Kilkenny’s Ballyhale Shamrocks are deserving winner s of their fifth All-Ireland club hurling crown, proving too deft, too hungry and just plain old too good for reigning champions Portumna in the Saint Patrick’s Day showpiece.
Lead in attack by Henry Shefflin and inspired by Alan Cuddihy in defence, the Kilkenny men hit the ground running and with the exception of some sporadic passages, kept their boot on the Portumna throat right throughout the game and were full value for the win.
Portumna were only just in touch at the break after making a stuttering start from which they never recovered. Star forward Joe Canning arguably missed 1-1 in the opening minutes, and as his team mates struggled to find their touch, a much more assured Ballyhale were 0-6 to 0-1 up inside 15 minutes, three of the points from Henry Shefflin.
Only seven first half wides prevented the gap being even greater, as Portumna laboured to hit anything resembling their normal groove or get any ball into their forwards. Another two from Shefflin and an Eoin Reid brace stretched the lead to 0-11 to 0-3 nearing the break, before two from play inside a minute from Damien Hayes gave the Galway side hope going to the dressing rooms.
The crowd awaited some sort of response, and when Canning drove over a thunderous 100 yard free in the 36th minute, to add to his two frees and a ’65 earlier in the half, the gap closed to 0-13 to 0-9 and suddenly it was game on. However, in the next passages of play, Portumna spurned a half-chance for a goal and Damien Hayes leaked another wide with an effort at a point, and with those missed opportunities, one feels, went their chances.
Ballyhale re-settled themselves and continuing to show the greater sharpness and stick-work, went out to 0-16 to 0-10 before the final nail was driven in the 46th minute, with the game’s solitary goal.
Portumna ‘keeper Ivan Canning, who survived a scare in the first half when he fumbled possession only for a Ballyhale man to cleave the turf with his stroke as the goal gaped, once more fluffed his lines when he took a swipe at thin air when attempting to handpass clear from the square. There’d be no let off for him this time though as David Hoyne pounced to hack the ball home from point blank range, and for all intents and purposes win the game.
The irrepressible Joe Canning continued to chip away up front, finishing the day with 0-12 in the closing credits, but with Shefflin and the Reids, Eoin and TJ, also in form, the sides basically traded scores until the finish with no change overall. Canning’s opportunistic low drive from distance, gathered at the second attempt by the goalie, was the closest Portumna got to the goal they needed to have any hope.
It finished 1-19 to 0-17, a sweet retribution for Ballyhale having lost to the same opponents in last year’s decider, a defeat for which their hunger to atone was very much in evidence at Croke Park.