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There is not much time to rest in the east Mayo town of Ballyhaunis these days, fresh off the back of county title success for the intermediate footballers and senior hurlers the small matter of Connacht success is up for grabs for both teams over the next few weeks.

Twelve months ago, the blue devils from Tooreen ended a 10 year famine, with an unexpected and devastating victory over Ballyhaunis in the Mayo Senior Hurling Championship final. Their 4-10 to 1-6 win over their near rivals ended a decade of hurt, where for eight of the previous nine years the TJ Tyrrell Cup spent the winter with their near neighbours. It was an emotional victory for the men from Tooreen, with Kenny Feeney leading the way scoring 3-6 over the 60 minutes, with man-of-the-match, Cathal Freeman, chipping in with three points from midfield.

Twelve months ago, the blue devils from Tooreen ended a 10 year famine, with an unexpected and devastating victory over Ballyhaunis in the Mayo Senior Hurling Championship final. Their 4-10 to 1-6 win over their near rivals ended a decade of hurt, where for eight of the previous nine years the TJ Tyrrell Cup spent the winter with their near neighbours. It was an emotional victory for the men from Tooreen, with Kenny Feeney leading the way scoring 3-6 over the 60 minutes, with man-of-the-match, Cathal Freeman, chipping in with three points from midfield.

One was once the name to beat in hurling for years and the other has taken up that mantle and is going in search of its sixth Mayo senior championship in a row. The TJ Tyrell cup has wintered in Tooreen 26 times in the past, but it has been ten years since it last headed in that direction and since 2008 he has made his home in Ballyhaunis. On Sunday in Ballyhaunis at 2pm both sides will meet once again in the Mayo senior hurling championship final.

They will go in as the underdogs on Saturday, having never claimed the senior championship title, but Martin Brennan’s charges from the west coast served fair warning last weekend when toppling one of the two east Mayo giants of the small ball game in the county. The narrowest of margins was all that separated Westport when they saw off Tooreen in McHale Park at the semi-final stage on a scoreline of 1-13 to 1-12. But were it not for a late long range goal from Kenny Feeney for the vanquished side, the gap would have been more comfortable for the former Mayo manager’s side. Stephen Broderick was the main man for Westport, scoring eight points for his side in the semi-final and they will need big performances from him along with the likes of Eoin Madigan, Rory Brennan, and Adrian Connolly if they are to knock Ballyhaunis off their perch.

They have been here before so often, and while familiarity can lead to things becoming stale, there will be nothing stale about the action on the field on Sunday when Ballyhaunis and Torreen get to grips with each other in the Mayo senior hurling final. The game which throws in at 3pm in Ballyhaunis has the makings of another classic, both of these giants of Mayo hurling have been the standard bearers for the small game in the county for decades now.

According to the AA route finder only 4.9 miles separate Tooreen and Ballyhaunis from each other. On Saturday afternoon Tooreen will make that short trip to face their neighbours in the county senior hurling final at 4pm. Tooreen were the standard bearers of Mayo hurling for a long time before the past decade which has seen Ballyhaunis steal their mantle as hurling kings of Mayo. The Ballyhaunis men will be appearing in their seventh final in succession and will be looking for their fifth title in six years, their four in a row bid was stopped last year by James Stephen’s Ballina, who themselves were dispatched from the competition by Tooreen last weekend in a semi-final replay.

A little over six months on since they tasted a defeat of the bitterest kind to swallow, the Mayo senior hurling side will be getting back into competitive action this weekend. With a place in the final in their grasp a late surge from Carlow saw Mayo lose their footing on their home patch, and with it a chance to make it to the final of the second tier competition. Seeing their chance to appear in the Christy Ring Cup final slip through their fingers in McHale Park against Carlow late last July will have left the Mayo squad eager to put things to right in 2009.

Having previously announced that they would be stepping aside at the end of this season, the carrot of playing in next season’s All Ireland senior championship would tempt Mayo management team of Martin Brennan and Pete Finnerty to stay on for another season according to Brennan. Standing in Mayo’s way of achieving that goal are seven other sides and the competition will begin in earnest this weekend.

“Nobody will remember getting to a quarter final, you only remember the winners.” Martin Brennan has had a pep in his step this week following on from seeing his side overcome Westmeath in last weekend’s Christy Ring Cup losers play-off in Westport. This weekend Mayo have a short trip to Athleague in Roscommon to face Kildare in the second tier competition in what Brennan says is “as close a home game as you can get, we’ve played there a number of times down the year and a lot of the Ballyhaunis and Tooreen lads have played plenty of hurling down there through the years”.