Underdogs fail to chase off Henry’s Cats
Most of their forwards stayed out around midfield, denying Kilkenny defenders any chance of some ‘sorting out’ just before the throw-in.
The Kilkenny defenders stuck together on the 45 in a group, reminiscent of a scene from The Ballroom of Romance, as they eagerly awaited their chosen partners to come up the pitch towards them.
Kilkenny defenders are not really set up for man-marking duties. Their strength down the years has been defensive unity more than individual displays, but they went with a man-to-man policy and Galway took control.
As a consequence, Jackie Tyrrell, their best sweeping defender, spent most of his time outside the 45 shadowing Damien Hayes.
The pace and strength of Galway’s forwards bursting from deep caused the Cats all sorts of problems, and they gave away a lot of frees.
Much was made of the impetus and solidity that Michael Fennelly and JJ Delaney would bring to the Kilkenny set-up, using the Leinster final, which they missed, as a reference.
But in the crucial first 20 minutes, and throughout the first half, their markers Andy Smyth and Joe Canning had the upper hand.
Galway’s tactic of running at Kilkenny brought Canning five pointed frees and you could see the pressure Kilkenny were under when the normally cool Henry Shefflin went for a goal from a 21m free early in the game. Galway led by four at that stage and Shefflin must have felt his team needed a goal to kick-start their challenge.
Galway were to the fore in that half but spoiled some excellent play by coughing up easy free opportunities which Shefflin took with aplomb towards the end of the half. He really showed his value to Kilkenny yesterday: his move to centre-forward, the frees before half time and his outstanding leadership all through single-handedly dragged the Noresiders back into contention.
One of the big talking points was his decision to take a point from a penalty chance near the end. It was the percentage decision. The game was tight and Kilkenny had clawed their way back into contention. Every single score was of the highest value.
Galway had scored only 1-3 up to that point, while the Cats had tacked on 11 points. There were only three minutes left and any point was golden at that stage. From Shefflin’s viewpoint it would have looked to be a match winner.
Galway will look back on the game with some regret. They will feel that, to an extent, they left it behind them. Canning scored a trademark blistering goal early on to settle them down and create huge nervousness in the Kilkenny defence.
Their goal in the second half from Niall Burke set them up for victory but on eachoccasion they failed to drive on and countless times defenders such as Kevin Hynes, Niall Donoghue and Johnny Coen made tremendous defensive plays only to spoil that good work with poor distribution afterwards.
Galway lost their way in the first 15 minutes of the second half, missing some good opportunities for points and three frees — two from the normally reliable Canning and one from long range by Tony Óg Regan, though James Skehill’s save from Colin Fennelly was a high point.
I didn’t quite understand their tactics as they bunched defensively but failed to run the ball out of their half-back line. They didn’t use the fleet-footed, determined running of David Hayes and Damien Hayes to carry the ball forward either.
Instead they just hit the ball away — David Burke being one of the chief culprits, spoiling some great work he’d done around midfield with poor distribution.
From the beginning Iarla Tannian, my man of the match, and Andy Smyth ruled midfield but when they look back, poor shooting and wrong option-taking allowed Kilkenny defenders, particularly Brian Hogan, to thunder into the game.
All-Ireland finals will test the character of great players. Canning showed great character, having missed four frees, to strike the most difficult one straight and true to level the game.
Everyone will look forward to the replay and it’s a tremendous PR opportunity for the GAA to slash ticket prices and allow those suffering through the recession to witness another great contest in the flesh.
