Second-half surge carries Ballygunner into All-Ireland club final
Conor Sheahan of Ballygunner celebrates. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
Temperament tested and proven. A psychological triumph. Mental baggage ousted and banished.
Their hang-up semi-final hurdle negotiated, Ballygunner are headed for Croke Park to become a team of more than local dominance and too few ultimate prizes.
Yesterday’s final scoreline gives no indication of the discomfort that Ballygunner surfed and survived. The nine-point winning margin makes little of what Ballygunner had to overcome both upstairs and in front of them.
Seven minutes into the second period, St Martin’s led by 0-8 to 0-5. Before we proceed, ponder for a second that scoreline and time elapsed.
A Ballygunner of inside pair Patrick Fitzgerald and Dessie Hutchinson and a Ballygunner of Peter Hogan, Pauric, Kevin, and Mikey Mahony operating directly outside of them had managed just five white flags in 37 minutes of hurling. An unthinkable reality.
Was this to be a fourth All-Ireland semi-final defeat in six years? Was this to be their legacy?
The same as the St Thomas’ defeat two years ago, Ballygunner were at grave risk of drowning in a sea of physicality and pressure.
This physicality and pressure was first tabled by the Munster champions. It was they who set the tone of congestion, suffocation, and relentlessly frenzied fare.
St Martin’s goalkeeper Callum Quirke went short to Diarmuid O’Leary with his opening puckout.
The Leinster champions were harassed and harried in their efforts to work possession out from defence until eventually Mikey Mahony flicked the sliotar away from David Codd and out over the Kinane Stand sideline.
Ballygunner’s first two points arrived off turnovers in their own half. The first saw the towering Barry O’Connor hunted out of possession. The second would have wound up as a green flag but for a superb Quirke save to deny Patrick Fitzgerald.
A two-point Ballygunner lead inside five minutes was followed by just two more Ballygunner points across the remaining 25 minutes of the half.
In preparation for their first All-Ireland semi-final, Martin’s sized up all available material and cut their cloth to near perfection.
They saw how Ballygunner thrive in establishing a middle-third warzone. They knew the folly of creating contests in this area of Semple Stadium. There’d be no playing into the Ballygunner barrow. There’d be no left-to-chance clearances out of defence.
Their high-wire short-passing at the back was laced with danger. Risk and reward. The confidence and speed of execution was exemplary.
They married stickwork with savage toil. The outstanding example, from an endless pick, arrived around the 28-minute mark.
Such was the pressure applied on Ballygunner between their own 45 and 65-metre lines that twice they were forced to back-pedal possession to ‘keeper Stephen O’Keeffe. Eventually they found room to breathe. Conor Sheahan sent a low delivery into Fitzgerald. His shadow, Eoin O’Leary, got the hurley in and the danger away.
A minute or so later, Martin's were the crowd being forced to recycle in the maelstrom. No.4 Joe Barrett found a split-second opening and swung. His second of the half. A 0-6 to 0-4 interval lead for the challengers.
It might have been more. There was a blatant penalty not given when Ian Kenny pushed Michael Coleman. The corner-forward was then adjudged to have thrown the sliotar into the Ballygunner net. Footage clearly shows the sliotar came off Kenny’s leg before crossing the white paint.
The disallowed goal didn’t cost St Martin's the match. What it cost them was further momentum at a time when they had Ballygunner unsettled.
“Seán [Stack] made a big mistake, players make mistakes out on the field, that happens, that's human nature. But you can't blame that either for the result,” said Martin’s manager Daithí Hayes.
Martins’ first-half output emptied the tank. Rory O’Connor (free) and Darren Codd pointing to create the largest gap of the semi-final - 0-8 to 0-5 - was their peak. Minds and bodies tired. Aggression waned. Time afforded to opposition players rose and rose. Possession became a missing person.
Ballygunner were bothered but not broken. Their conditioning carried them. Crisp hurling, clinical tackling, and smart running lines continued exclusively from their corner.
Pauric Mahony (free), Mikey Mahony, sub Mark Hartley, and Hutchinson clipped four points in as many minutes for a 0-9 to 0-8 lead on 42 minutes. This represented the first half of an eight-in-a-row sequence. A separate six-in-a-row materialised before the finish.
Their bullying and brilliant best belatedly took to the Thurles stage.
Of these 14 white flags, Dessie struck four and was fouled for a fifth. His six from play total equaled Martins’ entire total from play.
“Left and right, close to goal, far from goal, off the shoulder, winning primary ball; he's mixing it and delivering for us in a whole host of different ways,” noted Jason Ryan.
The manager roared ‘tackle, tackle, tackle’ at his players during a small-sided warm-up game. He was still roaring the same basic principle at them in injury-time. Only two points conceded in the last 25 minutes.
The template to trouble Ballygunner was again shown. Outlasting them is the true obstacle.
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, inj); 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 Waters (44-46, temp); B Stafford for J Firman, M Codd for A Maddock, P O’Connor for Waters (all 55).
S Stack (Dublin).
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