Kilkenny technique will be the difference

HERESY it may be on the weekend of the All-Ireland hurling final, but we turn to last Sunday’s Dublin-Kerry football semi-final for purposes of illustration.

Late in the first half, Dublin’s Bernard Brogan did well to make ground up the left wing, eventually eking out enough room near the Kerry goal to get a shot away. It was a tricky chance: Brogan had to stand and punt, almost like an American football player, and it tailed away at the near post in front of the Hill.

A minute beforehand Kerry’s Declan O’Sullivan had swung over a casual point from a narrower angle at the Canal End; his fluent kicking style crystallised the difference between the two sides.