Reaction- New-look feel but same results for dominant Shamrocks Ballyhale
Ballyhale manager and captain gave their reactions after another county title win
Mark Aylward has been there and done that as a player with Shamrocks Ballyhale and on Sunday he led his club to county success as manager.
Aylward took over from Henry Shefflin after last year’s Leinster Final loss to St Martin’s and he has put his own stamp of things with the latest senior championship win among the great Shamrocks displays over the years.
“We wouldn’t have expected the way the game turned out, and obviously 2-24 to 0-8 is a big scoreline, but the start made it all as we got a goal in the first minute.
“That set the tone and the wind in our favour was strong and the boys ticked on a few scores from there and we know that Tullaroan had a couple of misses aswell.
“The wind was such a factor that having a big lead going in at half-time was huge but I still challenged them at half-time and I told them the first half was wrapped up and let’s try and win the second half on the scoreboard and they did that.
“Fair play to the panel of 30 players and the lads not togged out as it’s been a long and tough year and it’s difficult to try and back up a senior championship win in Kilkenny but the semi-final seemed to stand to us and fair play to them, they deserve it“.
Aylward and his Shamrocks team completed a league and championship double and he acknowledges that they left their best performance till last.
“In the league we played well in stages but in the championship you’ve to credit Glenmore and Thomastown who gave us hard fought games and we definitley opened things up today in the final and the workrate which led to turnovers gave us the chances to score which was great“, Aylward added.
The winners did most of the damage in the opening half and the manager was happy at how his team built up a big score.
“We probably would have done the same as Tullaroan and played against the wind,” he said. “Maybe the conditions were a bigger factor than we initially thought, but we planned for different situations and in fairness to the boys when we had the advantage they really made it count.”
Given the Shamrocks history of winning 12 provincial crowns in the past, a Leinster campaign is one the club will look to go well in.
“We were very disappointed to come away from Croke Park after being beaten in a Leinster Final last year and we now have two weeks to regroup after celebrating over the next few days,” Aylward said.
“We play the Harps in Portlaoise so we’ll look forward to that and do our bit of analysis on them so it’s something we want to go after.”
Full-back Joey Holden was as steady as ever for the Ballyhale club, and it was something of a dream afternoon after he was named man of the match and also captained the side.
“I think it was one of them days where everything went right for us and even if you look at the breeze it was very strong in the first half and we made use of it and there’s no breeze now after the game so things went in our favour but we are just delighted to get over the line.
“Adrian Mullen’s goal was exactly the start we wanted but we knew we had to keep the scoreboard ticking after that and that’s exactly how it played out“.
Unlike other years, Shamrocks started the season in fine form wit doing well in the league a clear target and that consistency paid off in the latter stages of the championship.
“We’d a new management and a couple of new players in with us this year and they brought a bit of a freshness and a drive to help us win as many hurling games as we could. We’d a good league and lost only one game so we drove on after that and that really stood to us“, the former Kilkenny defender added.
Many good club teams have come and gone but the Shamrocks strength is how they stay at the top for so long.
“We’re proud people and we are proud to be from Ballyhale and we are representing all of our families here today and that drive is bred into us and for us to keep going and we did that all the way to the finish line.”