Na Piarsaigh 2-15 Ballygunner 2-20
The victories continue to stack up for Ballygunner and, for their manager Darragh O’Sullivan, this was one of their greatest yet.
Five points down at half-time against a Na Piarsaigh team sprinkled with Limerick All-Ireland winners, only beaten once in their various forays into provincial competition over the last decade and more and with whatever wind was present at their backs in the second half, Ballygunner’s Munster and All-Ireland titles were very much on the line.
But a controlled and mature second half display saw them run out convincing winners in the end at the TUS Gaelic Grounds as they never allowed Na Piarsaigh to settle after the break, limiting the Limerick champions to a mere 0-4 and hitting 1-11 themselves, with Pauric Mahony recovering after a wayward start to finish the day with 0-13 to his name.
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“Well, we’re not used to going in five points down in a match,” said O’Sullivan of his nine-in-a-row Waterford champions. “Normally, we’re up four or five points.
“So how they dealt with that was phenomenal. They never panicked. Stuck to the process. Listen, it was a huge performance.
“It was very calm and composed [at half-time]. We got together and said, ‘Right, there are two or three things’. There was no panic and we said if we win this, it will be one of our greatest victories.
“That’s what it was but there’s no cup there today. We’ve to regroup and come again on Saturday week,” he added, in anticipation of a Munster final against Clare’s Ballyea.
The one occasion that Na Piarsaigh have lost in Munster was in the 2018 final against Ballygunner, who they had beaten in two previous provincial finals. After their impressive demolition of Kilmallock in the Limerick final, this tie looked pivotal in terms of the destination of not just Munster but All-Ireland honours and Na Piarsaigh set the agenda early on.
They were three up by the seventh minute and everything about their play was crisper than Ballygunner, particularly their ball retention, with the slickness of their handpassing a joy to behold at times.
Having moved four clear approaching the end of the first quarter, they were rocked by a Ballygunner goal as Patrick Fitzgerald pounced on an Emmet McEvoy error to feed Dessie Hutchinson but while the Waterford city outfit got some impetus from that, Na Piarsaigh regained the initiative coming to half-time.
Will O’Donoghue placed his midfield colleague Keith Dempsey with a inch-perfect stick-pass for their first goal in the 20th minute and Conor Boylan hit their second after brilliant build-up play involving his brother Jerome and Daithi Dempsey and their lead was 2-11 to 1-9 at half-time.
They missed chances either side of the break to put what might have been a decisive wedge between the sides, however, and the chances then began to dry up as Ballygunner shut down the space, with Na Piarsaigh’s diminishing number of efforts on goal often made under duress.
When Ballygunner goalkeeper Stephen O’Keeffe played a trademark one-two from a puckout and launched a clearance into the Na Piarsaigh full-back line in the 40th minute, Patrick Fitzgerald latched onto the break to goal and bring his side within a point and the momentum of the game was very much moving in a different direction now.
A pair of Mahony points put them ahead and they never looked back, with Conor Sheahan the outstanding midfielder on view as he helped himself to 0-4.
Na Piarsaigh only scored a single point in the last quarter and that came from Keith Dempsey late in the 59th minute, when a goal was really what they required to salvage a result at that stage.
Mahony responded with two more points to round out the scoring and send a message to new Waterford boss Davy Fitzgerald having found himself out of favour with the county earlier this year.
“Pauric’s doing it a long time for us,” said O’Sullivan. “He keeps doing it and keeps doing it.
“He’s a phenomenal guy but they’re all phenomenal guys. It’s a special place to be part of our group. It gives you huge energy in every aspect of life. They’re an infectious bunch of guys and we have something very special.”
Worryingly for Na Piarsaigh and Limerick, county full-back Mike Casey retired late on with what looked like a knee injury, having been ruled out for all of the 2020 and ‘21 Championship campaigns due to a cruciate ligament rupture and subsequent complications that went with it.
Although Na Piarsaigh’s performance petered out disappointingly, they still contributed to what was a fine spectacle for the third week in November, and it was put to O’Sullivan that the split season model has allowed the standard between club and county hurling to narrow considerably, particularly when two heavyweight sides like these are on view.
“I think the club player has to have his time and that’s his time now and that’s the way it should be,” he said. “If you ask people in RTE, maybe they’ll say ‘no’ because hurling isn’t getting the profile when it needs to have it but that was phenomenal today.
“It’s what the association is about, the club, the spirit and the heart. They should put that on a video and send it around the world and say these are club sides getting nothing for it. Phenomenal.”
NA PIARSAIGH: E Condon; E McEvoy, M Casey, C King; M Foley (0-1), R Lynch (0-1f), J Boylan; W O’Donoghue, K Dempsey (1-1); K Downes (0-4, 0-3f), P Casey (0-3), C Boylan (1-1); W Henn (0-3), D Dempsey (0-1), A Breen.
Subs: S Long for Foley (29), T Grimes for M Casey (54), D Breen for Downes (57).
BALLYGUNNER: S O’Keeffe; I Kenny, B Coughlan, T Foley; S O’Sullivan, Philip Mahony, R Power (0-1); C Sheahan (0-4), P Leavey; M Mahony, Pauric Mahony (0-13, 0-6f), P Hogan (0-1); K Mahony, D Hutchinson (1-0), P Fitzgerald (1-1).
Subs: H Ruddle for Fitzgerald (57), B O’Keeffe for K Mahony (60+1).
REFEREE: C Lyons (Cork).
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