LEINSTER SEMI-FINAL Kilkenny 2-20 Galway 3-13:WALKING THROUGH the turnstiles, a Kilkenny man said to his child, "Are you all set for this, son?" Nobody was. When it was all over, the old order had not changed one jot but there were several times during an evening of strong-willed and furious hurling that the crowd – and players – caught a glimpse of a maroon chaos gathering in the Midlands sky.
From late afternoon, the anticipation around Tullamore had been palpable. Strange as the arrangement may be, Galway have injected something fresh and wonderful into the Leinster championship. Losing this match is not the end of the road for Galway and winning returns Kilkenny to familiar country: another Leinster championship final. But the novelty of the evening and the fireworks it provided left everyone tingling.
“It was different,” mused Brian Cody. This must have been something of a retrospective trip for the James Stephens man, a trip back into the hurling days of his youth because everything about this occasion, from the venue to the spectators mingling with heroes on the field afterwards, felt local and intimate. “You puck around with the Galway lads beside you and it is not the indoor warm-up area of Croke Park,” he said.
“But this is what we are used to growing up and there is something brilliant about the whole provincial scene. And I am sure the atmosphere was brilliant.”
It was special. As guests at the high table, it was Galway’s obligation to entertain and they did not disappoint. In the second minute, Damien Joyce drove a ball downfield with such meaty relish that it was clear he belted it on pure adrenaline. For the first 15 minutes, Joyce gave a master class in defence, walking the tightrope between frenzied hunger and intelligence and if Galway fans needed reassurance that there is still a heartbeat in their county game, they need have looked no further than the Cappataggle man.
Galway’s attitude was superb and after just five minutes they had busted the door in, with Joe Canning collecting a clever ball from Fergal Moore who watched as the chunky genius with the velvet touch, turned for goal and clinically buried his shot past PJ Ryan. It was a move that seemed more like a war cry than a mere goal. And the next hour seemed to pass by in just seconds.
In cold analysis, Galway folks can fret that the bulk of their scoring fell to the phenomenal Canning – 2-9 with just that first goal from play – and that they failed to register a score from the 45th to the 67th minute. They can grumble that basic mistakes and a high-risk puck-out strategy all but gifted Kilkenny with four points.
They can point to the fact that of the five Kilkenny men booked, Tommy Walsh and Eddie Brennan were blessed not to have been sent off while they earned their first yellow after 50 minutes of play and yet finished with 14 men. The guilty man was Richie Murray. Entering the fray after 64 minutes, the St Thomas man instantly revived his lifelong antagonism with all Kilkenny midfielders and had to walk for his pull across Derek Lyng.
And by then, Galway faced a mountain that had materialised out of nowhere. Galway can point to failures and shortcomings but that would conflict with the tremendous spirit that they showed.
As expected, stalwarts like Ollie Canning, Moore, Shane Kavanagh and Joyce showed up to be counted but who can quantify the value of this match to Eoin Lynch and Cyril Donnellan, who came through this ferocious encounter with enhanced reputations.
Overall, the nature of this victory will add another coat of gloss to the mythology of this Kilkenny team. They earned this win, with Jackie Tyrrell in peerless form, the Carrickshock trinity at six, seven and nine highly productive and the forward unit as aggressive as ever. They were unmoved through Galway’s hurricane opening period and, from the 27th minute, transformed a five-point deficit into a two-point interval lead.
They were rattled at times – it is a long time since we saw their pedigree backs clear the ball in such hurried manner.
After the break, they were hit with another Galway scoring flurry of 2-3 and a mutiny seemed genuinely possible. But their response was crushing. In the first half, when a goal was required, they made it happen by sheer will as much as anything, with Martin Comerford and Shefflin bouncing through walls of maroon before Richie Power scrambled the ball home. Tails up now, Eddie Brennan added the sting with another strike two minutes later.
In the second half, the reply was a study in measured confidence, with Shefflin picking off a marksman’s score from distance before Eoin Larkin found his range, stealthily drifting across the half-forward line and waiting for the breaking ball before sniping five points from play. Kilkenny reeled off a stunning 10 points without reply in such economic fashion that it was hard to fathom that the Galwaymen were suddenly all but out of contention.
“That is why they are All-Ireland champions, why no team has come close in three years,” reflected Galway manager John McIntyre. “ It looked at one stage like they might win by eight or 10 and in fairness to our lads, even after we were reduced to 14 men they got two points near the end. So they will learn from it.
“The next round of the qualifiers is a bit of a trapdoor for Galway but at least we have learned that we can compete at the highest level because we were not playing a team that has been struggling or has not won an All-Ireland for 15 years. We went in against the best team that has ever hurled and stood shoulder to shoulder with them and gave good value for money and we were not far away at the finish.”
A rematch later in the summer would be something to savour. Kilkenny braced themselves to feel the full force of Galway’s challenge and responded with their own brand of craft and methodology.
Galway are, at their best, an instinctive team and perhaps their problems began in the second half when they began to concentrate on not making mistakes. They can rightly be proud of this performance but cannot allow it to be their one big blow of the summer. But those sinewy, marvellous Cats: can anyone tame ’em?
KILKENNY:1 PJ Ryan; 2 M Kavanagh, 3 JJ Delaney, 4 J Tyrrell; 5 T Walsh, 6 J Tennyson, 7 J Dalton; 8 M Fennelly, 9 M Rice; 10 H Shefflin (0-10, six frees, one 65) 11 M Comerford, 12 E Larkin (0-5); 13 E Brennan (1-0), 14 R Power (1-0), 15 A Fogarty (0-3). Subs:22 D Lyng (0-1) for M Fennelly (47 mins), 18 S Cummins for M Kavanagh (49 mins), 25 R Hogan for E Brennan (57 mins), 24 TJ Reid (0-1) for M Comerford (63 mins)
GALWAY:1 C Callanan; 2 D Joyce, 3 S Kavanagh, 4 O Canning; 5 F Moore, 6 J Lee, 7 A Cullinane; 8 E Lynch, 9 K Hynes; 10 A Callanan (0-1), 11 C Donnellan (0-1), 12 A Smyth; 13 D Hayes (0-1), 14 J Canning (2-9, 1 goal free, one 65, eight frees), 15 N Healy (1-1). Subs:25 D Tierney for K Hynes (31 mins), 24 A Kerins for A Smyth (59 mins), 23 R Murray for D Tierney (64 mins).
BOOKED:Kilkenny: M Comerford (14 mins), E Brennan (16 mins), T Walsh (24 mins), JJ Delaney (39 mins), M Rice (66 mins). Galway: A Cullinane (51 mins), D Hayes (66 mins).
SENT OFF:Galway: R Murray (64 mins)
Referee:B Kelly (Westmeath).
