LEINSTER SHC SEMI FINAL: Kilkenny 2-24 Offaly 0-12: THE CATS are back.
Hungry cats.
Selfish cats.
Stubborn cats.
Magical cats.
Pesky cats.
Damn cats that won't go away.
Cats with character.
Same old Offaly too, by the way. It may be only 10 years since they beat Kilkenny to win the All-Ireland, but they'd already suffered seven championship defeats at the latter's hands in the meantime, by an average of 14 points. To that cruel record we must add this 18-point defeat, as painful and shocking as any of the others.
A year ago, at this same stage and venue, there was some hope left in the air when Offaly put it up to Kilkenny for around 50 minutes, before losing by 14 points. Here, the only hope for the future was that Offaly put it up to Kilkenny for around 35 minutes. Then, an unbearable sense of inevitability set in and lasted until the end. Hungry cats.
There is no easy assessment of it all beyond Kilkenny's increasing domination over the 70 minutes. Defensively, they slowly hunted down the Offaly forward line, and then drank up the blood like wine.
In attack, they spread themselves from number eight to number 15, and into the substitutes too, with 10 different players contributing one score, or a lot more.
As in Henry Shefflin - in his first game for Kilkenny since last year's All-Ireland final, Shefflin showed positively zero side-effects from the knee injury that extended his winter hibernation. Believe it or not, his contribution was just one point short of Offaly's total. Selfish cats.
What at least prevented a total annihilation was Offaly's brave and determined hurling for the opening half hour. They certainly put it up to Kilkenny, physically, and made sure every ball was hard earned and even harder capitalised on.
The only problem with that was the amount of frees they ended up conceding, which after 15 minutes had helped Kilkenny into a four-point lead.
In other words, Offaly were in the game, but just weren't getting anything from it. The little possession the forwards were seeing was too easily squandered, and they were hitting wide balls at double the rate of Kilkenny.
After 20 minutes, they had one solitary free from Brian Carroll, and by then the writing was already on the wall, in large capital letters. Stubborn cats.
Still, they were throwing everything they had at Kilkenny, and got some reward for that when Derek Molloy, Rory Hannify, and Carroll all scored from play within four minutes, thus bringing them back to within a point - 0-5 to 0-4. That was the first and last sniff of victory they would get.
Kilkenny responded with three unanswered points of their own, and right on 35 minutes, just after Offaly had once again lost possession far too easily, Shefflin got his first glimpse of the goalmouth, and ran straight at it.
He dropped David Franks, who just a minute earlier had been penalised for being a little too rough on him, and then passed off to Martin Comerford, who rocked the Offaly net with his finish. Magical cats.
So Kilkenny went into the break 1-9 to 0-6 in front, and even if exactly half those scores came from frees too easily conceded by Offaly, it was an all too ominous sign of what was to come.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen was sitting in the main stand, and this time even he must have known defeat was now staring Offaly in the face, well before the final count was in.
Incredibly for a provincial semi-final, the second 35 minutes was played out in an almost deathly silence, and if that doesn't reflect the state of Leinster hurling, it's hard to know what does.
Kilkenny added five more points before Offaly had their first score of the half, a point from substitute Joe Bergin. Then, Offaly went 16 minutes before their next score, during which time Kilkenny hit another six - the best of which came from Michael Rice and brilliant midfielder Michael Fennelly. Pesky cats.
Then, just after Carroll's fourth free finally ended Offaly's long wait for a score, Shefflin delivered a great pass to Kilkenny substitute Adrian O'Dwyer, whose shot at goal was well blocked - but fellow substitute Aidan Fogarty was on hand to pounce and rifle the rebound into the net.
This was the first touch of the ball for both O'Dwyer and Fogarty, and with another substitute TJ Reid adding a fine point from play shortly afterwards, the strength and depth of the Kilkenny panel looks as impressive as ever. Damn cats that just won't go away.
By now, Offaly heads were somewhere down around their knees, and as their supporters spilled out it was hard not to feel sorry for them.
No other team has been at the end of so many Kilkenny hammerings in recent years, and you have to wonder what they've done to deserve it.
Still, when the lonesome final whistle blew the Kilkenny players threw their arms around them and thanked them for such a fair and honest contest.
Cats with character.
KILKENNY: 1 PJ Ryan; 2 M Kavanagh, 3 JJ Delaney, 4 J Tyrrell; 5 T Walsh, 6 B Hogan, 7 J Dalton; 8 J Fitzpatrick (0-1), 9 M Fennelly (0-1); 10 M Comerford (1-1), 11 M Rice (0-2), 15 E Brennan (0-2); 13 R Hogan (0-1), 12 E Larkin (0-4), 14 H Shefflin (0-11, nine frees, one 65). Subs: 21 W O'Dwyer for Comerford, 22 A Fogarty (1-0)for Rice (both 58 mins), 17 PJ Delaney for B Hogan (59 mins, inj), TJ Reid (0-1)for R Hogan (63 mins), 20 R Mullally for Fennelly (65 mins). Yellow cards: B Hogan (56 mins).
OFFALY: 1 B Mullins; 2 D Franks, 3 D Kenny; 4 M Verney; 5 D Horan, 6 G Oakley, 7 R Hannify (0-1); 8 J Rigney, 9 C Mahon; 10 B Murphy, 11 P Clearly, 12 D Molloy (0-1); 13 B Carroll (0-6, four frees, one 65), 14 G Healion (0-1), 15 D Hayden. Subs: 20 K Brady for Rigney (15 mins), 18 J Bergin (0-2)for Cleary (26 mins), 22 S Dooley for Murphy (45 mins), 19 J Brady (0-1)for Hayden (50 mins), 29 S Ryan for Mahon (64 mins).
Attendance: 8,151.
Referee: John Sexton(Cork).
