PM O'Sullivan: Galway limping at a crossroads but set a tricky route for Munster fallers
3 July 2021; Joe Canning of Galway after his side's defeat to Dublin in their Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Semi-Final match at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
The gods of hurling did not beam on a damp July day.
Too much of the action represented the stolid side of solid. Yet there must have been the odd smile, amid streaks of excitement. The unexpected is forever welcome and Dublin comprehensively outdoing Galway lay unaired in every pundit’s playbook. A four-point margin in no way flattered the winners.
Bar Conor Whelan, ceaseless in trying to rouse his teammates, Galway looked tired and shop worn. Dublin arrived with a bundle of energy and a clear plan. This gambit pivoted on withdrawing their entire half forward line and trumping the opposition in urgency stakes for possession.
Corollary requirement? The discipline, possession secured, not to strike long. Without pinpoint deliveries to a half forward, their plan would turn to mush on Croke Park’s greasy surface.
Then again, fielding a trio of Dónal Burke, Chris Crummey and Danny Sutcliffe in this sector is a nice start. They were Saturday’s most impressive line anywhere on a pitch, notching 1-8 from play in a 1-18 tally, and are arguably the country’s best half forward unit, equal with Limerick’s trio and better on the day that was today.
Fintan Burke, Gearóid McInerney and Pádraic Mannion were ruthlessly dismantled. The classy Mannion, so often a beacon, dulled into ordinariness. Galway are limping at a crossroads.
Thereafter Kilkenny and Wexford unspooled an epic. Both sides could have won and Wexford should have won, when up a man and three points in extra time. Mark Fanning converted a penalty for 2-27 to 1-27, after Eoin Murphy got sin-binned for a foul on Connal Flood.
Whatever about Ireland’s fittest family, Wexford are far from Ireland’s fittest hurling team. They effectively blew up, same as against Tipperary in 2019’s All Ireland semi-final, when they likewise enjoyed numerical advantage. 2021’s promising scenario subsided into a mere one-point lead, 2-29 to 1-34, at halftime of extra time.
Then Kilkenny found a future by revisiting past resolve. The second half saw them outstrip Wexford by 1-6 to 0-0. Having swayed and teetered, Kilkenny surged in irresistible fashion to eight-point triumph.
Cork and Limerick unspooled a curious affair in Semple Stadium, in which the reigning champions also had eight points to spare. They took an unflinching and unglamorous meeting via a two-goal burst in the first half’s added time. Darragh O’Donovan and Kyle Hayes were the hit men, with the latter’s smacked pass into the net demonstrating he is forward assassin biding time as wing back sentinel.
Cork’s challenge in the second half? Arm’s length stuff. Limerick were most impressive for coming through in not overly impressive fashion.
On a rainy evening in Kilkenny, we watched three important hurling games in a bar on Patrick Street. I sat with Village people and the mood afterwards was the low key side of even, despite native county’s brave win. There was delight but a firm sense of measure. Plenty of thinking for Brian Cody and colleagues as to what constitutes their best line up.
Did a sense of who will ultimately fall into hurling heaven this August get smudged? A bit. Limerick were formidable rather than impregnable.
A strange verdict on clear victory over Cork, perhaps, but a fair verdict. And a compliment, into the bargain. Limerick expect, and rightly so, but there is a lot expected of them. They are striving to become a great team, which levers the ante for analysis.
Their forwards, Peter Casey and Cian Lynch aside, mostly waited for stuff to happen. The hurling gods quickly turn cruel on a Godot complex. And reacting late to events leads to unnecessary fouls. The All-Ireland champions too often sail close to red winds.
Yellow and red mixed delivers orange. This evening, Séamus Flanagan and William O’Donoghue plunged into orange card territory in the first half. You cannot swing the hurl at head height without cold care. While incidents involving Flanagan and O’Donoghue were not clearcut dismissals, would tears have been credible if orange turned to red? Limerick’s tackling technique wants urgent refurbishment.
The irony is that Peter Casey scarcely deserved the sin bin. His intervention was not even a blatant yellow card. Wild justice probably got served when Nickie Quaid saved the resultant penalty, one obligingly struck by Patrick Horgan at a nice height to Quaid’s backhand side.
Meanwhile Galway’s defeat alters a core dynamic. One Munster county just received a far trickier qualifier path. Cork or Waterford or the loser of Clare and Tipperary took on longer odds for the short walk up Hogan Stand steps. Galway remain as flaky as ever but will represent, next day out, a mean proposition.
Kilkenny might be pushing back to being 21st century Kilkenny. Today certainly restored spirit as default setting, the team at its most doughty when most beset. The first half of extra time, down a man and three points, will be a durable reference point for this group, 2021 and beyond.
The players contemplate a quite winnable Leinster Final with Dublin. Whoever triumphs in a fortnight’s time should receive a quite winnable All-Ireland semi-final, faced by an opponent supplied by so attritional a route. Dublin or Kilkenny making the All-Ireland Final exercised few minds in last week’s run up.
But that old devil called momentum remains one of the outlaw gods.
