GAA: HARVEST TIME looms for the black and amber county. They say everything in life is cyclical and although there does seem to something perpetual about this period of Kilkenny splendour, the day will come when the hurling team will not be winning All-Ireland semi-finals. And how strange and empty autumns on Noreside will seem then. For now though, their golden epoch continues.
Yesterday, Kilkenny kept their side of the bargain in returning for a possible September showdown with All-Ireland champions Tipperary.
They played with composure and control to see off a Waterford team that, understandably, was caught between the two worlds of wanting to go for broke against their illustrious neighbours yet fearing being pitched back into that nightmare experience of the Munster final in Thurles.
In the end, Waterford left the field warmed by another incandescent display from John Mullane and a sense they could bow out of the All-Ireland championship with their pride restored.
It finished 2-19 to 1-16, with Richie Hogan’s immaculately timed first-half goals (minutes 3 and 34) nimbly removing the Waterford sting.
Davy Fitzgerald’s man played catch-up throughout the second half, never a good place to be against Kilkenny.
“In an All-Ireland semi-final there is one prize and one prize only. That is to get to an All-Ireland final and that is achieved,” Brian Cody said afterwards.
“The All-Ireland semi-final is just a day for winning a match.”
It has been a stealthy return to the big day for Kilkenny but the loose talk of their demise seems foolish and cheap now. This was far from one of their signature, spine-chilling performances but they retreat to Nowlan Park now for those private sessions of explicit preparation without having shown their hand.
There was much of the familiar here, from Tommy Walsh’s spring-coiled clearances and Michael Fennelly’s rangy finesse, and that collective scent they seem to have for the killer goal, always at the killer time.
They made a few errors and allowed Waterford to loop in around the back of their last line more than is customary and they fired 17 wides over the afternoon. But they were never likely to lose.
Friday night gossip that Henry Shefflin had done himself an injury proved unfounded as the Ballyhale man set about a first half spent rummaging for tough ball.
When the match opened up in the second half, Shefflin struck a couple of gorgeous points but it was his willingness to dig stuff out when the exchanges were frantic that shone through here, like his 21st minute tap into space and quick pass for club-mate Michael Fennelly to point or his handpass, while sitting on his backside, through a crowd of Waterford men to the waiting Michael Rice.
Late in the game, his chief intent seemed to be to deliver Eddie Brennan – the Ballycallan man came in with 10 minutes remaining – a ball he could do damage with and Brennan, the supreme finisher throughout Kilkenny’s four-in-a-row streak, duly angled a point into the Hill end.
By then, Kilkenny were out of sight. They might have won by more but Mullane, the mortal god of lost causes, was in one of those moods.
Maybe this is the Presidential candidate the country truly needs. There is something wonderful about the sight of Mullane raging against probability and reason, giving out to the heavens and demanding his county keep the faith with his irrepressible energy and his hurling craft.
He scored 1-6 from play yesterday and demanded a resolute stop from David Herity when the game was at its tightest.
Waterford had briefly looked into the abyss – they trailed their neighbours by 1-2 to 0-0 after just six minutes – but rallied and it was 1-9 to 1-7 after 31 minutes.
By then Mullane was feeling it; feet dancing and eyes for goal only.
“We get a chance!” Fitzgerald would say later, in his raconteur’s style. “John Mullane has a chance for a goal – and in fairness he had a great game – or he could have put that over the bar. Could have put in the back of the net!
“Their second goal – Tommy Walsh pushed a guy clearly and there was a thrown hand pass. Two instances in the one play. And let me say this: Barry Kelly (the referee) had a good game and probably didn’t see it. But what I am saying is small little things make such a difference, it is unreal.
“If we had gone in at half-time three points down compared to six, it would have been a different ball game.”
It may have been. But then Cody whistled deeply when informed his team had been awarded just six frees in the entire match.
“Baffling,” he elaborated. He didn’t need to say more.
All-Ireland semi-finals are for getting through. Only the small moments are remembered. Here, it was the sight of Tommy Walsh ushering Paul Murphy along the right wing, rotating his stick like it was Chaplin’s cane and in the second half, an effortless flourish from Fennelly as he carried the ball down the middle of the field.
And, perhaps, the match will be remembered too for the last sight of Tony Browne in Croke Park. Tony is 38 now and playing ten years younger: soon they will be looking for the picture in the attic.
“Nothing will ever surprise me with Tony, he might go on for another two or three years.” Fitzgerald chuckled. “But you will never see the likes of him again.”
Kilkenny are through with little fuss. Tipperary and Dublin meet next Sunday for the right to meet those stripy men in September.
