![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4861503_2_articleinlinemobile_3294170.jpg\" "\\"Patrick")
Patrick Fitzgerald of Ballygunner celebrates after scoring his side’s third goal. Picture: Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n\n
Ballygunner (Waterford) 4-18\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
Sarsfields 2-17\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sarsfields\u2019 reign as Munster club hurling champions was ended on Sunday afternoon as Ballygunner powered to victory.<\/p>\n
Though Walsh Park now carries the naming rights of Azzurri, it was not a day for the blues, who fell 14 points at one stage in the first half. They did battle come to come within five early in the second period but a pair of goals put the Waterford champions back in control and a final winning margin is informed by Sars scoring seven of the last nine points as the game petered out.<\/p>\n
It was far from the 17-point beating of two years previously at the same venue – the Gunners have not lost here in a decade – but unfortunately for Sars they couldn\u2019t make it enough like last year\u2019s provincial final win in Thurles.<\/p>\n
While Ballygunner opened with a pair of Pauric Mahony frees, Colm McCarthy\u2019s sixth-minute reply for Sars suggested a closer encounter than two years ago. However, between that and their next point on the quarter-hour mark, they were hit for an unanswered 2-4.<\/p>\n
The lead had grown to 0-4 to 0-1 by the ninth minute when Philip Mahony found his brother Kevin – his delivery was batted away by goalkeeper Ben\u00a0Graham but unfortunately only as far as Dessie Hutchinson, whose finish was clinical.<\/p>\n
Patrick Fitzgerald of Ballygunner celebrates after scoring his side’s third goal. Picture: Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
Sars almost had an immediate response as Barry O\u2019Flynn tested Stephen O\u2019Keeffe but, after another Mahony free, Ballygunner struck again. Once more it was Hutchinson doing the damage, but his task was made easier as a Patrick Fitzgerald sideline cut was not dealt with.<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald himself went close to another, firing wide but with advantage, Mahony converting the lead for a 2-8 to 0-2 lead.<\/p>\n
With Philip Mahony dominant at centre-back and another brother, Michael, highly effective in a roving centre-forward role, the lead morphed further, growing to 2-11 to 0-3 by the 25th minute before Sars finished the half well.<\/p>\n
After a Colm McCarthy free, Cian Darcy won a Ballygunner puckout and fed Daniel Kearney, who in turn found Jack O\u2019Connor and his pass gave Daniel Hogan an avenue towards goal. There was still plenty to do but he showed incredible stickwork to create space and calmly slot to the net.<\/p>\n
Hogan added a free after O\u2019Flynn had been fouled by O\u2019Keeffe – the kind that would yield a black card and penalty at inter-county level – and James Sweeney, following a good catch from Darcy\u2019s delivery, left it 2-11 to 1-6 at the half.<\/p>\n
An eight-point deficit became a far-more-manageable five within a minute of the restart. McCarthy\u2019s free from halfway fell short but Sweeney did well to keep the ball alive and when he poked across goal, Hogan was there at the back post. Unfortunately, it was as close as they came.<\/p>\n
After the flawless Pauric Mahony and O\u2019Flynn exchanged points, Ballygunner got their third goal as Hutchinson, from Paddy Leavey\u2019s pass, was allowed to weave through the defence too easily before finishing to the net.<\/p>\n
![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4861506_2_articleinlinemobile_2828413-QV_TOHL0198.jpg\" "\\"Daniel")
Daniel Hogan scores his and Sarsfields’ second goal. Picture: Inpho\/Tom O’Hanlon<\/p>\n
Good defending from Cillian Roche prevented Hutchinson from getting his hat-trick but a fourth Ballygunner goal wasn\u2019t long in coming: Kevin Mahony provided it, a brilliant individual effort.<\/p>\n
That made it 4-13 to 2-8 with 21 minutes left. While Sars never threw in the towel and did eat into the deficit in the closing stages, it was never going to be overhauled.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Ballygunner: Pauric Mahony 0-10 (0-9 f, 0-1 65), D Hutchinson 2-1, P Fitzgerald 1-2 (0-1 f), K Mahony 1-1, M Mahony, M Hartley 0-2 each.<\/p>\n
\n Sarsfields: D Hogan 2-3f (0-2 f), C McCarthy 0-5 (0-3 f), J Sweeney 0-4, B O\u2019Flynn 0-2, C O\u2019Sullivan, L Elliott, B Graham (0-1 f) 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n BALLYGUNNER: S O\u2019Keeffe; A O\u2019Neill, T Foley, I Kenny; H Ruddle, Philip Mahony, R Power; C Sheahan, P Leavey; Pauric Mahony, M Mahony, P Hogan; K Mahony, D Hutchinson, P Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: M Hartley for Pauric Mahony (49), C Tobin for Sheahan (54), E O\u2019Brien for Power, E Cuddihy for Fitzgerald (both 60+1).<\/p>\n
\n SARSFIELDS: B Graham; C O\u2019Sullivan, C Roche, D English; L Elliott, C Leahy, B Murphy; D Kearney, K Murphy; J O\u2019Connor, C Darcy, D Hogan; B O\u2019Flynn, J Sweeney, C McCarthy.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: E Murphy for Roche (37), B Nodwell for B Murphy (42), S O\u2019Regan for Kearney (45), L Hackett for K Murphy (58).<\/p>\n
\n Referee: A Tierney (Tipperary).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ballygunner (Waterford) 4-18\u00a0 Sarsfields 2-17\u00a0 Sarsfields\u2019 reign as Munster club hurling champions was ended on Sunday afternoon as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-183831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-gaa","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115560115428902767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}