Kilkenny's forward march hampered by injuries

ALLIANZ HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION ONE: Kilkenny 1-27 Offaly 1-19:LEAGUES COME and leagues go but the priorities of life in Kilkenny trundle on and make their own importance. After a lop-sided encounter that saw them into the final and condemned Offaly to Division Two for next year, the main concern around Nowlan Park was the further drip-drip of injuries onto an already splattered teamsheet.

With Michael Fennelly long since departed the pitch carrying a suspected broken hand, Kilkenny lost Aidan Fogarty and John Dalton in the dying minutes of a dead game to ankle injuries that landed them both in hospital.

Whatever about recoveries in time for the final – unlikely in all three cases – the first round of the county championship next weekend will be lacking a definite sprinkling of stardust. Don’t imagine it went unnoticed.

Brian Cody’s side were better here than in most of their matches through the campaign, not that this is saying a huge amount. They leaned on neon-lit displays from TJ Reid, Eddie Brennan and Brian Hogan in particular and were content to have everyone else chip in with just enough to keep the show rolling along.

Offaly scored 1-19 without ever being remotely in the game, which tells you all you need to know about the level of intensity on view. Put it this way, referee Anthony Stapleton had to down tools after 10 minutes because of a leg injury but even on a pretty bad limp he was able to swap places with Barry Kelly and do the line without having to exert himself too much.

“You can look at the positive side of what we scored,” said Cody, “but you also have to look at what we conceded as well which was too much. The game became loose in the last 20 minutes or so and we’ll suffer for conceding those kind of scores. We’ve been inconsistent in our 70 minute performances for sure. It’s been a hallmark of our league so far.”

This was regulation stuff, taking care of business with humdrum ease. Brennan had a goal four minutes in; his marker David Kenny had a yellow card by the 15th. The Offaly full-back line never got to the pitch of Brennan’s display – he spent the afternoon getting out in front and either shooting or laying off possession. He was untypically careless at times, ending up with more wides than scores in fact.

But with Reid taking up the slack along with the rest of the forwards – all of whom had scored by day’s end – Kilkenny built up a 1-15 to 0-10 lead at the break.

Offaly would have slipped the relegation noose had it not been for the late fireworks in Thurles but their league status evaporated with Wexford’s draw. They kept at it here despite being thoroughly outgunned and when Shane Dooley scored a fine goal on 55 minutes to get the margin down to six points, the general torpor of the day was upset momentarily.

Even though the natural order was restored within minutes, Joe Dooley could still highlight the three points apiece of Brian Carroll and Cathal Parlon afterwards as reasons to be cheerful.

“Well, 1-19 is a great score and we got some great scores. All our forwards fought very hard. There were a lot of good performances and I’d be very happy with the performance. We’re obviously very disappointed with the result in Thurles but we have to shake ourselves down and get on with it. I think these boys will bounce back from this. They have six weeks to get over it and get ready for the championship.”

KILKENNY:PJ Ryan; P Murphy, B Hogan, J Tyrrell; P Hogan (0-2), J Dalton, R Doyle; TJ Reid (0-9, 0-4 frees, 0-1 65), M Fennelly (0-1); J Fitzpatrick (0-3), M Rice (0-3), E Larkin (0-1); M Ruth (0-2), E Brennan (1-3), R Hogan (0-3). Subs: J Mulhall for Reid (17-22 mins, blood sub), PJ Delaney for Fennelly (half-time), A Fogarty for R Hogan (62 mins), J Mulhall for Fogarty (70 mins), C Fogarty for Dalton (78 mins).

OFFALY:J Dempsey; D Franks, D Kenny, S Egan; M Verney, R Hanniffy, D Morkan; C Mahon (0-2), S Wynne; B Carroll (0-3), C Egan, D Molloy (0-1); C Parlon (0-3), J Bergin (0-1), S Dooley (1-8, 0-6 frees). Subs B Mulrooney for Kenny (42 mins), G Healion (0-1) for Egan (43 mins), J Mulrooney for Molloy (56 mins).

Referee:A Stapleton (Laois); replaced by B Kelly (Westmeath) after 10 minutes.