Fogarty: no magic formula, just huge appetite for success

YOUR obvious starting point when looking ahead to a team’s chances in an upcoming game is to look at their last performance.

On that basis, Kilkenny are a furlong or two out in front. They dismantled Wexford in the Leinster final by scoring early and often, but team selector Martin Fogarty doesn’t think that result will spread too much complacency in the black and amber camp.

“I wouldn’t read too much into how that game went,” he says.

“Certainly most of our lads are around far too long to fall for that. The training has gone well and there’s plenty of competition in training among themselves. Okay, you might say we haven’t had too many big days out this year per se, but I don’t think that’s an issue for most of the lads at this stage in their careers.

“They’re focused in on Galway and they know they have to be firing on all cylinders if they want to come out the other side with a win — but Galway are probably doing the same thing in their camp.”

Galway were certainly doing the right thing two years ago, when they came out on top in that memorable All-Ireland semi-final clash. Of course, they didn’t have Ger Loughnane managing them, then. Speaking before the former Clare boss’s address to the nation about refereeing and Kilkenny, Fogarty felt the Galway manager wouldn’t be a significant factor when it comes to Sunday.

“I don’t think so. With no disrespect to journalists, that kind of interest is for them. Players and management steer away from that, and the lads on the panel are all about their job. What happens outside the ring, if you like, doesn’t really influence the players.”

That’s not to say Kilkenny are taking their Connacht opponents lightly — not after another high-scoring encounter in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final in Thurles. The Cats came out on top that day but the way Fogarty remembers it, the game could easily have ended differently.

“Galway are a tremendous team,” says Fogarty.

“Last year, if you remember, if the game had gone on another ten minutes they might have beaten us — that’s just the way games go. We got a run on them early on that day, but they came back on us very very strongly.

“If you think back to the year before it was the reverse — they got a huge run on us but in fact we drew it back to a goal. When Galway and Kilkenny are out on the field it comes down to the breaks — whichever team gets a run on the other at a particular point during the game.”

The Kilkenny appetite for success shows no sign of abating and Fogarty says there isn’t a magic formula when it comes to avoiding staleness in the camp.

“What happens down here — and it’s no secret — is that teams are picked on how they perform in training. That in itself creates a hunger in the camp. No matter what a player has, whether he has one All-Star award or three or four, he’s not guaranteed his place on the team.

“At our training sessions, if a rookie — for want of a better word — is playing well, he’ll be on the team in place of the more experienced man. That’s what keeps the hunger there. That’s what keeps it going and that’s what you need.”

Kilkenny have a pretty healthy squad to pick from — JJ Delaney has fully recovered from that heartbreaking cruciate ligament injury he suffered before last year’s All-Ireland final — with only defenders Noel Hickey and Donncha Cody slightly doubtful. As Fogarty puts it, once they come out of the dressing-room, it’s all up to them.

“Look, all we can do is try to get our players right — we tell them once the ball is thrown in it’s the players who win the matches. That’s how we look at it.

“It’s going to be a serious game on Sunday, but isn’t that what the championship is all about?”