King leads the charge towards immortality

MAN OF THE MATCH HENRY SHEFFLIN (Kilkenny)It was one of those days when Kilkenny people had to wonder what life might be like when Henry Shefflin eventually retires, writes MALACHY CLERKIN

“QUICK WORD, Henry?”

“Ah no, I’m grand.”

“You’re sure?”

“Nah, I’ll be back in three weeks.”

Hard man to pin down, Henry Shefflin. Harder than everyone else yesterday. Galway’s defence couldn’t do it on the pitch, The Irish Times fared no better as he breezed from the dressing room to the players’ lounge. Ten years and one day after his last Man of the Match performance in an All-Ireland final, he was the single most compelling argument for a Kilkenny victory.

There was a small irony, then, in the fact that when the game was there to be nailed he chose not to swing the hammer. With 68 minutes on the clock and the sides level, Barry Kelly spread his arms wide for a penalty and Shefflin took up his place on the 20m line. Although Brian Cody had moved down the sideline to be just in line with the ball, he and Shefflin only half-exchanged a glance.

“I shrugged my shoulders,” said Cody afterwards. “I basically said, ‘Do whatever you think yourself.’ I’m not going to inspire Henry Shefflin in that situation. If he goes for goal and gets it, he’s a hero. If he misses, he’s a lunatic. He took a point and it proved to be a crucial point in the end.”

Should he or should he not? Context is all. When Kilkenny were 1-2 to 0-1 down in the 16th minute, Shefflin stood up to what looked like a routine free 25m out and sold most of the stadium a dummy by going for goal instead of taking his point. Fergal Moore didn’t bite though, and deflected it out for a 65. Shefflin missed it, incidentally, one of only three wides he hit all day.

The difference between the game in the 16th minute and where it lay in the 68th was incalculable.

When he went for that goal in the first half, Kilkenny were gulping in air having not scored since Shefflin had pointed a free in the fifth minute. This was a haymaker thrown from way back, a flailing attempt to get back in the fight with a single punch.

By the time the penalty came around, it was Galway who were looking like they didn’t know which end of them was up. They had been cleaned out for most of the second half and hadn’t scored a point from play in more than half an hour.

Shefflin judged that a one-point lead going the closing two minutes represented value and, given the way the Kilkenny defence was playing by that stage, it was hard to disagree.

He had long since earned the right go his own way. This was one of those days in which Kilkenny people just had to puff their cheeks and wonder what life is going to be like when he eventually takes the sunset walk.

Playing in his 12th All-Ireland final, he was Shefflin to the nth degree – always moving, always probing, keeping the scoreboard rolling and pushing Kilkenny forward. When they were poor in the first half, it was Shefflin who went around screaming at them to concentrate. When Galway moved seven ahead in the 32nd minute, it was Shefflin who pointed an awkward free from the left touchline before rattling off two more before the break.

Everything he did in that spell carried an urgency, a knack for spotting the chink of light and hauling his men towards it. There is genius in recognising a moment and making it a movement.

Kilkenny saw it and raised it and started the second half in far better fettle. They gnawed away at the Galway lead, getting it down to a point in the 50th minute.

Cue Henry to draw them level, winning a puck-out for which he was second favourite and arrowing a flat shot low over the bar from 50m out. The majesty of the catch and strike was second only to the steel he showed soon after, pointing a free from the Kilkenny 65 to put them in front for the first time since the opening minutes.

Although Niall Burke’s goal followed almost immediately, Shefflin kept his end up right to the end. His afternoon finished with 12 points beside his name – the most he has ever scored in an All-Ireland final – but, even so, that probably represented only about half of his influence.

He was their leader in every aspect of the play, the one who kept them in it when the tide was against them and who cashed in when they got on top.

So much of the talk coming in had this final down as Kilkenny’s chance to secure immortality for Shefflin by winning him his ninth All-Ireland medal.

Turns out it was very nearly the other way around.