience, so this is going to be a hard team to contain and break down."

However, Johnson says it is all about focusing on your own game.

"We focus an awful lot of work on ourselves and back ourselves - obviously you have got to be aware of what your opponents will do but we'll be backing ourselves and hopefully get a good start."