Saint Mary’s And Ballydurn in Repeat of County Final of 30 Years Ago

Apart from in the senior grades in the history of the G.A.A. in Waterford to see two clubs playing at the same venue in the same competition compete in a County Final, some years apart. On Saturday afternoon next we are going to see it happen when Saint Mary’s from Touraneena and Ballydurn clash in this year’s County Junior Hurling Final at Walsh Park.

Both of these two sides are not strangers to competing at this level of competition. Saint Mary’s reached the County Final at this grade in 2015 and 2016 losing out to Fenor and Ballyduff Lower respectfully, while Ballydurn reached the final in 2017 losing out to an Ardmore side that went on to win the Munster and All-Ireland titles, and twelve months ago the mid county side reached the final of the competition in the east of the county where they lost out to Tramore.

The same two clubs met in the first round of this year’s championship where Ballydurn reversed lat years loss in winning 1-12 to 1-10 and since then it was wins all the way for the club apart from when they drew 0-13 to 1-10 against Ballygunner’s third string side.

In their divisional semi final they had a 3-11 to 1-10 win over Mount Sion and for the second year in a row they played Tramore in the Eastern Final this time winning 3-14 to 0-12.

Saint Mary’s path to this year’s County Final is equally as impressive. Coached by former Waterford hurler and Player of the Year Dan Shanahan, the Touraneena outfit opened their championship with a loss to Abbeyside on a 1-21 to 2-7 score line but since then it is wins all the way recording wins over Colligan Rockies, Tourin and Kilrossanty in the group section of the competition and getting a walk over from Geraldines.

In their semi final it was a local derby game for Saint Mary’s against Colligan Rockies a game that Saint Mary’s won in impressive fashion on a 5-9 to 3-9 score line and in the Western Final they reversed the result of their opening game of this year’s Competition winning 1-14 to 0-11 at Fraher Field recently.

The Touraneena Club also had a good run in the West Waterford Intermediate Hurling League reaching the final against Brickey Rangers ahead of some of the stronger sides playing in the higher grade. This game was to take place back in August but was called off following a death in the Brickey’s Club.

This year’s County Final will see the best two sides over the past four years to play in this competition do battle against year other and for one of them they will contest the Intermediate grade in 2020, meaning one of these sides will have to contest the junior grade once more.

Thirty years ago this year Saint Mary’s and Ballydurn coached by former Kilkenny great Christy Heffernan clashed in the Junior Hurling County Final again at Walsh Park and on that occasion it was the West Waterford Club that emerged as victors in a low scoring game, and went on to play in the Western and for a while the County Intermediate Hurling Championships until they were relegated some years back.

For the Sliabh gCua/Saint Mary’s G.A.A. Club in Touraneena (they play football under the name of Sliabh gCua and hurling as Saint Mary’s – in the same way their opponents this weekend are Ballydurn in Hurling and Newtown in Football), 1989 was a memorable year. Just a few weeks ahead County Final win on November 19 Sliabh gCua won the Intermediate Football Championship beating Portlaw in the Final at Fraher Field, and they won the double in dramatic fashion coming from behind to beat a side who had to line out without future inter county star Peter Queally following his sending off in a Divisional game in the run up to this final.

The opening half of this game proved to be a very low scoring affair, where the defence of both sides were on top of the game stopping the attacking players from the opposition with all their might as they contested every ball as you would expect them to do so.

Just three points were hit in those opening thirty minutes, and all came from placed balls. It was Ballydurn that opened the scoring on four minutes from a Michael Hubbard free which maybe would have suggested that those inside the ground were in for a score fest but it was not to be.

Saint Mary’s levelled matters from a Lar Whelan free four minutes after Ballydurn had taken the lead and the same player pointed again from a free at the mid way points in the opening half to give the Touraneena side the lead and this was how the way the game remained until Paddy ‘Tyler’ Walsh blew his half time whistle fifteen plus minutes later.

Saint Mary’s in the second half had the breeze at their backs in the second half and they looked to making use of it in the third quarter of this game as Pa Hallinan from a ’65 and Kieran Hallahan with the first score from play gave the Touraneena side a 0-4 to 0-1 lead with 41 minutes played.

The game however appeared to have taken a turn just three minutes later as Nick Halley got inside the Saint Mary’s full back line and beat John Fitzpatrick in the Saint Mary’s goal after he dribbled the sliotar along the ground, a skill which we sadly seldom see in the modern game, and finished to the net to level matters on the score board.

Tom Condon hit back with a fine point for Saint Mary’s but his effort was cancelled out two minutes after Ballydurn had hit the first goal of the game when Ger Bagge shot over to level matters once more and at this time Ballydurn appeared to be the better of the two sides.

The mid county side took the lead for the first time on 47 minutes when Nick Halley got his second score of the game, this time a minor score in comparison to his earlier score.

Eight minutes from time Saint Mary’s won a 20 metre free in the corner where the tunnel leads to the dressing rooms. Lar Whelan had responsibility of striking the close range frees and as he stood over it, it looked as if he was going to level matters. A free even from a tight angle for a free taker of Lar Whelan’s ability was almost certainly going to result in a point. But this time a point did not result.

The local papers in reporting on the game claimed that the Saint Mary’s man mishit the sliotar and that its flight deceived everyone and fell into Billy Walsh’s net to give Saint Mary’s a 1-5 to 1-3 lead.

Was the shot mishit? Three years later a certain Paul Flynn burst onto the National Scene in Inter County Hurling helping Waterford to reach an All-Ireland Minor Final and to win an All-Ireland Under 21 title. The Ballygunner man over the course of a long number of years made a name for himself as a free taker of repute where on more than one occasion he had the umpire reaching for a green flag when it looked the one was not one. Not once can yours truly remember anyone calling any of the Ballygunner Club Man’s scores a fluke or lucky. The word class was more likely it came to the Ballygunner mans ability to get goals from his free taking, so as a Touraneena man, in this instance I am going to insist that what Lar Whelan did back in 1989 was class and maybe if a certain young man from Ballygunner was in attendance on the day what he did on many occasions might be only replicating what he saw from the Touraneena man or at least heard about. That is my story and that is the way that I am going to keep it at for this piece anyway.

Saint Mary’s won the restart and when Eamonn Butler got his hands of the ball he made no mistake in firing over the head of Billy Walsh in the Ballydurn goal to edge the Western Club three points in front.

Ballydurn in the closing minutes threw all they could at the Saint Mary’s defence to get something from the game, but all their got for their efforts was a consolation score by Michael Hubbard as Saint Mary’s held on for a 1-6 to 1-4 win.

Saint Mary’s: John Fitzpatrick; Brendan Tobin, John Dalton, Rodger McGrath; Pat Hearn, Pa Hallinan, John Hallinan; Ger Butler, Tom Condon; Tom Whelan, Eamon Butler, Eamon Lonergan; Kieran Hallahan, Dec White, Lar Whelan.

Scorers: Lar Whelan 1-2 (all frees), Pa Hallinan (65), Kieran Hallahan, Tom Condon, Eamon Butler 0-1 each.

Ballydurn: Billy Walsh; Tomás Kirwan, Jim Harney, Jason Boland; Bill Cummins, Kieran Dunphy, Paul O’Donnell; John Harney, Michael Hubbard; Ger Bagge, Nick Halley, David Dunphy; Noel Harney, Ger Boland, Tony Boland.

Subs: John Halley for Paul O’Donnell; Ben O’Donnell for Jason Boland; D O’Sullivan for Noel Harney.

Scorers: Nicky Halley 1-1; Michael Hubbard 0-2, Ger Bagge 0-1.

Referee: Paddy (Tyler) Walsh

 

Paths to the Final 2019:

Ballydurn     1-12    Tramore                    1-10

Ballydurn     2-14    Kilmacthomas         0-11

Ballydurn     1-16    Passage                     0-16

Ballydurn     0-13    Ballygunner             1-10

Ballydurn     0-19    Mount Sion              1-12

Ballydurn     2-14    Roanmore                 1-14

Ballydurn     0-0      Bunmahon   Gave Walkover

Ballydurn     3-11    Mount Sion              1-10 (Semi Final)

Ballydurn     3-14    Tramore                    0-12 (Eastern Final)

 

Saint Mary’s            2-7      Abbeyside                 1-21

Saint Mary’s            0-20    Colligan Rockies     0-13

Saint Mary’s            1-17    Tourin                       1-15

Saint Mary’s            4-24    Kilrossanty               2-3

Saint Mary’s            0-0      Geraldines    gave walkover

Saint Mary’s            5-9      Colligan                    3-9 (semi Final)

Saint Mary’s            1-14    Abbeyside                 0-11 (Western Final)