By Cian O’Connell

“My Dad passed away two or three years ago, all he ever talked about was an All-Ireland club,” Shane O’Sullivan responds when asked about how Ballygunner always stayed believing.

Tough defeats were endured, but the prospect of being involved on the grand stage at Croke Park kept them going.

“That was the one,” O’Sullivan adds about the All-Ireland club being top of the agenda. “Now he was talking about this when we weren’t even competing for county championships. I remember being at dinner dances and people looking saying ‘Who is this lunatic? He’s talking about All-Ireland clubs and we can’t even get out of our county!’

“So when I was very young that was absolutely drilled into me. Even the letters from the founding member of our club Jimmy McGinn, the dying letters he sent to my Dad. Him reading those out to me as a young man, I would nearly get emotional speaking about it. Talking about the vision of the club and what it meant.”

Growing up valuable lessons were learned by O’Sullivan. The importance of hurling, how it assisted people, the possibilities that existed. Regularly competing against the most decorated hurling outfit of the lot Ballyhale Shamrocks underlines Ballygunner’s progress.

“It’s about an identity and a sense of place,” he continues. “When Mr McGinn came in and founded the club, it wasn’t about All-Ireland clubs at the time. It was about just giving people identity and hope.

“There was no team in our area. They used to call it the dead centre of Waterford because we had the biggest graveyard in Waterford. He just wanted to give people an identity and that’s where the club came from. Then they started to build on that and build on that.

“Then, over time, the vision transformed into ‘We want to be the best’. So for me, that belief and conviction was nearly sub-conscious.

“Even if I was not playing, I would be doing everything I could for this club to take them to the highest level because it was bred into me. I was lucky in a sense that I had that.”

The past decade has brought plenty of glory. During a remarkable spell yielding nine Waterford senior titles, three Munster crowns, and a much coveted All-Ireland triumph.

Winning with such frequency and style means Ballygunner want to relevant. “It is massively beneficial because you see young people in the club, the five, six, seven year olds they look up and vicariously reinforce what they see,” O’Sullivan responds.

“So they see us performing well in Thurles, Croke Park, in county championships, they really believe that they can do it too. That vicarious reinforcement is a really powerful piece of development from a club perspective.

“Then I suppose - and I don't want to get too deep because this mightn't be what you want to hear - but on a deeper level it is about community and spirit.”

That connection with families, supporters, and Ballygunner people matters deeply to O’Sullivan. “For this Sunday going up to Croke Park, for some people in our community that might be struggling, they might be under pressure for a few pound - it is the one break away over Christmas, to give them something to cheer about, to talk about,” O’Sullivan states.

“We are connected to all of that, it is what the GAA is all about. It is the same for the other three clubs and the ladies that are playing on Saturday. That is what we are really connected to as a team too.”

This weekend’s encounter between Ballygunner and Ballyhale Shamrocks will be worth monitoring.