Munster club SHC semi-final: Ballygunner (Waterford) 1-26 Loughmore-Castleiney (Tipperary) 1-16
Ballygunner’s matches are not always devoid of tension, but it comes and goes, and it usually doesn’t last. For about 25 minutes Loughmore-Castleiney shaped like they would be a threat and by half-time that prospect had been exploded. The Waterford champions rustled up 1-6 without reply, as if they had taken something from the fridge and stuck it in the microwave.
Ballygunner won their three Munster championship matches by an average of 10 points last year and they hit that mark here, without being stretched or stressed in the second half. Loughmore butchered a goal chance just after half-time, when they played one pass too many and Philip Mahony made a diving block, but that was the only alarm.
They had laboured for about 40 minutes against Doon, but if there was a ghost in the machine it was exorcised over the last fortnight. They moved the ball in their usual patterns and Loughmore weren’t able to block the passing channels to Dessie Hutchinson and Patrick Fitzgerald close to goal.
In the middle third Peter Hogan pulled the strings, as he often does, and Pauric Mahony struck five points from play in a spectacular first-half performance. But there was variety to their play too. Playing with the breeze Stephen O’Keeffe landed a succession of aggressive puck-outs inside the Loughmore 20-metre line and he scored from play too when Loughmore left him unmarked about 110 metres from their goal. Careless.
The Tipperary champions were competitive for most of the first half, but they couldn’t make the ball stick inside and too many of Noel McGrath’s possessions were behind the Loughmore 45. It emerged afterwards that he had been suffering from a bug and there had been a doubt about him lining out.
Loughmore stayed within a score of Ballygunner for the guts of half an hour, but their attacks lacked efficiency and none of their scores came easily. A John McGrath point was the only score that Loughmore’s attack could muster from play in the first half and they did well to keep within touching distance.
Before half-time, though, that closeness was blown apart with seven scores in an as many minutes. The goal, in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage-time, was a perfect specimen of Ballygunner’s drilled understanding.
Hutchinson played a 30-yard pass over his shoulder to Fitzgerald, who was unmarked in the corner, and he sent a bullet pass to Kevin Mahony, who was lurking beyond the far post. From close range Aidan McGrath had no chance with Mahony’s finish. Nearly half an hour of prickly resistance had just been disarmed.
“I’m looking forward to looking at it back,” said Darragh O’Sullivan, the Ballygunner manager. “That’s what these guys have the potential to do. But we needed that, because that just sucked the energy out of them and, realistically, that’s where the game was won
“There was a strong wind there, it was probably a five- or six-point wind, and we were going in at half-time and you could be a point up ... and suddenly you’re going in 10 up. So, that’s huge momentum and that’s probably where the game was won.”
When these teams met three years ago the McGrath brothers, Noel and John, were both sent off and there was a whiff of that animus hanging in the air. By half-time six players had been booked, five of them from Ballygunner, and there was plenty of open-eyed belting, some of it smudging the letter of the law.
The only real flashpoint came 20 minutes into the first half when Hogan struck Ed Meagher with his hurley on the fringe of a ruck. In the language of the rule book now, it was a strike with minimal force and strictly speaking it should generate a red card, but rarely does.
After a pop-up tribunal with two other officials the referee Ciarán O’Regan booked both players. When Noel McGrath was sent off in this fixture three years ago, his offence was no more grievous than that. That must have been on Loughmore’s mind.
Loughmore were briefly energised by the perceived injustice and rattled off the next two scores, reducing the deficit to a point, 0-9 to 0-8. But they didn’t score again before half-time and that period of faintness was too much to bear. Ballygunner led by 1-15 to 0-8 at the break, and were still 10 points ahead at the finish.
Loughmore must dust themselves down quickly for a Munster club football game against the Clare champions Éire Óg next weekend. Given the spirit in the group, you would expect nothing less.
For Ballygunner this was the 11th Munster championship match that they have won in a row. One more Munster title would put them top of the roll of honour. What way are you betting?
BALLYGUNNER: S O’Keeffe (0-1); I Kenny, B Coughlan, T Foley; H Ruddle, Philip Mahony, R Power; C Sheahan (0-1), P Leavey; P Hogan (0-4), K Mahony (1-3), Pauric Mahony (0-9, 4f); P Fitzgerald (0-1); M Mahony (0-1), D Hutchinson (0-4, 1 65).
Subs: C Power (0-2) for P Fitzgerald (49 mins); S O’Sullivan for P Hogan (53); C Tobin for M Mahony (56); A O’Neill for T Foley, J Foley for Pauric Mahony (both 58).
LOUGHMORE-CASTLEINEY: A McGrath; L Egan, W Eviston, E O’Connell; J Ryan (0-1), B McGrath, E Meagher (0-1); N McGrath (0-1, f), C Connolly (0-2); T Maher, T McGrath, E Connolly; J McGrath (0-9, 7f, 1 65), C McGrath, L McGrath.
Subs: J Meagher (0-1) for O’Connell, C McCormack (1-0) for T Maher (both h-t); P McCahey for E Connolly (45 mins); L Treacy (0-1) for C McGrath (46); D McCahey for J Ryan (53).
Referee: C O’Regan (Cork).
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