Fourmilewater hurlers marking centenary in style

By John Harrington

It’s been a “busy, but good busy” time for all associated with Fourmilewater hurling club.

So says club Chairperson, Michael O’Gorman, who is clearly a master of understatement.

Last Saturday the club's Junior B Hurlers won their county championship.

On Sunday their senior hurlers defeated Roanmore to qualify for the county final for the first time in the club’s history.

This evening their minor hurlers will contest the Waterford Division 2 Championship Final.

On Saturday, GAA President, Jarlath Burns, will visit for a function marking the 100-year centenary of the club.

And then, on Sunday, there’s the small matter of the county senior hurling final against reigning All-Ireland champions Ballygunner.

'Good busy' times indeed for the north Waterford hurling club.

“Oh, look, it's amazing,” says Fourmilewater chairperson, Michael O’Gorman.

“My phone hasn't stopped since Monday morning, it's unreal. Lads wishing support and lads wanting to help out this week in any way they can.

“People wanting to know can we get more flags, bunting, and decorations up or whatever.

“With Jarlath Burns coming for the club’s centenary on Saturday there was already a lot to organise this week and now we have the county final on Sunday, but, look, it’s brilliant.

“Everyone is buzzing, everyone I’ve spoken to this week is smiling.”

Fourmilewater might be contesting a Waterford senior hurling final for the first time on Sunday, but most of their players have won or played in county senior football finals with their sister club, The Nire.

The two clubs use both use the Mill Field in Ballymacarbry as their home ground and both draw from the same pool of players.

“If you're a young player here you mightn't even think they're two distinct clubs,” says O’Gorman.

“You might just think it's two different colour jersies because everything is the same.

“Since 2014 there has been one management team over both codes. Before that you'd have a management for hurling and a management for football but now it's the same management and you would then bring in a hurling specific coach for the hurling and a football specific coach for the football.

“But the management is the same and the conditioning coach is the same since 2014 and I think that's had a very positive impact. I played both codes before and after 2014, and I thought it was a massively positive change in terms of player welfare. When you have one manager over both codes it's much easier to get the best out of players and not overdo things.

“It's always been pretty much the same lads who play hurling and football for as long as I can remember. They'll just put down the hurleys and just start playing football once the hurling championship ends and the football starts. A lot of them will even play in the same position.

“I definitely think it has stood to us. There's a different type of fitness and conditioning that's required for football because it's more physical so I think the lads are that bit more built and a little bit stronger from playing football and are able to use that.

“Even our defenders I think are maybe that bit better at using their feet because of the experience of playing football to a high level. It definitely helps that the two clubs run alongside each other and are pretty much one for all intents and purposes.”

The Nire have won more Waterford senior football championships than any other club this century and the Ballymacarbry Ladies footballers are famously prolific, winning a frankly ridiculous 42 consecutive Waterford titles in a row from 1982 to 2023.

The small ball code hasn’t brought them as glory, but there’s always been a strong tradition of hurling in the area nonetheless.

Former Waterford hurling manager, Michael Ryan, is a club-member and currently busying himself with writing an updated version of the club’s history which he first penned in 1988.

Three-time All-Star Jamie Barron captains the current team and there are plenty of other players with senior inter-county experience in their ranks like Seán Walsh, Conor Gleeson, and Barron’s brother Tom.

Others like Aaron Ryan, Michael Morrissey, Oisín Walsh, Pat Walsh, Fionn Hallinan, and Evan and Paddy Spellman have featured for the Waterford U20s in recent years.

“The club has always had a good record of producing talented hurlers,” says O’Gorman.

“There's always been county players in all age-groups coming from the club. Back through the last 20 years, I can't remember a time when there wasn't someone from here involved with the county hurlers or footballers.

“There's great work going on underage in the juvenile section. I'm stuck in it myself because I have a 10, eight, and six-year-old. There's great coaching going on because you have a lot of people involved in it who themselves played at a high level.

“Whoever stays here and settles down in the area they usually come back and end up coaching their kids and the level of coaching is really good.

“We've good coaches in the club right own through the whole thing now, and it's just a matter of maintaining that.”

Fourmilewater draw their players from a sprawling enough area up against the Tipperary border, but it’s a very rural, lightly populated part of the county of around 300 houses and 1,000 people.

They make the most of what they have. A very high percentage of that population is active in Gaelic games which is why their Mill Field home creaks at the seams to cater for demand.

The three clubs who use it are about to embark on an ambitious development plan that will see the levelling and relocation of the existing playing field and training pitch, the installation of a new hurling wall, and the construction of a new perimeter walking track.

“The pitch has never been levelled properly so it's still a very natural looking field with a lot of bumps and hollows in it,” says O'Gorman.

“It'll be a full job of to strip it, level it, drain it, and put back on the topsoil and grass. It's a massive project. We'll be putting in a pedestrian walking track, and a hurling wall and future-proofing it with docks for floodlights so we wouldn't have to go digging again.

“There is some level of finance there but it's going to be a huge project that will cost a lot of money so we'll be looking for support from the community and anywhere we can. We have people all around the world that came from here so we'll be looking at all avenues in the coming months to fund-raise.”

Winning the club’s first ever Waterford senior hurling title in their centenary year would surely super-charge those fundraising efforts.

They’ll go into Sunday’s final as rank underdogs against a Ballygunner team attempting to win a 13^th title in a row, so in a way it feels like a free shot.

"That's the way everyone is talking in the county and even in Munster because it's Ballygunner," says O'Gorman.

"Lads are ringing me asking do we have any chance and I don't honestly know. We haven't played them in a couple of years, we avoided them last year, so it's been a while since the teams met in a knock-out game.

"I think the lads are playing a brand of hurling that might trouble them but, at the same time, we're just delighted that we're there because our goal from the start of the year was to get to a county final.

"They're there now and all we can do is wish them the best of luck and go in and support them.

“It would be amazing if they could do it. To win the hurling championship on the 100th anniversary of when the club was founded...that would be just incredible.

“We'll see what they come with on Sunday, but I think they're in a good place to have as good a crack at this Ballygunner team as anyone could in Waterford. Hopefully they can do it.”

Sunday, August 30

JJ Kavanagh & Sons Waterford SHC Final

Ballygunner v Fourmilewater, Cappoquin Logistics Fraher Field, Dungarvan, 2.30pm