'It's good to beat a team that beat you last year' - Ballygunner keeper pleased to get revenge on Sars
Ballygunner's Stephen O'Keeffe in action.
Sunday’s win over Sarsfields marked Ballygunner’s 20th victory in Munster since 2018.
There were the three final defeats, of course – 2017, ’19 and last year – but in reaching an eighth straight provincial decider this was their 16th consecutive quarter or semi-final triumph.
In do-or-die hurling, it’s a phenomenal achievement for the club but it doesn’t come without trepidation, admitted goalkeeper Stephen O’Keeffe.
“On one hand, it's definitely good to beat a team that beat you last year, definitely,” O’Keeffe said of last year’s final loss to Sarsfields.
“But by the same token, any team you play at the moment in knockout hurling, you're gone for the year if you lose. So, if that's not enough motivation as it is, you’re in the wrong game.
“That's just the way club hurling is. Every time you go out, it's all on the line. It makes it very exciting, but it can make it quite nerve-wracking at the same time when the momentum starts to swing against you.”
That record of Ballygunner’s speaks of dominance but for O’Keeffe’s long-standing team-mate Pauric Mahony few come comfortable, certainly not this latest success over the reigning Munster champions.
“These games aren't won easy and contrary to what some people might think, the scoreboard might say a different reflection but you can see here that it's a heavy pitch, if you're one yard off, the other team will take advantage of it.
“So, we're just delighted to be back in the Munster final, it's great. It's another two weeks with the group and there's obviously plenty of good stuff there and plenty to work on, so we'll analyse that during the week.”
Dessie Hutchinson is of the mind Ballygunner have still not been given enough credit for their consistency as they look forward to Sunday week’s final against Éire Óg, Ennis.
“For some reason, people kind of overlook that at times and say we haven't been as successful as we should be and stuff. But everybody knows how hard it is to win Munster championships and All-Ireland championships.”
Recovering from the ankle injury that ruled him out against Na Piarsaigh, Mahony admitted he hadn’t much hurling done coming into Sunday’s semi-final against Sarsfields.
“Obviously, the last number of weeks I haven't been going too well in terms of getting any bit of work done. It was probably down to the wire but we made a call pretty early in the week because it would have been unfair on the lads,
"I was either gonna make it or I wasn't at that stage, and you don't want to be keeping someone on edge, are they playing or are they not playing. I was a bit rusty there but happy to get 45 or 50 minutes into the legs.”
In Azzurri Walsh Park on Sunday, Mahony was flawless from placed balls, converting nine frees and a 65, but at the end of the game that wasn’t the statistic he was quoting. “There was none from play, though!”
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