Ballyhale determined to make most of second chance

IT WAS a day of biblical storms and tempests, but you don’t have to take our word for it.

TJ Reid of Ballyhale Shamrocks was one of the unfortunate players left half-drowned by the rain in Nowlan Park last Sunday, when their Kilkenny SHC final clash with James Stephens ended all square. The going underfoot was marshy and even the pictures you saw on TG4 were fogged by raindrops.

Reid is in no doubt about how bad it was, and he has plenty of evidence to back up his opinion.

“It was the worst day I can remember ever playing, anyway,” said Reid.

“!It was very hard even when you had the wind behind you – keeping a grip of the hurley was very difficult, and against the wind it was worse.

“We would have missed five or six chances against the wind in the second half, which didn’t help, while you saw at one stage that Henry Shefflin couldn’t rise the ball for a free, and the same for the Hurler of the Year, Michael Fennelly. He couldn’t make contact with one ball when he tried to hit it.

“That’ll tell you how bad it was down on ground level.”

Hey, it was no joke in the press box either...

“I’d feel sorry for ye. In fairness, it was the same for James Stephens, they were playing in the same weather, but we got out of jail.”

Getting out of jail is a fair summary. James Stephens’ late goal from Mark Walton gave them a vital push in the closing stages, and they had their noses in front deep in injury time thanks to an Eoin Larkin point. The feeling in Nowlan Park was that favourites Ballyhale were about to make a pretty dramatic exit.

Did their centre-forward feel the same way?

“I did, the thought was certainly in my head, ‘we’re gone’, but we kept plugging away,” says Reid.

“Late on Mark Aylward won a great ball out on the wing, fair play to him, and then Colin Fennelly got onto it and won the free. And fair dues to Henry, there was some pressure on Henry to put it over the bar, when he got the free, but he did it.

“I only watched it again on video the other night, and one of the James Stephens lads looked like he ran in front of him to block the free, but he still managed to put it over the bar.”

Ballyhale haven’t done a whole lot this week; there’s not a lot of room to maneouvre in six days.

“We got together earlier in the week to get a swim in the pool, a recovery session, and we did a bit Wednesday night, another puck-around on Friday and a chat.”

The general view is that a firmer sod and better weather this weekend should endorse Ballyhale’s standing as favourites, but Reid isn’t buying that one. He points out that James Stephens weren’t slow to grab the initiative once they had a scent of victory.

“People weren’t giving The Village a chance before last Sunday, but we’d know well from playing them in years gone by that when we play them in the championship, if we beat them it’d only be by a couple of points.

“They’re a physical, tough team, very good in the air, and in the last five minutes the last day, once they got the goal they drove on and we were on the back foot.

“Look, when all is said and done it’s a county final, and they’re not going to just turn up and make up the numbers – they never were, not with the likes of Jackie Tyrrell and Eoin Larkin driving the thing.

“We’re glad to get the second chance and we’re determined to get over the line ourselves tomorrow.”