Club SHC final preview: Immortality on the line in battle of the Ballys

History will be made at Croke Park today.

The pandemic meant there was no All-Ireland club hurling championship last year but Ballyhale Shamrocks can become the first team to win three consecutive titles if they beat Ballygunner.

Their opponents would be the first club from Waterford to claim the Tommy Moore Cup in the 52-year history of the competition and are only the third Déise finalists after De La Salle in 2009 and Mount Sion in 1982.

Incredibly, Ballyhale haven’t lost a knockout match since 2017. James O’Connor took over from Henry Shefflin after the 2020 All-Ireland triumph but the conveyor belt of trophies hasn’t slowed – they collected their fourth Kilkenny and third Leinster on the trot before Christmas.

That they are slight underdogs rather than hot favourites is down to two things.

Firstly, they are somewhat fortunate to be there.

Galway’s St Thomas’ must surely have felt they had avenged their 2019 final hammering by the same opponents before TJ Reid fired a last-gasp 20-metre free to the net in the All-Ireland semi-final.

They had also needed a late Eoin Cody goal to force extra-time in the Leinster semi, before eventually overpowering Offaly champions St Rynagh's.

Reid said of his stunning strike that "It was pure luck that it went in" but it also spoke to the determination to fight till the bitter end that has long been the hallmark of Kilkenny teams.

The other reason today’s contest is not expected to be a cakewalk is the calibre of their opponents.

Ballygunner have won eight Waterford titles in a row. Tallow’s four-point defeat in 2015 is the closest anyone has come to catching them in those finals. De La Salle’s eight-point reversal in 2019 is next.

Ian Kenny, Peter Hogan and Dessie Hutchinson are all starters