Munster Express Online

It was a contrasting tale of two county senior champions over the weekend. While Ballygunner advanced to the Munster Club Hurling Final following a stirring win over Glen Rovers, Stradbally had barely time to take in their Conway Cup victory over Ballinacourty before their own provincial ambitions were cut short by both Nemo Rangers and scheduling.
These are not the sort of headlines those of us who love Waterford GAA want for Waterford GAA. That our SFC Final (see Sport 2 & 3) was played 23 hours before the opening round of the Munster Club Championship illustrates pretty much everything that is wrong with the GAA.
Stradbally, who saw off Ballinacourty by 0-8 to 0-6 on Friday night last, had to play four Championship games in just 15 days, two of which were only 23 hours apart.
The Covemen gave it their all against a James Masters-inspired Nemo, and after a battling first half, eventually went down by 1-13 to 0-5.
The frustration of Stradbally manager Packo Curran on Saturday night, in which he called for the County Board “to get their arse in gear” and for our football clubs “to stand up and get things right for their own players”, was wholly justified.
Stradbally had no chance of doing themselves justice against the Cork champions who, in contrast to the men in red had two weeks to prepare for the game, and it’s a credit to Stradbally that they fulfilled the fixture and spared Waterford GAA any further embarrassment.
A series of play-offs to determine the SFC quarter-final seedings didn’t help scheduling (can we not just use score difference in the event of any future walkovers?), but it’s worth recalling that Waterford’s inter-county football season finished on June 20th. Almost five months ago.
County Chairman Paddy Joe Ryan’s declaration that last weekend’s events were “unfair on our supporters and clubs” may be correct, but the County Board itself ought to have ensured that the business end of the Senior Football Championship was not shoe-horned into a handful of Autumn weekends. So they have to carry the can on this.
Let’s not be too parochial about this: Waterford isn’t the only county to suffer with this problem, but it cannot be right nor just when one per cent of the playing population dictates to the detriment of the other 99. We ignore the welfare of club players – and their ability to compete fairly – at our peril.
And what of Ballygunner, whose storming second half display against Glen Rovers at Walsh Park demonstrated what can be achieved when given adequate preparation.
Shane O’Sullivan may have seen little action over the course of 2015 for Waterford but once again he delivered a massive performance in club colours. And the defensive mastery of Eddie Hayden, Barry Coughlan and Ian Kenny had me wondering why on earth there’s a need to have Philip Mahony (or David O’Sullivan) sweeping in front of them.
Harley Barnes and Billy O’Keeffe were terrific on Sunday and the under-rated Stephen O’Keeffe once again illustrated how the Gunners take on a more threatening offensive dimension when he’s in and around ‘the house’. And with Brian O’Sullivan imperious over the placed ball, the Gunners will fancy their chances of claiming a second provincial title come November 22nd.
This is a proud GAA county, and it would be welcome to see both senior champions being granted a fair crack of the whip when flying the Port Láirge flag on provincial duty.