Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) 6-23 Clough-Ballacolla (Laois) 0-14
On days like this, it feels like Ballyhale’s reign will never end. The scare they got in the semi-final against St Rynagh’s clearly sent a jolt through them and so they came to Croke Park in no mood for a repeat dose. They lorried in goal after goal with callous enthusiasm and in the process gathered in another Leinster club title.
The numbers are nearly oppressive at this stage. This is their 11th provincial crown and their seventh since the modern run began back in 2006. They haven’t lost a game outside Kilkenny since 2012. They have duly converted their last four Leinster titles into All-Irelands - the New Year will bring forth the prospect of another trip to the top of the mountain, marking the 50th anniversary of the club’s foundation in the only appropriate way.
For Clough-Ballacolla, there may be at least a little comfort in the fact that Ballyhale ran up the sort of huge total that make nit-picking on mistakes an ultimately pointless exercise. Yes, the Laois champions gave away too many easy goals, dropped too many handy balls and missed too many scoreable shots. But when you’re beaten by 27 points, it’s hard to argue any of it would have made much of a difference to the outcome.
“What can you say?” sighed Clough-Ballacolla manager Declan Laffan afterwards. “Ballyhale are a serious, serious outfit. We started well, had it back to a point I think 22 or 23 minutes in and then they hit us with two goals. The momentum all went their way. After that, the more we tried, the less came off. You have to take your hat off to them, they’re an exceptional outfit.
“We had set out to stick in the game. Get to the second water break and see where it took us. We might have had some chance if we had done that. They punished us big time just before the break - we had no way of coming back from that. I don’t think we deserved though to lose the way we lost. We’re not that poor a team.”
Well, no. They’re not. But Ballyhale gonna Ballyhale. This was a game for most of the first quarter and then it very quickly wasn’t a game at all. Clough-Ballacolla absorbed the kidney punch of an early Eoin Cody goal pretty well, scoring the next three points on the bounce and getting back level. But they kept leading with their chin thereafter and Ballyhale didn’t need to be asked twice.
TJ Reid came into the game with a groin problem and was supremely well-shackled most of the time by Diarmuid Conway. But all it took was one crossfield pass to pick out Colin Fennelly on 21 minutes and all of Clough-Ballacolla’s good work up to then was for nothing. Fennelly finished with his usual aplomb and Shamrocks were suddenly five points up in what had been a fairly even game.
When Fennelly gathered and turned for goal three minute later, everyone could see that game, set and match was on the cards. With two defenders hanging out of him, he had the presence of mind to lob the onrushing goalie Cathal Dunne and that was that. Ballyhale 3-9 Clough-Ballacolla 0-9.
The day’s business was done and there were only 24 minutes gone. Whatever carelessness had allowed St Rynagh’s to make their lives flash before their eyes in the semi-final was never a factor here. As manager James O’Connor admitted afterwards, there was a straight line to be drawn from almost going out last week to making sure this game was entirely different.
“Definitely, 100 per cent,” O’Connor said. “The last day, we left it until the last 10 seconds to get a draw. We kicked on in extra time and went back to 15 men and finished the game well.
“But we spoke Friday night and everyone laid it on the line - players and management and we said we just wanted to leave the game in Croke Park on Sunday; leave it there. And that’s exactly what happened.
“There was a bit of pressure coming in I suppose. As we all know, we probably hadn’t been playing up to scratch over the last two or three games and we were still getting the wins. Once you are winning, you are moving onto the next game. But we knew as a team we had to come up here and put in a big performance and thankfully they did. As someone said earlier, if you poke the bear enough eventually it will wake.”
And how. Ballyhale went in 3-11 to 0-10 at the break and just kept trucking throughout the second half. Adrian Mullen, Ronan Corcoran and Eoin Reid all plundered goals, Reid’s late effort an outrageous piece of skill to deflect a high ball past Dunne.
Clough-Ballacolla: Cathal Dunne; Diarmuid Conway, Darren Maher, Eoin Doyle; Brian Corby (0-1), Michael McEvoy, Lee Cleere (0-1); Willie Hyland, Aidan Corby (0-4); Robbie Phelan, Jordan Walshe (0-1), Mark Hennessy; Stephen Bergin, Willie Dunphy (0-3), Stephen Maher (0-3, 0-3 frees). Subs: Ronan Broderick for D Maher, 36 mins; Cillian Dunne (0-1) for Hyland, 42 mins; John Dwyer for Bergin, 46 mins; Tom Delaney for McEvoy, 47 mins; Sean Corby for Hennessy, 53 mins
Ballyhale Shamrocks: Dean Mason; Darren Mullen, Joey Holden, Kevin Mullen; Evan Shefflin, Richie Reid, Darragh Corcoran (0-1); Ronan Corcoran (1-4), Brian Cody (0-1); Adrian Mullen (1-0), TJ Reid (0-6, 0-6 frees), Eoin Kenneally (0-1); Paddy Mullen (0-1), Colin Fennelly (2-1), Eoin Cody (1-6, 0-3 frees). Subs: Conor Phelan for Shefflin, 42 mins; Conor Walsh for P Mullen, 47 mins; Eoin Reid (1-1) for TJ Reid, 47 mins; Brian Butler for K Mullen, 53 mins; Liam Barron (0-1) for Kenneally, 55 mins.
Referee: Richie Fitzsimons (Offaly).
