Leinster SHC final: Kilkenny 3-28 Dublin 1-18
Kilkenny killed the hope early on Saturday evening at Croke Park, breaking Dublin’s spirit in the opening quarter as they rampaged to a fifth consecutive Leinster senior hurling title.
The Cats overwhelmed their opponents all over the pitch and quickly sucked the energy out of the Dublin fans among the 35,484 in attendance. It was barely ever a contest as Kilkenny eased to a record 76th Bob O’Keeffe triumph.
It was a humbling evening in the big house for the Dubs. In election parlance, this was a landslide victory for the poster-boys in black and amber.
“At this level, particularly when there’s something at stake, you’ve got to be starting well and we got severely punished because we didn’t start the game the way we wanted to,” lamented Dublin manager Micheál Donoghue.
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“Kilkenny were absolutely clinical in their execution of turnovers and they put us to the sword.”
Derek Lyng’s side led by 15 points at half-time, and as they jogged down the tunnel at the break all that was left to be decided was what the margin would be at the final whistle. In the end, the gap was 16. At one stage during the second half, they had pushed it out to 19.
Dublin entered the game hoping to beat Kilkenny for the first time in the championship since 2013 – prior to that their last victory over the Cats had been in 1942. But there was never any possibility of updating the record books here. Kilkenny and Dublin have now met ten times in the championship since that 2013 Leinster semi-final replay win by the Dubs. Kilkenny won all 10.
When the sides met in the group stages at Parnell Park last month, Kilkenny snatched a late two-point victory after Eoin Cody netted a goal in the final minute of normal time. Cody decided to get the job done much earlier on Saturday, sidestepping Conor Donohoe to arrow home in the third minute. Agenda set.
All six of Kilkenny’s starting forwards scored inside the opening ten minutes of the game – while it was 11 minutes after that before even one of Dublin’s six attacking players scored from play.
“We got a good start and worked our way into the game pretty quickly, we took over most of the pitch and won a lot of the battles, took our scores then when we had the opportunities,” said Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng.
“We were ready for it today, I suppose.”
That they were. Having failed to stitch together consistent performances over the course of the season, this was easily Kilkenny’s best display of the year – and one of the most impressive during Lyng’s tenure since succeeding Brian Cody.
They were utterly dominant, their first touch, work rate and decision making smothered Dublin out of the contest.
“We haven’t been at our best [this season] but I always felt there was serious character there,” continued Lyng.
“I thought the way we saw out the last few minutes in Parnell Park against Dublin and Nowlan Park against Wexford [in the group stages] was kind of a testament to the players that we have. Today was really good. And we’re happy with how we’ve finished the Leinster campaign now.”
Kilkenny had 10 different scorers on Saturday and Adrian Mullen’s seven points deservedly led to him collecting the man of the match display in what was his first game back after a quad injury suffered against Antrim. Mullen was superb, popping up on both wings to fire over scores.
This was a Leinster final put to bed in the opening exchanges. It was believed Dublin would bring the heat, but there was no intensity to their play – it was meek and riddled with handling errors, miscued passes and bad shooting. Inexplicably, they stood off the Cats. They looked spooked by the occasion.
Offaly won the curtain raiser at Croke Park on Saturday by scoring 2-23 to overcome Laois in the McDonagh Cup final. Kilkenny had posted 2-18 by half-time against a Dublin side fortunate to have scored 0-9 in that opening period.
“You’re going to have days like this,” said Donoghue, “You have to learn from it and more importantly how we respond to it is going to be the big takeaway.
“Everything that was really positive for us over the last number of weeks, we didn’t get to implement that, that’s what we wanted to do but when it didn’t happen, it’s disappointing. Against a top team like Kilkenny, if you don’t do it then you’re going to get punished.”
But Dublin didn’t help themselves here – over the course of the game they even conspired to gift TJ Reid two of the easiest goals of his illustrious career.
His first came in the 24th minute when Dublin goalkeeper Seán Brennan misjudged the flight of a dropping ball, spilled it on the ground and there waiting to pounce was Reid, 2-10 to 0-5.
Reid’s second goal came just before the hour mark when a misunderstanding during a Dublin puckout saw the ball land in Mullen’s hands and he offloaded the sliotar to his unmarked team-mate, 3-24 to 0-14.
Dublin sub Mark Grogan nabbed a goal in the 68th minute but the encounter had long since lost any sort of competitive edge by that stage.
Reid finished off the game’s scoring with a long-range point in injury-time to complete his tally of 2-6 – leaving him just one point shy of the 700 mark in championship hurling with a total of 34-597 (699).
Kilkenny now have four weeks to prepare for an All-Ireland semi-final, while Dublin have a fortnight to pick themselves up from the wreckage of this defeat for an All-Ireland quarter-final against either Cork or Offaly.
“Yeah, look, it is a huge bonus,” said Lyng when asked about progressing straight to the last four.
“But first and foremost, it was a Leinster final and to win that, we are delighted, we really are. We don’t take it for granted, we are delighted we are Leinster champions.
“We’ve had a tough campaign. In terms of the attitude, the application, the commitment, of the players, has been outstanding. I am delighted for them that they have performed to the level that they did today. And I still think there is more to come.”
Kilkenny, they haven’t gone away.
KILKENNY: Eoin Murphy; Mikey Butler, Huw Lawlor, Tommy Walsh; David Blanchfield (0-1), Richie Reid, Mikey Carey; Cian Kenny (0-4), Paddy Deegan; Adrian Mullen (0-7), John Donnelly (0-3), TJ Reid (2-6, three frees); Martin Keoghan (0-3), Eoin Cody (1-1), Billy Ryan (0-1). Subs: Shane Murphy for Carey (30 mins); Tom Phelan (0-1) for Ryan (46 mins); Jordan Molloy for Lawlor (64 mins); Walter Walsh (0-1) for Mullen (64 mins); Conor Fogarty for Kenny (64 mins).
DUBLIN: Seán Brennan; Eoghan O’Donnell, Paddy Smyth (0-1), John Bellew (0-1); Chris Crummey (0-1), Conor Donohoe, Paddy Doyle; Brian Hayes, Conor Burke (0-3); Danny Sutcliffe (0-1), Donal Burke (0-8, seven frees), Fergal Whiteley; Seán Currie, Dara Purcell (0-2). Subs: Daire Gray for Doyle (ht); Darragh Power (0-1) for S Currie (ht); Mark Grogan (1-0) for Whiteley (ht); Colin Currie for R Hayes (53 mins); James Madden for B Hayes (62 mins).
REFEREE: Thomas Walsh (Waterford)
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