Ballygunner 'not bothered' by lack of Waterford support in All-Ireland quest, insists Pauric Mahony

The Gunners have dominated the hurling landscape in the county. 

SHORE THING: Pauric Mahony (Ballygunner) and Shane O’Brien (Loughrea) ahead of the AIB GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Final. Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Even out the road west of the town, there are few who would begrudge Dingle if they were to win a first All-Ireland club football title on Sunday. An Ghaeltacht winning last weekend’s intermediate final will certainly make magnanimity come easier. It’s probably true for the rest of Kerry too.

The dynamic is different in Waterford. 12 consecutive county titles mean not everyone from the Déise will be supporting Ballygunner in the senior hurling final against Loughrea. Not that it affects Pauric Mahony and his teammates.

“I'm not too bothered about it either really,” says Mahony.

“Obviously, we have a strong community and a strong group there in Ballygunner and ultimately, that's all that matters for us is the people that we're hanging around on day to day.

“We're going up to the hurling pitch to train. There's obviously a huge support there in Ballygunner and I suppose I understand sometimes when a team is dominating that everyone likes an underdog story or everyone wants to see maybe a change in the guard in terms of winning county titles and what not.

“But I suppose for us, we're not too bothered. We're just a group of players trying to maximise our days on the hurling pitch and try and be as successful as we possibly can because, you know, it's not going to be there forever and there's certainly change going to come soon in Waterford, and that's no doubt.” 

The notion that they must win a second All-Ireland title, adding to their dramatic victory over Ballyhale in 2022, to be thought of as a great team is not being considered.

“We're not looking at the stats of what we've won and what we've lost,” says Mahony.

“You're living in the now and it would be selfish of us as a group to think about that, that we have to win a second All-Ireland, when there are a lot of lads in our squad who haven't won any All-Ireland.

“We've had great days and we've had bad days. But if we're going back to that looking for motivation or new energy, it's probably not fair on the younger lads who have come into the set-up.

“And we obviously have new management this year who weren't involved on previous days either, so I suppose as a whole it's kind of a fresh approach.

“As far as we're concerned, we're going into the game and it's about winning this All-Ireland. It's not about numbers or it's not about getting a second one, it's just about winning this match."

This Christmas was better than the last. Defeat to Sarsfields in the 2024 Munster final ended Ballygunner’s bid for a fourth consecutive provincial title. It hurt.

“Training over Christmas, you know that you're one of the few teams in the country doing it at that particular moment in time,” says Mahony. “It's always a nice motivator and even a team builder, being in that situation.

“In fairness there's a nice few children in the set-up now so it'd be rude to take the daddies away from the children on Christmas morning. No, we didn't (train on Christmas Day) but I suppose we did get together on Stephen's morning, we trained so you're kind of watching what you're putting into your body on Christmas day. I have to say, that was one of the best Christmases I've had in a long time.” 

Between that defeat to Sarsfields and gaining revenge over the Cork side in November’s Munster semi-final, Shane O’Sullivan has transitioned from player to performance coach, though he was always double jobbing in the dressing room.

“It's not just this year but we'd always look from within first,” says Mahony, “we'll get our own group to say 'are we at the standards required to win these games?'.

“No different to what the external or the public might be saying, we ask ourselves the hard questions internally as well. More often than not, the answers are in the room.

“I think Shane, obviously, being there for so many years, he was obviously a leader of the team on the pitch so when he talks up, for the last 15 years we listened to him.

“And now in his new role, I suppose, within the group, we listen to him even more because you practice what you preach, and he's certainly done that for numbers of years in the Ballygunner jersey. He’s definitely had a big impact on the squad.”