Hyland is proud but devastated Clough/Ballacolla just ‘couldn’t get over the line’

Standing outside the Clough/Ballacolla dressing room at UPMC Nowlan Park on Sunday evening, the weight of a near-miss was still visible on the face of manager Willie Hyland. His team had come heartbreakingly close to toppling one of the most formidable sides in Leinster Club SHC history.

Clough/Ballacolla matched Shamrocks Ballyhale for long stretches of the game, holding the Kilkenny champions level with just three minutes of normal time remaining. Yet, three late points ultimately carried Ballyhale into the Leinster final, leaving Hyland and his players rueing what might have been.

“It's hard to sum up now at the moment to be honest. Just very, very disappointed. Look, I thought there with five minutes to go, we were right in it. They're a quality team and they’ll punish you down the far end.

“We had our chances but we couldn't fault the players. Typical of our lads, they just kept going. I'm just unbelievably proud of them. Like, we just said it inside, they were absolutely unbelievable out there.

“Sometimes parts of our hurling were poor, but just the absolute heart and work ethic they gave us. There were loads of ruck balls; it was tough conditions out there. Just devastated now that we couldn't get over the line,” he said.

Despite keeping pace with Ballyhale for most of the contest, Hyland acknowledged that the elusive second goal they had hoped for never materialised.

“We looked in a good position, all right, but you're never in control. They’ve got so much quality around the field that you might keep Eoin Cody quiet, but he could make space for somebody else, the same with TJ. They got a couple of vital scores there near the end. We just couldn't get that goal chance that we wanted at the far end. It's just tough now, yeah,” he said.

The substitution of Stephen ‘Picky’ Maher added energy to Clough/Ballacolla, yet finding him in space proved difficult under relentless pressure.

“The lads were under so much pressure out on the field. Ideally, you’d like him one-on-one at the edge of the square. He had to come out looking for a ball because the ball wasn't going in,” Hyland explained.

Willie Dunphy emerged as a standout figure, his switch from full-forward to centre-forward sparking a string of scores that kept Clough/Ballacolla in contention.

“We brought him out the field to centre-forward and he started doing a good bit of damage out there. When he got the last one in particular, he had his dander up, I think it was his maybe third point. I thought we're in a good place here now and Picky was on the field, but you have to finish a job and we just didn't do it,” Hyland said.

Earlier in the first half, a strong chance for a second goal went abegging when Aidan Corby’s effort was saved. Dunphy followed up only to send it over the bar. Hyland stressed that mistakes are inevitable at this stage of the competition and that he had hoped for a late surge from his side.

“Probably the better one before that, I think it was Mark. When you look back on the video, you'll say, but in fairness, you're under savage pressure out there. The levels have gone up, this is the last four in Leinster so we're going to make mistakes.

“We said that to the lads before the match, we're going to make loads of mistakes and they're going to have purple patches, but we were just hoping that we'd have a late, late purple patch, but we didn't have it,” he said.

When asked whether this performance ranked as their best outside Laois, Hyland reflected on the semi-final win over Kilmacud Crokes in 2021 instead.

“I don't know, I don't think so. I felt that maybe the Kilmacud game was up there. I thought that some of the mistakes that we made out there will haunt us for a while now,” he said.

Hyland also confirmed that Sunday’s game marked the end of his two-year managerial tenure, during which he led Clough/Ballacolla to two county titles.

“Look, I've said to the lads I won't be there, but the lads will be there and as a club we’ll be there. I have a lot going on, a young family and different things, so I won't be there. Look, it's been a great two years, and if someone said to me when we took on the job that we'd win two county finals, and, you know, maybe, I think they’ll be there or thereabouts for the All-Ireland, run the All-Ireland champions, to give them the scare that we did.

“Still, it'll haunt us that we didn't finish the job; that's probably just the way I look at things. They beat us in that Leinster final a couple of years ago, nearly ruined our winter, to be honest with you. You have to be a competitor; moral victories are no good to us, that's the way we look at it,” he said.

The narrow defeat will linger in Hyland’s mind for some time.

“You’re catching me right at the wrong time here now, but it's going to hurt and it’s going to sting because we were just there, but not just there, it was a draw match with four or five minutes to go. We were where we wanted to be and we had the right men on the field in the right positions.

“Our lads, one or two of them got tired, never tracked runners, but how could you give out, like, you can't give up out to the lads. 56 minutes into an absolute battle out there, they’re going to be banjaxed. They left it all out there, we threw in fresh legs, we could probably analyse things for the whole winter and say, could we have done this, could we have done this, but, look, they're a serious outfit, as you know,” he said.

He also acknowledged the work of his backroom team in helping him along the way.

“It was very, very much a whole backroom team effort there with Shane and Mick. We had Tom Delaney last year, Liam Hyland this year, Liam England came in this year Niamh as well. There are loads of people helping out there in the club and contributing to it.

“If someone said to me at the start of our term that we'd win two county finals and I would like to think that we've left the team in a better place now for whoever comes in now. Look, I'll still be as passionate about Clough-Ballacolla as anyone, but, yeah, look, that's it over and out,” he said.

Hyland offered praise to Ballyhale’s stars, particularly TJ Reid.

“I'd say a number of different things. They work unbelievably hard. I think if you looked at any of our defenders, the pressure they were under clearing ball. They punish your mistakes, that's the thing. You're going to make mistakes, but they'll punish you. In fairness, uncharacteristically, they drove a couple of wides, but that's why I felt we had a great chance. It was seven, eight minutes to go, they missed two balls in open play, they put them wide. I think TJ missed a free as well, but at the end of the day, the game was 63 minutes, and they found a way, like all good teams do.

“Look, they’ve won what, I think TJ Reid has won 12 county finals at this stage, four All-Irelands, nine Leinsters, like, jeez, you know, unreal. They have that tradition, and they have that know-how to win, you know? There’s nothing left to be said about TJ, but I thought our lads did well on him, to be honest, you know? They deserve massive credit. He’s a class act, he's on the road a long time now, but, no, I'd have to give credit to our lads too, to be honest,” he said.

Finally, Hyland reflected on the modern club championship and why it remains so compelling.

“That's the beauty of the club championship now, because you could have, I don't know, a couple of clubs in Laois, maybe two or three clubs in Laois, who would fancy themselves against others, but maybe we wouldn't have the depth that, say, Kilkenny clubs would have. But at the same time, when the champions meet, it's game ball. You look at Carlow, for example, they've got St Mullins or Mount Leinster Rangers, they've got two clubs, Antrim is the same, you often see Dunloy. That’s the beauty of it, lads, and that's why club games should never change,” Hyland concluded.