Leinster championship needs a Galway triumph

The hour is almost upon us, the end of 15 years of near unbroken dominance of the Leinster championship by Kilkenny (Wexford caught them with a last-minute goal in 2004), Galway all set to end their reign and thus signal the beginning of the end for the greatest hurling team of all time.

Or not.

Since the beginning of the Brian Cody era in 1999, Kilkenny have won 12 of the 13 Leinster titles on offer, to add to the title won in 1998 under Kevin Fennelly (Offaly subsequently shocked them in the All-Ireland final).

Tomorrow they seek their 14th title in 15 years and only the foolhardy will bet against them.

At this stage Kilkenny own Leinster. In the 12 Cody wins their average margin of victory has been almost exactly 10 points — it hasn’t just been dominance, it’s been a procession, Wexford the only team to run them closer than two goals in that period (two points in 2002, three points in 2005) but Wexford also paying the price for that insolence, a series of shellackings averaging 14 points.

The hope when Galway were invited to enter the Leinster arena was that now there would be at least one big gun challenging Kilkenny every year in the provincial championship, running them close (Dublin were only emerging as a serious hurling county at that stage).

Galway have lived up to that promise, came within four points of Kilkenny in their first year in Leinster (semi-final of 2009), then reached the final of 2010 but lost by seven.

For the sake of the Leinster championship, however, they now need to do more, they need to win. There is no question but that this Kilkenny team have been good for hurling. Apart altogether from throwing up some of the greatest players who will ever play this game, they have raised the bar for every team to follow.

They haven’t been as good to the Leinster championship, however, in which we have yet to have a decent game this year.

This is the day then, and that hour is almost upon us.

As so often before Galway is a team well equipped to take on Kilkenny, a host of outstanding individual hurlers of their own led by the magnificent Joe Canning, but as so often before no-one knows what Galway team will turn up. If they play as they can play for the full 70 minutes, as opposed to the half-hour they managed when dismissing Offaly, then yes, that opening paragraph above could yet prove true.

If they don’t, however, if they show the kinds of lapses in concentration that saw them concede four goals to Westmeath, they’ll be cat-meat.

Verdict: Kilkenny.