Pauric Mahony and Shane Dowling Go Head to Head for the AIB GAA Munster Senior Hurling Club Championship Title #TheToughest. Ballygunner sharpshooter Pauric Mahony is pictured alongside Na Piarsaigh maestro Shane Dowling ahead of the AIB GAA Munster Senior Hurling Club Championship Final on the 22nd of November. For exclusive content throughout the AIB Club Championships follow @AIB_GAA and facebook.com/AIBGAA. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/SPORTSFILE.

One man who has really stepped up for the men in red and black this season and will be again on Sunday is Brian O’Sullivan and his performances have impressed the man that he has taken over the free-taking duties from.
Pauric Mahony has been impressed with how Brian O’Sullivan has performed as Ballygunner’s free-taker The pair shared the responsibilities before Mahony took over. However, O’Sullivan was handed back the role when Mahony incurred his season-ending leg injury in the first round of the Waterford championship in May.
O’Sullivan was at his metronomic best in the semi-final win over Fourmilewater, when he fired over eight frees, and again in the final against Tallow where he pointed a brace of frees and a 65.
Ahead of Sunday’s Munster semi-final against Glen Rovers, Mahony admits he never had any fear about O’Sullivan taking the reins. “Brian is a confident enough fella himself and any time we had the chance we would do a bit of practicing before training or games. Brian doesn’t need to be listening to me!
“When we were growing up, Brian used to hit the close-range frees and I would hit the long frees so we were working together. He would have been used to it up to minor and was the number one freetaker at under-age level. So far, so good for him in that department.”
Mahony remains on course to return to hurling in early 2016. “I was with the surgeon on Tuesday and he said everything’s going to plan so far. I’m back to doing a bit of light jogging and that’s where it’s at now. Hopefully, I can gradually pick it up over the next couple of months and then, come the new year, I’ll start doing a bit of hurling.”
He has been helping out club manager Denis Walsh even if doesn’t have a job description. “I’m just helping out. Any bit of advice I can give to the lads. I don’t really have a title, just an injured player you could say.
“You can see what’s going on out the field and you can understand the game a lot better looking in from the sideline. Hopefully, when I do get back I’ll be able to take a lot from watching on.”
Manager, Denis Walsh, will be hoping that his side can reproduce the performance they turned in against Glen Rovers in the semi-final on Sunday next, ‘It was serious going, but that was in the team it just hadn’t come out all year. In the County quarter-final, semi-final and final we could have been beaten in any of them. We didn’t drive on but we asked them to drive on against the Glen and they did.’
Meanwhile, Na Piarsaigh boss, Shane O’Neill, is determined to concentrate on his own team’s strengths and weaknesses and not get too caught up on Ballygunner.
“I thought the boys’ application and workrate was just unbelievable. We showed our composure, didn’t panic and just kept tipping away. We couldn’t have asked for any more from the boys.
O’Neill says the short turnaround means they won’t have a chance to study their final opponents: “We won’t be looking at Ballygunner, we’ll have to just look at ourselves and deal with what we thought our shortcomings here were throughout the whole game.
“Even championship week training is more short, sharp sessions as opposed to anything major, so it will be something similar.”
O’Neill added that David Breen’s broken wrist means that the Limerick inter-county man will not be available for next Sunday’s County final.

• Also in GAA in today’s paper, Phil Fanning’s preview of Ballygunner v Na Piarsaigh, reports on Fenor v Ennistymon, De La Salle’s Dean Ryan Cup Final and the Co. JFC Final, our Co. SFC Team of the Year, Pat Flynn is the new Co. Board secretary and so much more………….