AIB All-Ireland Club SHC final

Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) v Ballygunner (Waterford), Croke Park, 3pm (TG4)

By John Harrington

Saturday’s AIB All-Ireland Club SHC Final between Ballyhale Shamrocks and Ballygunner is a proper heavyweight clash.

Ballyhale are going for a third All-Ireland title in a row and boast a forward line most inter-county teams would be thrilled to call upon.

Ballygunner have been in sensational form in recent weeks, playing like a well oiled machine that combines a very tight defence with an attack that can also put up big numbers.

Both teams have changed quite bit since they met in the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final, but that match is still a worthwhile reference point.

Ballyhale eventually came out on top, but there was very little between the teams and it’s reasonable to expect Saturday’s game will follow similar lines.

“I think that game had one or two turning points with about 10 or 12 minutes to go,” says Ballygunner goalkeeper, Stephen O’Keeffe. “It essentially came down to the fact that we had a goal chance and we didn't get it and they had a goal chance and they did take it. Up until to that point I felt it was a very nip and tuck game.

“The conditions were very poor so when they did get a goal, we had to go chasing a goal ourselves because it was just too miserable to tack on a few points and bring it back. It was quite low-scoring at the time.

“They managed to tack on one or two more points themselves, to make it a four, five point game in the end. It certainly wasn't a case of being ahead and then getting white line fever and any regrets, there was no regrets at all from the game.

“It was just a sense of we can compete at this level and we were mad to get back into the All-Ireland series again and give it another shot I suppose.”

Ballyhale captain Colin Fennelly’s recollection of the match is similar to O’Keeffe’s. The Kilkenny side’s greater cutting edge in attack eventually proved to be the difference, but they wouldn’t have been in a position to make that count had they first not matched Ballygunner’s appetite for battle in the middle third.

He knows the same application will be required this time around if they’re to repeat the trick.

“It's just that middle third,” he says. “It was touch and go on both sides. The hooking and blocking that game in general was just massive. It was in Thurles, under lights and it was hard to come by scores.

“I think it was just that difference of Eoin (Cody's) goal and just even thinking back where Eoin was back then, he was a young slight man and he still scored 1-1 or 1-2 in that game and he is just a different player now.

“He's a real animal so he is. He's just gone big. He's catching ball, he's scoring more and he's a fantastic asset for us. Players like that will be the difference for us on Saturday.”

It’s true that players like Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen have gone to a new level since the teams last met, but back in 2019 Ballygunner didn’t have Dessie Hutchinson in their team.

Now he’s very much their chief scoring threat, and Fennelly is wary of the cutting edge he’ll bring to bear on Saturday’s Final.

“Yeah, we're looking at what he's done for Ballygunner this year in general. He's put up massive scores, you see he's the main man for most of the games for them and he is the biggest change.

“Obviously, we will be watching that but Ballygunner just have players all over the field. For Dessie to be scoring all those scores, he has to be getting incredibly good ball coming into him, so obviously there has to be great players out the field that have to be watched as well.”

Ballyhale’s excellent corner-back, Darren Mullen, is the man most likely to be pick up Hutchinson but has been struggling with an injury coming into this match which isn’t an ideal preparation for the challenge.

Powerful midfielder Ronan Corcoran is an injury doubt too as are Conor and Kevin Phelan, and if any or all of those players aren’t at 100 per cent then Ballyhale will be diminished.

The spirit they’ve shown throughout this campaign combined with a stellar attack featuring luminaries such as Cody, Mullen, Fennelly and TJ Reid means they’ll still go into the match as favourites, but Ballygunner are quietly confident they’ll find a way to spike the Kilkenny team’s guns.

“They have a lot of star players in their forwards that would be the envy of a lot of clubs around the country,” admits O’Keeffe.

“But, in saying that, we do pride ourselves in our backs and keeping clean sheets and keeping scores down as much as possible. I know if you look back at the scorelines since we came out of Waterford there's been a goal or two in most games, but if you dig a little deeper into that you might find that the vast majority of those were scored either in injury time or three minutes to go when we were a bit up and the result was probably already in hand.

“We definitely have a lot of confidence in ourselves as defensive unit and we do take a lot of pride in keeping clean sheets where possible. We're under no illusions how hard the challenge is obviously, but it's one we're absolutely looking forward to.”