Shamrocks determined to put an end to 15-year drought

IT’S taken a full generation, but Ballyhale Shamrocks are back.

15 years after winning their last Kilkenny senior hurling title, 15 years after they had enjoyed over a decade of dominance in Kilkenny (nine titles in 12 years, three All-Ireland club crowns), the boys from Ballyhale/Knocktopher/Knockmoylan are back knocking on the door.

Tomorrow, in the final of what many would argue is the most competitive hurling championship in the country, they face experienced city side O’Loughlin Gaels. Despite their lack of success, they do so as favourites.

“Only slight favourites though,” says Shamrocks manager and former star Maurice Aylward.

“The two local papers here, the People and the Voice, are split, though the inter-county hurlers are breaking down around 60/40 in our favour, Eddie O’Connor, Adrian Ronan and DJ Carey went for us, Charlie Carter and someone else went for O’Loughlin’s.”

The reason the Shamrocks are favoured is simple enough; like Erin’s Own, recently crowned champions in Cork, they have had a hot spell at underage.

Aylward continued: “We’ve won the last three U21 titles in a row, will be there or thereabouts again this year for the fourth. But those lads are still only coming, really. We have Henry Shefflin, Aidan Cummins, and a nephew of mine, Bob, they’re around 27, 28, but there’s a big gap then back to the next lot, at around 22. A lot of people don’t appreciate that we have only three experienced men there, the rest are all young fellas, some of them as young as 18. We have Cha (Fitzpatrick, U21 and senior All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny this year), he’s taking on more and more responsibility for us, the Reid brothers (Paddy, Eoin and impressive youngster TJ, another U21 star), the two Fennellys (Michael and Colin with the Kilkenny minors, sons of Michael senior, one of seven Fennelly brothers from the golden era), there’s young Mark (another Aylward), but these are all young fellas. Against that, O’Loughlin’s have the Comerfords, Andy and Martin, they have Brian Hogan, the Dowlings, all intercounty men, plus Alan Geoghegan and Maurice Nolan, who both played U21 for Kilkenny. The difference is they’re more experienced altogether. They won in 2001 and 2003, and they’ve been knocking on the door every year since. We haven’t won a county title since 1991, and this is still a very young team.”

Not an easy thing to do, in Kilkenny hurling. “No, every competition is hard won in Kilkenny. There’s very little between the top five or six teams. Every year they set out with the ambition of winning the county title, the other five or six are all hoping to improve and get themselves into a better position for next year. But the three city teams, plus ourselves, Tullaroan, Dunamaggin, Fenians, all very ambitious every year.

“It’s whittled down to two now. We’ve been favourites all along but we haven’t been hurling that well. Last year we flew through everything, won the semi-final by nine points — which didn’t reflect the way that game went, I have to say — but this year we’ve had to dig out the results.

“We’ve been finding it very hard to put a good 60 minutes together. Our semi-final wasn’t great (a four-point win over Dunamaggin), but neither was the other semi-final (O’Loughlin’s inflicted the first Kilkenny championship defeat in 35 months on champions James Stephens).

“But semi-finals are there to be won, to get to the final, and we did that. The quarter-final between ourselves and Carrickshock was probably one of the best games of hurling played in Kilkenny in the last 25 years, from Carrickshock in the first half, from us in the second — it was absolutely brilliant hurling.”

Unfortunately for Maurice, both himself and his brother Pat missed all those glory years with the club, Wearing the tracksuit is the next best thing, however, and 15 years on, he has Ballyhale Shamrocks again on the brink. “I’m happy with the weather, we’re after getting it fine now for a week, which you can’t really expect in November, and a dry day will suit us. They’re the experienced team, we’re the younger team; we might have slightly the better hurlers, they’re probably a stronger unit, who work hard for each other and are very physical and strong.

“Our game will be try to open them up and move the ball, and if we play like we played in the second half of the quarter-final against Carrickshock, I’d be hopeful. We have a great chance.”

Ironically, having carried the team more or less on his own broad shoulders for the past five or six years, less is expected these days of Henry Shefflin, one of hurling’s true superstars, as he continues his own quest for one of the few honours to have eluded him.

With all that young talent supporting him, Henry can afford to relax a little into his own game. If he succeeds, if he can find his own rhythm, then Shamrocks will be on their way.

One way or another it will be hard won, this one, just as it ought to be in the county of the All-Ireland champions.