Eleven points from man of the match Pauric Mahony fired Ballygunner to eleven county senior hurling titles in a row before a crowd of 4,012 in Dungarvan this afternoon.
The Gunners saved their best til last as Darragh O'Sullivan's men ran out 2-28 to 2-10 winners over Abbeyside in the George Corbett Skoda Big Match. Captain Conor Sheahan raised the News & Star trophy.
It's now 58 matches unbeaten for the boys in red and black. 3,358 days since they were defeated in the Déise. They have won the eleven finals by a grand total of 138 points. Veteran defender Shane O'Sullivan pocketed his fourteenth senior medal.
Pauric Mahony pulled the strings from centre forward as he won his thirteenth medal. Dessie Hutchinson (1-4), Patrick Fitzgerald (1-1) and Kevin Mahony (0-3) terrorised the Abbeyside full back line. Captain Conor Sheahan also brought his A game at midfield with four points from play. Stephen O'Keeffe showed his All Star quality between the posts. His puckouts set up attack after attack. Corner back Ian Kenny curbed Charlie Treen.
Michael Kiely was Abbeyside's main threat up front once again. The target man scored 2-1 to complete the championship with 6-13.
Abbeyside went with an unchanged team. The Ballygunner line-up showed two changes from the semi final win over Passage as Shane O'Sullivan and Michael Mahony replaced Sean Harney and Cormac Power.
Abbeyside captain Michael Kiely won the toss but chose to play against the breeze. Ballygunner took advantage straight away as number seven Ronan Power landed a long distance point inside a minute. Michael O'Halloran equalised from a free before the champions struck five unanswered points.
Dessie Hutchinson, Kevin Mahony, Pauric Mahony and Conor Sheahan made it 6-1 after eleven minutes as the Gunners created oceans of space in front of goal.
A mighty Michael Kiely point in front of the bank lifted the Abbeyside supporters. Their first score from play in the fourteenth minute. Two O'Halloran frees cut the gap to two.
A packed Fraher Field was silenced as Ballygunner blitzed their opponents 1-9 to 0-1 in the second quarter. Dessie Hutchinson saw a shot at goal blocked by a combination of Eoin Kiely and Lar Power. On 23 minutes, the Waterford attacker unleashed a bullet past Power at his near post after Pauric Mahony poked the sliotar inside.
Pauric shot six first half points (three from play) while younger brother Kevin got three. Goalkeeper Stephen O'Keeffe punched the air when he split the posts from inside his own 45. A blockbuster point. Charlie Treen ended a fourteen minute barren spell for Abbeyside. Injury time efforts from Peter Hogan and Pauric Mahony (free) made it 1-15 to 0-5. They were guilty of seven first half misses.
Six minutes into the second period, Lar Power made a point blank save from Hutchinson. The Gunners kept the ball alive and Patrick Fitzgerald found the far corner. A minute later, Stephen O'Keeffe spilled a Willie Beresford point attempt and Michael Kiely flicked the ball home. Conor Prunty then scored from his own half but ten points was as close as the Villagers got.
Hutchinson added three more to his tally as they stretched seventeen clear. With five minutes left, Kiely lashed home a close range free. 2022 All Ireland final hero Harry Ruddle got in on the act as the Gunners finished with ten different scorers.
Darragh O'Sullivan's charges begin their bid for four Munsters in a row away to the Limerick champions on November 3. Ballygunner's provincial matches will be live on WLR thanks to George Corbett Skoda.
