Ballyduff's odyssey captured imagination
Ballyduff's Gary O'brien laments a missed opportunity Credit: PICTURE: JOHN REIDY
YOU wouldn't expect there to be a whole lot of love for the most successful club in the county. Success, particularly success on the scale of Ballyduff's in hurling, breeds envy, but something strange happened this winter. All of a sudden Ballyduff became everybody's favourite second club.
For all the talk about the rivalries in Kerry hurling, it was heartwarming to see the huge support they garnered for their Munster campaign. See it turns out that everybody loves a winner afterall. Just so long as they're not doing the winning against you.
It was thrilling really. Exactly what hurling in the Kingdom needed. Victory in the Christy Ring Cup created a feel good factor, but for a club side to do well in Munster competition against clubs of similar status was a major shot in the arm for the game and particularly for those of us who believe that Kerry should make the jump back to Munster competition sooner rather than later.
That's not to say that by doing so we expect Kerry to win the Munster Cup, but to be there competiting and improving that's the thing. You saw that with Ballyduff. They already had exposure to this intermediate championship last year when they came up short at home to Hospital / Herbertstown. By learning from that experience and improving and pushing on further they demonstrated the importance of learning by doing.
Would the Ballyduff of 2010 have beaten a John Meyler trained Courcey Rovers in Cork? Probably not, but having experiened what they did the year before Ballyduff were able to and able to maintain the momentum for a home fixture against Clare side Éire Óg in Austin Stack Park.
That brought Ballyduff to the cusp of greatness with the chance to win a Munster title against Effin in Newcastle West in November. It was some day in Newcastle West. Every hurling club in the Kingdom was represented on the terraces. And football clubs too. The whole of the Kingdom really got behind Jerry Wallis' side.
The atmosphere was electric. They led at halftime. History awaited them, but Effin struck back. They were the slicker side in the second half and snatched the title from Ballyduff, who kept on trying to the end and put in a performance to be proud of in many respects.
Okay in the end they just weren't good enough on this occasion, but who's to say that in years to come they won't be? As we said earlier in this piece you learn from experience. Ballyduff proved it before, they can prove it again.
- Damian Stack
