Kilkenny minors savour All-Ireland success against spirited Limerick

 Kilkenny 2-17 Limerick 0-19

Rarely has the winning and losing of a minor final seemed less imperative than the pure and honest spectacle of it. Kilkenny were deserving winners all right – their 21st title, and first since 2010 – completing possibly the most extreme seasonal swing in minor hurling history.

Yet nothing Limerick did or didn’t do meant they deserved to lose either, beyond what we all know wins matches: goals. Because Kilkenny hit them with two of them, both from corner forward John Walsh and as hard as they tried Limerick just couldn’t hit them back.

So, after a season that began with the truly humbling trouncing by Dublin in their opening game in the Leinster championship (the day Kilkenny hit a mere 0-3), they finished here not just at the pinnacle, but at their absolute peak.

The full-forward line hit 2-13 between them, Walsh claiming 2-5, all from play. Walsh didn’t start their semi-final win over defending All-Ireland champions Waterford, but came on to score the decisive goal – kicked in, actually, which helped see Kilkenny through after extra time.

This time, Kilkenny manager Pat Hoban put complete faith in Walsh, giving him a starting berth: the payback was complete too, Walsh scoring five first-half points, all from play, before scoring their first goal on 40 minutes – kicked in, again, giving Kilkenny the first notable advantage that they didn’t surrender.

Limerick repelled

“Well I would actually give more credit to the defence,” said Walsh, certainly giving credit where credit was due. Because Kilkenny not only set up defensively but held it too, repeatedly forcing back a Limerick attack that had scored seven goals in their last five matches.

“Our six backs, and our two midfielders, worked extremely hard,” added Walsh. “They got great ball into us. Sure the work rate of both teams out there was absolutely fantastic. In fairness, we all know how good those Limerick hurlers are. They’ll all go on to play senior.

“But in fairness our six backs would [not] be [too] far off Kilkenny senior now, either. So it really is down to them altogether. Our backs did unbelievably well [to] keep Limerick out.”

Added to Walsh’s 2-5 was the strictly impressive 0-7 of Kilkenny’s other corner forward Alan Murphy, whose exceptional range of distance from the placed ball never let him down. Indeed the distance didn’t seemed to matter for Murphy with his four frees, and one 65 – and he hit a gem from play, too. With all that Murphy rounded up his championship tally to 3-46.

At times, Liam Blanchfield was their only man across their full-forward line and he finished with two points in the second half. Ronan Corcoran hit 0-3 from out on the wing, although it was Walsh’s second goal, on 53 minutes, which ultimately closed out the deal for Kilkenny.

This was the one for the highlights reel, too: Luke Scanlon sent the ball in from midfield, Murphy making the final pass, and Walsh’s finish was sublime – smashing into the left corner which gave no one in the Limerick defence any chance of stopping.

That put Kilkenny up 2-17 to 0-17, which meant Limerick needed a goal at the other end, and fast. They had threatened earlier. Peter Casey and Ronan Lynch forced the big intervention from goalkeeper Darren Brennan.

It was Lynch also who kept trying all the way to the death, one of his final sling shots at the Kilkenny goalmouth just wide of the target. Lynch (already a senior with his club Na Piarsaigh) couldn’t have tried any harder – still finishing with 0-9, to add to the 0-13 he hit against Galway in their semi-final.

So, that ended Limerick’s quest to land a first minor title in 30 years. With only two landed before that, in 1940 and 1958, there was an extra layer of expectation which perhaps weighed on them in the closing stages when the pressure to create a goal became undeniable.

Captain’s example

Limerick’s march to the final had been rebellious and deliberate, beating all the big guns in Munster (including defending champions Waterford, also, in Munster). Cian Lynch played another captain’s role with three inspiring points, Barry Nash, Séamus Flanagan and Tom Morrissey all coming in with two points each.

Still, the enduring problem for Limerick was breaking through the Kilkenny defence. There is a difference between chipping away and breaking through. Only once did they get in front, late in the first half, with a Lynch free. A goal may have been the breakthrough that could have swung the result in their favour, but instead Walsh’s goals ensured the end result was what it was.

Limerick manager Brian Ryan described his panel as the finest underage talent to ever come out of the county. Moreover, he was “still extremely proud of what they’ve done this summer”. And the winning or losing here wasn’t going to change that.