Ballygunner will lock horns with Ballyea in the Munster club hurling quarter final in two weeks time.
Due to the covid pandemic, no Munster series was played in 2020, with Borrisoleigh the de facto holders of the O' Neill cup since they beat the Gunners in 2019. That year, it was De La Salle who took a beating from Ballygunner in the Waterford final.
Ballyea came out top of the pile from Clare this weekend. They beat Inagh-Kilnamona 1.17 to 1.16 in Cusack Park.
History
There is some history with the Banner Champions and Waterford's eight in a row holders. They met at the semi final stage in 2018. It was the Gunners who came out victorious on the day, winning 2-26 to 2023 after extra time in Walsh Park.
Check out the full-time highlights between Ballygunner (Waterford) and Ballyea (Clare) were we saw two periods of extra-time! pic.twitter.com/owPyUYfVRF
— The GAA (@officialgaa) November 4, 2018
Following the game, WLR's own Kieran O' Connor was speaking to Philip Mahony and Stephen O' Keefe:
The Waterford side would go on to win Munster that year when they beat Na Piarsaigh 2.14 to 2.08 in Semple Stadium.
Ultimately they would drop out at the All-Ireland semi when Henry Shefflin's Ballyhale Shamrock's rocked them 1.15 to 0.13. That was on their way to claiming the All-Ireland at the expense of St. Thomas's.
While they finished up at the final four stage, it was still Pauric Mahony who top scored in that years All-Ireland Championship, hitting 1.42, winning the Waterford GAA hurler of the year award in the process.
Counting that campaign in 2018, Waterford's second most successful club team at county level has lined out in 11 Munster final, winning two - 2018 and 2001.
In 2001, they advanced through Munster, seeing off Blackrock 2.14 to 0.12 in the provincial decider. The All-Ireland semi final duck was not to be broken on that day as they were met by the Galway champions Clarinbridge. They would eventually go on to take a runners up spot in the All-Ireland.
For that campaign, the Gunners were captained by Billy O' Sullivan with his brothers Darragh and Rory also involved. Darragh of course mans the sideline as manager today. In the build up to this year's county final, Billy featured on WLR's hurling podcast where he talked at length about what it is that makes Ballygunner so successful at county level.
Funnily enough, it was again a Ballygunner man who would take top scorer for the All-Ireland Championship in 2001. Paul Flynn struck 1.42, seventeen years before Mahony would do it again.
While there has been success at Munster level for the black and red, they have fallen short in the province on nine occasions; beaten twice by Na Piarsaigh and Newtownshandrum while losing out once each to St Josephs, Wolfe Tones, Newmarket on Fergus and Carrick Davins.
The Clare Final
Darragh O' Sullivan's team will face a stern challenge in a fortnights time when they take the pitch against Ballyea. While the Ennis outfit are without their talisman Tony Kelly, it hasn't slowed their roll and they've baked in a never say die attitude in claiming their county title.
Their opponents in the decider, Inagh-Kilnamona, lead by two points at half time. Aidan McCarthy raised a green flag in the first half, setting the tone for what looked to be a first senior title for the club. A second half goal from Niall Deasy along with points from dual star Gary Brennan set Ballyea up for a showbiz finish, scoring four of the last five points on the day.
Their captain Jack Brown said at full time that:
We could easily have laid down and said that game was over. But we didn’t. By God will we enjoy tonight.
The clash of the Deise and the Banner will be on the weekend of November 27th/28th, and will be played in a Clare Venue - likely to be Cusack Park.
