Kilkenny to be top cats

GAELIC GAMES: Sometimes you can forget the influence of Kilkenny. It's not that the All-Ireland hurling champions have won anything by stealth, as they've been topping the betting lists for the past few years. But they have steadily reshaped hurling's landscape.

For the past two years their voracity validated the National League and gave it status until this spring. Yet by mid-July they had destroyed that status by devouring new holders Galway. The league's reputation had become dependent on Kilkenny's say so.

During the years of Brian Cody's management the county had threatened greatness before slipping in 2001. Yet since then the All-Ireland titles have accumulated inexorably and this weekend Kilkenny are face to face with a significant destiny and an appropriate celebration of the centenary of the county's first All-Ireland. The counties may disown any interest in the championship roll of honour or Kilkenny's possible three-in-a-row but they are the statistics that will interest posterity long after the ins-and-outs of an eventful season have been forgotten.

It's fitting Cork are present to fight over top spot in the hurling records and defend what has been their exclusive status for 26 years up until last September. But if the context is epic the detail is more prosaic.

For the first time both finalists have emerged through the qualifier route. This is partly a reflection on the problems the counties have encountered this season and partly evidence of a lack of competitive depth in the championship. Only Waterford are in a position to dispute that the two best teams are in the final.

Neither Cork nor Kilkenny have operated at the top of their capabilities so far. In Cork's case this conclusion takes into account their last two matches have been won in a canter. Maybe they'd have been as good if playing decent opposition. We don't know but before that they'd played just two good halves of hurling.

From this perspective Kilkenny look to be in the driving seat. They have had the more testing campaign.

Maybe, like Clare in 1998, their tanks are empty but the evidence is the harder the match the nearer to the final, the better. Back in the days when the semi-finals were easily distinguished, pre-championship reforms, the counties emerging from the Galway semi-final won eight of the previous 10 All-Irelands.

Kilkenny have not alone been tempered by the hard matches against Clare and Waterford but Cody has been able to finesse his selection and, pending Michael Kavanagh's fitness test (should he fail, Mark Phelan is the likely replacement), will field his strongest team.

Cork's recent dependence on scores from out the field may have been a natural response to the circumstances of loose matches but if Kilkenny prove hard to run through, it's hard to envisage Cork winning much in the air against a very strong half-back line with Tommy Walsh complementing Peter Barry and the immaculate JJ Delaney.

Among Kilkenny's biggest concerns must be the inaccuracy of the attack in the past two matches. Cork will be as hard to break down as Clare's reinforced rearguard but carry a lot more scoring menace.

Yet Donal O'Grady must be concerned his full-forward line is scoring so little: only 0-4 from play out of a semi-final total of 1-27. When the Waterford half backs caught hold of Cork in the second half of the Munster final, the scores also dried up.

The expected bad weather won't be any assistance to Cork's most advantageous style of play, utilising pace on a hard surface, any more than it helped Waterford. The Munster side have a formidable half-back line as well but Kilkenny have a range of possibilities with only Cha Fitzpatrick unused to half-forward play if Cody decides to shuffle the deck, as he presumably will, allowing the protean Henry Shefflin drive the effort from the inside or drop back if needed.

Injury concerns are hovering over Kavanagh and to a lesser extent Peter Barry, who has been fighting an infection. These would be two major losses but the team's unity of purpose and sense of itself will ensure morale won't suffer, any more than it did when Walsh was red-carded in the quarter-final.

At the start of the championship reservations about Kilkenny's chances of winning a third successive All-Ireland were based on them strolling through Leinster and being vulnerable to one knockout defeat.

Yet losing to Wexford didn't demoralise the champions; it fired them up. And who would have foreseen them being beaten twice? Although Kilkenny have been patchy since, they have survived. Clare nearly executed a perfect ambush but just fell short whereas Waterford left it too late to take advantage of fatigue when the champions were on the ropes.

They've since had time to recover and won't be ambushed in an All-Ireland final.

The All-Ireland under-21 hurling final between Kilkenny and Galway will be held in Nowlan Park this day week, September 17th, at 3.30 p.m.