Unsettled Kilkenny can still stem Galway's flow

GAELIC GAMES/Kilkenny v Galway: There is a sense of déjà vu about this. Galway might not welcome the comparison with Wexford (at the moment who would?), but last year the then Leinster champions went into the provincial final as distant underdogs against a Kilkenny team they had innovatively beaten the season before.

This evening Galway do much the same, with generous odds available for those who think they can repeat the fireworks of last August.

Yet it's hard to remember a Kilkenny side less settled going into an All-Ireland series: four changes after a successful Leinster final.

But the important point is that the changes have wrought an improvement. Michael Kavanagh's return was virtually certain, and if James Ryall's elevation in front of captain Jackie Tyrrell was unexpected, it's as well to remember that Ryall has some form against Galway.

He was smouldering two years ago in Thurles and more than repaid Brian Cody's faith in him.

In last year's semi-final he was by no means conspicuously more troubled than the rest of the defence, and he played an effective cameo in this year's comfortable National League win in Salthill.

But the changes to the defence since the Leinster final don't improve the sum total of pace, and that was how Galway scourged the Leinster champions last year.

Unusually for Cody, he seems to have put out a dummy team, and most expect James Fitzpatrick to switch to centrefield, as has been the drill in training, with Eoin Larkin moving back to the half forwards with Martin Comerford and Aidan Fogarty also switching.

Galway, having apparently conceived crippling doubts about their best team, revert to something more recognisable, and add newcomers Conor Dervan and Cathal Connolly to spice up the tested recipe.

The problem is that the conditions of victory last year are at best qualified this evening.

Kilkenny's mental flabbiness, partly due to fatigue and partly to an irrefutable complacency arising from having beaten the opposition by 19 points in 2004, left them open to the shock of Galway's blitz.

The biggest punches landed were the hat-trick of goals put away by Niall Healy off John Tennyson. Noel Hickey is back in the last line of defence and it's hard to see him or JJ Delaney being taken for such extravagant totals. Even then, the margin was only three points.

This isn't to discount Conor Hayes's team, because they have so much talent and pace that an improvised display is always within their reach, and Kilkenny won't cope if the game starts to fly on Thurles' wide-open spaces.

But Cody has suffered only five championship defeats in his eight-year tenure. Every one of them so far has been avenged at the next available opportunity.

Galway's time has come and it's difficult to see even an uncertain Kilkenny selection not tightening up sufficiently to make amends.

HOW THEY LINE-UP

GALWAY: L Donoghue; D Joyce, T Regan, O Canning; D Hardiman, S Kavanagh, D Collins; F Healy, C Dervan; C Connolly, D Forde, A Kerins; D Hayes, G Farragher, N Healy.

KILKENNY: J McGarry; M Kavanagh, JJ Delaney, N Hickey; J Ryall, J Tennyson, T Walsh; E Larkin, D Lyng; E Brennan, J Fitzpatrick, A Fogarty; E McCormack, M Comerford, H Shefflin.