Shefflin’s injury casts shadow on showdown
Following their win over Cork on Sunday, Kilkenny are now in yet another All-Ireland final, with an opportunity to become the first team – hurling or football – to complete a five-in-a-row.
As a player who has already broken the individual all-time hurling scoring record, Shefflin would have played a central role in that attempt at history, which – if Kilkenny manage to win – would also have seen him join Christy Ring and John Doyle at the head of the all-time honours list with eight All-Ireland senior medals won on the field of play.
Former Kilkenny goalkeeper Noel Skehan is out on his own with nine medals, but three of those were won as a substitute. Corner-back Michael Kavanagh and corner-forward Eddie Brennan can still join Ring and Doyle in that very exclusive list, each having won seven medals on the field of play. But there is no question now, however, that in the absence of Henry Shefflin, the Kilkenny team has been weakened, and Kilkenny’s chances of the five-in-a-row reduced.
Shefflin was a powerful and inspirational presence in the Kilkenny attack, a pivotal figure on hurling’s biggest day – All-Ireland final day – particularly, and in recent years especially so. Since the retirement of the legendary DJ Carey, the strapping Ballyhale Shamrocks star has become the fulcrum of the Kilkenny attack.
He has an instinct not just for the score, but for the timing of a score; when a game is still there to be won, that’s when Henry Shefflin is most obvious, that’s when he’s most to the fore, as in the early minutes of the All-Ireland final of 2002 when he left Clare’s centre-back legend Seanie McMahon for dead to set up the opening Kilkenny goal for DJ Carey. Then again in the closing minutes of that game he scored the second and killer Kilkenny goal, at a time when Clare were coming close.
A year later, against Cork, this time as team captain, he did it again; closing minutes, game tied, it was Shefflin first with the lead point, then setting up a goal for Martin Comerford, before closing it off with the final Kilkenny point.
In the final of 2007, same story, a central figure as Kilkenny blitzed Limerick in the opening ten minutes, notching 1-1 as the Cats stormed into a 2-3 to nil lead, a lead they would never relinquish. In that game Shefflin was gone at the break, another cruciate injury, but enough had been done and Kilkenny stormed home.
The final of 2008 was another blitzkrieg, Waterford demolished in 35 minutes, Shefflin playing his part in what was a near-perfect team display as Kilkenny built up an unassailable 2-16 to 0-5 half-time lead. 2009, an epic final against Tipperary, and while Shefflin was less to the fore than usual in scoring from open play, his outstanding workrate saw him show off the less glamorous side of his game, the ability to hook, block, harass, slow down the clearance.
From placed balls he was well-nigh immaculate, 1-7 from nine shots at goal, his only miss a first-half 65; the goal, however, was pivotal, perhaps the winning of the game
Sixty third minute, Tipperary leading 0-21 to 0-19 and hurling out of their skins. Kilkenny were awarded a disputed penalty; facing a keeper of the calibre of Brendan Cummins many a free-taker would have opted for the safe option Shefflin did what Shefflin does, went for the jugular, goaled.
Even last Sunday, it was there, that eye for the opening, that ruthless instinct for when, exactly, to go for the kill. With the Cork defence having successfully fended off all earlier attempts at what everyone knew would be a fateful breach, in the 17th minute Henry won possession, a couple of strides and he was in behind the Cork half-back line, a dozen more and he had drawn the last covering defender, parted to Eddie Brennan, who had done superbly to create the space, goal.
It was the beginning of the end for Cork; five minutes later, second major breach followed by a barrage of points, and by the time it was over, so was the game, Kilkenny ahead 2-10 to 0-3.
Unfortunately Shefflin’s game was also over, and though we didn’t know it at the time, so was Shefflin’s season, an awkward landing from a huge leap in the 26th minute causing him to jar his left knee – severed cruciate.
Cruel fate, terrible blow for the man himself, a blow also for his Kilkenny teammates in their drive for five, for Kilkenny supporters, but a blow also for all hurling supporters.
On hurling’s greatest day everyone wants to see hurling’s greatest exponents; even with an outstanding player like Michael Rice ready to take up the slack, this one will have a gaping void.
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