Champions showcase strength in depth

LEINSTER SHC FINAL: Kilkenny 1-19 Galway 1-12 IT'S BACK to the drawing board for those who sought to make the GAA Leinster hurling championship a more exciting place and it's off to find a drawing board for the Galway hurlers. Kilkenny eased through yesterday's final to clock up a sixth successive provincial title and place themselves within two matches of making history with an All-Ireland five-in-a-row.

Although the margin of seven points was a contraction on the massive differential in last month’s semi-final against Dublin, Kilkenny looked in no more danger of losing yesterday than they had done a fortnight ago.

The champions’ defence comfortably enforced their superiority throughout the match apart from a phase in the second quarter when the margin was cut back.

But apart from Damien Hayes, who scored 1-1 and tried to kick-start some sort of resistance – paradoxically from around the middle – in the second half, the challengers’ attack struggled.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody said afterwards there had been no special plan for coping with Galway’s most feared marksman Joe Canning but it turned into a hugely disappointing day for the Portumna forward, who had to wait until the 67th minute for his first score, a point from play to which he added a line ball with the last stroke of the match.

Having been started at centre forward to ensure his involvement, Canning passed an anonymous first half and in the second with Hayes playing deep, he was left with two Kilkenny full backs for company and never looked likely to thrive.

The champions were again able to showcase their strength in depth. They lost centre back Brian Hogan within half an hour of the start because of a cut hand but John Tennyson came in and played really well so that there was no disruption to the team. As usual the wing backs Tommy Walsh and JJ Delaney tidied up anything loose – of which there was a great deal due to some hasty and poorly directed clearances from a Galway defence that defended grittily but couldn’t provide a platform for the under-performing attack.

Aidan Harte did get Galway off to a good start after 15 seconds and although the lead lasted an economical nine minutes, once it was gone there was no danger of it coming back. Kilkenny repeated the abandon of the semi-final, firing 17 wides and failing to avail of early chances. But in the 13th minute Delaney played in Henry Shefflin for a clinical finish and the score was 1-3 to 0-1. A few minutes later the gap was six, 1-5 to 0-2, and the match looked as over as if it were the 70th minute.

The ominous script unfolding took an unexpected turn in the 19th minute. Galway conjured a goal out of what had looked an unpromising source, a defensive blunder by Kilkenny. Hayes chased a long delivery from Donal Barry and although he lost the contest for the ball, it ran through goalkeeper PJ Ryan’s legs, allowing Hayes a second crack and he poked into the empty net to make the score 1-2 to 1-5.

The error appeared to disturb the momentum of the match from Kilkenny’s point of view and although they maintained the three-point lead until half-time, their dominance had faded and it appeared as if Galway were in range of making a match of it.

Hopes of a contest were remorselessly eroded once a quick exchange of frees by Shefflin and Ger Farragher had taken place.

Point by point Kilkenny drew away: free from Shefflin, TJ Reid sharply intercepted a ball aimed for Farragher and pointed, Shefflin from play and then a dazzling piece of skill by Richie Hogan taking the ball past Shane Kavanagh one way and then another before striking the point. Kilkenny expanded their lead by seven without interruption by the start of the final quarter.

Down by 10, Galway began to bring in the casualties. Three replacements, Kevin Hynes, Cyril Donnellan and Eoin Lynch all scored points from play, as John McIntyre was forced to replace his centrefield and wing forwards.

Hayes landed one as consolation after JJ Delaney had cut out what looked like a goal-scoring pass. It made little difference to the direction of the match. Kilkenny’s substitutions also brought scores for Hogan and Aidan Fogarty.

The impression remained of a team playing within themselves but with the added urgency of players who know few of the positions are absolutely secure. It’s likely they would have preferred more searching tests as they head into next month’s sudden-death phase where there’s no opportunity to recover from defeat. But even judged in the vacuum of the past couple of weeks it’s hard to see who’s going to make Kilkenny regret the loss of that option.