Underdog tag is irrelevant, says Fergal Hartley, as Gunners target final spot

Tomorrow evening the big guns roll into Thurles.

Ballyhale Shamrocks face off against Ballygunner in the All-Ireland club senior hurling semi-final (Semple Stadium, 5pm). The Kilkenny side top the roll of honour with six All-Ireland titles while it’s only the second time the Waterford club have made it out of Munster.

But Ballygunner boss Fergal Hartley doesn’t put much store in the underdog tag.

“Ballyhale are favourites and justifiably so. Their wins in Leinster were so comprehensive, they brushed the other teams aside, while we, on the other hand, were struggling through games.

“They have a massive track record: they’ve won Leinster eight times and won the All-Ireland six times on the back of those, so they’re an outstanding club.

“Is the underdog tag helpful? It can be in some cases, but generally speaking Kilkenny teams, both club or county, tend to be favourites in most of the games they play so it’s not like that’s going to be a burden to them. On the other hand if you were used to the underdog tag and then you were made favourites for a game it might affect you.

“Does it give us an edge, being viewed as the underdogs tomorrow? I don’t think so. We’re favourites for most of the games we play in our own county but overall I think it’s pretty immaterial.”

What may be more significant is the break since the provincial finals. Ballygunner enjoyed an emotional victory over Na Piarsaigh of Limerick in the Munster decider, having edged out Midleton of Cork in the semi-final. The Waterford men were in a rich vein of form only for Christmas to intervene.

“In some ways you’d have liked to keep going rather than having those few weeks off,” says Hartley. “Because going back to that Munster club final, we were winning consecutive games, and tough games as well.

“Then you have a break for the Christmas holidays, and all that momentum’s gone. In fairness, though, it’s the same for Ballyhale - they would have built up fair momentum themselves in Leinster before Christmas and I’m sure in an idea world they’d have liked to keep on playing as well.

“But the fact that both teams are in the same situation, that means it’a neither an advantage nor a disadvantage. If both teams have the same break then it’s up to both management teams to manage that break as best they can.”

While Hartley is happy enough with the health of his charges - “we don’t have anything serious in terms of injuries, bar a few niggly bits and pieces we’re ok,” - he feels Ballyhale have the upper hand in experience, even taking into account the inter-county CVs of those wearing the red and black of Ballygunner.

“None of our players have ever been to this stage of the competition before, while obviously a lot of the Ballyhale lads have - they’ve been in All-Ireland semi-finals and finals, and they’ve won finals.

“They’ve won six All-Ireland club titles and we’ve won none, so from that perspective it’s fairly one-sided in their favour. They have massive experience at this level - we have good experience in the Munster club but not at this level, so we might be at a bit of a disadvantage.

“I’m not sure how much these things really matter. At the end of the day you can talk about them until the cows come home, but it’s what happens between the white lines that counts. Is it likely to be the winning and losing of the game? I don’t think so.”

There’s Ballygunner’s more recent experience, though - those close wins in the Munster campaign.

“As I say that’d be truer if this game had been played two weeks after the Munster final, when we still had that momentum. Obviously it was rewarding to win those games the way we did, and it gives you confidence, but every game takes on a life of its own.

“Going into the final quarter of a tough game when it’s all on the line, will it matter what we did three months ago? Probably not. It’ll be down to what we can do on the day and how we react in the game rather than the result against Na Piarsaigh last year.”