Kilkenny 4-17 Dublin 1-15:MIRACLES DON'T happen overnight in hurling of all games and yesterday what would have indeed been a miracle – understrength Dublin somehow beating a fully restored Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling final – certainly never looked remotely possible.
The champions were assured and predatory, clarifying that they will go very close to wresting back the All-Ireland title they last year lost to Tipperary. Dublin, for their part, looked every minute of the 50 years that separated them from the county’s last provincial crown.
It was simply too much to expect a team deprived of so many first-choice players to take on as stern a challenge as handing Kilkenny a first defeat in the province for over seven years and accordingly the champions chalked up their 68th Leinster title.
What was dispiriting for Dublin was that it was as if the terrific progress of the past 12 months hadn’t happened at all. A year ago they lost a semi-final 4-19 to 0-12; yesterday it was a final on the moderately improved scoreline of 4-17 to 1-15.
The goal was of historical significance – Dublin’s first in the championship against Kilkenny since Ger Ennis netted halfway through the 1997 provincial semi-final – but of none in the context of yesterday’s match. Paul Ryan, flawless from dead ball chances, hit a free that took a deflection and cut the margin to six, with 13 minutes left.
But reality intruded within seconds when Richie Power popped the ball to the inrushing Michael Rice and he drove home his team’s fourth to kill any frissons rippling around Croke Park.
The expected imbalance between the return of all the big names who had missed Kilkenny’s stunning defeat by Dublin in the league final, nine short weeks previously, and those who the winners had lost in the interim proved too great.
This was chiefly manifest in the ball-winning and scoring categories. Dublin have given as good as they have got under the puck-outs all year but yesterday they were wiped out, as Tommy Walsh – time and again plucking down dropping ball – and Brian Hogan dominated in the Kilkenny half backs and despite Conal Keaney’s best efforts, Dublin weren’t just “not comfortable” in the air – they were ransacked.
With Michael Fennelly and TJ Reid also shutting out centrefield, Dublin were operating on unaccustomedly small rations going forward. Exacerbating this difficulty was the consequent supply to the winners’ attack where Henry Shefflin and Richie Power created havoc, the latter involved in the orchestration of three of the four goals. The first two goals had already been registered – Eoin Larkin, starting at full forward, scoring the first, and Colin Fennelly the second – when Dublin centre back Joey Boland had to leave the field. His return from a shoulder injury was always touch-and-go and in that condition having to deal with Power was too big a task. That meant Liam Rushe dropping back and his ball-winning and dynamism were lost farther up the field.
Shefflin’s return to the Kilkenny team has meant that nearly all dead ball awards are bankers’ drafts for points but his performance in general play was also powerful, culminating in a 43rd-minute goal chance, from a TJ Reid hand pass, that he buried past Gary Maguire.
Trailing from early on Dublin at best threatened to put themselves in a position from which they might have been able to launch a comeback but they never quite made that base camp. They can argue that the chase for goals distorted their second-half resistance but equally, Kilkenny always had higher gears as they cruised along with a lead that fluctuated in and out of double figures.
When that hegemony was briefly interrupted by 1-2 from frees by Paul Ryan, Kilkenny hit back immediately with the Rice goal. The frailties of the champions’ full-back line was addressed by moving JJ Delaney to the wing and Noel Hickey to full back with Paul Murphy coming in from the wing to corner back.
Murphy played well but it’s hard to know the success of this because Dublin threatened so little on goal – apart from Simon Lambert batting wide Alan McCrabbe’s line ball in the 38th minute and a scrambling save from David Herity in the first half when his stick just stopped the ball on the line.
A nine-point half-time lead meant the match was effectively over. Anthony Daly made changes but apart from Daire Plunkett adding a bit of zip to the forwards, nothing changed that much.
Kilkenny almost had a fifth goal but replacement Matthew Ruth didn’t get hold of a rebound. Referee Barry Kelly let an awful lot go during the match, which appears to be the approved way of officiating in hurling, but any watching footballers could be forgiven for wondering about the growing disparity between enforcement of rules in the respective codes.
KILKENNY: 1 D Herity; 7 P Murphy, 2 N Hickey, 4 J Tyrrell; 5 T Walsh, 6 B Hogan (0-1), 3 JJ Delaney; 8 M Fennelly, 10 TJ Reid; 9 M Rice (1-2), 11 R Power (0-1), 14 H Shefflin (1-9, 0-7 frees); 13 C Fennelly (1-0), 12 E Larkin (1-2), 15 R Hogan (0-2). Subs: 19 P Hogan for Delaney (half-time), 20 J Fitzpatrick for Reid (52 mins), 26 M Ruth for Power (71 mins), 25 J Mulhall for Larkin (71 mins). Yellow cards: Hogan (34 mins), M Fennelly (40), P Hogan (50 mins), Tyrrell (57 mins), Rice (63 mins), Fitzpatrick (70 mins).
DUBLIN: 1 G Maguire; 2 N Corcoran, 3 P Kelly, 4 O Gough; 5 J McCaffrey, 6 J Boland, 7 S Durkin; 8 L Rushe, 10 S Lambert; 9 A McCrabbe (0-2), 12 C McCormack (0-1), 11 C Keaney (0-1); 13 D O’Callaghan, 14 P Ryan (1-9, all frees), 15 P Carton. Subs: 20 M O’Brien (0-1) for Boland (22 mins), 25 P Schutte for Gough (half-time), 21 D O’Dwyer for Carton (half-time), 22 D Plunkett (0-1) for Lambert (44 mins), 24 S Ryan for O’Callaghan (65 mins). Yellow cards: Rushe (23 mins), Gough (35 mins), O’Callaghan (43).
Referee: Barry Kelly (Westmeath).
