By Cian O'Connell

Ballyhale Shamrocks simply find a way. Immediately after a compelling AIB All-Ireland Club SHC Semi-Final Shamrocks manager Pat Hoban acknowledged that this victory would rank alongside some of the finest wins gleaned by the famous Kilkenny outfit.

“Well they always say the last one is the best one, but absolutely," Hoban reflected.

"I think we spoke here a couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of questions about this team, lot of people maybe felt they weren’t at the level, they were slipping, felt we hadn’t a panel, felt we hadn’t the fitness - I think today we had two guys off after 15 minutes, we proved we have a panel, we proved we had subs and we proved that we’re good enough to be in an All-Ireland final."

Despite Stephen O'Keeffe's brilliant goalkeeping display for Ballygunner, Shamrocks eventually prevailed.

Did Hoban feel at any stage that it mightn't be Ballyhale's day? “No, definitely not, absolutely, the very fact that we were creating chances like that," Hoban replied.

"At half-time we said, ‘Look, we can run at these, we can take them on’. Everybody said, ‘Run at Ballyhale and they’re in bother’. I think we turned the tide today."

TJ Reid struck 1-8 and provided plenty of neat touches crafting opportunities throughout.

"He’s an orchestrator of all teams that he’s involved in and on the biggest days is the day you need TJ to stand up and after missing the penalty he showed absolute belief in his ability to come up and stick the next one," Hoban added.

Shamrocks' diligent approach was critical according to manager Hoban.

"We know what Ballygunner are going to do, we have our homework done on them, expect a lot of movement," Hoban stated.

"It is very hard to defend that if they’re getting the ball so the reality is we needed our half-forward line to work harder, they were winning all the breaks. Once we got on top on the breaks we got to grips with their movement then."

Ballygunner boss Darragh O'Sullivan praised Ballyhale's performance. "You go through it they were fully deserving of their victory, they got in at us a number of times, we didn't get in at them," O'Sullivan reflected.

"Hats off to them, we are sick and gutted over it. We came expecting a big battle and we just came up short.

"It is very similar to that Munster final against Borris Ileigh (2019), exact same, that's how we feel.

"Gutted. But we are so proud of the lads, they ticked every single box that is there to be ticked, they had no more to give, what they gave over the last number of years, they have been phenomenal."