Ballyhale Shamrocks have the knack of making the most from county success

Since 2006, Shamrocks have collected 10 Kilkenny titles and converted those into six provincial wins and five All-Irelands.

Ballyhale Shamrocks' Brian Cody during the AIB Leinster Club Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Final win over Mount Leinster Rangers at 
Netwatch Cullen Park, Carlow. Picture: INPHO/Evan Treacy

At the very top end of the club hurling scene, the ability to turn county titles into provincial and All-Ireland successes is what separates Ballyhale Shamrocks from the rest.

Since the 2006 breakthrough — Ballyhale had gone 15 years without a Kilkenny title — the club has played 30 competitive games in the Leinster and All-Ireland championships and won 27.

The losses? A three-point defeat to Birr in 2007 when Henry Shefflin and James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick were injured, a defeat to Oulart-The Ballagh in 2012 when Shefflin limped off early on with ankle damage and a 2009 All-Ireland semi-final loss to Portumna when Joe Canning struck 2-5 on his own.

In all, since 2006, Ballyhale have collected 10 Kilkenny titles and converted those into six provincial wins and five All-Irelands. There may have been more successes across 2020/early 2021 too but for the pandemic though they can qualify for another Leinster final this Sunday if they beat St Rynaghs in Tullamore.

Rynaghs won the first ever Leinster club championship, in 1970, and while that was two years before the Ballyhale Shamrocks club was even formed, the Kilkenny kingpins now sit proudly atop the provincial and All-Ireland rolls of honour.

Former Kilkenny manager Kevin Fennelly was on the first Ballyhale team to win a county title, in 1978, following it up with a Leinster success just weeks later before making their All-Ireland breakthrough in 1980.

"The achievements overall as a club are mindblowing really," said Fennelly, who said winning has become a 'habit'. "I remember talking to my nephew, Michael, after Ballyhale lost the 2011 county final to James Stephens and he said to me, 'Damn it, that's another club All-Ireland gone'. He was straight away thinking that losing a county final meant losing the opportunity of another All-Ireland."

Kevin's father was involved in the founding of the club 49 years ago while, in 1989, seven Fennelly brothers were on the team that won the All-Ireland. Fast forward to this Sunday and Colin Fennelly, another nephew of Kevin's, will be in the forward line.

But there's so much more to it than just one family.

"All the guys that will be playing this Sunday, the Masons, the Reids, the Fennellys, the Codys, Shefflins, they'd all have family links in the club that would go back to the 1970s," said Kevin, who also had a spell managing Dublin.

"Hurling is a religion here and that's the bottom line."

Plenty of other clubs have shown an ability to heap Leinster and All-Ireland wins on top of county successes. Cork's Blackrock won three of the first nine All-Irelands in the 1970s. Birr have claimed 13 Offaly titles since 1970, adding on seven Leinster and four All-Ireland wins. Portumna have just six Galway titles but four All-Irelands. Then there's Loughgiel Shamrocks who have won nine Antrim titles since 1970, adding eight Ulster titles and two All-Irelands.

But for sheer longevity and the current run that they're on, none of them can touch Shamrocks.

"We're gifted with more excellent forwards than we've ever had," said Fennelly of the present team. "We didn't hurl well in the county final and it looked a bit like going through the motions at times against Mount Leinster Rangers last weekend but we have six forwards who can score so two or three of them can nearly have an off day and another guy will step up.

"Colin Fennelly has just finished with Kilkenny but Adrian Mullen, Eoin Cody and TJ Reid are in there at the moment and you have Brian Cody, Eoin Reid and Joe Cuddihy who are very strong hurlers as well."

The worry for Fennelly is that another limp performance could cost them and end the current 14-game unbeaten streak that they're on outside of Kilkenny.

"We were in danger of being beaten last weekend, if Mount Leinster had taken their goal chance in the second half we'd have been in big trouble. They seem to be in third gear a lot of the time and are getting away with it. They need to pick it up a bit but nobody knows that better than those players."

If they don't, a rare provincial defeat could be in store.

"They're in a habit of winning and the one thing that motivates you when you're in that frame of mind is the dread of being beaten," said Fennelly.