Ballygunner 2-35; Mount Sion 1-16
Ballygunner are a law unto themselves in top-class club hurling. They say that winning one title takes good luck and good planning but what sort of superlatives do we use when describing a group that on Sunday made it 12-in-a-row?
Not just winning - but actually pulverizing as good and famed a club as Mount Sion in the process who despite scoring 1-16 themselves at Walsh Park were routed by 22-points by the men in black and red in the Waterford final.
The usual suspects were at play in every sense with Pauric Mahony notching a cool 0-11 while the elusive Dessie Hutchinson ended up with 1-6 all while Patrick Fitzgerald acted as chief back-up merchant with 1-3 to his credit.
Perhaps the most incredible stat of all is that the Gunners have now gone a staggering 66 games without every tasting defeat in Waterford championship fare - a unique achievement for sure.
How times have changed. In the early part of this century it was Mount Sion who were the team to beat and actually accounted for Sunday’s victors in four title deciders. Little did they know that when they claimed their last championship 19 seasons ago that they would go so long without replicating the walk up steps as winners.
Mount Sion knew the task they faced but came to the game determined to end the long drought. When PJ Fanning lofted over a point after a mere eight seconds, the thought that we could be in for a battle royale flicked through the minds of the big crowd present.
However, no sooner had it happened that within 30 seconds a puck out by Stephen O’Keeffe found Patrick Fitzgerald, who rounded his man with goal on his mind only to be thwarted by a brilliant Ian O’Regan save. Guess who was quickest to react to his batted save? Dessie was in like a flash to shoot to the back of the net.
Still not a minute on the clock but the battle-lines were well and truly drawn.
Austin Gleeson stood up with two sideline cuts to show defiance but it only egged his opponents on as they proceed to shoot 10 points without a single reply.
The game was already over - it was just a question of playing out time.
Pauric Mahony orchestrated the spring with four in a row- two from frees and a brace from play to take your breath away. The artist was at work and Harry Ruddle, Peter Hogan and Fitzgerald all rolled up their sleeves to help before the same Mahony landed a pair of frees to leave the score 1-11 to 0-3 with 10 minutes to go to the break.
And the Mount Sion crew had the wind in their back at that stage but worse was to come as the ubiquitous Fitzgterald popped up to raise a second green flag.
It got worse as the winners went had racked up 2-19 by half-time and the seven-time Munster champions and one time All Ireland winners kept up the pace as their forward line ran amok.
Everything from the other side was mere consolation and despite the best efforts of the likes of Austin Gleeson and Stephen Roche there was nothing they could do to change the tide, despite a late goal from sub Jack Meaney.
Ballygunner: S O’Keeffe; A O’Neill (0-1), I Kenny, T Foley; H Ruddle (0-1), P Mahony, R Power (0-2); C Sheahan (0-3), P Leavey; D Hutchinson (1-6), M Mahony, P Hogan (0-3); P Fitzgerald (1-3), K Mahony, P Mahony (0-11; 0-7f) Subs: E Cuddihy (0-3) for K Mahony (4); C Tobin (0-2) for P Mahony (47); E O’Brien for I Kenny (51); C Power for P Hogan (53); J Foley for P Fitzgerald (54); B O’Keeffe for M Mahony (blood).
Mount Sion: I O’Regan; S O’Neill, L O’Brien, B Flanagan; M F O’Neill, A Gleeson (0-3; 0-2 sdl), G Power; J Gleeson (0-2) , PJ Fanning (0-3); M O’Neill (0-4f), S Roche (0-2), J Meaney; A Regan, M Daykin, J Kennedy (0-1) Subs: E Curran for B Flanagan (24); A Kirwan (0-1) for M F O’Neill (HT); T Corcoran for G Power (42); J Meaney (1-0) for J Meaney (47); D Power for A Regan (53)
Ref: A Kissane (Dunhill).
