Ballygunner 4-19 Kilruane MacDonaghs 0-14
In the end, it was a chastening 17-point defeat but there were no bowed heads in the Kilruane MacDonaghs camp.
The odds could hardly have been stacked against the newly-crowned Tipperary champions any more than what they were yesterday; travelling to play the reigning All-Ireland champions and the huge gulf in experience that came with that, it being their third successive weekend in action after a replayed county final and all the emotions that went with bridging a 37-year gap.
And then there were the injuries. They were already without one of their key players in Craig Morgan and then lost his brother Aaron to a hand injury in the opening quarter while Jack Peters, Niall O’Meara and Kian O’Kelly were playing through the pain barrier.
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Kilruane would likely have struggled to beat a side as polished as Ballygunner in any circumstances. The backdrop to the game, and the setbacks they suffered within, virtually made it an impossibility.
“I brought on four guys there today that played their first senior hurling match today,” said Kilruane manager Liam O’Kelly. “Imagine that - four guys coming down to play against Ballygunner that had never played senior hurling before.”
Having been on the receiving end of a lightning start from Dessie Hutchinson, who had 0-3 by the ninth minute, they hung in well during the first half without ever looking like seriously troubling Ballygunner.
A couple of Kilruane points approaching half-time left it at 0-11 to 0-7 to the holders but the goal that Ballygunner had been threatening came just before the break as Pauric Mahony and Peter Hogan combined to place Patrick Fitzgerald and he gave Paidi Williams, who had earlier saved brilliantly from Kevin Mahony, no chance.
With the breeze at their backs in the second half, Ballygunner pulled well clear. A second goal came two minutes after the restart from Patrick Fitzgerald and Harry Ruddle, the hero of the All-Ireland club final earlier this year added a third midway through the half before Mahony hit the fourth seven minutes later.
“You’d have to be happy with the performance overall,” said Ballygunner boss Darragh O’Sullivan. “We were convincing winners in the end but reality is that I don’t think the scoreboard was a true reflection of where Kilruane were.
“Their legs ran out in the end, you could understand why that was. We started reasonably well in the first half and the goal before half-time probably put the game to bed. That’s really what happened.
“We came out in the second half and were seven up, kept our composure and tacked on a few points and knew we weren’t going to lose.”
Despite the game running away from them, Kilruane stuck to their task and their supporters notably stayed with them right to the end. Not even a defeat of this magnitude could dampen O’Kelly’s spirits after a week that he described as “unbelievable” as they reinforced their links with Clonoulty-Rossmore in the aftermath of Dillon Quirke’s tragic passing.
“Monday night was a fantastic night, Dillon Quirke's mother and father came down, Declan Ryan and the wife came down to meet us in Cloughjordan.
“We've formed a massive bond with Clonoulty over this year in recognition of Dillon Quirke.
“It was a fantastic night on Monday and on Tuesday we had a get together with Kiladangan inside in a pub in Nenagh, we all came together.
“We've a bus journey home and I don't know when the bus will get home, I've no idea when that bus will get home. I told the players this morning, 'Don't bring your car because you won't be driving your car home tonight'.
“That's the way we are, on the field we're good, off the field we're very, very good.”
O’Sullivan echoed those sentiments, heaping praise on their vanquished opponents.
“Look, they’re a tremendous club and I said it in the dressing room,” he said.
“The way they have carried themselves both on and off the field with the things they had to deal with this year, the sad passing of Dillon, it’s amazing and they’re a testament to what’s good in the GAA because the way they have carried themselves has been an inspiration to all clubs. They should be very, very proud of that.”
The stakes will rise significantly from here on, however, as Ballygunner turn to face Limerick’s Na Piarsaigh, who they have faced in three Munster finals since 2015, in the provincial semi-final on Sunday week.
“It’s a huge match,” O’Sullivan acknowledged. “For both clubs. If you look back at the teams who have won Munster Championships over the last few years, they’ve won three or four and we’ve won three. In fairness, it’s two juggernauts coming up against each other.”
BALLYGUNNER: Stephen O’Keeffe; Ian Kenny, Barry Coughlan, Tadhg Foley; Shane O’Sullivan, Philip Mahony, Ronan Power; Conor Sheahan, Paddy Leavey; Pauric Mahony (0-6, 0-3f), Mikey Mahony, Peter Hogan (0-1); Patrick Fitzgerald (1-4), Kevin Mahony (2-2), Dessie Hutchinson (0-3).
Subs: Billy O’Keeffe (0-2) for Mikey Mahony (34), Harry Ruddle (1-0) for Hogan (43), Jake Foley (0-1) for Fitzgerald (48), Tom Gallagher for Power (50), Tim O’Sullivan for Keith Mahony (53).
KILRUANE MACDONAGHS: Paidi Williams; James Cleary, Jack Peters, Aaron Morgan; Eoin Hogan (0-1), Niall O’Meara (0-1), Kieran Cahill; Conor Austin, Mark O’Neill; Willie Cleary (0-5f), Sean McAdams (0-1), Jerome Cahill (0-2); Thomas Cleary, Kian O’Kelly (0-1), Cian Darcy (0-3).
Subs: Seamus Hennessy for Morgan (blood, 15), Carl Williams for O’Meara (42), Conor Cleary for Austin (46), Eoin Carroll for Willie Cleary (55), Rory Grace for Cahill (58), Rob Austin for Thomas Cleary (58).
REFEREE: Niall Malone (Clare).
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