It has been debated, they are the ‘Dublin’ of Waterford in terms of area, numbers, revenue etc. they are utterly dominant in every age group every year, usually 2/3 teams at each grade. They field 4 adult teams. A lot of potentially good senior hurlers will not play senior hurling for them.
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I’m surprised their second team hasn’t won the intermediate yet which could cause issues
They were beaten in the final last year so it is coming
I gave you a like for the comprehensive reply to my query but the hard facts outlined there are somewhat disturbing. The numbers seem awesome for a club in Waterford city where there are afaik a goodly number of other clubs.
The club dominance is not reflected in the county scene much in the manner of Corofin, Crossmaglen and Glencar/Manorhamilton.
At the last census there were 116,000 people resident in the county. 22,000 of these reside in the Waterford City South Ward which comprises all of the catchment area of Ballygunner plus Passage East. Passage has a population of 827 but plenty of their players would come from Woodstown and the outskirts of Dunmore so they probably have a catchment of circa 2,000. That leave Ballygunner with a catchment of more than 1/6 of the population of the county.
Fortuitously most of the city expanded into Waterford south in the last 30 years and Ballygunner were effectively the only hurling club in this area. Any expansion in the other half of the city was shared between 5 clubs.
It’s not a new phenomenon. In the 30s to the 70s almost all of the development in the city took place took place around the west of the city where Mount Sion had a monopoly until 1970 when Roanmore split off. And Mount Sion duly made hay. According to the development plan there isn’t a huge amount of development planned for Ballygunner so in the natural order of things their population will grow older and their dominance will slow down.
Dungarvan with 20k people and two clubs should really provide the challenge - based on demographics alone.
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Didn’t work out too well long term De La Salle moving to Gracedieu. They’d still have a some old familial ties from Dunmore Road side of town but they really should have been tapping into a lot of that population development on the southern flank of the city.
There’s about 900 kids in St Marys in Ballygunner and another 200 in the Gaelscoil.
The fact Ballyhale stumbled over the Carlow champions suggests Ballygunner would be in with a massive shout
If they don’t win it this year they never will
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They seem to step it up massively when they hit Croke Park
Ballygunner and Ballyhale have good links at underage level. They’re regularly in and out to play each other across all grades and in blitzes starting at U6.
If they do meet in the Final, it’ll surely be two clubs in closest proximity meeting in a club All Ireland Final.
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Birr v Portumna ???
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I’d say BH and BG is surely closer.
Dont think so
They do in fairness. Although I’d imagine Ballygunner’s style will suit CP too with their accurate balls into the forwards
Ah you’re right actually yeah, I forgot how south Portumna is
Birr Portumna would be a lot closer I would have thought
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Doora Barefield v Athenry close too
Roscrea bate Banagher in one of the first club A/I’s. That wouldn’t be a huge distance either id say.
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James Stephen’s beat Mount Sion in the 80s too AFAIK which can’t be much more than half an hour away
Birr Kiltormer close enough as well
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