Galway 0-18 Kilkenny 1-12 There are many ways to preserve splendour. If Kilkenny finish best after a hurling season that for them is loaded with historical portent, then this late February league defeat in Pearse Stadium will enter lore as part of the master plan.
On a gorgeous afternoon in spring the immediate fact of this loss, coming on the heels of last week's fall to neighbours Waterford, was enough to cause a mild buzz in Salthill. Two games lost on the trot by the modern exemplars: it is enough to stoke curiosity.
"Well, it's three really when you take in the Walsh Cup final," Brian Cody reminded a small circle of listeners as the champions took their leave of the stadium. Ever unflustered, Cody deconstructed a series of questions armed with alarm bells and made them safe.
"Yeah, it does take its toll. But no excuses." "No, it is fair - that was not good out there." "Well, I wouldn't go so far [as to call them a bogey team] but they are good." "Ah, it's a physical game." "It makes us very difficult to stay in it now and we want to stay in it as long as I can."
Kilkenny, now behind the other main contenders for this season's league, looked remarkably mortal yesterday. In the first 15 minutes, they at times played as strangers to the game and one another.
Poor control is somehow heightened to a shocking sight when it is a man in a black and amber jersey that is holding the hurl.
They were out-muscled and out-hurled right down the middle of the field for great periods of the match.
Michael Kavanagh was first moved away from the electrical currents generated by Damien Hayes, who exposed him for a couple of points in the first nine minutes, and then taken off the field entirely. No Kilkenny observer could remember a day when they saw the St Lachtain's defender hurl badly before.
Down 0-14 to 0-07 just after half-time, Cody shuffled his hand with abandon, JJ Delaney operating in the left corner, John Hoyne big and bustling down the middle and James Ryall at centre-back. It made for unique viewing. And yet when all was said and done Kilkenny were still only two points down, at 0-15 to 1-10, as the game moved into its final 10 minutes.
That is why this match can be counted as a day of telling value for Conor Hayes's developing Galway team. It cannot be claimed that Kilkenny were disinterested for they warmed to the action during a fairly crackling last quarter.
Significant as this win may be for Galway, to lose it at the end would have had definite negative repercussions and that they needed a bit of nerve at the close will help them all the more.
Within the context of a less than sharp Kilkenny performance, this was an hour of Galway hurling that holds cause for optimism for the west.
There were several towering individual displays. The home team were direct and strong centrally, from Diarmuid Cloonan's powerful shepherding of Martin Comerford right through the spine of the team. Tony Óg Regan cleared untold ball (although Hoyne's arrival made his life busier), Mark Kerins won five frees for his team and knocked over the crucial score from play after 69 minutes. And wearing number 14, Eugene Cloonan contributed 12 points, three of those from play.
"Oh, is that what he finished with?" enquired Hayes, throwing his eyes to heaven.
But this was a team day. Galway hurled everything. Absent were the dinky hand-passes and the ambitious solo runs. It is hard to remember a Galway player running with the ball even once. They clipped everything they could first time and won the percentage game when it came to the breaking ball.
Damien Joyce and Fergal Moore relished the close contact. Ollie Canning was Ollie Canning. In the opening exchanges, when they raced into a 0-07 to 0-01 lead, Galway were lean and composed in their aggression. This was the spirit so badly missing in Salthill when they crashed out of the championship to Tipperary last summer.
"There was a time when we stood back and felt the league was of no significance to us but that is not the case now," said Hayes. "What we are trying to instil in these players is going out and doing whatever it takes to get a win. It is important for us to develop the habit of winning. This was pleasing.
"It was a test. Last year, we went down to Kilkenny, went up five points and ended up losing. We are trying to hammer out the habit of a lackadaisical second half."
Galway wobbled but that was all. John Hoyne brought Kilkenny back into it with a Herculean long-distance goal involving a Noel Hickey clearance and a deceptive, lightning inside pass from Tommy Walsh.
In those 10 seconds, the champions reminded all present of what they are about. Just like that, the hard working Henry Shefflin delivered a free and DJ Carey cracked a nice point and it was 0-16 to 1-11.
When Cloonan then stuttered on a pair of frees, the home crowd murmured in anxiety.
What followed was surely the most satisfying five minutes of Conor Hayes's life as the Galway manager, with his team reeling off three quick points, the last an extravagant effort from the fired-up Damien Hayes. It has reached the point where beating the All-Ireland champions in February means a great deal to Galway.
GALWAY: L Donohue; D Joyce, D Cloonan, O Canning; D Hardiman, T Óg Regan, F Moore; D Tierney, F Healy (0-1); J O'Loughlin, M Kerins (0-1), D Forde (0-1); A Kerins, E Cloonan (0-12, 9 frees), D Hayes (0-3). Subs: O Fahy for J O'Loughlin (44 mins).
KILKENNY: J McGarry; M Kavanagh, N Hickey, J Ryall; R Mullally, JJ Delaney, S Dowling; D Lyng, J Tyrell; J Maher (0-1), H Shefflin (0-7, frees), T Walsh (0-1); DJ Carey (0-2, one free), M Comerford (0-1), E Brennan. Subs: W Burke for M Kavanagh (20 mins), P Mullally for T Tyrell (half-time), J Hoyne for E Brennan (half-time), K Coogan for R Mullally (51 mins), J Fitzpatrick for J Maher (65 mins).
Referee: P O'Connor (Limerick).
Setanta Ó hAilpín put in an impressive performance in his Australian Rules debut on Saturday despite his new side Carlton being defeated by Geelong in the Wizard Cup, a pre-season competion.
A sizable crowd, many of whom were Irish, showed up to see the former Cork hurler play in the Carlton back line. The 20-year-old was taken off by his coach Denis Pagan at the start of the fourth quarter.
