Galway rock, Kilkenny roll

THIS wasn’t Riverdance, this was rock’n’roll, hurling played to an incessant pounding beat, thumping bass matching every riff on the lead guitar.

There was soaring solos within a tight and healthy group ethos, enough chaos to keep any hardened rocker rolling yet never straying completely out of control. This was hurling played with joyous abandon, unrestrained, unfettered, hurling from the roots, free to find its own rhythm.

Yes there were flaws, yes there were errors, but two teams sharing an aggregate score of 9-36, two teams with just one score between them at the end of 75 high-powered, energised, energising minutes. What could you do but stand and applaud?

Mind you, the team that really rocked in Croke Park yesterday was Galway. On a perfect pitch, they played with a verve, a zeal, a tempo, that Kilkenny couldn’t match. By half-time, they should have been out the gate, but defensive blunders in rapid succession just before the whistle, two gift goals to go with the earlier present to Eddie Brennan after Damien Joyce slipped going to the ball, brought Kilkenny back into it.

They should have been home and hosed with just twelve minutes to go, when they led by 11 points, were totally dominant. That it eventually came back to a single goal, well, credit to Kilkenny for their courage and character, but there was more than a sense at that stage that Galway had simply played themselves to a standstill.

Right at the heart of the Galway effort was midfielder David Tierney. To say Galway hit the field running is neither cliché nor exaggeration, it is simple fact, and the tanned one led that charge. Recovering from the body-blow of that early giveaway goal, inspired by the strong-running Tierney, Galway came back in waves, swamped Kilkenny.

“We were bombing for it,” gasped a still-breathless Tierney, Galway cheers echoing down the concrete halls under the Hogan stand. “We knew, if we got our act together, if we could get our heads right, we could do it. And we had to show a bit of character in the end; we took our foot off the pedal a bit, but the effort that went into it in the first half, it was tough to keep it going. The likes of Kilkenny are hard beaten any day.”

With previous Galway teams, the two goals conceded just before the break would have broken morale, signalled the usual breakdown and eventual loss. Not with this side, not as coached by Conor Hayes.

“It was a question of belief, really,” Hayes explained. “A lot of people rang me, texted me during the week, that’s what they were saying, if you can get them to believe, then they’re good enough. We always felt that ourselves, we had good enough hurlers, the team was there if you could just get them to play at the level required.

“The system this year gave us that advantage, there was a gradual build-up to this game, where other years we’ve been thrown in early and deep to the championship, and it’s very difficult to prepare a team for that, for the kind of intensity and speed that was out there today. This year we got a chance, last year Kilkenny didn’t play much differently to the way they played today, but they whipped us. Today we were better prepared, and preparation is the key, really.

“Last night we spoke to them, we just lined out in black-and-white for them that the preparation was right, that we really couldn’t do any more for them, it was up to them to do it on the field. They held their heads, kept the belief that they could win this game, and in the end it came right for us.”

In fairness to Conor himself, he too kept the belief, belief in his players. Seven minutes into the second half, this correspondent turned to a colleague: “They’re going to have to take off young Niall Healy, he’s being overpowered at full-forward.”

A minute later, the youngster started his goal hat-trick; fifteen minutes later it was complete. Mind you, even the youngster himself was honest enough to admit he felt the hook was coming. “Just after the start of the second half I got a ball from Damien [Hayes] and I fumbled it; at that stage I was looking over to the sideline, saw Braw [Kevin Broderick] coming down the steps, and I said I’d better do something here. Next thing, lucky break, Richie [Murray] took a shot, James McGarry parried it out sorta, straight to me. I got a bit of confidence from that; the next one, I don’t know what happened, got a nice break from Fordey, first time ball in, stuck it. Happy enough.”

For the icing, the diminutive and baby-faced assassin, sandwiched between McGarry and full-back John Tennyson, somehow got his boot to a dropping ball and it rolled into an empty net. Had he ever done anything like this in a Galway jersey before?

He grinned. “Hardly scored a goal even, never mind three of them.” Eventually, he was replaced, legs all cramped up, and ‘Braw’ did the biz, lashed over the insurance point from distance with his first touch; drum roll, cymbal crash.

So, Galway rock, Kilkenny roll; a changing of the guard witnessed in Croke Park? If the men from the west continue in this vein, build on consecutive wins over two of the three big names in hurling (Tipperary were taken down in the quarter-final three weeks ago), then the third of that triumvirate could also fall.

Certainly, on this evidence, they should not be written off against Cork, as they were yesterday against the Cats. As for Kilkenny, this was just a bridge too far for a team that has been the dominant force in hurling through this decade.

Champions in 2000, 2002, 2003, finalists in 2004, they have given fantastic entertainment. Could be that we’ve seen the last of manager Brian Cody, of DJ Carey, of team captain Peter Barry; if so, all three can bow out with heads high.

Yesterday, however, was a day for the new kids on the block. Riverdance? Rock, boy, rock.