Cunningham dismisses talk of Tribe winning mental battle

In sport it’s a mark of the great teams, a mark even of the great individuals, that very often the opposition are beaten ever before they start, psyched and intimidated into early submission.

This is what Kilkenny achieved so often during their all-conquering 12 seasons from 2000 to 2011.

Could it be, however, that Kilkenny are now themselves rattled? Could it be that in the run-up to this Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC final replay, they are the ones feeling the pre-game pressure from Galway?

“I don’t think you ever have Kilkenny beaten until the final whistle,” was manager Anthony Cunningham’s initial answer to that question, before going on to pay tribute to the mighty Cats. “I think Brian Cody is on record as saying any team can beat any other team on any given day, and if you play the following day then the result could be different. I think they realise we are a good team but we certainly realise they are a great team.”

That’s the point though. Kilkenny do realise this is a Galway side of real threat, a clear and present danger to their own ambitions of retaining Liam MacCarthy for a ninth time in 13 years. As Brian Cody has said many times during those years of unprecedented success, Kilkenny always respect the opposition, they treat every team and every game as though it were their last.

Have they always believed though, that they were facing a team that could indeed beat them? Very doubtful. Real champions — and hurling has never seen champions as real — stamp their authority on the opposition and they like to do it early. In two championship meetings with Galway this season, two finals — the Leinster and the All-Ireland — Kilkenny have failed to do that.

Galway, in fact, were the ones taking early control. In the Leinster final it was terminal, the life squeezed out of Kilkenny in an opening half-hour of total dominance, a 2-11 to 0-1 lead. In the All-Ireland final Galway weren’t as dominant offensively but defensively, where it most matters, a very similar story unfolded, Kilkenny confined to just two points for 24 minutes, held to three for 30.

“The confidence is huge,” says Anthony; “The players went straight into the match the last day and played very well. They have huge confidence but they’re up against fantastic players and you have to be at the top of your game to beat them. We are under no illusions as to what faces us but we wouldn’t be there unless we had good performances. You learn so much from playing Kilkenny; we’d hope that with what we’ve learned in all the matches we’ve played we can be ahead of them in the 72nd or 73rd minute the next day.”

Confidence there, and why not? Were it not for Henry Shefflin in the drawn game, his three pointed frees just before half time, his tour de force afterwards, Kilkenny would almost certainly have lost.

“The leadership Henry Shefflin showed was tremendous, said Cunningham. “It’s testament to the man — the seriousness of the operations he had, to be in the shape he is in now and his hurling to be back to where it’s at; he’s as good as ever.”

No question about that but it begs another question: how many more times can Henry drag Kilkenny through? His late pointed penalty looked to have won it for Kilkenny, only for Joe Canning to throw Galway a lifeline. It all brings us back to that opening question, are Kilkenny now rattled?

Certainly Galway are more than happy to have got another opportunity. “It was such a tense game that everybody was happy to get another crack of the whip,” said Cunningham. “I’d say if you were seven or eight years on the go with six or seven finals in a row you’d say, ‘Jaysus not another one’ because you want the season to finish. But these [Galway] lads just love playing in these matches now and they have got huge confidence from that.”