Kieran Shannon: Primed for the pantheon — how great can Ballygunner become?

Not only would a win in Sunday's Munster hurling final seal the Waterford club's magnificence; it would underline just how exceptional this team is.

ELITE: Pauric Mahony of Ballygunner is tackled by Mike Casey of Na Piarsaigh.

Such is the litany of achievements that Christy Ring pulled off in what remains the most remarkable and influential hurling career of all, you’d have to be something of an anorak or an elderly Glen Rovers supporter or an embittered senior citizen of Cashel to know or recall that 58 years ago next week the great man from Cloyne featured in the first-ever Munster club championship hurling final.

Facing Ring and the Glen in that inaugural final was the dominant Waterford club team of the time: weeks earlier Mount Sion had denied an emerging team called Ballygunner a first-ever Waterford senior county title to win an 11th themselves in 12 years.