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 for Waterford. Pauric Mahony is back after missing the last two seasons with the Déise while the trio of Stephen O’Keeffe, Barry Coughlan and Philip Mahony are not long retired from inter-county duty but are barely into their 30s.
They hammered 2017 All-Ireland finalists Ballyea and Limerick champions Kilmallock in Munster. Loughmore-Castleiney did give them some trouble in the semi-final until both Noel and John McGrath had been sent off and Slaughtneil were dogged opponents in the All-Ireland semis but they have led from the start in every game.
It will be interesting to see whether they can do the same today, and whether it would even bother a team comfortable coming from behind like Ballyhale,which also has the likes of Adrian Mullen and Colin Fennelly alongside Reid.
"I think the pendulum has moved towards Ballygunner," Anthony Daly told the RTÉ GAA podcast.
"With the way Dessie Hutchinson is playing and the space that that’s creating for the likes of Peter Hogan, Billy O’Keeffe, the Mahonys… I think they have more balance and are at the peak of their powers.
"I could be wrong, you’d nearly want to be bringing the cup in the gate of McGinn Park to make sure you have this Ballyhale team bate because we saw the defiance the last day.
"But I just think, overall, good in Kilkenny but so lucky to beat Rynagh’s and struggled against Mount Leinster (in the Leinster quarter-final) as well.
"The last day they were hurled off the field in lots of ways but they did take over the match in the last 15 minutes."
The two clubs are just 30km apart, Ballyhale village being situated halfway between Kilkenny city and Ballygunner’s base on the southern fringes of Waterford city.
However, they have only met competitively once, when Shamrocks won a scrappy All-Ireland semi-final in 2019.
The neutrals will hope for a better contest today but either side would settle for whatever it takes to write a new page in the record books.
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