Dec 01,2024
One empire has fallen but another dynasty is still establishing itself.
By tomorrow evening we will know the final four for the 2024/25 All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship.
Ballyhale Shamrocks dominated Leinster from 2018-22, winning the first three-in-a-row, and then four, only missing out on a crack at five due to the Covid cancellation in 2020.
They went on to claim the All-Ireland title in three of those four years, Ballygunner denying them what would have been another historic treble in February 2022.
Ballyhale will surely be back - one Henry Shefflin was recently reappointed manager - but they have been squeezed out in Kilkenny the last two seasons.
The team that knocked them out this year, eventual champions Thomastown, were themselves shocked by Westmeath winners Castletown Geoghegan, who in turn were pipped by Kilcormac Killoughey.
In what is a newly democratic championship, the Offaly kingpins take on Na Fianna, of Dublin, who beat Wexford's St Martin's.
The Glasnevin club have thrived on the bigger stage since winning their first county title last year, and are back in the Leinster final having lost by a single point to O'Loughlin Gaels 12 months ago.
Former Tipperary captain Brendan Maher is now a coach with Offaly and has been enjoying watching the competition in the province while keeping tabs on Kilcormac Killoughey's senior panellists: Cillian Kiely (just back from a thumb injury) Charlie Mitchell, Colin Spain and Adam Screeney.
"I've had a keen eye on Kilcormac’s progression and the Westmeath champions put it up to them, it was a great game in tough conditions. Na Fianna and Martin’s was a great game as well.
"Playing it in Croke Park will add to the occasion in the sense of it being a good surface and weather shouldn’t have the same impact it might in another ground.
"Kilcormac have been up in Croke Park before [they were All-Ireland finalists in 2013] and I’m sure they’ll be leaning on the experience of the older guys that would have been involved back then, the likes of Conor Mahon and a few others.
"That should help them but they do have a very young team so that’s probably why Na Fianna have that favourites tag. But I would give Kilcormac a great chance.
""They have a great club down there, a great community. I pass through it three times a week going to training in Faithful Fields and I'd love to see them do it."
Galway champions Loughrea await the winners in January.
Meanwhile, Ballygunner have taken over in Munster, featuring in every final since 2017.
The 11-in-a-row Waterford champions emulated their nemeses in Ballyhale by becoming the first three-in-a-row provincial winners last year and are hotly favoured to extend that record against Sarsfields, who knocked out Clare champions Feakle despite losing the Cork final to divisional side Imokilly.
Maher's free was the difference the last time the Gunners lost a game in the province, the surprise defeat to Boris-Ileigh in the 2019 final. It remains their only Munster defeat in the last seven years.
"I think it was just one of those days when Ballygunner maybe weren't at their best and we got a little bit of a rub of the green," he reflects.
"It was a bad day, which would have suited us more, we were able to bring them down to our level!
"We had quite a physical team at the time, and a bit of momentum. We had won the county final unexpectedly and had a good win over Glen Rovers in the semi. We just seemed to be on a crest of a wave, and continued that on after and managed to beat St Thomas’ in a semi-final.
"I don’t think we were a better team than them that year, I think we managed to be just about better on the day.
"They maybe underestimated what we were going to bring to the table. I think they would have learned from that day."
Despite all the provincial dominance, Ballygunner have reached just one All-Ireland final, the 2022 decider they won against Ballyhale thanks to Harry Ruddle's last-gasp goal.
The Kilkenny men had their number in 2019 and '23 while St Thomas' prevailed in extra-time before going on to lift the Tommy Moore Cup last year. But neither of those two can stop them this time.
"They have just been relentless, and one of the best club teams, up there with the likes of St Thomas’ and Ballyhale over the last four or five years," says Maher.
"They are a joy to watch. They have probably been at the peak of their powers over the last year or two and I wouldn't like to be facing them this Sunday.
"They seem to have a really strong culture in the club. Not just the senior team but the club as a whole.
"They have a lot of experience in the team and a lot of strong characters, a lot of leadership. The likes of the Mahonys [Philip and Pauric], Shane O'Sullivan [Waterford's new performance coach] . So it's not just about how good they are technically, they are very bought-in to what they do as a collective.
"Dessie Hutchinson is one of their forwards but you wouldn’t say he’s the star man for them all the time and I think that’s a testament to them as a group."
Ballygunner beat the Glanmire men by 2-20 to 0-09 in last year's quarter-final but Maher warns against writing off their opponents completely.
"I would absolutely give Sarsfields a chance. Weather has an impact on games this time of year.
"We were proof that the best team doesn't always win on the day. On any given day, anything can happen in a game of hurling.
"But obviously, you would have to fancy Ballygunner. It’s hard to look past them with the performances they have been producing and the panel that they have."
The Munster champions will face their 2022 semi-final opponents Slaughtneil, who came through an epic Ulster semi-final against Cushendall a fortnight ago, or Portaferry of Down.
"There's a lot of new blood that has come into the team, and I think they're around that sort of 24, 25 average-age profile now. So, the experience has changed for them.
"They ran Cushendall close last year, went to extra time and Cushendall pulled away in the second half injury of extra time. It took Neil McManus heroics again, a goal at the death to, to take it that way. They could very easily have won it.
"So, they're also at that level. I wouldn't say any game is a walkover at this stage. That's the level Ulster's at now."
Let's hope hurling fans are in for an early Christmas present.
