Kilkenny’s conveyor belt

THE end of another purrfect week for Kilkenny, but should the Cats now carry a public hurling health warning? Can anyone stop their relentless pursuit of three All-Irelands in a row, and three league titles to boot?

Their senior record, recent and historic, is impressive; finalists in five of the last six years, three wins in the last four, now these bac k-to-back titles for the first time in a decade, bringing them level with Cork on the roll-of-honour.

But look what’s coming behind.

All-Ireland minor winners; U-21 and intermediate finalists; two All-Ireland college titles won (St. Kieran’s and Castlecomer CS, A and B respectively); the Tony Forristal All-Ireland U-14 tournament, with James Stephens taking Féile na Gael. An imposing and intimidating record, past and present, but pointing significantly to the future.

Tomorrow their U21s meet Galway in Thurles in pursuit of a clean sweep of first grade titles this season. Naturally, Brian Cody’s seniors have been installed as hot favourites for next year’s Championship, and it would be a brave punter indeed who would back against them.

Who will challenge? Galway perhaps, and manager Conor Hayes is most certainly not for conceding before a ball is pucked. He does however, accept reality. “If you said to me at the start of this year that they were going to go into an All-Ireland semi-final and final without Philly Larkin, Richie Mullally, Andy Comerford, without Brian McEvoy and Charlie Carter, I’d have said we all have a great chance of beating them. But it doesn’t seem to have knocked a thing out of them. In fact, if anything they look stronger, the guys they’ve brought in are equally as good if not better.

“You look then at the maturity of some of the new players. Sean Dowling, the way he stepped up to a long-range free in the Leinster final, put it straight over the bar; that’s very impressive, the way that kind of responsibility seems to come so naturally to these guys is crucial at this level. It’s amazing that any county would have that depth of talent.”

Last year Kilkenny also lost Denis Byrne, recent Allstar and player-of-the-year contender, to Tipperary. An open transfer system would, perhaps, level the playing field. After all, as Hayes points out: “if any other county had guys with the experience of Comerford, Mullally, Carter and McEvoy, they’d be shoo-ins for places, you’d love to have them.”

Average first fifteen age of 25, average bench age of the same, Tipperary’s Tommy Dunne is impressed, but defiant. “They’re a young team, look like they’ll be around for a while, but I don’t think they’re going to win every single thing for the next few years, there’s going to be some team around the corner that will catch them. Who it is, I don’t know.

“At the moment however, there’s no doubt they look head-and-shoulders above everyone else, and from a hurling point of view, that’s worrying, that one county is so dominant. It’s not Kilkenny’s fault, you have to give them credit for what they’re doing, but for the game in general, it’s better that the honours are spread around a bit more.”

Offaly’s Brian Whelahan is far more gung-ho. “To be honest, I don’t rate Kilkenny very highly. They’re the best that’s out there, but I’ve heard a lot of nonsense lately about them being the best Kilkenny team of all time. I don’t think so at all, in fact I think their standard of hurling has actually dropped lately. It’s just that the standard has dropped in all the other counties as well, and that to me is the bigger problem.”

Brian can’t see anyone in Leinster toppling the Cats any time soon, but does have a wish, that Galway would take up the offer from Leinster, throw its lot in with the province. “It’s time for Galway to put up or shut up. They’ve been whinging since this new set-up began, complaining that they’re not getting a fair crack of the whip, but they’ve been invited now into a situation where they’d get the same chance as everyone else. They should forget about what happened to them in Munster all those decades ago, come into Leinster, and challenge Kilkenny. At least Kilkenny would be getting a good game then.”

Is that likely to happen? Well, possibly, according to long-time Galway hurling secretary Phelim Murphy. “We haven’t turned it down or anything, and we will take the time to discuss it, but not for another couple of weeks, after the All-Ireland final.”

Chances of success? “Some are for it, some against, but either way it’s a big decision. The advantages are definitely there, more games, and it’s all about games. You can do all the training, all the challenge matches, but one championship game is better than the whole lot. You’re also in competitive action a lot sooner.”

The reasons for the Kilkenny success are twofold. Good set-up at adult level, where all grades are kept tight and competitive, strict promotion/relegation system, regular games for all players right through the high season, then vision, intelligent planning and hard work at underage.

Explains County Board chairman Ned Quinn: “After we were beaten in the first round of the Leinster minor championship in 1999, I approached a number of people with a view to setting up a development board. Brendan O’Sullivan agreed to be chairman of it, Pat Henderson agreed to be secretary, and we then wrote out to about 40 ex-Kilkenny players, the majority of them All-Ireland medal-winners. 27 wrote back agreeing to get involved.”

The result is a hurling set-up that’s unique to Kilkenny. “U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17 and U-18 development squads, over a 100 players on each, overseen by those past players, but the nub of the whole thing is that it is not elitist, that the people going on the squads are not selected, but are put forward by the clubs. Every club has the right to name players to the squad, and we encourage that. Within reason, three or four players, if they want more than that they have to make an application but no-one has ever been turned away. We also insisted the fella U-14 would have to be 14, U-15 for the 15s and so on, we didn’t want the very good 10-yr-old at U-14, the good U-14 at minor.

“The other important element we introduced was we got the squad nights included in our county fixtures programme so there’d be no matches clashing with the squad sessions; it was also a stipulation that to be on a county underage team you would have to attend the squad sessions, and to be a county selector you would have to be involved with the squads also.”

Tradition? Luck? Part of it, but Kilkenny’s hurling dominance is far more by design than accident. Having been taught a lesson on the field, time for the rest to learn a few more. In the meantime, hats off to the cats.