All about future, says Cats coach

KILKENNY minor hurling coach Richie Mulrooney is only too well aware that his side’s ambition of winning their 19th All-Ireland title will come under intense scrutiny when they line out against Galway in tomorrow’s final.

The Connacht side are relative newcomers to the minor grade in that they won their first All-Ireland in 1983 by which time Kilkenny had collected 12.

Over the next 25 years Galway have won one more title than Kilkenny (seven to six), and each county has deprived the other of the title on a number of occasions.

In 2003 Kilkenny had a point to spare over Galway in the final, 2-16 to 2-15, while the following year, Galway prevented Kilkenny from winning three titles in a row, by a point, 0-16 to 1-12. Tipperary denied Galway three in a row in 2006, and Kilkenny denied Tipp the same this year, at the semi-final stage.

Mulrooney was only too well aware of the rich tradition he inherited when he took on the coaching job with the Kilkenny minors.

“In Kilkenny, hurling is a religion. It’s everywhere and there is no avoiding it. One of the beauties of being involved with minors is that you get to see the players more or less in their raw state.

“Winning All-Irelands is great, but the real satisfaction is in moulding them into future seniors. If every minor team can produce two, maybe three players who go on to make the senior team, then you’ve done your job.

“There was a school of thought around the county that when St Kieran’s College stopped taking in boarders, that hurling would suffer. Only time will tell if that happens. The college has been very good to Kilkenny hurling over the years and if you look closely, at least half of the present senior squad went to school there.

“When Kieran’s were at their best, minor hurling in the county was at an all-time high. It’s been five years since Kilkenny last won a minor All-Ireland title and it’s no coincidence that the college has slipped back a bit also.”

The talk around Leinster at the beginning of the year was that Kilkenny were third behind Dublin and Wexford for the provincial minor title. Being the shrewd hurling man that he is, Mulrooney knew after the first couple of trial matches that he had the nucleus of a good side.

“All the talk was about Dublin with Wexford a close second, but I knew early on that we would be in the shake up, after we beat Wexford by two goals in the round robin series. They saw off Dublin by a point and in the Leinster final we beat Wexford a second time, on that occasion by 10 points.

“Tipperary provided the opposition in the All-Ireland semi-final and I have to be honest and say it was a coach’s dream the way we played in that game.

“There had been a lot of talk about Tipperary. They were going for their third title in a row and with seven of last year’s winning team available, we weren’t given much hope.

“On the day however our lads played out of their skins and weren’t one bit flattered by the nine-point win. Because our semi-final was first we got the opportunity to see who would be our opponents in the final, and I have to say I was surprised that Galway came away winners.

“To be perfectly honest the other selectors and I went to Croke Park that day to specifically watch Cork, and to see if Galway would have improved from the Wexford match.

“After 10 minutes I turned to the other selectors and said, ‘Boys, start watching the other team, they are the side we will be meeting in the final’.

“Playing Galway in any grade is never easy. They have runners all over the field and the present minor team is no exception. Their players like to get the ball and jink forward with it.

“You need to close down the space on them. Cork didn’t do that and paid the penalty. There was only four points in it at the finish but you have to be impressed with the 1-16 Galway scored from play. That’s excellent scoring for a minor team and it has certainly given us plenty of food for thought ahead of Sunday’s final.

“Having said that we scored 3-13 and 1-14 from play in our two games in Croke Park, so maybe we have given Galway something to think about also.

“We have an excellent half-forward line which took Tipperary asunder in the semi-final and I would be hoping they can repeat that on Sunday.

“Maybe I’m wrong and you never know with minors, but I don’t think the Galway half-back line is any better than the Tipperary one.

“Our game is very straightforward: win possession and get the ball into our forward line as quickly as possible, and everyone works and works to prevent it from coming back out.

“That’s the way we played Tipp in the semi-final and it will be exactly the same against Galway. Hopefully that will be good enough to take the title.”