Cats not purring yet, admits Cody

LOOK closely at this Kilkenny team and there appears to be shades of the 2004 model lurking just below the surface.

For all their stars and their talents, it’s pure doggedness more than anything that has them to within 70 minutes of another All-Ireland final.

After the struggles against Wexford and now Limerick, it’s impossible to avoid the suspicion that there’s something not quite clicking with them - just like last year.

The sight of maroon jerseys in the semi-final will bring back warm memories of their one complete performance last year but whether the destruction of Offaly ultimately proved their peak this summer remains to be seen.

Both Brian Cody and Peter Barry were quick to point out that Limerick played a leading role in depriving the Leinster champions of their fluency yesterday but the manager conceded that his team’s engine is far from operating at full throttle.

“We were decent enough at times but we were never really flowing. You can never pinpoint why. We prepared well and the determination to do well was obviously there but Limerick had a massive incentive to come here and play well too.

“Championship matches are won sometimes not by magic or by beauty or anything else but by character and guts and being able to dig in. We’ve always had that and that’s the most important thing.

“It was a serious test because they had taken over the pitch really (after the break). We steadied it a bit. The players responded. They fought. They tackled. We got a small bit of breathing space again.”

Questions undoubtedly remain. Though Cody described John Tennyson’s championship bow at full-back as ‘heroic’, the jury is still out as to the side’s security system in front of James McGarry’s goal.

Bryan Barry has been auditioning for the role of Derek Lyng’s sidekick in the middle for some time now without ever looking assured of his spot for the entire series while both Eoin Larkin and Richie Power endured quiet days at the office.

Even the mask of perfection slipped from Tommy Walsh once or twice with the Tullaroan tyro balancing his two points with a trio of wides. Yet maybe all that is to mistake molehills for mountains. Maybe, as Barry did afterwards, we need to frame all this in some more appropriate perspective.

“It was an All-Ireland quarter-final against a team that was unlucky to be beaten by Tipp and Galway in the championship,” the captain reminded us.

“They weren’t going to be beaten easily by us and we knew that. People can say Kilkenny will do this or that, but we expected what we got.

“Even against Galway down in Limerick they were six or seven points down as well and they got back to within a point very quickly. We kinda knew they’d come back at us. With the experience we have we were able to absorb it and we never panicked. Luckily enough they had a goal disallowed as well with yer man taking a few steps.”

Joe McKenna was another to take the stand for Kilkenny’s defence afterwards, pointing to their recent run of injuries while alluding to the years of experience built up over campaigns past.

“I’d like to see the team that’s going to beat them,” said McKenna but Cody himself was in little doubt that, that team will be Galway if Kilkenny can’t call on a better performance than witnessed yesterday.

“Limerick got on a serious roll from five minutes before the break up to 15 minutes after it. They slaughtered us. They outscored us by eight points to one over a 20-minute period and that’s great stuff, but we won’t progress any further in the All-Ireland championship if that happens again. The performance will have to be upped.”

After the 19-point spanking suffered in Thurles last year, Galway will be more aware than anyone of Kilkenny’s ability to find their groove on the back of a fitful run. Kilkenny too will remember the shock of 2001 when a disregarded Galway side ambushed them for a five-point win in that year’s last four.

“I’m told they turned around a six-point lead against Tipp with quarter of an hour to go. Tipperary were a strong team this year. It’s a great win for Galway ... They’re a very quick team, they’re good hurlers.”