![\"21](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0023a959-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nBallygunner made it back to a first All-Ireland final in four years with a smooth second-half turnaround to rack up a nine-point victory over St Martin’s in front of 3,373 fans at Semple Stadium.<\/p>\n
That margin of victory looked outlandish early in the second half when the Wexford champions led 0-08 to 0-05, but the Gunners romped home by reeling off 14 of the next 15 points.<\/p>\n
Teenager Mark Hartley played a key role in the reversal. Of their initial eight-point surge, the substitute was heavily involved in five; scoring one, assisting two, and winning two converted frees.<\/p>\n
Man of the match Dessie Hutchinson accounted for 0-07 (six from play) and Pauric Mahony, held scoreless in the first half, also notched 0-07 (two from play).<\/p>\n
This began as an attritional contest, with both teams running the sliotar from deep and swarm tackling at every opportunity.<\/p>\n
Superb defensive showing by the likes of Eoin O\u2019Leary on Patrick Fitzgerald and Daith\u00ed Waters on Mahony held Ballygunner to 10 shots in the first half.<\/p>\n
Hutchinson started brilliantly, though, to pick off an opening brace, while Fitzgerald was denied a goal by Callum Quirke\u2019s fine save.<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s finally began to get purchase with three points in the space of four minutes. Waters created all three, assisting Joe Barrett and David Codd\u2019s attempts, and fouled for a Rory O\u2019Connor free from where the sliotar landed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They wouldn\u2019t score again for 14 minutes, but limited the damage to two points via Fitzgerald and Hutchinson (above).<\/p>\n
Both teams struck a handful of wides in this spell, with O\u2019Connor missing two frees and Hutchinson erring with a routine chance.<\/p>\n
The Gunners got a fright in the 22nd minute when Michael Coleman got in behind the cover and fell to the turf as the sliotar skittled to the net.<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n Stack gave a free-out for a throw ball, although Martin\u2019s had claims for either a penalty or an own goal, as the sliotar seemed to be knocked free by Ian Kenny\u2019s boot.<\/p>\n
They still took momentum from that moment, pressing up on the Ballygunner backs with renewed intensity. O\u2019Connor won a pair of frees, with one each slotted by brothers Rory and Jack.<\/p>\n
Barrett, wearing four on his back but playing on the wing, picked off a second from distance for a 0-06 to 0-04 half-time lead.<\/p>\n
Mahony had a pair of early frees after the restart, but missed the second to leave Martin\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n
Rory O\u2019Connor again won and converted a free and Darren Cood tagged on a point for their biggest lead; 0-08 to 0-05.<\/p>\n
Ballygunner called for minor graduate Hartley and he made an immediate impact by assisting a Michael Mahony score before finishing a wonderful effort of his own when backed onto the sideline.<\/p>\n
Added to a Pauric Mahony brace and Hutchinson\u2019s fourth, the Gunners swiftly moved two in front.<\/p>\n
Hartley kept his charge up, winning the next two frees for Mahony to convert and feeding the centre-forward for his next from play.<\/p>\n
That rounded off an unanswered burst of 0-08 in 12 minutes for a five-point lead.Jack O\u2019Connor pulled one back, but the Gunners shot six more through Hutchinson (0-03, one free), Pauric Mahony (free), Peter Hogan, and Harry Ruddle.<\/p>\n
Barrett\u2019s third provided scant consolation for Martin\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Ballygunner: S O’Keeffe; I Kenny, T Foley, A O\u2019Neill; H Ruddle (0-01), Philip Mahony, R Power; C Sheahan, P Leavey; M Mahony (0-01), Pauric Mahony (0-07, 1f), P Hogan (0-01); K Mahony, P Fitzgerald (0-01), D Hutchinson (0-07, 1f).Subs: M Hartley (0-01) for K Mahony (37), C Tobin for Fitzgerald (48), C Power for Pauric Mahony (59).<\/p>\n
St Martin’s: C Quirke; P Dempsey, E O\u2019Leary, C Firman; J Barrett (0-03), D Waters, D O\u2019Leary; David Codd (0-01), A Maddock; Darren Codd (0-01), J O\u2019Connor (0-02, 1f), J Firman; M Coleman, B O\u2019Connor, R O\u2019Connor (0-03, 3f).Subs: B Maddock for Coleman (43), B Stafford for Waters (44-46, blood), Stafford for J Firman (55), M Codd for A Maddock (55), P O\u2019Connor for Waters (55).<\/p>\n
Referee: S Stack (Dublin).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ballygunner made it back to a first All-Ireland final in four years with a smooth second-half turnaround to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-204693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}