‘We’re in bonus territory’ - Mealiff on Slashers clash
By Daire Walsh
While their main target for the year was achieved at Bretland Park in Clara earlier this month, Roisin Mealiff and Ballinamere/Durrow are looking to embrace every moment of their extended club championship journey in 2026.
Courtesy of a 3-8 to 0-14 victory over Naomh Ciarán, Ballinamere/Durrow retained their PTSB Offaly LGFA senior title on October 4. After coming up short to the impressively-drilled Meath champions Dunshaughlin Royal Gaels at the quarter-final stage in last year’s competition, the Faithful representatives were hoping to make a bigger splash in the Leinster senior club series this time around.
They managed to do just that on their home patch of Durrow GAA last weekend with team captain Mealiff contributing 1-1 from centre half-back in a 4-10 to 3-8 preliminary round triumph over St Conleth’s of Laois. This sets them up for an immediate return to Durrow tomorrow afternoon (Sunday, 2pm) in the last-eight of the provincial top-tier against Longford Slashers.
“Everything is an added bonus. It’s only our second time to win the Offaly championship, so that is still kind of fresh in our minds. We don’t really look too far beyond the Offaly championship. Offaly is definitely our main target and it will be for another few years,” Mealiff explained.
“We’re in bonus territory, but at the same time when you get the taste of winning, you want to keep going. We won the championship last year obviously and we were out to the Meath champions, so we got a hard deal.
“We’ve no doubt we’ve a big challenge ahead of us. They [Longford Slashers] have lots of experience. Probably outside of Offaly we don’t have that much experience, but it’s at home. We’re obviously used to playing in Durrow and we’re a young team. We have no fear. We’ll just put our best foot forward and hopefully we can get a result.”
The past few seasons have been a story of significant progression for the reigning county champions, who were only founded 14 years ago as an LGFA amalgamation of Ballinamere and Durrow.
In their first appearance in a senior championship final in 2024, Ballinamere/Durrow ultimately came up short to Naomh Ciarán. The latter had been a dominant force within Offaly for a number of years, but Mealiff and her club colleagues eventually overcame their challenge to secure an historic senior title a little over 12 months ago.
Backing up that success by retaining their crown in Bretland Park was another substantial milestone, but Mealiff (whose sister Meadhbh is the team's goalkeeper) acknowledges that final defeat in 2024 proved to be a major learning curve for a young team.
“That day, it was a tough day, but I think as players we learnt a lot from that,” she said.
“We’ve been in the final the last three years. We got beaten against Naomh Ciarán the first year and then we played them the last two years as well. I think we matured massively and we’re continuing to mature as games go on.
“Naomh Ciarán have been the standard bearers in Offaly football for as long as I can remember. I think competing with them, you learn a lot as well. We’ve just been lucky the last two years that we got the better of them, thank God.”
Now 24, Mealiff was first drafted into the Offaly senior panel at the tender age of 16. She slowly built up experience within the inter-county ranks and appeared as a substitute when Offaly defeated Limerick to claim the Lidl National Football League Division 4 crown in 2022.
While she did take a break from the panel in recent times, this year saw Mealiff returning to the Offaly fold under manager Gavan Doyle. She was joined in the group by six of her Ballinamere/Durrow teammates and although they agonisingly missed out on a spot in the semi-finals of the TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship on scoring difference, she is optimistic about the future of ladies football in Offaly.
“I took two years out maybe. I had an injury with my back and then I was in college. So it was just kind of hectic. I went back in this year. I think after winning the final too [with Ballinamere/Durrow] it was a good platform; you want to just keep building. I was happy to go back in this year and we had a good year,” she said.
“I think it was just all about rebuilding the group. I know the girls had a tough year last year, but Gavan and his team have done well this year. I think their main objective was to just get girls back and enjoying football. They definitely seemed to do that. Hopefully we can kick off now, off the platform we built last year.”
Even though she was back on the Offaly panel this year, life away from the pitch continued to be quite hectic for Mealiff. As part of her course in Midwifery at Dundalk Institute of Technology, she was doing internships in Cavan and Drogheda from January to August – leaving her with a sizeable commute to and from inter-county training.
There were a number of occasions when she wasn’t able to attend collective sessions, but she was able to commit to football and college work thanks to a strong understanding from both sides. Set to graduate next week, Mealiff is currently on the lookout for a new position and is hopeful she can be based relatively close to her home base in Durrow.
“I finished there at the end of August. I was doing my internship from January to August just gone. That was probably another tough part of this year with Offaly, but Gavan and the lads were understanding as well. I would have been doing shift work, so I would have been doing nights, weekends,” Mealiff remarked.
“They were understanding as well in the hospital and I could change my days to work around matches. I definitely wasn’t at every training session. I was honest with Gavan at the start, I said ‘I will be missing some’, but it didn’t affect it too much,” she added.