Galway must find a way to halt Kilkenny goalscoring machine

You want to know the challenge facing Galway in the Leinster SHC this Sunday?

Only once in the last 15 seasons, after a last-minute Wexford goal in 2004, have Kilkenny been beaten in their own province.

An even more impressive statistic. Outside of Leinster in that same period Kilkenny have lost just six times, once each to Offaly (1998) and Tipperary (2010), twice to Cork (1999 and 2004) and in the days before they were invited to play in Leinster to Galway (2001 and 2005).

An intimidating task facing Galway then? For Tony Óg Regan, who was centre-back for that 2005 win, looking to the past is no benefit to his side.

“I think we have maybe three off that panel who will still be there on Sunday [David Collins, Damien Hayes, Richie Murray, making four if you include Tony himself] so I don’t think it has any bearing whatsoever,” he said.

“If you’re relying on confidence from seven years ago I think you’re in a losing battle straight away. We’re just looking forward to the challenge of 2012 and next Sunday, the Leinster final. That’s our aim.”

Making that game in 2005 even less relevant, Kilkenny too have only four starters from that day still involved, a stat that will probably surprise a few. JJ Delaney survives from the defence, Tommy Walsh was in midfield while Henry Shefflin and Eoin Larkin were up front.

“You’re probably talking about six or seven U21s starting next Sunday. Out of our panel we probably have about 20 or 21 lads under the age of 21. It’s been a huge changeover in personnel, a good freshness to it now. We’ll have to wait and see how it pans out.”

While what happened in 2005 will have no bearing this time there could be one similarity — goals. 5-18 to 4-18 that one finished and Galway have scored 5-19 and 5-23 in their two Leinster championship outings so far while Kilkenny remain a goalscoring machine. They managed two in the first half into a gale in their semi-final win over Dublin, notched three against Cork in winning yet another Allianz Hurling League title and averaged just short of three a game during that campaign.

With Galway having conceded four goals against Westmeath and three against Offaly, this could be another shoot-out.

“Kilkenny have been able to get goals against every team. It probably will be near impossible to shut them out. What we score up front and how we respond to those setbacks will be key next Sunday. We need to brush up defensively on our first two displays.”

That’s kind of an understatement. Lose concentration, as they did for long passages in both those games, against an attack as potent as Kilkenny’s and we all know what will happen.

“We’ll have to mark our men as closely as we can. The Kilkenny half-forward line are playing very deep this year, going into midfield looking for ball so that’s something we’re going to have to close down.

“I don’t think sitting in space is going to help matters, you need to mark men so that’s what we’ll be trying to do.”

It will take more than that, however. All-out attack yes, and with Niall and David Burke joining Joe Canning and Damien Hayes up front, along with Conor Cooney and Cyril Donnellan, Galway are now well served. Against Kilkenny though, it will also take all-out defence.

“Defensively now it’s not just your six backs. Everybody is looking for your full-forward line to work really hard at tackling and stop the ball from coming out. 10, 11, 12, eight and nine are helping out in their own back line a lot more, which wouldn’t have happened years ago.”

Total hurling, that’s what Galway will need to overcome this Kilkenny phenomenon.