THE MINEFIELD OF the Munster Senior Club Hurling Championship is summed up by the fact that the title has only twice been successfully defended since the inception of the All-Ireland Club Championship.
Blackrock of Cork (1978-79) and St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield of Clare (1998-1999) hold the distinction.
In the other provinces, the reigning champions have prevailed in Leinster on six occasions, while there have been two quadruples, one treble, and six other doubles achieved in Ulster.
Current All-Ireland champions Ballygunner are the latest to attempt a defence, but they are meeting an old foe on Sunday afternoon that will have something to say on the matter.
No recent rivalry better encapsulates the competitiveness in Munster than the Waterford giants’ meetings with Na Piarsaigh.
Two heavyweights of club hurling, both have denied the other a title defence at the final hurdle.
Although there is no silverware on the line when they meet in Sunday’s provincial semi-final at the TUS Gaelic Grounds, the pair have previous.
Previous meetings
- 2018 Munster SHC final: Ballygunner 2-14 Na Piarsaigh 2-8
- 2017 Munster SHC final: Na Piarsaigh 3-15 Ballygunner 2-10
- 2015 Munster SHC final: Na Piarsaigh 2-18 Ballygunner 2-11
- 2011 Munster SHC semi-final: Na Piarsaigh 3-9 Ballygunner 0-12
A Munster final defeat is a significant setback for any team. It is a long road back. No team can immediately think of revenge.
Licking wounds is the first order of business after such a defeat; then come the long months of wondering what might have been, before preparations commence for a county title defence.
That is what made the 2018 success so sweet for the Déise side.
“It was huge on multiple levels. We’d only one Munster prior to that, in 2001, and we had been in the final on so many attempts,” former Ballygunner player and manager Fergal Hartley tells The42.
“We hold the unenviable record as the club that has lost the most Munster finals. We had lost so many of them by narrow margins as well.
“From our perspective, not only having lost to Na Piarsaigh in two Munster finals in 2017 and 2015, but having lost so many Munster finals and only having won one before that, it was a huge stepping stone.”
They were gunning to set the record straight in what had been a lopsided rivalry up to that point.
“We played in 2011, they beat us. We played in 2015, they beat us. And we played in 2017, they beat us,” Hartley recalls.
“There was a strong rivalry there at that stage. It was the third Munster final in four years between the two clubs.
“Obviously, we felt like we needed to get one up on them. But I don’t think revenge would be the word.”
Since then, Ballygunner kicked on from that breakthrough triumph.
Although an All-Ireland semi-final defeat followed in February 2019, they dusted themselves down and came again.
Harry Ruddle’s instantly-historic buzzer-beater saw the Gunners claim the ultimate glory last year at Croke Park, but that victory seems to have done little to sate their appetite. In fact, it has been whetted.
The taste of the big-time leaves them wanting more, although they remain fully focused on the task at hand.
“They always show up. And that hasn’t changed since before the All-Ireland and after the All-Ireland,” Hartley details.
“Winning the All-Ireland, you’d say they put that behind them very quickly and wanted to move on. It’s another year.
“Teams don’t [always] come back and perform as well as they have performed.
“I think this team were completely focused on putting the All-Ireland behind them, and getting down to the business of winning the Waterford county championship and going on from there, and that’s what they did.
“We had a celebration, and four or five weeks later, these boys were back at it and completely focused. That’s the way they are. That’s what makes them a good team.”
On the flip side of the coin, all was rosy in the garden for Na Piarsaigh entering that 2018 Munster final.
After claiming their first ever Limerick SHC in 2011, they could have been forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about with regards to provincial championships.
Their first four county titles were followed by Munster successes.
Four years ago they rocked up to Semple Stadium, looking to make it five from five.
Ballygunner put pay to such aspirations, and the Caherdavin club have had a long wait to get another crack.
Patrickswell (2019 and 2021) and Covid-19 (2020) since conspired to deny them a chance to compete outside the county.
But they have another chance on Sunday, and Hartley is wary of the threat.
“I get a sense from Na Piarsaigh, they’re like a team on a mission this year,” he warns.
“From the start of the year, they looked like a different outfit than they were in recent years. They look like a team that feel that in the last one or two years, they’ve not reached the heights they should have reached. And they look like they’re intent on putting that right.
“Any team that comes out of Limerick would feel they’re capable of winning Munsters and All-Irelands, given where Limerick hurling is at the moment, and given where Na Piarsaigh hurling is at the moment as well.
“The bottom line is, they beat us three times from four. That tells its own story.”
Making the short trip across the Ennis Road to the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday, Na Piarsaigh are now the ones with a point to prove in this big-time club hurling rivalry.