No recent rivalry better encapsulates the competitiveness in Munster club hurling than Ballygunner v Na Piarsaigh
Image: Morgan Treacy/INPHO THE MINEFIELD OF the Munster Senior Club Hurling Championship is summed up by the fact that the title has only twice been successfully defended since the inception of the All-Ireland Club Championship.In the other provinces, the reigning champions have prevailed in Leinster on six occasions, while there have been two quadruples, one treble, and six other doubles achieved in Ulster.
Licking wounds is the first order of business after such a defeat; then come the long months of wondering what might have been, before preparations commence for a county title defence.“It was huge on multiple levels. We’d only one Munster prior to that, in 2001, and we had been in the final on so many attempts,” former Ballygunner player and manager Fergal Hartley tells The42.
“Obviously, we felt like we needed to get one up on them. But I don’t think revenge would be the word.”Although an All-Ireland semi-final defeat followed in February 2019, they dusted themselves down and came again. “They always show up. And that hasn’t changed since before the All-Ireland and after the All-Ireland,” Hartley details.
On the flip side of the coin, all was rosy in the garden for Na Piarsaigh entering that 2018 Munster final.
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