Five-star Ballyhale prove too good for James Stephens

Ballyhale Shamrock 1-21 James Stephens 2-11

Ballyhale Shamrocks continue to pile up the records in Kilkenny. This time they completed the first five in-a-row in the senior hurling championship final when they out-gunned James Stephens by seven points in extraordinary fashion in UPMC Nowlan Park.

This fifth consecutive victory means Shamrocks, who were only founded 50 years ago, join Tullaroan at the top of the Roll of Honour with 20 senior championship wins.

Things looked bad when the defending champions were reduced to 14 men when midfielder, Paddy Mullen, was red carded in the 35th minute. Shamrocks simply took the setback in their stride.

They proceeded to produced a hurling show the likes of which is rarely seen. By the finish they had hit 'Stephens for 1-10 against 1-06. The losers goal only arrived in the 58th minute when ’Stephens would have needed a miracle to save the day.

All the big men responded to the SOS call for Shamrocks - TJ and Richie Reid, Adrian Mullen, Colin Fennelly and Eoin Cody, who were all magnificent, but not far behind were Darragh and Joey Corcoran, Evan Shefflin and Joey Holden.

This was a display of clever, determined hurling from Shamrocks, who dressed up the performance with a magnificent closing point from sub Niall Shortall, who threw a dummy hand-pass and beat three defenders before shooting the closing point from 50 metres on the left sideline in the 63rd minute.

At the time of the dismissal, James Stephens had scored a point through Andy Parsons to reduced the interval deficit to 1-06 to 0-11. Their first senior win since 2011 looked a real possibility.

Moments later one of their defenders was judged to have charged with the ball. Free. TJ Reid point. Shamrocks were off. The points flowed