Ballygunner frank their greatness with latest All-Ireland triumph
The Ballygunner team celebrate in front of fans. Pic: INPHO/Dan Clohessy
There’s much to pay homage to after Sunday's All-Ireland club SHC final. It is simply a case of in what order. Do we deal first with Ballygunner’s legacy being belatedly locked down or the conclusion of a campaign where dominance by slow suffocation became their trademark?
Apologies if the following numbers are stuffy and unsexy. They are necessary, though, to paint the picture of unrivalled supremacy.
Once Ballygunner took care of local business and put at the front of the bus a 12th successive Waterford crown, only one county champion would manage to finish within a score of them. That was Na Piarsaigh in the subsequent Munster quarter-final.
Their winning margins outside of local borders, against the flagbearers of Limerick, Cork, Clare, Leinster, and Galway, read as follows: three, seven, nine, nine, and six.
An utterly comprehensive All-Ireland and yet it was more victory by strangulation than shop window style.
The pattern of Sunday’s decider was a close replica of the pre-Christmas semi-final. St Martin’s led Ballygunner 0-8 to 0-5 after 37 minutes. Loughrea, behind by the minimum at the break, stood level with them at 1-9 to 0-12 on 34 minutes.
Then came, in both instances, the drip, drip, drip of Ballygunner scores and the notch-by-notch tightening of the opposition breath. It began with Mikey Mahony's 35th minute major and continued from there.
There’s a large sum to be paid for living with Ballygunner and their exhausting middle-third minding of possession. Debts are eventually called for and collected.
Loughrea pockets emptied, legs flagged, and space presented itself. The final quarter went 0-7 to 0-2 in Ballygunner’s favour. But for a superb Gearóid Loughnane save in injury-time to deny quieter-than-usual Dessie Hutchinson, the final quarter would also have carried a Ballygunner green flag.
Jason Ryan explained the nuances behind this latest red and black suffocation.
“There were certain things that jumped at us in the first half. Certainly, from minute 10 onwards, we weren't as clinical with the ball, and we weren't picking up as many breaks around the middle. We improved that.
“We didn't control the play as much as we should have; there were times we were passing and not really going any place. And so we played a bit more direct, but also tried to recycle the play faster as well to allow us to shift the ball faster, and try to get Loughrea moving more so it was harder for them to maybe pick up where we were at or track our runs.” Has any six-point victory ever carried as broad a context? One hour to cement a lifetime’s work and avoid a lifetime sentence as an underachieving, almost group.
The legacy of this Ballygunner bunch was locked in shortly before 3pm. A most sought-after second All-Ireland. Their big-day brilliance is no longer up for debate.
This is a team overflowing with prizes on the lower steps. 12-in-a-row, as mentioned, at home. Five Munsters since 2018. But one All-Ireland alone, from 2022, was out of kilter with this collection.
They needed that second All-Ireland. They would have been defined without a second All-Ireland. They’ll now be defined by having that second All-Ireland.
In the modern era of club hurling, Ballyguner join Cuala, St Thomas’, Portumna, and Ballyhale as among the great teams to return to GAA HQ and acquaint with Tommy Moore on more than one occasion.
They were the more efficient here. They were the more composed. Even when made uncomfortable by the Galway champions, their clarity of thought never disappeared.
“We came up here with full intentions to win the All Ireland, but we just hit a brick wall,” Loughrea boss Tommy Kelly said of their opponents.
“We did our matchups as well as we could, and I thought we were in a really, really good place. But the bar is a lot higher than where we are at the moment.”
Loughrea condensed the space in front of Hutchinson to such an extent that the in-form inside forward, who came into Croker with 9-77 beside his name, was redeployed out the field late in the first half. Paul Hoban saw Patrick Fitzgerald pulled on 36 minutes. Philip Mahony wasn’t allowed to orchestrate in the anchor role.
None of these minor victories mattered. The collective, ultimately, were worn down.
“Their two wing-forwards work back, they've huge engines in [Peter] Hogan and Mikey Mahony. They caused us an awful lot of problems. They're well-oiled, well-drilled,” Kelly continued.
Stephen O’Keeffe was the official man of the match. He stopped the drives of Anthony Burns, Vince Morgan, and Caimin Killeen. The misses were in tandem with Loughrea’s conversion rate from play finishing up around 45%.
O’Keeffe’s main rival for the crystal was Kevin Mahony. He struck their third and fourth points. He was fouled for their sixth. He put them back in front to complete Ballygunner’s reply to Darren Shaughnessy’s 27th-minute lead goal.
His fourth point was the pick of a three-in-a-row sequence during a 10-minute second-half spell where Loughrea went scoreless and fell five adrift. He was fouled for a pair of late frees converted by brother Pauric.
Relentless. Incessant. Unburdened by the past. Greatness now undisputed.
: Pauric Mahony (0-8, 0-6 frees, 0-2 ‘65); K Mahony (0-4); M Mahony (1-1); C Sheahan, P Fitzgerald (0-2 each); D Hutchinson, P Hogan, M Hartley (0-1 each).
T Killeen (0-6, 0-6 frees); D Shaughnessy (1-1); J Ryan (0-2); J Coen, I Hanrahan, A Burns, V Morgan, N Keary (0-1 each).
: S O’Keeffe; T Foley, I Kenny, A O’Neill; H Ruddle, Philip Mahony, R Power; C Sheahan, P Leavy; P Hogan, Pauric Mahony, M Mahony; K Mahony, D Hutchinson, P Fitzgerald.
SUBS: M Hartley for Fitzgerald (38); C Tobin for Sheahan (55); C Power for K Mahony (61).
: G Loughnane; P Hoban, S Morgan, K Hanrahan; J Mooney, J Coen, B Keary; I Hanrahan, Cullen Killeen; Caimin Killeen, T Killeen, J Ryan; D Shaughnessy, A Burns, V Morgan.
SUBS: A Kelly for Keary (40); G Maher for Mooney (45); S Sweeney for Hoban (51, inj); M McManus for Shaughnessy, N Keary for Cullen Killeen (both 55).
: C Mooney (Dublin).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
