Ballygunner (Waterford) 1-20; Loughrea (Galway) 1-14
If Ballygunner’s first All Ireland title had a sense of drama and almost sleight of hand about it with Harry Ruddle’s late, late goal, then their second success on Sunday against Loughrea in Croke Park had more to do with “clinical” dismantling of their opponents across the hour’s endeavor.
Their manager Jason Ryan, the former Kildare and Wexford football boss who now lives locally in the Ballygunner area, described the occasion as a “special day” for the club and the townspeople. He was spot on but it could also be said that this team, with 12 Waterford titles in a row, is indeed a special bunch with a number of special players driving them on to success after success.
After the success against Ballyhale in ‘22 put the Deise outfit on the map and into the record books, this victory goes towards cementing them as one of the best of modern times.
Loughrea showed up well in the opening half and looked as if they always had a goal in them, but once the Gunners hit the acceleration button in the third quarter, they were unable to live with the crisp hand-passing and immediate closing down, which hardly gave them time to think, never mind execute accurate passes or shots.
Ryan’s view was one of pride as he looked back on the journey to All Ireland success. “Massive day, special day, really proud to be involved with a Waterford team coming to Croke Park, winning an All-Ireland and for the Ballygunner community and Ballygunner players to have won an All-Ireland today is just really, really special.
“They're such a talented group. There's so much competition in the group that we felt coming into this game that if we got a little bit of luck and if we were able to follow the game-plan and everybody followed their jobs and we kept players fit that we'd have a really good chance of winning the game.
“So from the get-go, while in the first half things didn't go exactly the way we wanted, we were still going in at half-time winning the game and thankfully in the second half the players really pushed on.
“To be here now, the privilege of being involved with a group that win the All-Ireland, the best club team in Ireland - over 2,000 club teams in Ireland - and Ballygunner are top of the tree in hurling there for 2025, so we're just absolutely delighted with that,” said a man now immersed locally in the hurling culture of the club with his children also attending a local school.
Arguably Loughrea manager Tommy Kelly gave the best insights of all into the difference between the teams and winning and losing on the big day.
Referring to the “clinical” play of Ballygunner, he went on: “Every final that you play, it's really hard to take if you lose it. We came up here and we were brave against what is obviously the best team in Ireland now at the moment. They have proven that and they have set the bar very high and we have to get up to it. That's our next mission. We'll try very hard to do that but it's a very, very high bar."
Kelly stressed: “We always knew they were a fantastic club. Everybody in Ireland, any hurling man that's here talking, if you're talking about great hurling clubs even before today, Ballygunner didn't have to win that second All-Ireland to become a great team.
“They are a great team anyway and our lads aren't so bad either. We might have lost today, we might be a little bit disappointed with how we performed - would've liked to have performed better - but we didn't. You get your day to do that and we didn't do it on the day. You get your chance (and) you either take it or you're not,” he concluded.
Ballygunner took theirs and this time around Harry was no longer a history-making sub but a fine wing back helping his side to build on a one-point interval advantage. By full time that had stretched to six as the efficiency and nous of the winners was just that little bit too good for the game challengers from the West.
They had heroes all over the pitch in this win with Mikey Mahony’s goal a telling moment - not to mention the great sweeping and stopping work of goalie Stephen O’Keeffe which saw him adjudged as the man of the match afterwards.
Another Mahony, Pauric, was the man who kept the scoreboard ticking constantly in his side’s favour and ended up with eight points to his credit including the last four which put a stake in the Loughrea heart.
But there were huge performances in Black and Red all around the field, with goalkeeper Stephen O'Keeffe pulling off a series of big saves and earning the man-of-the-match award.
Ballygunner: S O'Keeffe; A O'Neill, I Kenny, T Foley; H Ruddle, P Mahony, R Power; C Sheahan (0-2), P Leavey; P Hogan (0-1), P Mahony (0-8, 0-7f, 0-1 65), M Mahony (1-1); P Fitzgerald (0-2), D Hutchinson (0-1), K Mahony (0-4) Subs: M Hartley (0-1) for Fitzgerald 38, C Tobin for Sheahan 56, C Power for Kevin Mahony 61.
Loughrea: G Loughnane; P Hoban, S Morgan, K Hanrahan; J Mooney, J Coen (0-1), B Keary; I Hanrahan (0-1), C Killeen; C Killeen, T Killeen (0-6f), J Ryan (0-2); V Morgan (0-1), D Shaughnessy (1-1), A Burns (0-1) Subs: A Kelly for Keary 40, G Maher for Mooney 45, S Sweeney for Hoban 51, M McManus for Shaughnessy 54, N Keary (0-1) for C Killeen 54.
Ref: C Mooney (Dublin).
GAA RESULTS
Sunday January 18
Connacht FBD FL final
Galway 2-12 Mayo 1-14
Walsh Cup Shield final
Kilkenny 1-20 Kildare 2-13
Kehoe Cup
Wicklow 0-16 Meath 3-6
All-Ireland club SFC final
Dingle (Kerry) 0-23 St Brigid's (Roscommon) 1-19, Croke Park (AET)
All-Ireland club SHC final
Ballygunner (Waterford) 1-20 Loughrea (Galway) 1-14, Croke Park
Ladies NFL Division 4
Carlow 1-7 Sligo 1-4; Offaly 2-7, Wicklow 0-7; Leitrim 6-17 Longford 2-10;
Derry 4-12 Kilkenny 0-3
Saturday January 17
Dr McKenna Cup final
Donegal 2-17 Monaghan 0-11
Munster HL final
Limerick 0-23 Waterford 0-15
Walsh Cup final
Dublin 2-13 Galway 1-16 (FT, Galway win 2-1 on penalties)
McGrath Cup final
Cork 0-16 Kerry 0-15
Connacht FBD Plate final
London 3-12 Leitrim 1-9
