AIB GAA Club Championship preview: TJ Reid ‘It will be a waste of a year if we lose’

The Kilkenny man is totally focused on the club right now

Ballyhale lined up a number of challenge games to get them ready for Saturday's clash with Gort, which involved facing a number of college sides also preparing for the Fitzgibbon Cup.

'We played DCU and Cork and WIT down in Carriganore. We needed two weeks of good hurling matches to get the fitness up and and then the final week is just winding down'

Ballyhale have some previous form with Galway sides in the latter stages of an All-Ireland campaign. Joe Canning and Co. blitzed the Noresiders in a 2009 semi final in Thurles, but the Kilkenny side claimed revenge in the following year's All-Ireland club decider. Reid admits that their knowledge of Gort is not quite on that level.

We've had our run ins with Portumna over the years and they're a serious team so for Gort to beat them it must have taken an awful effort. I watched the county final and I thought for the whole hour Gort were probably the better team. They showed more hunger on the day and the workrate and winning the dirty ball. This time of year winning the dirty ball is more important than scoring. We'll have to sit down and watch them and find out their weaknesses and try and work on that.

Ballyhale's path to the semi final has seen them overcome 2013 champions Clara in Kilkenny, before an epic Leinster final with Kilcormac-Killoughey. Reid top scored with 0-10 on a day when extra time had to separate the sides. He admits that the physicality shown by the Offaly side caused 'Shamrocks a lot of problems .

For ourselves that was a scary game. The last few minutes in normal time we could have lost it and we just never got away from them. They're a big physical team and they were hitting us hard and when you're on the ball there was three or four lads swarming and the workrate for the whole 60 minutes was unbelivable. In the extra time we kinda pushed on so we're lucky we had that test and we know what it takes now I suppose.'

Reid, however, is glad of the test provided in Portlaoise and feels that the game will confound some people's view of the side as nice hurlers but not able to mix it with a more physical side when needed,

'Ballyhale would be known as a skillful team but I think on that day we dug it out. Gort have big players as well, similar to Killoughey, so that experience in the Leinster final should hopefully stand to us, please God.'

The most successful Kilkenny side in the All-Ireland club championship haven't been at this stage since their last March success of 2010. Injuries to key players such as Reid, Henry Shefflin and Michael Fennelly has hampered the club's progress both in their domestic championship and in their journey outside of the county. The 27-year-old admits that having everyone fit this season has been key to their winning run.

'We had a few disappointing years within Kilkenny. Henry was being knocked out nearly every year, I broke my kneecap and the club boys would be itching once the county is finished to get going when they they know we're coming back. Then for one of us to get injured their head drops as well ''oh God Henry's injured again' so this year we had no injuries and you saw this year we're as good a team as we were.'

The ease at which Reid drops names of multiple All-Ireland winners into conversation such as Shefflin and Michael Fennelly goes to show how much strength in depth the Kilkenny champions have and the experience they will bring against Gort on Saturday. Reid agrees that the club have a huge amount of talent at their disposal but that a key aspect to their success of the last 12 months has been their new joint management of Andy Maloney and Colm Bonnar.  He feels their introduction to the club has been key in revitalising a group of players who have seen it all at club and county level.

'We let ourselves down in a number of years in the Kilkenny championship and in Leinster. The two new boys came in and they brought a fresh voice and it has been fresh the whole year. We said this year that we have a panel of players that no other club team around have so if we lose this year it will be a waste of a year. Once the county final was over we sat down and said do we want to go ahead and try and win this out and obviously the answer was yes. We said we'd give it 100 per cent this year and everything we have we're going to give it. We might never get this opportunity again.'

Reid is now the chief free-taker for both club and county, taking over the mantle from legendary hurler and friend Henry Shefflin. Reid admits that it was a call by Brian Cody that has seen him assume the duties on match day for his county, and something which just transferred into the club scene,

'Brian asked me when Henry was injured for a game in the league last year and he came up to me and 'how are you fixed for the frees' and I said I'll give them a go. He said 'look if you don't feel comfortable there are plenty of other players in there that will take frees. I got a few lessons off Henry and I was lucky enough the frees went fairly consistently for me.'

Reid admits that being able to learn from Shefflin has been vital and admits that it's somewhat ironic at training now as Reid takes the frees and Henry coaches him.

Me and Henry always stay behind after training. I remember as a young lad I used to puck back the balls to Henry when he was taking frees and now I'm taking frees and Henry hits them back to me! Bit of change so it is, but Henry is great. He's not annoyed with me taking the frees and you would learn from Henry how to take frees on a wet day comapred to taking them a dry day. It's different.

Rain or sun in Thurles on Saturday is unlikely to affect Reid as he lines up Gort in his sights for a date on March 17th in Croke Park. Ballyhale Shamrocks vs Gort is in Thurles this Saturday at 3.45pm and is preceded by the clash of Portaferry vs Kilmallock.