NHL Division 1A: Kilkenny 0-20 Offaly 0-16
Leinster neighbours Kilkenny and Offaly played out a closely fought league opener in Nowlan Park, with the Cats running out four-point winners.
A late flourish in which Paddy Deegan, Mossy Keoghan and Shane Murphy were all on target was enough for the home side to prevail even if it was far from straightforward.
Offaly, who were only promoted from Division 1B last term, really threw down the gauntlet to their higher-ranked opponents for much of the 70 minutes, with Adam Screeney leading the way with a final tally of nine points.
The Faithful County will be disappointed to come away from the round-one clash empty-handed, but Kilkenny’s extra experience told, with some of their bigger players coming to the fore on a very difficult afternoon for free-flowing hurling.
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In the absence of the likes of TJ Reid and Adrian Mullen, Ballyhale Shamrocks star Eoin Cody has taken up the scoring load and he was the main asset in attack for the winners with 10 points in total.
Derek Lyng and the management won’t be too happy with the 13 wides but, with a bye week before they travel to Limerick, they can add that to the things to work on.
Kilkenny registered five wides in the openign 10 minutes as the contest started slowly in tough underfoot conditions.
Dan Ravenhill and Liam Watkins took advantage of Kilkenny’s inefficiency when they landed the first two points of the game.
Kilkenny ultimately found their flow, with Cody landing four points on the spin, two from play and two from placed balls.
A pair of Screeney frees and a Watkins effort from play levelled matters before the Cats took control towards the end of the opening half.
Jordan Molloy, Gearóid Dunne and Mossy Keoghan all found the target as the Noresiders went into the break with a 0-9 to 0-6 advantage.
The contest gradually improved upon the resumption with Cody and Cathal Beirne initially extending the Kilkenny lead before the Faithful County replied via Screeney and Oisín Kelly to leave the minimum between the Leinster neighbours.
It proved to be one of three occasions that Offaly got within touching distance of Kilkenny in the second but they could never get level to really push the home outfit.
Cody kept Kilkenny tapping away in between a couple of Offaly goal attempts and by the 50th minute, the advantage for the winners was out to three points.
Screeney, Patrick Taaffe and sub Ciaran Cleary added to the Offaly score but Kilkenny finished very strong, with Murphy and Deegan adding to further points from Cody and Keoghan as they ran out 0-20 to 0-16 winners.
KILKENNY: A Tallis; M Butler, M Carey, R Garrett; D Barcoe, D Corcoran, S Murphy (0-1); K Doyle, J Molloy (0-3); L Connellan, E Cody (0-10, 7f, 1‘65), C Beirne (0-1); G Dunne (0-1), L Moore, M Keoghan (0-3).
Subs: Subs: E McDermott for Moore, S Donnelly for Dunne (both 48 mins), P Deegan (0-1) for Garrett (50), N Shortall for Connellan (55), R Reid for Barcoe (61).
OFFALY; L Hoare; P Taaffe (0-1), B Miller, B Conneely; D Ravenhill (0-1), D Shirley, B Kavanagh; L Watkins (0-2), C King; C Doyle, B Duignan, R Ravenhill; D Bourke (0-1), O Kelly (0-1), A Screeney (0-9, 6f).
Subs: C Spain for Shirley (25 mins), D Hand for Duignan (48), L Kavanagh for Watkins (53), E Kelly for Kavanagh (66), C Cleary (0-1) for King (68).
Referee: Thomas Gleeson (Dublin).
