Being in the southeast for the bank holiday weekend, An Moltóir availed of the opportunity to nip over to Walsh Park last Sunday to take in the Munster club championship game between Ballygunner and St. Joseph’s Doora Barefield...

It was a lovely bright sunny day (which proved quite discommoding for players facing towards the country end of the ground). However, it certainly was not summer, as indicated by the high grass and soft underfoot conditions. Walsh Park is currently second only to the Páirc Uí Chaoimh as possessing the worst playing surface for hurling in the country. At least the Bog by the Lee has some excuse, being located in the flood plain of a major river. Walsh Park is on top of a hill, which makes its poor drainage something of a mystery. An Moltóir does not recall the pitch always being this bad, and surmises that it must have something to do with the building of the new stand a few years back.

As an aside, with the GAA moving inexorably to an open-draw hurling championship organised on a round-robin system, regular home games will become a key feature of the championship calendar. As the only top hurling county (with perhaps the exception of Offaly) without a ground capable of holding a crowd of 20-25,000, Waaaaterfordwill be faced with making a choice of whether to further develop either Walsh Park or the other county ground, Fraher Field in Dungarvan. With its far better playing surface and bigger dimensions, common sense would appear to point to the latter. But then, when did common sense ever wield much influence over the conduct of GAA affairs in the Déise?

Getting back to last Sunday’s game, it was dominated territorially from beginning to end by the home side. The Clare men showed none of the fluency which marked their victory over Sixmilebridge, but they hung in doggedly and An Moltóir fully expected the Gunners to demonstrate the traditional Déise frailty in the face of a close finsh and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. However, despite the odd wobble, their defence held out stoutly against St. Joseph’s late siege, and then managed to break out for Michael Mahoney’s clinching goal.

Some St. Joseph’s supporters (and indeed some commentators in the meeja) appeared to be surprised by the quality of Ballygunner’s play. This was understandable, given the poverty of their play in previous recent encounters against Clare opposition. However, the fact is that the Gunners have routinely been putting the best that Cork and Tipperary had to offer out of the competition in the last few years. And any team that can boast the likes of Paul Flynn (when in the mood), Fergal Hartley, Stephen Frampton and Billy O’Sullivan is unlikely to be a pushover. And while all of these played leading roles, they got plenty of support from the lesser lights in what was a very hardworking and sustained team performance.

The soft ground and high grass ensured that player pile-ups were a regular occurrence, and hard pulling by two committed teams gave rise to a stream of yellow cards from referee Pat O’Connor. There were also a lot of niggly and nasty incidents which had nothing to do with the playing conditions, and a couple of other players were lucky not to join Joe Considine on the sideline (the latter for a high challenge on Colin Kehoe, having been previously yellow-carded).

St. Joseph’s were in trouble from start to finish at midfield, where Tom Fives dominated Ollie Baker and Andy Moloney won lots of ball despite nominally being placed in the half-forward line. Rumour has it that Moloney has been called into Justin McCarthy’s preliminary county hurling panel. However, while his size and strength are undoubtedly great assets at this time of year, one wonders if he has the hurling skill and nous for summer championship fare. Jamesie O’Connor mysteriously spent most of the match at the edge of the Ballygunner square where the tight space gave all the advantages to this marker, Stephen Frampton. In addition, very little good ball came into the area throughout the game, such was the extent of Ballygunner’s superiority further afield.

St. Joseph’s other big-name player, Seanie McMahon, while doing some good work, never had the impact on the match of his opposite number, Fergal Hartley, whose catching of high ball and general covering play were superb. It was clear that the Ballygunner goalkeeper was under strict instructions not to send high balls down the middle, and instead sought to pick out players with most of his puckouts. In other respects, however, the Ballygunner tactics were questionable, as they persisted with a short-passing game in the middle third of the field when the long ball was clearly the better option in the prevailing conditions. As a result they repeatedly squandered good possession. They also gave away too many silly frees around the middle of the field which McMahon duly punished with his excellent free-taking.

Ultimately, however, St. Joseph’s were too dependent on frees for their scores. They only scored 1-2 from play compared with Ballygunner’s 2-10. These figures speak for themselves. The only St. Joseph’s players to emerge from the game with reputations intact were fullback Donal Cahill (despite having to give some change to Paul Foley) and Lorcan Hassett, who spent much of the game attempting to plug holes all over the field. By contrast, Ballygunner had few weaknesses and plenty of heroes. Significantly, they made no use of substitutes during the course of the game. Whether this indicates a lack of backup on the bench could prove significant if things do not go as well in their next game, against whomever emerges from the seemingly never-ending saga which passes for the Tipperary championship.