Wary Cats won’t fall into comfort zone, warns Hickey
Not as one-sided a non-event as the Leinster final, perhaps, a 2-24 to 1-12 cakewalk, but a win for Kilkenny nevertheless.
Not impressed, says Kilkenny full back Noel Hickey, not impressed at all. “Well, sure they’d probably say that, but if the players start thinking in those terms, we’re in trouble straight away. Tipperary might have been thinking like that last weekend going up to Dublin and we know where they are now (Wexford shocked Tipp in the quarter-final). We won’t be taking anything for granted, especially after the Leinster final — Wexford’s pride was dented, they came out and showed a different attitude against Tipperary, and they’ll be showing the same attitude against us on Sunday.”
Okay Noel, sounds convincing, but this was exactly the kind of stuff Brian Cody and the Kilkenny players were saying before that Leinster final — respect, Wexford capable of a big game, done it before — and yet ye came out and blitzed them, game over within the first quarter, Kilkenny ahead 2-5 to 0-3, a lead they extended by the break. Why should we pay any attention now? “That’s what we’d be hoping to do again (blitz them) but we’re preparing in exactly the same way for this game as we did for the Leinster final, for the game against Galway (All-Ireland quarter-final win), we’re going in in the same frame of mind.”
He has good reason to be cautious, of course, has Noel. If last Saturday’s Wexford win over Tipperary was indeed a surprise, especially given Tipp’s stirring win over Cork just a couple of weeks earlier, Wexford’s collapse in the Leinster final was an aberration, not even near a true reflection of the talent within the team. “We still remember 2004 when they beat us (Leinster semi-final), messed up our season. Wexford are well capable of beating anyone on their day and we know that. If we drop our guard one bit, Wexford will take advantage. From the word go we’ll have to be ready — you can’t change things around halfway through, it’s very hard to do that. If Wexford get going, the crowd gets behind them, they’ll be very hard to stop. From the word go we’ll be looking to go straight at it.”
Kilkenny had a bit of a fright themselves in the quarter-final, and for 60 minutes of their game against Galway it looked possible that they might go the way of Tipperary, another shock result. 2-4 without replay in the final 10 minutes put an end to that, however, an unlikely finish.
The first of those goals was the real killer; Eoin Larkin in possession for Kilkenny, under pressure about 45m out, looks up, spots Eddie Brennan in splendid isolation inside, not a Galway defender in sight. Beautiful ball from Eoin, emphatic finish by Eddie.
No one was more surprised than Noel, surprised at the way it all fizzled out, surprised at the space granted to Eddie — granted the freedom of Croke Park by the Galway defence, literally. “On the hour mark it was there for either team, Galway were getting points as easy as we were, the game was still on the line. I was on Eugene (Cloonan) at the time, he said to me ‘I think we’re going to beat ye today,’ but it just happened that Eddie got the bit of space, got his first goal, and things opened up a bit very quickly after that. I couldn’t believe it; when he got the ball I was looking for a Galway player, I felt there must be someone somewhere.
“I don’t know what happened, he had the world of room really. Up to then though it was there for either team and despite the result, it was a really tough game. It will do us good, just what we needed. We weren’t expecting any different from Galway, we’d lost to them the last two times we met them in Croke Park. They had been poor against Clare but we knew that wasn’t their true form, we knew they were going to come out against us all guns blazing for us, and that’s the way it happened. If they had got the goal when we got it, it could as easily have been their game.”
What a lot of people don’t realise, Galway actually came within a flick of a ball of getting that goal. Seconds before the Eddie Brennan goal, a Galway forward was bearing down on the Kilkenny goal — in came the flick, ball knocked off the stick, and from there the move started, the move that ended in Eddie’s game-defining goal. And who was that defender in black-and-amber?
A laugh, a rare acknowledgement from a truly modest player that maybe he had done something pivotal. And then, just as quickly, the flip side. “I don’t know if it was Damien Hayes or Kevin Broderick but if I hadn’t got the flick, then with their pace they probably would have been clean through, the possibility of a goal for Galway, and who knows, they could have driven on from there. Instead we went up and got the goal at the other end, it worked out alright; but, if I hadn’t got the flick, the question would have been asked, where was I? Why wasn’t I in position? That’s me job back there, to do those sort of things, that’s what we’re there for.”
Like most GAA fans, Noel isn’t enamoured of the idea of Kilkenny meeting Wexford again this year, so soon after the Leinster final; neither does it bother him, however. A farmer, used to dealing with whatever life throws at him (and he’s waiting on a bit of fine weather at the moment, allow him to get into the corn); business is business. And this All-Ireland semi-final is serious business.
“It’s not good from the fans’ point of view. I’m sure the neutrals would have liked to see a change, different pairings. But from the player’s point of view, I’d have no opinion on it one way or the other. We’re just happy to be there, you have to get on with it anyway. We’re just going up to win the game, one point will do us.
“Our objective is to get to the All-Ireland final. The final scoreline in the Leinster final wasn’t a true reflection, and we’re not expecting anything like that this time. If Wexford get their game going, they’ll be hard to beat. Right from the off, tear into them.” You’ve been warned.
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