Munster SHC final: Ballygunner (Waterford) 0-21 Éire Óg (Clare) 1-9
A few minutes before the final whistle the usual entreaty came over the public address, pleading with patrons to stay off the pitch at the end of the game. Even in the spilling rain, a couple of hundred Ballygunner supporters turned a deaf ear. Once more, Semple Stadium was their playground and their turf.
Ballygunner’s place among the greatest club teams of all time rests on their capacity to add more All-Irelands to the one they already have. But they have now risen to the top of the Munster hurling roll of honour, their sixth title knocking Blackrock off a perch they had occupied since the end of the 1970s.
They were smooth and laser-focused and in challenging conditions their hurling was outlandishly slick and coherent. In the second half, when the heavens opened, they hit nine points without surrendering a single wide and at one stage their lead had stretched out to double figures. Any reasonable doubt about the outcome perished before half-time.
Their captain Peter Hogan is one of seven players to have made an appearance in every Munster final that Ballygunner have won since this glorious run started in 2018. A year ago, Ballygunner were raging-hot favourites too and, for one reason or another, they capsized. In the psyche of a team those defeats are like plastic, they never decompose.
RM Block
“You have to learn from your biggest defeats,” said Hogan. “We were hurting last year and thankfully we learned a lot of hard lessons. I think our work rate has gone up. I think we went into the Munster final a small bit undercooked last year. I think we were 1-4 to a point down last year after 10 minutes. We targeted the start of the game this year.”
Ballygunner didn’t make an explosive start, but by the end of the first quarter they had begun to assert themselves and after 20 minutes they were 0-8 to 0-3 in front. Their build-up play and finishing were electric and Dessie Hutchinson was at the heart of it. He finished the game with seven points, five of them in the first half, as he shifted from the inside line to the half-forward line and switched wings as he saw fit, attacking with the dexterity of a drone.
With Waterford, in the first half of the year, Hutchinson’s form had been so dull that he was eventually dropped in the championship but with Ballygunner he has recovered his mojo.
Alongside him, young Patrick Fitzgerald has assumed a greater leadership role too and once again he was terrific. His point from under the New Stand, 10 minutes before half-time, was fit to grace any final. Éire Óg’s defence was running from one blaze to another with a knot in their hose.
“They’re 10 years down the road in terms of their preparation,” said Gerry O’Connor, the Éire Óg manager. “We’ve two years done, some of our lads have a year done. And it was always the fear factor that with an inexperienced team like that that we were going to face a really difficult challenge.
“Ultimately, it was just a step too far. Fifteen minutes into that game, the writing was on the wall really. They were exceptional. Their pace from the middle third and their running off the shoulder, we just weren’t able to get to grips with that.”
Éire Óg had made an encouraging beginning and were 0-3 to 0-2 in front after eight minutes. One of their points was a delicious piece of improvisation from Darren Moroney, who whipped the ball over the bar after the ball dropped from his hand.
But after Danny Russell scored his second point from a free, the Clare champions didn’t score again until Russell’s third free, 13 minutes later. During that scoring lag Ballygunner took over.
Éire Óg were being slaughtered on their own puck outs when they went long and came under consistent pressure when they went short. Either way the ball they sent to their attack was originating from too deep. Time and again Éire Óg forwards were outnumbered and outhustled.
Shane O’Donnell made a greater contribution as the game wore on but his Clare team-mate David Reidy couldn’t raise a gallop and was replaced in the closing minutes. Russell, who had been hugely influential in the semi-final, couldn’t reprise that performance. For Éire Óg to have any chance, those three players especially needed to catch fire.
Ballygunner were 0-12 to 0-4 ahead at the break and absorbed Éire Og’s best spell midway through the second half when the Clare champions brought the deficit down to seven with three unanswered points. But that surge of momentum petered out and before Russell scored a goal from a penalty in the final minute of normal time they had not scored in the final quarter. The game was up.
BALLYGUNNER: S O’Keeffe, A O’Neill, I Kenny, T Foley, H Ruddle, Philip Mahony, R Power, C Sheahan (0-1), P Leavey, D Hutchinson (0-7), Pauric Mahony (0-5, 4f), P Hogan (0-3), P Fitzgerald (0-4, 1f), K Mahony, M Mahony (0-1).
Subs: M Hartley for Pauric Mahony (47 mins); C Power for K Mahony (54); E Cuddihy for Fitzgerald (57); E O’Brien for Foley (58); B O’Keefe for Ruddle (60+5).
ÉIRE ÓG: D Stack, F Treacy, C Russell, L Corry, R Loftus, A Fitzgerald, J Collins, O Cahill (0-1), D Moroney (0-1), S O’Donnell (0-1), D Reidy, D McNamara, T Kavanagh, D Russell (1-6, 1-0 pen, 6f), M Cleary.
Subs: R Mulcahy for Corry (37 mins); D O’Brien for Kavanagh, J O’Dwyer for McNamara (both 47); C Perrill for Cahill (50); E O’Regan for Reidy (56).
Referee: Alan Tierney (Tipperary).
