Munster senior club hurling semi-final: Ballygunner 1-20 Kilmallock 1-11
Just once in a while it looks like the linear narrative might have a kink. Ballygunner had already buried Kilmallock once when the Limerick champions somehow brought the deficit from seven points down to one. The tide was dithering, Kilmallock’s blood was up, and suddenly there was a menu of possible outcomes.
And then the multiple-choice disappeared. In the 10 minutes that remained, the All-Ireland champions scored eight points without reply and if it wasn’t for an astonishing double save from Conor Hanley Clarke in the Kilmallock goal, the final margin would have been in double figures. There was no twist; it was just a tease.
In a fortnight, Ballygunner will contest their ninth Munster final in a row. For three of their players – Stephen O’Keeffe and the Mahony brothers, Philip and Pauric – it will be 17 years since they contested their first. The skin of the team has changed over the years, but all of its vital organs and trains of thought are the same. Ballygunner have no secrets from the opposition, and yet, the transparency makes no odds.
This year, though, the internal challenge was different. The lunacy of the Waterford championship being completed before children go back to school left Ballygunner with an 11-week gap before their first outing in the Munster Championship. Over the years, they had mastered eight and nine-week gaps, but this required a re-boot of a different magnitude.
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“Overall, today was about putting in a good enough performance to win the game, so we achieved that,” said Ballygunner manager Jason Ryan. “But the 11-week gap is nightmarish, getting fellas right and ready and everything. It’s a whole preseason. You’re starting all over again, so it’s massive. I think the 11 weeks is longer than what the whole Waterford championship was.”
Even with climate change and good-to-firm going at Cheltenham over the weekend, there is no avoiding winter hurling in the middle of November. The pitch at Walsh Park held up remarkably well, but it still had the texture of yesterday’s custard.
The spluttering pace of play suited Kilmallock’s plan to meet Ballygunner with force and hunt turnovers at every opportunity. The All-Ireland champions are programmed to massage possession at the back and make three or four passes before the ball crosses centrefield. In response, Kilmallock went with a full-court press, charging at the first and second receivers, trying to force spillages.
In the first half especially, it gave them a foothold in the game. A Dessie Hutchinson goal put Ballygunner 1-3 to 0-3 in front after nine minutes, but Kilmallock were not deterred and stayed within a score until first-half stoppage time.
There was a fierceness to the exchanges that inevitably led to a couple of flare-ups. In the middle of the first half, two melees took place simultaneously, both of which were well attended. The Kilmallock full-back Robbie Egan emerged from one of them with his shirt ripped and his chest exposed halfway down his torso, like Tom Jones in his prime.
Hutchinson needed treatment for a head wound after scoring his goal and, as the game wore on, there was a steady flow of yellow cards and a rising chorus of dissent.
At times Ballygunner struggled to impose their patterns on the play and it their elaborate build up play looked out of season. At one stage, late in the first half, they became so disorientated that when Egan picked up a Kilmallock turnover 30 metres from the Ballygunner goal, the Ballygunner player closing him down near the sideline was O’Keeffe, the Ballygunner goalie.
There was another passage of play in the second half when there were five Ballygunner players closer to the Ballygunner goal than O’Keeffe. Unsurprisingly, the Ballygunner netminder scored from play.
But none of these gremlins derailed them. They led by 1-7 to 0-6 at the break and rattled off the first three points of the second half. Kilmallock were so rattled that Hanley Clarke was summoned to travel the length of the field to try for a goal from a free just 13 minutes into the second half.
But the goal arrived two minutes later. Ballygunner were turned over in the full-back line, Shane O’Brien released Oisin O’Reilly and he finished calmly. Five minutes later there was just a point between the teams, 1-12 to 1-11.
The problem for Kilmallock was that every score had been a struggle. Their handling and their first touch had been markedly inferior to Ballygunner’s, and they had no penetration close to goal. O’Brien scored a brilliant point in the first half and was fouled for a couple of frees, but otherwise his influence was curbed.
The Limerick champions had spared for a fight at close quarters, but in the end, Ballygunner danced them around the ring.
BALLYGUNNER: S O’Keeffe (0-1), A O’Neill, I Kenny, T Foley, H Ruddle (0-1), Philip Mahony, R Power, C Sheahan (0-1), P Leavey, M Mahony (0-3), Pauric Mahony (0-7, 5f), P Hogan (0-2), P Fitzgerald (0-1), K Mahony, D Hutchinson (1-4). Subs: M Hartley for Sheahan (54 mins), E Cuddihy for Pauric Mahony (60), C Power for R Power (60+1), E O’Brien for O’Neill (60+3).
KILMALLOCK: C Hanley Clarke (0-1f), A Costello, R Egan, J Dwane, M O’Loughlin, C O’Connor, K Hayes, M Houlihan, S Quirke, R Hanley, S O’Brien (0-1), G Mulcahy, P Connery (0-7, 6f), P O’Reilly, O O’Reilly (1-2). Subs: G Enright for O’Loughlin (40 mins), P O’Brien for Quirke (53), K O’Donnell for R Hanley (57), C Staunton for Hayes (60).
Referee: Niall Malone (Clare).
