Rathgormack and Ballinacourty renew final rivalry
Rathgormack celebrate their victory over the Nire in the Co.Final of the J.J.Kavanagh & Sons Waterford senior football championship back in 2023.
Defending champions Rathgormack will appear in a sixth successive Senior Football final on Sunday next and will be seeking a twelfth title in the championship Roll of Honour. To achieve that goal the champions must overcome a Ballinacourty side looking for an eighth title the last achieved in 2020 at the expense of the Rathgormack side they will face on Sunday next.
The football tradition runs deep in Rathgormack folk lore going back to the legendary side of the early part of the 20th century when the club won six titles between 1909 and 1918. There followed many barren decades since then before the club resurfaced in the top tier of Waterford football with a very strong side in the nineties that appeared in four county finals, winning three, the last being against Stradbally in 1999. That fine team bowed out with a loss to Stradbally in the 2001 final but, in 2019, years of rebuilding at underage level saw Rathgormack’s return to Waterford football’s top table with a sensational senior final win over Ballinacourty. One year later Ballinacourty avenged that defeat and now the sides renew rivalry with The Burgery men seeking once again to wrest the title from Rathgormack’s grasp as they did in 2020.
Despite losing three finals, first to Ballinacourty and then two against The Nire, between their title wins of 2019 and last year, Rathgormack’s consistency has been unwavering. The majority of their 2019 winning side has remained intact over the past six years with young players coming on board when needed in the meantime. Last year they turned the tables on arch rivals The Nire after two final defeats with a decisive 1-9 to 0-6 final victory and on Sunday last they peaked as defending champions with an imperious display that emphasised the gap that has evolved between themselves and The Nire.
In winning on Sunday last Rathgormack looked a team of all the talents by Waterford standards. They never allowed The Nire to gain a foothold in the game and displayed awesome firepower in attack with the Curry’s, Jason and Stephen, on fire backed up by Jason Gleeson and Conor Murray while James Power’s tremendous work rate saw him contending with Jason Curry for the man of the match accolade.
At the back Padraig Hunt is a reliable and experienced net minder while the consistency of Willie Hahessy, Cathal Crouch , Tom Walsh and Sean Hahessy has not wavered over the five final appearances. In midfield Peter Walsh has slotted in nicely with the evergreen Michael Curry to complete a lineup that makes Rathgormack strong favourites going into this final.
Where then of Ballinacourty’s chances? Not for the first time will the men in green and white stripes be seeking to upset the odds. They did it in 2011 and 2013 when interrupting Stradbally’s great championship run and again in 2020 against this very Rathgormack side. While Rathgormack have retained the majority of the players who featured in the 2019 win over Ballinacourty and the 2020 defeat by the same opponents in Walsh Park the changes on the Ballinacourty side have been huge with more than half their team making their county final debuts on Sunday next.
That Ballinacourty have come through to this final without the services of top dual players Conor Prunty and Neil Montgomery is a tribute to the club’s underage structure that has seen players such Charlie Treen, Colin Foley, the Beresford’s, Conor McCarthy and David Montgomery stepping up to the plate alongside experienced campaigners like Brian Looby, Michael O’Halloran, Michael Kiely and Patrick Hurney. On Sunday last they looked set to bow out at one stage against Gaultier but found a way, as they always seem to do, and held out for victory.
On Sunday next Ballinacourty will relish their role as underdogs as was the case when they turned the tables on Rathgormack in that 2020 Walsh Park final. The pressure is all on Rathgormack going into this game but that is nothing new to the defending champions. They are now a side that has been through it all since winning the 2019 title, three heart breaking final loses and a glorious recovery last year. They are clearly a side at their peak and though Ballinacourty will ask the questions on Sunday Rathgormack should have the answers and collect that twelfth county title.
