Will McIntyre absorb the lessons?
It was a poor contest, lacking intensity, and Kilkenny didn’t need their A game. They were never troubled by a Galway team that failed to play at the required level of pace or physicality.
Kilkenny played their normal system, holding the half-back line on their own 45-metre line and both midfielders, Michael Fennelly and the impressive Michael Rice, funnelled back to supplement the defence.
Although they conceded a scrappy goal, their co-ordinated defensive play ensured that Galway didn’t create any goal chances.
They based their win on the dominance of their defence, particularly the half-back line, which ruled the roost throughout the second half. Their midfield was on top throughout and their forwards got the required scores without setting the world on fire.
Moving Henry Shefflin to centre-forward 10 minutes into the second half had a big bearing on Kilkenny’s offensive improvement. He pulled the strings and created space and scores.
Brian Cody’s substitutions also added impetus to the proceedings – Richie Hogan and Aidan Fogarty were busy second-half additions, who forced the pace and added to the combination play up front, while John Tennyson, coming in at centre-back five minutes before half-time, dominated completely from that point on.
2.WRONG TACTICS GALWAY didn’t help themselves. I don’t feel that they could have won at any stage, but they could have made life a little more difficult for the champions. They began by playing short ball to their forwards, a tactic that worked well: Andy Smith at left-half-forward also picked up an amount of ball by dropping back towards his defence
However, it’s what you do with the ball that matters. Smith’s marker, Tommy Walsh, a very influential player once more for Kilkenny, was yellow-carded early on for a rash pull. One of Smith’s strong points is his ability to run at defences and I suggested on Saturday that that tactic might work, as under the new rules any mistimed tackles would be penalised.
Walsh would have had to be somewhat restrained as he was on a yellow, but surprisingly, Smith never ran at the defence or took Walsh on. At times Galway harried the man in possession but failed to pick up the free man, and Kilkenny always had an outlet. As a consequence, Galway couldn’t put pressure on the champions to force them into mistakes.
Galway also looked tired in the second half, possibly as a result of their exertions over the past two weeks.
3. LESSONS FOR MANAGERS
BOTH managers will have learned from yesterday’s game, though Galway boss John McIntyre will have learned most.
Yesterday’s display will force the Galway management to focus on where to play Joe Canning. He played most of yesterday’s game at right corner-forward on Jackie Tyrrell, one of Kilkenny’s strongest defenders, and ended the game at right-half-forward.
Galway need him inside to score goals and to me he should be played on the edge of the square.
They should also look at their second-half performance: left-half-back David Collins gave away two silly frees in the crucial ten minutes after half-time, when Galway needed to keep things tight to stay in the contest.
They also lost most of their puck-outs and hit long clearances directly to opposing half-backs, failing to consider their options.
Ollie Canning, who played very well throughout, received a number of short puck-outs, but his colleagues was very slow to support him when he did so.
When Galway review the video they’ll see how many scores Kilkenny got from direct turnovers, and unless they eradicate this flaw from their game, they won’t progress to the top table.
Kilkenny boss Brian Cody won’t have learned as much. He’ll be concerned by his side’s wides but he’ll know these wides came from chances created.
The game will have confirmed for him that their system continues to work well. Without any real inconvenience or physical hardship, they’ve slipped nicely into the All-Ireland semi-final. Their forwards weren’t at their best but Cody doesn’t need a perfect performance until September.
