Off-colour Cats give Cody plenty of work to do
But of course, hair of the dog — when that man gets a drink of whatever it was that had poisoned him he’s back live, ready to dance all over again. Kilkenny got that drink at half time, a potent drink, served up by Brian Cody in what I’m sure was his own unique manner. It worked the oracle.
Kilkenny in that first half didn’t play as a team, they played as individuals, fellas running with the ball when they should have been laying it off to guys in better position. In fact that’s how Richie Power got injured just before half time, ran headlong into Wayne McNamara when there was no need — not a good idea at any time anyway!
I was surprised with how poor Kilkenny’s touch was in the first half, surprised also — as noted above about Power — at the number of wrong options taken, and finally, surprised at the number of frees they missed — four in that half alone. I know it was a tricky wind behind them but their return yesterday was very poor.
Contributing greatly to Kilkenny’s win was the introduction of TJ Reid, which brings me back to what I said about Cathal Naughton and Cork — TJ, too, is a guy who seems to play better as a sub.
Others who played very well for Kilkenny yesterday, the brothers Fennelly, Colin and Michael, Henry Shefflin, Aidan Fogarty, but above all, the man who really came to form was Tommy Walsh. I’d say this fella loves to hear people suggesting he’s on the way out, loves to prove people wrong.
Another who starred, that prince of defenders JJ Delaney, absolutely brilliant at full-back. His two corner-men, Paul Murphy and Jackie Tyrrell, also excelled.
I was impressed also with Kieran Joyce, handed major responsibility as replacement centre-back for the injured Brian Hogan — Kieran had a big second half. Richie Doyle also did well on the wing.
They’re still not firing as we know they can but I’d say Cody is a happy man this morning to know they’re going back to Croke Park with still plenty to work on. Happy too that he can call them into Nowlan Park over the next few weeks with the players themselves knowing they have a lot of ground to make up. He has a stick to beat them with, a big stick.
To Limerick. One major note I made in the second half about them — they stopped doing the right thing. A team that had been forceful and direct in the first half stopped putting in early ball to their attack, a policy that had been paying dividends. Big high balls up in the air, letting the wind take them — what good was that to an inside forward line that has two of the smallest corner-forwards around? Kilkenny defenders will eat up that kind of ball all day, and did.
Limerick seemed to think they could rely on the wind to do the work for them, rather than continuing to make the space, to find the man. Contrast that with the way Kilkenny operated in the second half, their movement, their use of the ball. What did the Kilkenny full-forward line score?
Henry got two goals when he was in there, Colin Fennelly got one, as did Aidan Fogarty; add in the points, six from play from this trio — that’s 4-6 from the Kilkenny full-forward line, out of 4-16.
How? The Limerick inside line was isolated, the half-back line sucked out the field which left acres of space in behind. Having said that, the trio of Wayne McNamara, Donal O’Grady and Gavin O’Mahony actually played very well — a pity they didn’t do it from further back, giving more support to their full-back line.
It was a good, wholehearted performance by Limerick but they will be kicking themselves today. They played themselves into a great position at the break, only a point behind against that big wind, but lost it, big time. They can’t be happy with reaching All-Ireland quarter-finals anymore, better progress must be made.
With Richie Power (injured) and Richie Hogan (red-carded) set to miss the All-Ireland semi-final, with Cork traditionally having no fear of Galway, what odds now on a Cork/Tipperary All-Ireland final?
