The stuff of champions
The three top teams are now each on six points, Kilkenny on four, so it all boils down to scoring-difference. After yesterday's results, both Waterford and Clare, who meet next week, are within reach for Kilkenny. Galway should beat Laois, putting them beyond the Cats, but, barring a draw in Cusack Park, the worse-case scenario for Kilkenny sees them needing to win by at least 15 points against Dublin in the final round. Achieve that, then regardless of who wins in Ennis or by how much, they will qualify. On yesterday's gritty display, who would wager against the reigning champions?
Make no mistake about it, Kilkenny are hell-bent on retaining their title. This was not their prettiest display of the last two all-conquering seasons, when they swept all before them, but, for sheer determination and force of will, it ranks right up there.
Having lost two of their first three games in this season's League campaign, it didn't look good for them coming into yesterday's game; looked even worse with just five minutes to go in the first half. 0-6 to 1-3 it was at that stage, Niall Gilligan having just drilled a penalty for Clare to level it up; given that Kilkenny had the gale at their backs, were being out-fought almost throughout the park by a Clare side that hunted in packs, that hassled and harried with a physicality that reminded the passionate patrons in the packed stands of the glory days of the recent past, the signs were ominous.
One man standing tall for Kilkenny through all of this however, was Henry Shefflin. DJ Carey is the greatest player of the past decade; that mantle has passed on, but it hasn't gone far. DJ was present yesterday, a late starter, got the first Kilkenny goal, a half-hit 20m free.
Shefflin was omnipresent, all over the park, seemed to be at the start and the end of almost anything Kilkenny were attempting against a tigerish Clare defence. All his scores yesterday (1-8) came from frees, but no matter. On a day when conditions were extremely difficult, when two teams tackled and battled like their lives depended on it, when we had a referee who at times seemed to have a rule-book of his own, scores from placed balls were going to be the rule rather than the exception. He excelled here but otherwise also, in all facets of play, Shefflin was exceptional, man-of-the-match by a street.
The second Kilkenny goal was the decisive score of this game, and it encompassed all that's been said in the preceding paragraph. Under pressure inside his own 20m line, diminutive Clare keeper Ger O'Connell went for a gap between two Kilkenny attackers and was penalised - harsh, reckoned Clare manager Anthony Daly, and he wasn't alone.
Minutes earlier DJ had scored his goal from almost exactly the same spot, taken a long run-up; Henry now stood over the ball. No run-up, no throwing the ball forward almost to the 13m line; just a rocket, blistering shot that gave the Clare defence no chance. Gave the half-time scoreboard a better look, 2-7 to 1-4, but still, didn't look like it would be enough. Not with Kilkenny under so much pressure in so many positions, not with Clare hurling with such intensity, not with the wind and that crowd behind the home team in the second half.
If you want to know, however, where the Kilkenny fighting spirit comes from, talk to their manager, Brian Cody. "I was happy enough at half-time. Very often it's as difficult to play with a strong breeze as against. We were fighting hard, the spirit was good, the effort was good, on both sides. It was a matter of battling and battling, we just came out on the right side of it. Everyone wonders if we have the hunger; our lads play hurling because they love it, they enjoy doing it and they want to keep doing it. There's no point in half-doing things, you want to do it properly. These are good players, honest players, very genuine players; they know we have no divine right to win anything."
Divine right no, but they do have the almost-divine Henry, they have JJ Delaney, they have Noel Hickey, Peter Barry, Derek Lyng, Martin Comerford, a slew of quality hurlers who will also slog it out with the best. Yesterday, second half especially, they went toe-to-toe with an inspired Clare side - a team where newcomer Gerry O'Grady slotted seamlessly in beside the likes of Brian Quinn, Seanie McMahon, the outstanding Gerry Quinn, Colin Lynch and Niall Gilligan - and came out on top.
A draw would have done Clare, and seen Kilkenny off, out of the League picture. They shaved the Cats' lead to the minimum - McMahon banged over four from placed balls, Lynch, Griffin, Gilligan, Forde had one apiece from play. Ultimately Kilkenny held on, and though Clare deserved a share of the spoils, the Cats deserve to have at least one more life.
Shefflin didn't see out the game, stretchered off in the 66th minute. "He's gone to hospital, we're just hoping he's fine", said Cody. "His display today was unbelievable, brilliant."
Clare manager Anthony Daly added: "If we'd won this by a point we'd be away happier, but it's League games, I'd be more concerned at this time of the year about the commitment levels shown, about the performance. If that's Kilkenny's best team, we're there or thereabouts with the best of them."
: Kilkenny: H. Shefflin 1-8 (all frees); DJ Carey 1-1 (1-0 free); E. Brennan 0-1. Clare: N. Gilligan 1-2 (1-0 peno); S. McMahon 0-4 (0-3 frees 0-1 65); A. Markham 0-3 (frees); C. Lynch, D. Forde, T. Griffin, 0-1 each.
: G. O'Connell; B. Quinn, B. O'Connell, G. O'Grady; D. Hoey, S. McMahon, G. Quinn; O. Baker, D. McMahon; A. Markham, C. Lynch, T. Griffin; N. Gilligan, F. Lohan, D. Forde. Subs: A. Quinn (Markham 66); B. Culbert (Lohan 68).
: J. McGarry; M. Phelan, N. Hickey, M. Kavanagh; S. Dowling, P. Barry, JJ Delaney; D. Lyng, P. Mullally; C. Phelan, J. Hoyne, M. Comerford; E. Brennan, H. Shefflin, DJ Carey. Subs: P. Tennyson (Mullally inj. 20); K. Coogan (Phelan 62); J. Coogan (Shefflin inj. 66); J. Maher (Hoyne 70).
: S. Hogan (Tipperary). Two teams defied poor conditions, performed well, the ref didn't.
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