Seán Moran: Kilkenny’s iron mentality evident in endgame

It’s hard to think of a sport more suited than hurling to the concept of flow – dedicating yourself to acquiring the skills of the game until absorption gives way not just to a mastery of techniques but more vitally, the ability to implement these in a contest as almost an instinct.

The foremost academic in this area – flow, not hurling – is academic and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990) the central theme of which concerns the effort of mastering something difficult becoming satisfaction in itself and how this blocks out more temporal concerns.

The concept occurred when everything had settled down after Sunday's fireworks in Croke Park not just because of Waterford's remarkable performance in recovering from the bleakness of the Munster final and its underwhelming postscript against Wexford but also because of Kilkenny.

The challengers had the advantage not so much of coming in under the radar as strolling through it and yet attracting no suspicious glances. Many accepted that although Derek McGrath’s project was a bit too established to be written off on the back of a fortnight’s activity however disastrous, it could at least be declared broken for the rest of this season.

Some people expected a big response from Waterford; I didn't really.

Depressed expectations

If depressed expectations gave them space they used it spectacularly well. All the positives that had been advanced on their behalf appeared to crystallise: the sheer talent of younger players like Tadhg de Búrca and Austin Gleeson, the preternatural marksmanship of

Pauric Mahony

, which had been apparently lost in the early weeks of his comeback from horrific injury and the unflagging spirit of veterans

Michael Walsh

and

Kevin Moran

.

Former Clare manager Ger Loughnane once advised the media after a match not to be always looking at the destination but to admire the scenery. It's not that easy. Sometimes keeping notes live at a hurling game is like recording the time at which different measures come up on a petrol pump.

Looking back at a recording of Sunday’s semi-final it’s impossible not to be struck again by the profusion of breathtaking scores but on review, to rewind and rewatch rather than simply scratch down the running tally on a piece of paper.

Waterford had such extraordinary flow last Sunday. They are now left half way between the radiant possibilities of their future and regret that they should have made it all count the first day. It’s the challenge that every team travelling hopefully has to meet.

Kilkenny and flow have been synonymous at so many different times during Brian Cody’s managerial tenure. The day most people would remember is the 2008 All-Ireland final, coincidentally against Waterford, when the team by the final whistle had long lost interest in what was going on around them and just looked to be playing against the highest standards of their own self-perception.

That’s fine on such days but what’s fascinating about the champions is how they function on days when they are being overshadowed by the torrential flow of their opponents. Waterford at the weekend were one example but the artery-popping pressure of being about to win created a blockage.

Tipperary in 2014 were another: they dazzled for much of the 70 minutes but they didn’t win. Curiously, Hawk-Eye could be said to have saved Kilkenny on both occasions although had Gleeson’s and Moran’s points been allowed on Sunday who’s to say what might have been mustered in reply.

Similarly two years ago would any umpire have signalled a score with the last strike of an All-Ireland final had they not been 100 per cent sure?

Kilkenny did lose a replay three championships ago when Dublin finally turned them over in Leinster but that year was a struggle. What typifies Cody's teams in replays appears to be the view that a draw is not a good result or at least is evidence of a less than optimal performance.

Whereas his opponents sent out unchanged teams he made a number of changes for the All-Ireland replays against Galway and Tipperary and in both instances the team improved and one of the replacements ended up as Man of the Match.

Replays are the coups de grace. If a draw signifies at least the evading of something worse the effort that goes into making sure the team doesn't lose is crucial.

Kilkenny never accept that the outcome of a bad day has to be defeat. TJ Reid is the reigning Hurler of the Year. He didn’t show prominently in play but his dead-ball return was 11 from 11.

With time nearly up the crucial goal was conjured by the Fennellys and Walter Walsh. None of the three had vintage games but at a stage when things were at their darkest for the champions and they trailed by five in the 55th minute Colin Fennelly remained sufficiently resistant to the notion of defeat to hassle the Waterford defence into conceding a 65, which began the process of retrieving the match.

Conor Fogarty started in a centrefield that was under pressure all afternoon but he sized up the equaliser in the 74th minute. Corner back Paul Murphy was wide with the last puck of the match but Fogarty's was to stave off disaster. It takes an iron mentality to assume that sort of responsibility.

Who knows what subconscious instincts guided him – all the countless hours of practice obviously but maybe also the inner conviction that when in trouble this is what Kilkenny do. Whatever neural impulses flashed through the synapses, the sliotar travelled and the flow carried it unerringly.

smoran@irishtimes.com