Maurice Aylward has stepped down as manager of Kilkenny and Leinster club hurling champions Ballyhale Shamrocks. Aylward, who led Ballyhale to an All-Ireland club title in 2007, resigned along with fellow selectors John Shefflin, Tommy Phelan and Pat Aylward in the wake of the recent All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Portumna. The former manager admitted that he would have continued in the job if Ballyhale had overcome the Galway champions and qualified for an All-Ireland final showdown with De La Salle. "We had been giving serious thought to stepping down if Portumna had beaten us. If we had won, we would have gone on for another year because it would have been too late to step down," he said. "It was our fourth year and it was tough going. We were all feeling very tired and two of those were non-stop years, with the third year going to the end of November." Under Aylward's management, Ballyhale won three county championships, four county leagues, two Leinster titles and one All-Ireland. Tweet

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