Enda McEvoy: Victory tonight would constitute one of Brian Cody’s most satisfying successes
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody arriving at Croke Park for the Leinster SHC semi-final against Dublin. ‘They needed to show they were capable of finding the net again and they needed to show they were capable of intellectualising an imaginative, expansive attacking game again. They managed the one but not t’other,’ writes our columnist. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Moments before half-time at Páirc Uí Chaoimh a fortnight ago Limerick scored a point so apparently straightforward but in fact so finely wrought that it cried out to be shown to every coach at every level, from U12 upwards, in the land.
It also cried out to be shown on permanent loop to Brian Cody and his backroom team until their retinas burn.
It wasn’t a spectacular or outrageous point. The sliotar wasn’t made to skim across a lake or do the Siege of Ennis in flight. Instead Sean Finn won a ball on his own 20-metre line and laid it off to Darragh O’Donovan, who ambled up the right flank till he reached his own 65’, whereupon he launched a delivery to the far side of the field. Graeme Mulcahy won the race for possession and bisected the posts.
Sounds simple? Yes, but only because it was made to look simple – and, as ever, rendering simplicity is the hard part.
Finn might have flaked the ball upfield and allowed events to take their course, but with no fewer than seven colleagues within 10 metres a short pass was the obvious course of action.
O’Donovan might have flaked the ball upfield, but with only two colleagues in the opposition half of the field, and a spare Tipperary man in between, not scuttering it away was the obvious course of action.
Not until the scope of angle for delivery was sufficiently wide did O’Donovan pull the trigger and when he did despatch the sliotar he despatched it at maximum discomfort for the Tipp defenders: pitching it beyond them, forcing them to turn and retreat, nullifying the spare man, favouring Mulcahy.
Kilkenny, facing opponents who deployed a spare defender for more than 40 minutes of the Leinster semi-final, proceeded to lose a 16-point lead in the second half. Reckon they watched Limerick the following day? Reckon they saw anything they might wish to copy?
Prior to their encounter with Dublin, we identified two priorities for Cody and his team. They needed to show they were capable of finding the net again and they needed to show they were capable of intellectualising an imaginative, expansive attacking game again. They managed the one but not t’other.
Their collapse was, as is par for the course in such matters, the confluence of a number of factors, among them – and Cork supporters may have heard this one before - the failure of the half-forward line to win and guard their own ball.
The sight of a young full-back taking it upon himself to charge upfield and land a crucial late point, moreover, may or may not have suggested something about leadership issues.
Clearly, Kilkenny were brisk and bright in the first half. Equally clearly the extent to which they fell asleep on the job shouldn’t be underestimated. Rolling stones can be difficult to stop.
Yet this was a Halloween display that brought the same old ghosts howling around the house. Kilkenny are still incapable of excising the opposition’s spare man from the equation, still incapable of despatching balls at maximum discomfort for the enemy defenders.
Cody is in grave danger of turning into Stephen Fry’s character in Blackadder Goes Forth.
Blackadder, on hearing they’re about to go over the top yet again: “It’s the same plan we used last time – and the 17 times before that.”
General Melchett: “Exactly! And that is what is so brilliant about it. It will catch the watchful Hun totally off guard. Doing precisely what we’ve done 18 times before is exactly the last thing they’ll expect us to do this time!”
It scarcely needs stating that Cody will have been far happier to win by one point instead of by 16.
It scarcely needs stating that a fairly large stick will have been wielded in Nowlan Park in the meantime.
But that, on an evening when the men in stripes are in danger of achieving a provincial three in a row of a highly undesirable kind, will count for little if the clearances from defence are not more thoughtful and the forwards coaching has not attained a more enlightened level.
This is a tricky looking fixture for Galway, an assertion which in itself indicates the manner in which places have been traded.
For years under Cody it was the other way around, Kilkenny justifiably regarding Galway as the most dangerous of opponents. They never knew which one of Forrest Gump’s chocolates they’d pull out of the box. They did know that, Galway being Galway, every so often – 2001, 2005, 2012 - it would contain a poison pill.
A primary objective for the favourites will entail reducing TJ Reid to the status of a tackle bag. Joe Canning will drop back to join the swarm; Conor Cooney, on the evidence of the semi-final, will do likewise. Cut the Reid/Fennelly pipeline and Galway will most likely outpoint their opponents, possibly handsomely.
Assisting in that regard will be Conor Whelan, the county’s best card-carrying forward this past couple of seasons. His performance in the 2015 All-Ireland final might have been a one-off (strange and unrepeatable things happen in All-Ireland finals); instead it turned out to be an aperitif.
Here was a wristy type who could get down low yet who had plenty of cuttin’ and was as far from the latest small knacky maroon model as was imaginable. The perfect synthesis of the Galway big lad and the Galway small lad.
The statement made against Wexford sounded impressive but requires further scrutiny. The winners started ten of the outfielders from 2017: one or two too many or the kind of number Goldilocks would deem to be just right? Shane O’Neill has identified his role as that of helping to “add freshness” to the collective. Perhaps that’s all it’ll take with this group - a new voice but otherwise keep her lit.
Victory tonight would constitute one of Cody’s most satisfying successes. Common sense, however, suggests that the conversation in the virtual public houses of the country come 10pm will centre on the prospect of a Galway/Limerick collision next month.
Talking of Limerick, here’s a piece of free advice for Waterford tomorrow that cannot possibly have occurred to Liam Cahill. Play with the breeze if you win the toss.
Starting with wind advantage against this Limerick team doesn’t guarantee one a half-time lead; eschewing wind advantage against this Limerick team pretty much guarantees one a substantial half-time deficit. Waterford themselves hurled better against the elements in the second half a fortnight ago (no wides), further proof of a game that has changed to such an extent that the ball no longer does the work. They may well perform admirably here without winning.
Limerick’s own task is no gimme. They need to win without blowing their opponents away or expending too much of the gas necessary for later tasks. Fine lines.
It is not being snide to speculate that Davy, with far too much time on his hands, overthought things against Galway. Wexford ought to make amends this afternoon. One assumes that, being aware of the worst-case scenario against Limerick, Tipperary left something in the tank for a putative qualifier. On the basis that they’ve been here before and possess a cabinet of ministers with much government experience they’re entitled to the vote today.
But not unlike a predecessor of his in 1999, Kieran Kingston has bet the house on pace and incisiveness. This one could be desperately tight.
