Ballyhale's appetite as sharp as ever

Ballyhale Shamrocks 4-18 Ballyboden, St Enda's 018:THE SCARY thing about Kilkenny hurling at the moment is that you suggest a weakness or possible demise and they answer with a result like this. Club or county, it's nearly always the same.

And they say these things are cyclical. Hail, yet again, to the Cats disguised as Shamrocks.

It wasn’t just that Ballyboden, St Enda’s travelled to Nowlan Park in hope. They also came with expectation, that the gap between Dublin and Kilkenny hurling, club or county, is indeed closing.

And yet, ultimately, and in some ways inevitably, they once again surrendered to the might of Ballyhale – who thus remain firmly on course to retain their Leinster club hurling title, and a third in four years.

As defending champions, and recently crowned four-time Kilkenny champions, it was always a case of them perhaps losing an edge, and Ballyboden stealing it.

Instead, Ballyhale were as commanding as ever, hitting the Dublin champions with three first-half goals, and a fourth early in the second – and surprise, surprise that really ended the game as a contest.

Ballyboden, who are a fine, big hurling side and would beat most club teams in the country, had no answer to such firepower. Truth is Ballyhale could easily have landed a couple more goals, whereas Ballyboden struggled to generate even a single goal chance.

They threw everything else at them, including some big frees from Paul Ryan and big scores from David Sweeney, David Curtin and Conal Keaney, but all that merely kept them in touch, rather that real contention.

Normally, in showdowns like this, the teams circle each other for a while before moving into battle, but there was no hanging around here. In the first move of the match, Colin Fennelly came charging at the Ballyboden defence, and just before ending his run, unloaded the first shot at goal. Bang! It was a statement of Ballyhale’s intent; they were clearly up for it.

Ballyboden were shaken, but responded with a statement of their own; Ryan hit three frees and then converted a 65 to briefly put them in front. They too were clearly up for it. With that, the first half turned into a score-fest that hardly let up until the call for half-time – at which point Ballyhale had gathered 3-8 to Ballyboden’s 0-13.

So much for winter hurling being low-scoring.

So much too for Henry Shefflin taking it handy these days. He ended with 1-6, and his goal, after 10 minutes, followed a typically sublime move, where he darted into the left-hand side of goal, and somehow found the space to fire the ball into the net. Goal number three came just nine minutes later when Shefflin this time acted as provider, delivering an inchperfect pass to Eoin Reid.

Ballyboden were still contesting hard, with Stephen Hiney proving how valuable he is after returning from injury, but then 25 seconds into the second half, they conceded goal number four, this time allowing TJ Reid to stand unmarked in front of goal, and finish his shot as if teeing up a golf ball. Eoin Reid followed that up with a big point, and by then Ballyhale’s eight-point lead looked as unassailable as it proved.

“We were very naive, certainly at the start of the first half, and again at the start of the second half,” said Ballyboden manager Liam Hogan. “Because those goals really killed us. On top of that, we didn’t create one real goal chance throughout the 60 minutes.

“You can’t survive at this stage of the Leinster championship without creating goals. It’s a problem we’ve had in the past, and had here today, but other than that I feel we matched them buck for buck.”

As the second half wore on Ballyhale naturally drew men back in numbers, making it all the more difficult for Ballyboden to make any inroads onto the goalmouth.

“Well, that’s their game, and we knew it,” added Hogan. “You can’t fall asleep either at this stage of the competition, against men like Henry Shefflin, TJ Reid, and I felt we were a little guilty of that as well. Again we were heavily punished for being a little too naive.”

Mark Aylward had probably the best chance to land goal number five, late on, but no doubt Ballyhale were by then already thinking of the Leinster final against Offaly champions Tullamore.

Ballyboden at least have a Leinster football semi-final as some consolation, next Sunday, but as a parting shot, Hogan pointed towards some of the enduring inadequacies of Dublin club hurling.

“Ballyhale are fantastic hurlers,” he said, “but I don’t think the Dublin championship fully prepares a team for this level of competition. I mean the Dublin hurling final this year was atrocious. Stop-start, poor quality.

“And I think the big problem is that Dublin club teams don’t have enough quality hurling games. On top of that, we only had one game on a Sunday this year. Games are being played under lights, or during the week, and there’s no reason for that.

“Dublin were out of the championship a lot earlier than Kilkenny, so there’s no reason why they couldn’t schedule the thing better.”

BALLYHALE SHAMROCKS: J Connolly; A Cuddihy, A Cummins, P Holden; P Shefflin, E Walsh, B Aylward; J Fitzpatrick (0-2), M Fennelly (0-1); C Fennelly (1-0), H Shefflin (1-6, four frees, one 65), TJ Reid (1-2); E Reid (1-3) P Reid (0-2), D Hoyne (0-1). Subs: M Aylward (0-1) for C Fennelly (49 mins), K Nolan for E Reid (53 mins).

BALLYBODEN ST ENDA’S: G Maguire; J Duffy, S Perkins, M O’Sullivan; D Hiney, T Sweeney, M Travers (0-1); D Curtin (0-1), S Durkin; D Sweeney (0-4, one sideline-), C McCormack, S Lambert; P Ryan (0-8, five frees, three 65s), C Keaney (0-2), N McMorrow (0-1). Subs: D O’Connor for T Sweeney (23 mins), J Doody for Durkin ( 47 mins), E Carroll (0-1) for McCormack (48 mins), D Spain for Perkins (49 mins).

Referee: B Kelly (Westmeath).