{"id":10133,"date":"2022-04-04T01:02:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T01:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=10133"},"modified":"2022-04-04T01:02:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T01:02:48","slug":"ballygunner-prove-they-have-the-mettle-to-go-with-skill-in-bid-for-all-ireland-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=10133","title":{"rendered":"Ballygunner prove they have the mettle to go with skill in bid for All-Ireland glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOR ALL THE titles they\u2019ve accumulated over the past decade, it\u2019s the pain of defeat that turned Ballygunner into a ruthless winning machine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The club won Munster in 2001 and endured four final defeats before they next claimed provincial honours in 2018. For the then five-in-a-row Waterford champions, getting over the final hurdle in Munster turned into a team crusade.<\/p>\n

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They finally shook off serial tormentors Na Piarsaigh three years ago and it was then that their sights turned to the All-Ireland. Just as Clarinbridge had done in early 2002, Ballyhale Shamrocks ousted them at the semi-final stage.<\/p>\n

Ballyhale won by five points in a game that swung on Eoin Cody\u2019s 44th minute goal. Moments earlier, Conor Power\u2019s goal bound flick got stuck in the mud on the line, as did Tim O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s follow-up, to deny Ballygunner a three-pointer at a key stage.<\/p>\n

Ballygunner\u2019s bid to reach a maiden All-Ireland final the following campaign saw them upset by Borris-Ileigh in the Munster decider. Another year, another opportunity to claim the Tommy Moore Cup gone.<\/p>\n

It was a defeat that badly stung Ballygunner, as did the talk that they were bullied by the Tipperary men.<\/p>\n

Covid struck in 2020, ruling out a shot at provincial and All-Ireland glory. Time kept ticking on.<\/p>\n

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Ballygunner\u2019s 2021\/22 campaign has had more substance to it. They breezed through Munster, gunning down Limerick champions Kilmallock by 14 points in the final at Semple Stadium.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s assignment against Slaughtneil brought a different test. Beating the physical and hard-working Derry side in a dogfight on the tight confines of Parnell Park proved that Ballygunner can mix the flashy hurling with the steely stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re no longer a team that can be bullied.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe physicality was there from the minute the ball was thrown in,\u201d reflected centre-back Philip Mahony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fairness we knew it was going to be like that. It\u2019s an All-Ireland semi-final against Slaughtneil, they\u2019re a great club they\u2019ve won Ulster championships in football and hurling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey keep going every week and anytime you come up against a team like them you know it\u2019s going to be really tough. You\u2019ve got to put it up to them too in those kind of situations. They never went away which we knew they wouldn\u2019t but we\u2019re just delighted to get the win it\u2019s the only thing that matters in a semi-final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re used to playing in tight pitches like this. It\u2019s very similar to Walsh Park and Fraher Field which are the fields we play on most of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of experience from lads playing against Dublin in various different games, underage and even playing challenge games against Dublin you\u2019d usually be playing here. So we knew exactly what it was going to be like and we were prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was plenty of trash talking going on between both sides throughout the hour.<\/p>\n

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Ballygunner showed their cute side when it was required too. Shane O\u2019Sullivan and Pauric Mahony dragged down Slaughtneil forwards S\u00e9 McGuigan and Shane McGuigan as they chased a goal near the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To reach the first final in their history was a big thing for the players, but Mahony admitted \u201cunless we win now it doesn\u2019t mean too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying hard for a number of years, we lost two semi-finals previously to Clarinbridge and Ballyhale,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019ll just knuckle down for the next two or three weeks again.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll play Shamrocks in the All-Ireland series for the second time since 2018. Ballyhale are well used to lining out at Croke Park, but a host of Ballygunner players have experience of lining out at the venue too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably does stand to you as well. A few guys have played there going back as far as when we were in school in De La Salle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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FOR ALL THE titles they\u2019ve accumulated over the past decade, it\u2019s the pain of defeat that turned Ballygunner into a ruthless winning machine.\u00a0 The club won Munster in 2001 and endured four final defeats before they next claimed provincial honours in 2018. For the then five-in-a-row Waterford champions, getting over the final hurdle in Munster…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}