Mark Bergin on toppling Ballyhale, Brian Hogan's calm and Paddy Deegan's late blooming

It's no great shock to see the Kilkenny champions arrive in the All-Ireland club final though the representatives are different this year.

The rest of Kilkenny has felt Ballyhale's boot on their throat for some time, the Shamrocks recently enjoying perhaps the most dominant of their many dominant eras.

However in 2023 we witnessed something of an uprising. Seeking a six-in-a-row, the All-Ireland champions were ambushed in the county decider by O'Loughlin Gaels, Paddy Deegan hoisting over the winner deep in injury-time.

Gaels are somewhat miscast in the role of plucky little guys. It may be only their fifth county title, but all have been won in the 21st century.

The Kilkenny city outfit have won two previous Leinster championships in 2003 and 2010 and reached an All-Ireland final in the 2010-11 campaign.

It wasn't an especially uplifting experience. They shipped a heavy beating against Micheál Donoghue's Clarinbridge side.

Former Kilkenny hurler Mark Bergin was only 21 back then. Now he's an elder statesman of the team, combining playing with his role as a national school principal no less.

Given the monsters stalking the local scene in Kilkenny, he knows when you get a rattle at the Leinster and All-Ireland series, you have to make the most of it.

"At the start of the year, your aim is certainly not to win a club All-Ireland," says Bergin. "Your aim would be to win a Kilkenny championship. And we didn't win the last one since 2016 so it's been quite a while.

"We knew that in order to win a Kilkenny championship, you're going to have to beat Ballyhale. They've been the kingpins of hurling in Kilkenny and Leinster and right throughout Ireland. And they're going to be back again next year, I've no doubt about it.

"There is an