Kilkenny’s best for twenty years

KILKENNY were a different class, simply awesome in Thurles last night.

I arrived for the game early, and Kilkenny were pucking around three-quarters of an hour before the game. I turned to a colleague in the press box: "this team will devour Galway".

Their body language was perfect. Brian Cody was really up for this game. You could see for him the game was a matter of life or death.

His team responded but Cody was on the pitch, urging, cajoling, pressing, occasionally questioning the referee's decisions, especially at half-time.

The message was clear full commitment or nothing. All of his players responded and none more so than Henry Shefflin.

A score of 2-11 for one player does not need any analysis. There was talk of a possible lack of Kilkenny hunger, but Cody showed them what hunger was.

Hunger comes from the top down. He picked a huge half-forward line and against the wind, he brought them out and they won every ball in the air.

It was only a matter of time before the gates opened. Tommy Walsh was attacking the ball as if his life depended on it. Derek Lyng was back to his brilliant best. Galway were not physically or hurling-wise at the races.

I said 12 months ago, and I'm saying it again: unless they get more direct and pick bigger men in their team, they are going nowhere. Ollie Canning, of course, was brilliant. One of the best backs in the country, but Galway need to find a lot of big players to man the central position. In other words, they need new players.

Galway will look at their management you must after such a severe drubbing. Still, in a way, no team would have lived with Kilkenny yesterday.

It was their best display in 20 years. You have to go back to Cody again. All his switches, some of them controversial, worked a treat. Switching Tommy Walsh to corner-back worked very well, and James Ryall (much maligned) was absolutely brilliant. Cody is right up there as one of the best managers we have ever seen in hurling terms.

Some people were suggesting that he bullied the referee. I don't believe that for one minute. Galway were far too timid on the line. When you are struggling, players look for guidance. They look for a fully-committed manager or selector. For Galway, it was not there.

Conversely the intensity of Cody's Kilkenny was frightening. If a team gives you that, you have to stand back and admire it. At the end of the day, this was hurling as it always should be played. Kilkenny used their bodies legitimately, their hunger was obvious.

As to the rest of the championship, I would say that for the first time ever, it will be an all back-door All-Ireland final.

As for Cork and Tipp, I said on Saturday that Killarney was the wrong venue for a variety of reasons. I'm sure 35,000 or 40,000 supporters would agree with me now.

Cork the players and the management learned a lot from the Munster final. I have been critical of the management over the last number of years, but they got it right on Saturday.

The short puck-out is not part of good Cork hurling and never has been. Cork hurling is about getting the ball to the forwards ASAP and leave them deal with it then. Dónal Óg Cusack did that in the second-half and they blew Tipp away.

Also on tactics, Brian Corcoran didn't just stand up at full-forward. He pulled Philip Maher around the place and created space.

Corcoran is a leader and he has taken up leadership of the forward line now from Joe Deane. Tipp had no leaders apart from their scoring one-man band, Eoin Kelly. Once again, the Mullinahone man was brilliant, an All-Star already. He gave Sherlock a roasting, who, by the way, is not playing as well as he was.

But Diarmuid O'Sullivan came up a notch yesterday. He wasn't over-committing himself. Full-backs can't. But the real star in the Cork defence was Ronan Curran, ably assisted by Séan Óg Ó hAilpín and to a lesser extent John Gardiner.

Curran's reading and distribution was excellent and Cork have discovered another player too in young Kieran Murphy.

He had a big game, got a few good scores, laid off a couple of good balls while being marked by Paul Curran who is no slouch.

That brings us to Timmy McCarthy. You have to give him credit. He showed character yesterday. I said on Saturday and it's even truer now, Cork will have a big say in this year's championship. They have quality players.

What of Tipp? Conor Gleeson and Tommy Dunne should have been taken off, but weren't.

I saw Tipp at U21 level during the week. Fellas like Tony Scroope and Michael Farrell had no involvement on Saturday. Why?

It also raised a couple of hard questions for the Tipperary players. Some of them blamed Tipp management last year.

Who will they blame now? They have to look at themselves.