All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship semi-final: Ballygunner (Waterford) 0-19 St Martin’s (Wexford) 0-10
On the shortest day of the year, Ballygunner took the longest time to click into gear. Once they did, they found an overdrive mode which left St Martin’s for dust.
Jason Ryan wasn’t claiming any tactical genius behind the Gunners’ second-half turnaround, which powered them into an All-Ireland final against Loughrea.
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By the 37th minute, the 2022 champions had just five points to their name as they trailed by three. From there to the hour, they outscored the Wexford champions 0-14 to 0-1, missing just two shots from 16 in that hot-handed streak.
The experienced heads of Dessie Hutchinson, who collected a second consecutive man of the match award, and Pauric Mahony contributed 0-7 each. But it was the introduction of teenager Mark Hartley which provided the spark in front of 3,373 fans at Semple Stadium.
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The minor graduate came on in the 37th minute when the 12-in-a-row Waterford kingpins were down by three. They would score the next eight points without reply. Hartley played a key role in five of those scores: pointing one, assisting two, and winning two converted frees.
“It’s strange how things can happen. We would have felt that they were enforced changes with Patrick (Fitzgerald) and Kevin (Mahony),” said Ryan, adding both players had sustained “little knocks”.
“There’s nobody on the sideline can claim there was a tactical, ingenious move or anything like that. It was a change that was enforced due to an injury.
“Mark’s mobile, really intelligent. Some of his passing, skill set, and striking was really good.”
Superb defensive showings by the likes of Eoin O’Leary on Fitzgerald and Daithí Waters on Pauric Mahony had restrained Ballygunner to 10 shots in the first half. Once it opened up, the Déise champions doubled their output to 20 shots after the break.
That first half ended 0-6 to 0-4 in St Martin’s favour. Despite the low scoring, it was an absorbing and attritional contest with both teams running the sliotar from deep and swarm tackling at every opportunity.
“We talk about the game of hurling, how many scores there is, and how open it can be at times, but it was just so congested and so tight, and a lot of errors and an awful lot of rucks. It was fairly high octane,” said Ryan.
“There was a lot of traffic around the middle of the field, so you’d get the ball and you’re just running into traffic and you’d need to shift it really fast.
“If you told me beforehand that none of their forwards would score from play in the first half, I’d have said we’ll definitely go in winning at half-time, and we didn’t.”
Ballygunner could’ve been even further behind at that juncture. In the 22nd minute, Michael Coleman was brought to ground as the sliotar skittled to the net. Seán Stack gave a free out for a throw ball. Martin’s had solid claims for either a penalty or an own goal as the sliotar was knocked free by Ian Kenny’s boot.
“He actually kicked it out of his hand,” said St Martin’s manager Daithí Hayes. “They are the breaks you get some days, some days you won’t.
“Seán made a big mistake, players make mistakes out on the field, that happens. That’s human nature. But you can’t blame that either for the result.”
Martin’s still channelled momentum from that moment to end a 14-minute dry spell and reel off the final three points of the half. Their half-back line was excellent as Joe Barrett scored 0-3, while centre back Waters assisted three more. But the O’Connor brothers were well marshalled as Martin’s couldn’t translate enough of their labour into scores.
Hutchinson accounted for three of Ballygunner’s four first-half points, but more of his team-mates began to fire in the second period.
“Unbelievable. It’s going to be massive,” said an emotional Ryan post-match. “They’ve been in so many county finals and Munster matches, but they just haven’t been at this stage as many times as what they believe they can.
“You’re knocking at the door in an All-Ireland semi-final and they’ve been in so many of them, so it’s massive, it’s brilliant.
“And for Waterford hurling, it’s great. The minors winning the All-Ireland was fantastic, so for another Waterford team to be in an All-Ireland final is terrific.”
BALLYGUNNER: S O’Keeffe; I Kenny, T Foley, A O’Neill; H Ruddle (0-1), Philip Mahony, R Power; C Sheahan, P Leavey; M Mahony (0-1), Pauric Mahony (0-7, 5f), P Hogan (0-1); K Mahony, P Fitzgerald (0-1), D Hutchinson (0-7, 1f).
Subs: M Hartley (0-1) for K Mahony (37 mins), C Tobin for Fitzgerald (48), C Power for Pauric Mahony (59).
ST MARTIN’S: C Quirke; P Dempsey, E O’Leary, C Firman; J Barrett (0-3), D Waters, D O’Leary; David Codd (0-1), A Maddock; Darren Codd (0-1), J O’Connor (0-2, 1f), J Firman; M Coleman, B O’Connor, R O’Connor (0-3f).
Subs: B Maddock for Coleman (43 mins), B Stafford for Waters (44-46, blood), Stafford for J Firman, M Codd for A Maddock, P O’Connor for Waters (all 55).
Referee: S Stack (Dublin).
