As I looked out from the RTÉ gantry in Croke Park on Sunday, I was far from alone in being able to see the Kilkenny ship sinking under water. It was clear to everyone that a new hole was being pierced in the hull every time a Cork player rifled the ball over the bar from 60 yards. Jack O'Connor, Shane Kingston, Séamus Harnedy – one after another after another. "Rebels! Rebels! Rebels!" came the cry from the crowd.
I knew Kilkenny were done and that is a very hard place to be. I felt for the lads down on the pitch. Some of them were out on their feet. Lots of them had abandoned their normal positions on the ship and just gone for it. Pádraig Walsh had left his spot at the heart of the defence where had orchestrated everything so well for most of the day and thrown himself into all-out attack. It was a desperate bid to save a game that was essentially gone.
It reminded me of the scenes in Road Runner cartoons when Wile E Coyote is holding a stick of dynamite and it’s about to explode. He looks at the dynamite and then looks out from the screen. He knows it and the viewer knows it. There’s nothing to be done now except wait for the bang.
Still, I stood there a proud Kilkenny man watching it unfold. I was proud of the way the team fought and kept fighting. Staying alive in normal time when we had no right to push the game to extra time was something special. Somehow the team and panel found a way to force a draw despite Cork clearly having the upper hand over them.
What we do have is a team that are getting the most out of themselves in most areas. I look at the current crop and admire their resilience
When we sit down to weigh up where Kilkenny go from here, we have to be realistic and we have to be fair. I am not going to look back or compare and contrast. That is not fair to the current crop of players. And anyway, it doesn’t get anyone anywhere. The past is the past. I am just going to look at now and where they are going.
It’s pretty clear where Kilkenny rank on the intercounty scene. In the past two seasons, they have won back-to-back Leinster titles and they have been beaten quite well in both All-Ireland semi-finals. All the evidence says that this is as good as they are. A top-four team. Nothing more, nothing less. That will not be acceptable in Kilkenny where Celtic Crosses are as common as tourists in the Marble City. But reality is the only starting point worth considering.
Let's look at the bigger picture. We have been seriously underperforming at underage for this past decade. No All-Ireland minor title since 2014. No All-Ireland under-20/21 since 2008. Because of our culture, we have fabricated the last two Young Hurlers of the year – Adrian Mullen and Eoin Cody – both hailing from Ballyhale. They have been exceptional, in every sense.
This overall lack of underage talent has hurt our progression levels. For years, there was always talent streaming into the senior set-up. Some of the good years, they couldn’t even make it into the set-up. They had to take a number and wait in line for the standards of those ahead of them to drop.
But more importantly, Kilkenny had a steady stream of what I call a 'wow' player. One or two coming through the system every two to three years. Henry Shefflin, JJ Delaney, Tommy Walsh, Cha Fitzpatrick and Richie Power, TJ Reid and Richie Hogan. Players who came in and made the senior players catch each other's eye and nod. But we haven't had one of them enter a Kilkenny set-up in over 13 years.
What we do have is a team that are getting the most out of themselves in most areas. I look at the current crop and admire their resilience. They are constantly being compared with teams from the recent past, which is both demoralising and irrelevant. They don’t bow to anyone, they get on with their business and work like dogs for the sacred jersey. I admire that.
This is 2021 and these are the Kilkenny players. They work like demons to improve. I take my own club man Conor Browne and his development in the past four years has been astounding. He was never earmarked for huge things from early doors in our club but he has turned into a serious hurler for Kilkenny.
He's one of the first names down on the teamsheet for Brian Cody now. He marked Joe Canning last year in the Leinster final and did a really good job on him. If you told me that five years ago, I'd have laughed. But through hard work, determination and talent, this is the type of level Conor has got himself to. He will keep improving the further he goes. There are others like him and they will keep working and improving too.
There will obviously be talk about whether Brian Cody will go again in 2022. But really, it is a pointless conversation to have or to get into. Brian is his own man and will leave when he wants to and when he feels it’s right for him and the future of Kilkenny hurling. Nobody is going to push him out – and nobody should.
Of course, there will be stellar men waiting in the wings for when that day does come. Whenever it does, I would love to see Henry assume that position. You’re talking about the biggest boots in the GAA to fill so you’re going to need somebody who won’t be fazed by the task ahead. Henry has all the attributes to take on that role whenever it becomes available.
But all that is for the future. Whether it happens in the next few months or the next few years, it’s a conversation for down the line. In the here and now, there are some fundamental things that we as Kilkenny hurling people have to reckon with. Another year will pass without us making the All-Ireland final. We haven’t won Liam MacCarthy since 2015. Why not?
I just feel when the level of competition goes to a certain height, we struggle for oxygen and make poor decisions. That's not something you can coach
Something that struck me on Sunday was how there were common threads between losing to Cork and losing to Waterford at the same stage the previous year. When the opposition got on top of Kilkenny, outside of TJ’s aerial ability we didn’t have any ball-winners. We lacked punch up front.
Between the 60th minute and the 67th, we went long on our puck-outs six times and lost every one of them. That is crunch time and that’s not good enough. And it’s especially not good enough when the same thing happened on the same stage at the same point in the competition last year. Waterford were able to hold TJ for a crucial period near the end of the 2020 game too and we couldn’t win primary possession in the forwards.
This is not a problem unique to Kilkenny. Most other teams have that issue too at crucial stages in games because their go-to men are naturally targeted. But the best counties go other routes to fix it.
Cork were quite happy to play the ball around the back and be patient. They were totally relaxed about using their goalkeeper and waiting for a run or an open patch and then distributing. Limerick have perfected working the ball out to the most lucrative platform on the pitch – their own 65. Kilkenny haven’t mastered that yet and when the pressure comes on we revert to type. Long ball, let the best man win it.
When Waterford ran at us in the second half last year, we couldn’t deal with it. Gaps appeared where they had been air-tight in the first half. We were chasing shadows at times, which is the one thing you don’t want in the second half of an All-Ireland semi-final. You need every lift you can get at that stage but if you’re always half a yard off the ball, getting there half-second too late, it’s so demoralising.
When Cork ran at us in the second half on Sunday, we couldn’t contain them. We lost our shape and the tight man-marking that we had in the first half started to loosen out. I don’t think it’s down to tiredness – whatever problems Kilkenny have, physical fitness isn’t one of them.
I just feel when the level of competition goes to a certain height, we struggle for oxygen and make poor decisions. That’s not something you can coach. Players have to get there themselves through trial and error over a number of seasons.
There is plenty you can coach, however. The short game isn’t our natural way of playing hurling but it is something that we must respect more and welcome as a way forward. To beat anyone you need to retain possession and keep working it into an area where the ball going into the forward line is stacked in your favour.
The 50/50 ball is no good anymore because you’re playing against teams that make it their business to mind possession. They have drilled it and played it for so long that it becomes second nature to them. In the height of championship intensity when there isn’t time to breathe or think, they still look to keep the ball regardless.
We need to rewire our mindset and accept and promote the short ball as being just as important as the long ball
Whereas our instinct in Kilkenny in that situation is to go with the long ball and trust our forwards to sort it out. That is ingrained in Kilkenny hurling and it has brought generations of success. Changing it is not a simple job.
Go to a club match in Kilkenny over the coming months and watch what happens if players start tip-tapping stick-passes around at the back. Or, God forbid, start flicking short puck-outs. The locals will react as if you had put up a banner on the clubhouse saying ‘Tipperary is the home of hurling’. The groans from the sidelines will be palpable – and woe betide you if it leads to a mistake and a score against you.
But I really think there needs to be a change of attitude. Hurling has changed at the highest level of the game. We need to embrace it as the future. We need to rewire our mindset and accept and promote the short ball as being just as important as the long ball.
For now, all is quiet and pensive on Noreside. But with time comes reflection and with reflection comes hope of new days. Kilkenny will rise again.
