ONCE TEAMS CROSS a certain threshold of success, there is a capacity to illustrate greatness through numbers.
Ballygunner’s tenth consecutive Waterford senior hurling championship is a new record, both within their county, but also among any of the established traditional hurling counties.
The game itself was their 55th consecutive championship win.
It’s Shane O’Sullivan’s 13th county title in all, having made his debut as a 16-year-old in 2002.
What will have been toasted long through the night in the south side of Waterford city however, is rooted in that most primal of GAA motivations – getting one up on the other shower.
This win has them breasting the tape of the other winning runs of near neighbours on the same side of the River Suir in Erin’s Own and Mount Sion.
Comparing teams across eras is now scoffed at by those with more sense and an appreciation that these are different sports with hardly even a nodding acquaintance with each other. Like being able to handle yourself in ten-pin bowling and thinking it would stand to you in road bowling.
On the last of Erin’s Own’s triumphs, a 4-7 to 2-4 final win over Tallow on 26 October 1935, the winning of a championship was overshadowed by a row over selection to the county hurling team.
A few days after the county final was played, it was announced that the Waterford team to face Limerick – Mick Mackey and all – would contain no Erin’s Own players at all. This being before a time when successful clubs would insulate themselves for a provincial campaign, of course.
The last of Mount Sion’s nine in a row in 1961 had a dramatic feel to it. They were chasing down Erin’s Own’s record of course, and who should fetch up in the other side of the draw but their neighbours.
Their meeting on 8 October was a draw, Mount Sion 0-11 to Erin’s Own’s 2-5. According to the judgement of the correspondent for the ‘Waterford News and Star’, there was a desperation to the contest.
‘In fact let me be honest and say that the standard of hurling fell below expectations. But where was the need for classic stickwork in this pulsating struggle?’ asked ‘Deiseach’.
‘How could style assert itself when men stood shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip and pulled and pulled.’
Flaking on a ‘60s scale, it would appear.
And it gets even more lurid as the report continues; ‘Right away let me record that this was a sporting final between teams that in the white heat of battle, never boiled over. Men hit men and took it like me. There was tackling to make the spectator wince, swinging sticks to frighten the uninitiated and a do or die spirit which made it impossible for any man to concede an inch, however hard the clash, whatever the degree of personal danger.’
Ten points in favour of Mount Sion, 2-14 to 2-4, settled the issue in the replay.
The Waterford hurling championship is an exclusive enough club. For the past 30 years it has been the preserve of Ballygunner, Mount Sion have grabbed seven of them, De La Salle have struck for three while Ballyduff Upper and Passage squeezed one out each.
The last decade however has shown a dominance that runs deep. Across the last ten finals, the average winning margin for Ballygunner has been 12 points.
Yesterday’s total was 2-26. Across just over 60 minutes of hurling, which is astonishing, but they have also hit the net twice in seven of the last ten finals.
Consider where they are coming from. In 2013, they were stunned by the last few minutes with Passage nailing 2-4 in the last five minutes to steal victory, Conor Carey’s winner causing severe anguish in the Ballygunner club.
It’s not uncommon for heart-breaking defeats to be converted into a sustained period of success. From 2003 to 2008, Loughgiel Shamrocks lost six consecutive county finals. After one, the supporters of the winning club unveiled a banner that mocked Loughgiel’s record as losers, only for club elders to remove it from sight. Four years later, they were All-Ireland champions.
It would be a stretch to say that Ballygunner have had years walking in the wilderness. They featured in every final from 1999 to 2007, but they had defeats from 2002 to ’04, and then ’06 and ’07.
Looking further ahead, they have a strong record in Munster, appearing in the last five finals, winning three of the last four.
None of their challengers for the province and further ahead have anything like the certainty that they will be hurling into October.
Five different clubs have won the Wexford championship since 2019. Tipperary is even more scattered with six different champions the last six years, while the last four years has brought four different champions in Cork. And whoever wins in Cork will face Ballygunner on 4/5 November.
With any period of dominance, question marks inevitably arise as to how this serves the county. For years, there was a sense that Kilcoo players could have done a better job for Down footballers than those occupying the jersey. The introduction of Conor Laverty as manager, and a beefed-up Kilcoo contingent showed us it wasn’t that simple.
Ballygunner have a healthy representation on Davy Fitzgerald’s county team with Peter Hogan, Patrick Fitzgerald, Dessie Hutchinson, Paddy Leavey and Kevin Mahony.
However, Waterford fans might also have preferred for the likes of Barry Coughlan (33), Stephen O’Keefe (32), Philip Mahony (32) and Pauric Mahony (31) to have played on for another few years.
Either way, their chances of an All-Ireland to go with the dramatic late Harry Ruddle winner against Ballyhale in 2022 – are greater with their club than county.
Is there an element of selfishness to this? Absolutely. Every dominant champion needs and carries that trait.
