Ballyhale Shamrocks 3-12 Loughrea 2-8:If you're a small village whose incredible story is that you produced seven hurlers from the one house and then went on to win three All-Ireland club titles you know that writing a sequel will be a tricky business.
What about this though? Giving the All-Ireland champions the Hurler of the Year and the Young Hurler of the Year but reducing them to (albeit influential) bit players on St Patrick's Day when three brothers score 3-7 of your total, winning you your fourth All-Ireland title with a team whose average age is just 23.
Ballyhale returned to the top table of club hurling with some style on Saturday afternoon in Croke Park.
Their dismissal of Loughrea's muscular challenge was confident and comprehensive and betrayed only traces of the weakness which had threatened their progress along the way. Ballyhale are coming off the back of winning four under-21 Kilkenny county titles in a row. One suspects we will be seeing more of them.
"I'm not saying immediately but this team can win more All-Ireland titles," said Maurice Aylward their quiet and understated coach on Saturday in an assertion which didn't at all undermine those aforementioned qualities.
"We couldn't open up the way we would have liked," he added. "They were physical and we got goals, but we didn't score the points like we usually would."
Indeed the game unfolded in a manner which Ballyhale could scarcely have dreamed of. Henry Shefflin, though providing his colleagues with many things, registered no scores from play. Cha Fitzpatrick was scoreless, but like Shefflin contributed well to the overall effort.
At times the centre of the Ballyhale defence looked like a highway newly opened to traffic, but James Connolly in goal, who had looked unconvincing at the semi-final stage against Toomevara, had a fine game. Ballyhale first survived and then thrived.
Loughrea started well, casting aspersions on Ballyhale's defence from the start when Johnny O'Loughlin worked a good point in the first minute. The Galway champions moved the ball sweetly and swiftly through the Ballyhale defence and took a point when a goal looked just as feasible. But Shefflin's importance to his young team-mates was underlined when his labour led quickly to the equaliser with Patrick Reid levelling.
Loughrea, in a couple of late switches, had brought Ray Regan from wing back to midfield for the purposes of picking up Cha Fitzpatrick. Brian Mahony had dropped back from centre field to mark TJ Reid. That move didn't work out. Reid was in fine form hitting a couple of early wides before he got going.
The sides swapped scores before Johnny Maher put Loughrea back in the lead with a 65 on nine minutes. Maher, playing at centre forward, was giving Aidan Cummins a tough time as Loughrea continued to work the ball down the middle.
Kenneth Colleran's second point, this one from a tough angle on the right, made it 0-4 to 0-2.
After that, the story turned a different direction. Ballyhale scored the next five points which included a marvellous contribution from Michael Fennely and a monster 90-metre free from Henry Shefflin.
Loughrea had just gotten off the canvas to land a counterpunch when they walked into a combination. Eoin Reid had a point and then his young brother TJ took possession off a puck-out, burst forward on a solo run which could have ended in disaster when the ball spilled, but ended in glory when Reid pulled sweetly on the dropping ball. 1-8 to 0-05.
A little while later, Connolly made a fine save from Johnny Maher at the expense of a point. The portents were clear for the Galway contingent. It was going to be Ballyhale's day.
Loughrea missed a couple more goal chances before the break and early in the second must have felt a shiver of premonition when Henry Shefflin stood over a free which he had earned himself. He hadn't looked happy with the treatment which brought the free.
He decided to extract more than the minimum punishment and, disguising his intentions, played the ball to Patrick Reid who took possession, turned and buried the ball in the net. A wonderful goal.
The second half, though, leavened by moments like that petered out as the result became inevitable.
The final half hour produced as many goals as it did points (four each) and brought a flurry near the end. Johnny Maher drove home a wonderful free to the Balyhale net only for TJ Reid to reprise his fine goal from earlier. Pleasant viewing, but not the climax the neutrals in the 25,000 crowd had hoped for.
BALLYHALE SHAMROCKS:J Connolly; P Shefflin, E Walsh, P Holden; K Nolan, A Cummins, B Aylward; J Fitzpatrick, M Fennelly; E Fitzpatrick(0-1 a free); H Shefflin(0-3 three frees), TJ Reid (2-2); E Reid (0-3), P Reid (1-2), M Aylward (0-1). Sub:D Hoyne for Fitzpatrick 58 mins.
LOUGHREA:N Murray; T Regan, D McClearn, D Melia; B Mahony, G Kennedy, J Dooley; G Keary, R Regan; V Maher (1-0), J Maher (1-3 1-0 free, two '65s), B Dooley (0-1);E Coen, J Loughlin (0-2), K Colleran (0-2). Subs:M Haverty for Loughlin 36 mins J Loughlin for Dooley 46 mins K Daniels for Coen 51 mins.
Referee: D Kirwan(Cork).
