A trawl through the Roll of Honour on the Ballyea GAA website is recommended in light of the Clare club's maiden Munster club win today. Here some selected highlights:
1984: Ballyea captured the Junior B league title after being victorious in the final against St. Josephs.
1991: Club secured its third Junior A championship at the expense of Ennistymon while a great double was achieved with the capture of the South Clare Junior championship.
1992: Ballyea won South Clare under 12 B title
1998: The under 11 team won their second Div. Ground hurling in a row.
2008: Club captured the Junior B league title at the expense of Eire Og and the Minor C championship was also won with a victory over Ennistymon in the final.
2014: Ballyea won the Junior B Championship with a 0-14 to 0-07 win over Whitgate. The went to represent Clare in the Munster Championship where they lost out by 1 point to Killenaule of Tipperary.
These are admittedly only selected highlights but the Roll of Honour tells the story of a club slogging for decades in the lower rungs of Clare hurling. Things changed for Ballyea once Tony Kelly started hurling, though. Today Ballyea emphatically won Munster, playing Harlem Globetrotters hurling. Their path to Thurles involved victories over Thurles Sars and Ballygunner, plus a replayed Clare final. It was arduous path but St Patrick's Day is in sight for the tiny Clare club.
Marty Morrissey and Michael Duignan were doing commentary for RTE radio on the game and they did an excellent job conveying the brilliance of Ballyea achievement at full time. Duignan spoke passionately of the power of ambition for players at small clubs.
"If you have that ambition, if you have that belief, and you put in that work to back it up, anything is possible. I'd say every man, woman and child in Ballyea is out on that pitch right now. That's what it's all about."
It helps that they have the best hurler in the country in their parish (sorry Aussie), but anyone who watched Ballyea today will know they are not a one-man team. Ballyea are the best story of the 2016 GAA season as they have proved what's possible when a small group of players band together for a shared purpose.
Marty also included a brilliant TK statistic - Kelly has now played in 6 Munster finals at minor, u21 and club level. He is 6-for-6.
Listen to the final moments of Ballyea-Glen Rovers below.
