Where now for Leinster hurling?

FOR 38 minutes in Croke Park yesterday this was a match, a real contest, as a Wexford side playing with pace and precision took the fight to Kilkenny, threatened to repeat what they had done in 2004 and win a Leinster title against all the odds.

That’s when reality struck in a ferocious five-minute spell between the 38th and 43rd minutes, during which the Cats struck 2-3 without reply and another Leinster final died its widely predicted death.

That opening 35 minutes promised so much. Even the late withdrawal of Keith Rossiter didn’t appear to hamper Wexford as they tore into the reigning champions from the first ball.

Diarmuid Lyng got the game’s opening score, a pointed free in the third minute, and it raised a hearty cheer from the Wexford contingent in the disappointing 18,825 attendance.

Tit for tat it was for the next five minutes, 0-3 apiece, Wexford hurling sweetly, before the first Kilkenny hammer-blow. A long John Dalton ball out of defence was superbly fielded by man-of-the-match Eoin Larkin who was dragged down by stand-in Wexford full-back Paul Roche, and up stepped Henry Shefflin to bury the penalty.

This was followed immediately by three Kilkenny points, from Larkin, Shefflin again, and Lyng, and in other years that would have signalled the end of the Wexford challenge.

But Wexford came back to dominate the remainder of the first half and went in at the break just two points behind, 1-9 to 0-10.

It all looked quite promising then as both teams headed for their respective dressing-rooms at half-time.

What happened in those dressing-rooms? Well, we all guessed Wexford manager John Meyler would be slapping his players on the back, praising them for their fight in the first-half, encouraging them to do more of the same on the changeover.

We guessed also that Brian Cody would be tearing strips from some of those in stripes, several of his front-line players up front especially.

One of those players would surely have been Eddie Brennan. He’s a superb player, one of the most lethal finishers in the game when he’s on his game; in the first half yesterday he was some distance away from that, a missed golden opportunity just minutes before the end of the first-half as evidence.

We wondered if he’d even emerge for the second half, and when he did, concluded that he was probably on a Cody yellow card – one more miss and you’re on the bench.

And it was Eddie Brennan who was most influential in those fatal five minutes.

The first couple of minutes of the second half offered no clue as to what was about to happen.

On the contrary, though Shefflin did extend the Kilkenny lead to a clear goal with a pointed free less than a minute in, one of a total tally of 1-7 from placed balls , a superbly hit cut by Diarmuid Lyng from about 40m on the right sideline had the Wexford fans cheering again, hopes rising.

Back to two points, could this be the day they would finally reclaim so much lost pride against their oldest rivals?

Then came Eddie. In the 38th minute, ball in hand, even inside the Wexford square there didn’t look to be any way possible he could get off a shot. Surrounded by five defenders, not a colleague in sight, where could he go?

Somehow, one-handed, he got stick to ball, and somehow it squeezed between a couple of those defenders, into an open net. It was a cruel blow, and even then, even with over 30 minutes yet to play, even with just five points now between the sides, we knew, we all knew – that was it.

Most critically of all, the Wexford players themselves seemed to know, and from there to the inevitable end, it was a procession of Kilkenny scores. Three points on the trot, then another Brennan goal, this one a true beauty, deliberately struck across the face of Damien Fitzhenry’s goal from some distance.

The pacy Richie Power also got in the goal-scoring act as did substitute Aidan Fogarty, and the points too began to flow.

Ultimately it was a tame surrender by Wexford, another huge defeat, does scant justice to that early fight, to the efforts of a number of performers, most notably Michael Jacob.

Where do they go from here? With their minors also well beaten, with a number of the Kilkenny minors looking like they could already slot in with the seniors, where does Leinster hurling go?

Not a very encouraging day for the game, not at all.