John Paul Griffin hails landmark Ballinhassig win with knockouts now in sight

Ballinhassig manager John Paul Griffin hailed Sunday evening’s win over Inniscarra in Ovens as a landmark result for his group.

It's a victory that pushes last year’s PIHC winners to the top of Co-Op SuperStores SAHC Group 3 on three points and leaves them knowing that a positive result against Carrigtwohill will secure a knockout place.

For Griffin, the victory was as much about proving Ballinhassig’s ability to compete at senior level as it was about the points themselves.

“Any game against Inniscarra is always going to be extremely tough,” he said after the 1-19 to 1-16 win.

“They’re a really good team. They’ve had a few years up here at senior and we’re trying to find our feet. It’s a massive win because hopefully it takes the threat of relegation out of it. We want to better ourselves up here.” 

Ballinhassig’s first-half display showed plenty of intent, but Griffin felt they didn’t make enough of their opportunities.

“We felt we were playing well, we just didn’t convert enough of the shots in terms of shot efficiency,” he says. 

“The work rate was really high at the start of the second half and we got a good bounce from that. We went up seven points.

“But our energy levels dipped a small bit. Then a small bit of composure — we lost a little bit of composure and we didn’t have our shape. I thought our shape could have been better.

"I think we rectified it in the last three or four minutes again to get over the line. We made hard work of it."

The win also carried emotional weight. Ballinhassig drew their opening game, but this was their first senior championship victory since coming up as PIHC winners. 

“It’s crucial,” Griffin states. 

“It’s our first win again up in senior. We’re undefeated at senior, which is a major thing for us as a group. We move forward now to Carrigtwohill. 

"They’re one of the favourites for the whole thing, really, but we’ll prepare. Every game is a learning curve.” 

Griffin spoke about the step up in standard — the speed, the crispness, the tactical variety, and the unforgiving nature of senior hurling. 

“It’s just the intensity of it and the crispness of the hurling. Everything is done so fast. You can’t afford to make mistakes up here. If you make a mistake and it gets turned over, it’s punished most of the time. 

"From a tactical point of view, it’s different too. There are a lot of different shapes thrown at you in a game and you just have to adapt.” 

Now Ballinhassig stand on the brink of a knockout place. Griffin hadn’t looked at the permutations before Sunday, but he knows the stakes clearly now. 

“If we get a good result against Carrigtwohill, we’re through. We have every opportunity and we’re looking forward to it. We’ll give everything we can.”