Ballygunner blast past St Martin’s with second half surge to reach All-Ireland final
Dessie Hutchinson scored seven points, six from play, in Ballygunner's All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final victory over St Martin's. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Ballygunner were in bother. Serious bother. They’d seen this semi-final film before. The familiarity of their troubles didn’t faze or stir fear. They scripted a different ending on this occasion.
Let’s pick up the action seven minutes into the second period. Martin’s have forced their latest turnover in an All-Ireland semi-final of never-ending turnovers. Jack O’Connor switches play to Darren Codd. Martin’s move 0-8 to 0-5 in front. It is the largest gap to separate the provincial champions.
Five Ballygunner scores in 37 minutes - an unthinkable scenario. Their old semi-final ghosts of 2019, ‘22, and ‘23 were lurking ominously about Thurles four days before Christmas.
Martin’s, to this point, had matched the demonic intensity tabled by the Munster champions when out of possession. In possession, they'd brought a calmness-under-pressure to complement this relentless work ethic.
As matters transpired, though, only one outfit was able to sustain both crisp hurling and clinical tackling. As minds and bodies tired, the Martin’s mistakes began to mount.
Ballygunner’s superior conditioning shone. They exploited the many opening gaps. They seized on the extra second they now had in possession.
There was no deviation to what had brought them to this point. They surfed and survived the uncomfortable. In doing so, they ran out most comfortable winners. A second-ever All-Ireland club final appearance - four years on from their first - awaits.
Pauric Mahony (free), Michael Mahony, sub Mark Hartley, and Dessie Hutchinson threw over four points in as many minutes to move Ballygunner in front, 0-9 to 0-8, on 42 minutes.
Four points in four minutes after four points in the entire first half. Mahony moved that sequence to five in as many minutes in the next play. The plates were shifting.
Sub Hartley was superb. He was fouled for back-to-back converted frees. Mahony completed an eight-in-a-row for a 0-13 to 0-8 lead on 51 minutes.
There had been a black takeover of the middle third. Martin’s had disappeared from a contest they were once equals, and sometimes superior.
A six-in-a-row to finish from Jason Ryan's charges. Deliveries and passes out of defence were now struck virtually untroubled. Ballygunner, not before time, were brimming with menace and magic.
Dessie swelled his personal tally to seven, so did Pauric Mahony. Harry Ruddle hurtled forward from the half-back line and pointed.
Removing themselves from a situation where they have previously fallen and failed will fill the collective confidence. They must now go and add the most prized title of all to cement the dominance at county and Munster level since the 2022 acquisition of Tommy Moore.
The remarkably low-scoring first half - 0-6 to 0-4 - had a couple of parents.
The shooting wasn’t hectic on either side. Ballygunner had four wides to match their four white flags. There were another three short, two of them from the stick of Pauric Mahony. There was a Patrick Fitzgerald goal drive superbly saved by ‘keeper Callum Quirke.
The Martin’s wide count, meanwhile, was at five come the call for half-time. There were two further attempts that landed short. There was a blatant penalty not given when Ian Kenny pushed corner-forward Michael Coleman before the latter was adjudged to have thrown the sliotar into the net.
Another parent claiming ownership of a half-time scoreline showing just 10 scores was the relentless and suffocating work rate brought to bear by both sides. Frantic and frenzied and just ferociously intense fare.
Callum Quirke went short to Diarmuid O’Leary with his opening puckout. Martin’s were harassed and harried in their efforts to work possession out from defence until eventually Michael Mahony flicked possession away from David Codd and out over the Kinane Stand sideline.
Ballygunner’s first two points arrived off turnovers back in their own half. The first of those saw the towering Barry O’Connor hunted out of possession. Two in front inside five minutes, the second of those easily could have been green but for the aforementioned Quirke set.
The tone set - well by Ballygunner at least.
Martin’s commendably settled. All available video evidence on the road to this All-Ireland semi-final showed the Wexford men how Ballygunner thrived in establishing a middle-third warzone. They didn’t shirk the aggression of this department, but neither did they play into Ballygunner’s barrow.
Their high-wire short-passing across defence was laced with danger. Risk with reward. Their execution was exemplary. Their confidence in execution was so impressive. Time and again they toyed with danger in trapezing their way out from the back amid a wall of black shirts.
They married stickwork with savage toil.
The outstanding example of the latter, from an endless pick, arrived around the 28-minute mark.
Such was the pressure applied on the Munster champions between their own 45 and 65-metre lines that twice they were forced to backpedal possession to goalkeeper Stephen O’Keeffe. Eventually they found room to breathe. Conor Sheahan sent a low ball in the direction of Patrick Fitzgerald. His shadow, Eoin O’Leary, got the hurley in and the turnover notched.
A minute or so later, Martin's were the crowd being forced to recycle and recycle in the maelstrom. No.4 Joe Barrett found the room to swing from halfway. His second of the half. A 0-6 to 0-4 lead for the Wexford and Leinster champions.
As noted, the lead went to three early in the second-half. Only two points in the last 25 minutes paints a devastating picture of what happens when Ballygunner get in bullying form. They did so belatedly here.
D Hutchinson (0-7, 0-1 free); Pauric Mahony (0-7, 0-5 frees); M Hartley, H Ruddle, P Fitzgerald, P Hogan, M Mahony (0-1 each).
R O’Connor (0-3 frees), J Barrett (0-3 each); J O’Connor (0-2, 0-1 free); David Codd, Darren Codd (0-1 each).
S O’Keeffe; A O’Neill, Philip Mahony, T Foley; I Kenny, H Ruddle, R Power; C Sheahan, P Leavey; P Hogan, Pauric Mahony, M Mahony; K Mahony, D Hutchinson, P Fitzgerald.
M Hartley for K Mahony (37); C Tobin for Fitzgerald (48, inj); C Power for Pauric Mahony (58)
C Quirke; E O’Leary, P Dempsey, C Firman; D O’Leary, D Waters, J Barrett; David Codd, A Maddock; Darren Codd, J Firman, R O’Connor; B O’Connor, J O’Connor, M Coleman.
B Maddock for Coleman (42); B Stafford for D Waters (44-46); B Stafford for J Firman, M Codd for A Maddock, P O’Connor for D Waters (all 55).
S Stack (Clare)
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