Passage paradise – Passage 3-16 Ballygunner 3-13

 

A finish to give you goosebumps. You had to scrub your eyes to verify it. A sudden injection of 2-4 numbed the pain for Passage. The craziest climax to a county hurling final was beyond belief.

Passage rolled the dice all season long. They scored 17 goals and conceded 13 on the journey. They emerged as the great entertainers. With the attacking resources at their disposal, that approach was understandable. There was also a consistency to the manner they concluded all of their knock out matches. Five unanswered points in the quarter final and two goals in the third quarter of the semi indicated that they would last the pace.

Still, a uprising seemed unthinkable considering the opposition. Ballygunner simply don’t surrender these situations. Up to that point, they had done more than enough. The red and black ribbons were ready. They took decisive action in the third quarter. A seven point gain (2-3 to 0-2) during moving quarter. Their full forward line was working as well as it had done all season as they accumulated 2-3. Stephen Power’s aerial ability and 1-2 contribution came as a welcome bonus to Ballygunner. Since his De La Salle college days, he has struggled to pin down a regular position but he reminded everyone of his gifts on Sunday. David O’Sullivan provided a towering presence at wing forward and his defensive splitting run allowed Power to scramble the opening goal.

Their backs appeared impenetrable. Wayne Hutchinson picked the apples off a tree and shielded the inner line. Stephen O’Keeffe asserted himself around the goalmouth and dictated the pattern and pace of Ballygunner play. He directed the ball out from the back and they pinged it around precisely during the second half. They even hosed down the first flames of a fightback. Eoin Kelly hit two points, Owen Connors converted a free and John Whitty tested Stephen O’Keeffe in a five minute spell. Yet, points from Harley Barnes, Brian O’Sullivan and Power kept them seven up with seven to play.

The villagers still trusted their fitness. Fergal O’Brien had them running up and down Passage hill. Peter Queally moulded them as a group and put an end to the individualism that held them back. Very few had tasted any sort of club success. Four years ago in an Eastern Under 21 final, Ballygunner trounced them by 4-17 to 2-7. Ten survivors started for Gunners on Sunday and eight from Passage. This team, with an average age of 24.7, had matured throughout this campaign however. In those final five minutes, they learned how to win. A bit of risk taking was involved as Jason Roche wandered all the way up from the full back line to leave two goals in it. They kept plugging away and none showed more perseverance than man of the match Owen Connors. A reliable club performer since their promotion at senior level, he didn’t panic and chipped away with the frees. His first half goal recovered their balance and he spurred them on again following that damaging third quarter.

The take off was sudden and unexpected. It crept up on the Gunners and almost everyone else in Walsh Park. The rocket fuel came in the form of Sean Hogan’s goal. The seventeen year old substitute saw little action before the sliotar came his way right on the stroke of sixty minutes. From an acute angle and with Stephen O’Keeffe close to unbeatable, he scorched the ceiling of the net before the number one had time to raise a stick at it. Ballygunner were wobbly on their legs now. Passage had to push them to the canvas. They sensed and grasped the opportunity. They needed every last one of the 17 goals to get their mitts on the News and Star silver. The long serving Conor Carey lifted the roof off the net when he collected from Owen Connors. Cue commotion.

The next couple of minutes were a red and white blur. County final woes and an inferiority complex to the Gunners utterly dismissed. They lost three times (1993, 1994 and 1997) in different circumstances. The first two hurt the most while they were clinging on by the time the third came around. Names likes Barry, Cullinane and Connors were all prominent. Conor Carey and Rory Walsh were also knocking around. They spiralled out of senior in 2003 and only resurfaced in 2008. Hard knocks came their way initially. An Abbeyside annilihation in the group stages of 2009 (7-16 to 3-10) was followed by a semi final shellacking from De La Salle (2-21 to 2-5) a year later. They settled in senior helped by an underage crop that contained Noel Connors, Owen Connors, Thomas Connors, Eddie Lynch, Mark Wyse and Killian Fitzgerald amongst others. Peter Queally put the pieces together. Carey recalled their first encounter with Ballydurn man. “We were out and we were playing as individuals and we were shouting and roaring. He stopped the game and he said ‘lads if I don’t win a game with ye this year I’m going to make ye believe in each other and be positive to each other’.”

Life, death and hurling became tangled up in this tale. The memory of the Bolger brothers never left them. “It was always there in the background and it was always silently there,” stated Peter Queally on the pitch afterwards. “We spoke about it after our first night back training and it was a very emotional night. We said that we wouldn’t mention it again but every time we came into a huddle and there was silence, we think about the three brothers that lost their lives at sea. We wanted to honour their passing.” Eoin Kelly added: “It’s great to have some bit of joy in the village. The people of Passage need this and they will get some lift of this.”

They won’t feel the winter now in Passage East. The Munster championship can go on the backburner. As Conor Carey exclaimed: “Let’s go have a session!”