Personal observation here, I put it down to Ballydesmond's reliance on Donncha O'Connor, which can't be sustainable going forward given the man is now 41, thought it may be a lot of talk before the championship last year but it is reasonably apparent when you see them from my experience at least, his legs aren't what they used to be but still lethal with the ball and I'm not sure where Ballydesmond would be without him, saw both themselves and Gabriels in the group stage last year and was more impressed by Gabriels as a whole, can't comment on the Mitchelstown game however.
Bally beat Gabriels by a point so there's nothing much between them I'd imagine, Ballinora should've finished them off also, missed a penalty to put them 8 up in the second half and then Donncha pulled Ballydesmond back to win by 1, inexperience let Ballinora down in patches on that day but Ballydesmond struggled a fair bit until Donncha got to grips with the game. Not sure what they've got coming through underage, but it'll be difficult to replace a man like that when he calls it a day in the nearish future I'd imagine.
