Completing an historic four in a row of senior All-Ireland titles lifts Kilkenny onto a higher plane than any rival, writes SEÁN MORAN

HISTORY COMES dropping slow and remorselessly. Although there was a fairly strong inkling as far back as the All-Ireland final of 2006 that Kilkenny would challenge Cork’s unique record from the 1940s, for any team to come successfully through four consecutive championships is an achievement that can suffer derailment at all sorts of junctions.

Yet, throughout the four seasons Brian Cody’s team built its historic sequence match by match until after last September’s gladiatorial All-Ireland final against Tipperary, Kilkenny had completed 18 matches in four seasons and won all of them.

Viewed in its context, it is the most sustained period of superiority that top-level hurling has ever known. The modern game has made it theoretically easier for teams to win All-Irelands because one defeat no longer spells the end of the summer. But that is a dispensation that means more in Munster from where all five hurling counties have reached All-Ireland finals despite losing in the province.

For Kilkenny defeat in Leinster had been impossible during the years in question – certainly until the arrival of Galway – and so there has been no opportunity to avail of the second chance. Any likely defeat would be in an irrecoverable All-Ireland fixture. So they just didn’t lose.

Compared to Cork’s four-in-a-row in 1941-’44 the road has been considerably steeper. It’s no reflection on Ring’s legendary team but their record of played 13, won 11, drew one and lost one isn’t as impressive as 18 and 18.

The scoring comparisons shed illuminating light on the difference between hurling now and 60 years ago. Kilkenny’s four championships were won with an average of 1.89 goals and 22 points a match. In the 1940s Cork averaged more than twice as many goals, four, but fewer than half as many points, 10.

Interestingly, just as the mere fact of the record argues a certain lack of competitiveness, of the eight finals that constituted the two sequences only this year’s would come into the category of an exciting final. Cork’s four finals were won by an average of 17 points whereas Kilkenny, even with two relatively narrow margins, still come out with an average margin in finals of more than nine.

The statistical detail of Kilkenny’s supremacy in the past four years should not, however, detract from what was the best -contested season for three years. It added greatly to the champions’ enjoyment of their achievement that it was sealed in an exciting final against neighbours Tipperary.

Liam Sheedy’s side laid down a marker in the spring when losing another boisterous final, in the league. In some ways it shouldn’t have been that positive an augury for Tipp, who threw the kitchen sink at a below-par Kilkenny and still lost in extra-time.

The physical brinkmanship in the match also elicited hints that Kilkenny wouldn’t be as inhibited were the teams to meet for a second time. Both finals raised concerns about the standard of refereeing, as each featured largely non-interventionist officiating, apparently indifferent to the rules on foul play.

In other words, the subtext of the two big matches of the year was that players had better look after themselves because the referee wasn’t always going to do so.

Tipperary had further reasons for unhappiness in the All-Ireland. Referee Diarmuid Kirwan’s mistakes tilted the match against them. In fairness to Kilkenny it was the only time in their 18-match run when they needed such fortuitous intervention, but Tipp’s response was admirably stoical in the circumstances.

Kilkenny found inspiration from unusual sources. Goalkeeping was never as crucial an influence for the county as it was this year and PJ Ryan won both the All Star as well as the Man of the Match award in the All-Ireland.

Henry Shefflin didn’t get into his stride for a while but he was instrumental in meeting all of the major challenges, none more so than the penalty he netted to turn the All-Ireland final. A newer name, who finally broke through, was Michael Rice – an encouraging sign that the conveyor belt of talent in the county continues to produce players who can thrive at the top of the game even if it takes a bit of time.

After a lengthy apprenticeship Rice emerged as a centrefielder with a relentless appetite for work and an acquisitive nature. His unfussy channelling of possession made a huge contribution to the team and he landed a deserved All Star for his first season as a regular.

Tipperary also had the good fortune to uncover promising players and two, Noel McGrath – as far as anyone can tell, the youngest ever All Star – and Pádraig Maher had sensational championships. Munster was comfortably enough won but a tendency to fade out in matches haunted their progress.

Having presented their credentials so forcibly this season, Sheedy’s team have only one valid ambition for 2010, to win the All-Ireland. That’s a major burden to carry into any season.

It’s not a landscape littered with contenders. Cork’s rebuilding process is unlikely to finish any time soon although the likelihood is that the perennial tensions between players and officials will ease.

Waterford recovered from the 2008 mauling by Kilkenny but the team will never again push for an All-Ireland. Galway’s apparently crystallising challenge shattered under the moderate stress of a late Waterford comeback and John McIntyre has to roll the boulder back up the hill.

Their entry into Leinster will be of long-term benefit and the provincial semi-final against Kilkenny last June was an absorbing match.

Clare and Limerick ended the year in fractious battles between players and management – about all either county had to show for 2009 – something it is hoped that the new entente between the GAA and Gaelic Players Association as well as Croke Park’s code of practice will help to eliminate.

Dublin’s evolution is still at a fragile stage. Reaching the Leinster final and keeping it respectable against Kilkenny was a significant step forward for Anthony Daly’s side but losing out to a subsequently discredited Limerick side was more of a setback than it appeared in Thurles that afternoon. With a semi-final path that crosses Kilkenny’s, Dublin will have to go the long way around next year.

One story that doesn’t feature Kilkenny in a starring role is the prospective record of three-in-a-row All-Ireland club titles that Galway’s Portumna are within two matches of setting. In the semi-final summit last February with Henry Shefflin’s Ballyhale, Joe Canning and his team were triumphant.

The possibility – and Shamrocks will first have to hurdle the very real obstacle of Newtownshandrum – of a rematch means that 2010 will get interesting quite quickly.