‘We proved we are good enough to be in the All-Ireland final’- Shamrocks manager Pat Hoban

Shamrocks are into an 11th All-Ireland club hurling final but in many ways last Sunday’s victory over Ballygunner felt just as good as their eight All-Ireland titles.

After being questioned in some quarters, Shamrocks boss Pat Hoban was delighted to see his side answer the critics.

“There was a lot of questions about this team,” Hoban said afterwards.

“A lot of people felt maybe they weren’t at the level, they were slipping, felt that we hadn’t the panel, felt we hadn’t the fitness. And I think today, we had two guys off after 15 minutes, we proved we have a panel, we proved we have subs and we proved we are good enough to be in an All-Ireland final.

“We went three points up and started quite well and we knew what Ballygunner were going to do.

“We had our homework done on them,” the manager added. “We expected a lot of movement, which is very hard to defend, so the reality is we needed our half-forward line to work harder. Once we got on top on all of the breaks, we managed to get to grips with them.”

TJ Reid’s second half penalty was crucial in deciding the outcome of the last four clash and his character shone through, even after missing an earlier penalty.

“TJ is an orchestrator of all the teams that he’s involved in and on the biggest days he usually turns up,” the Shamrocks boss added.

“Even after missing the first penalty, he showed absolute belief in his ability to come up and stick the next one.

“I’d give Stephen O’Keeffe fantastic praise for the saves he pulled off as well,” he added. “We were very conscious of his ability as we told the lads to try and keep the ball low.

“Great credit to Ballygunner though, they were in it ’til the end. You may have heard me shouting to the lads ‘remember February’ and it was a bit like that at the end as we tried to hold on.”

As well as TJ’s influence, it also proved to be a stubborn and ferocious defensive performance with the full-back line coming in for huge praise after they shut down a much-vaunted Ballygunner attack.

“To be fair to Killian Corcoran we matched him up with Patrick Fitzgerald. In fairness to that young lad he came into the game with a lot of pressure and exposure, but it just shows you that Killian is a fine young hurler.

“Unfortunately Darren Mullen went off injured early and Brian Butler came in and he too did a fantastic job, but Joey Holden to me was man of the match,” added Hoban. “There’s a man that went off to America and finished hurling and then comes back and holds some of the best players in the game scoreless - he’s an incredible leader.”