Tame Cats get wake-up call

Offaly 4-09 Kilkenny 0-26

What they experienced in Tullamore was a cluster of tremors more than anything high on the Richter Scale but being hit by four goals was something they were not all that accustomed to.

Likewise, having never lost to Offaly under Brian Cody’s reign, to be hit by two early goals and trail by a point at half-time, 2-6 to 0-11, would have been a little surprising for them.

Another two goals followed in the final 10 minutes and Daniel Currams’ 63rd minute goal cut the gap to four before Kilkenny — in third gear for most of the game — recomposed themselves to see out the victory.

Yesterday was always going to be strange for the visitors. Cody’s first day back on the sideline since heart surgery in April, it was also their first ever Leinster quarter-final in his time as manager.

Worse still, Cody was without his talisman Shefflin, whose foot woes brought an end to their 62 Championship matches together stretching back to their SHC debuts as manager and player in 1999.

Considering how essential he was to Kilkenny’s All-Ireland glory last year, even a team as mighty as the Cats could be forgiven for being a little disorientated without him. With Michael Fennelly also ruled out, TJ Reid admitted as much.

“You would have missed Henry there because he would always win a dirty ball and put it over, that really lifts the team and the crowd gets behind them.

“Then you have Mick there at midfield, there is a lot of competition there for places — Michael Rice and Lester Ryan driving it on from midfield.

“As long as we get the two boys back fit and healthy that’s the main thing, we can drive it on from there.”

Kilkenny certainly didn’t miss Shefflin from frees with Eoin Larkin giving a remarkable account of himself with 12 points from 12 placed balls.

Richie Hogan showed the direction Cody would have demanded from the attack minus Shefflin and the tactic of delivering low diagonal ball into him at full-forward worked a treat whether he was winning frees, laying off ball or taking the shot on himself.

Hogan’s eagerness also kept their heads above water in the first half when it appeared they were a team being bullied by a seriously aggressive Offaly team.

By the 26th minute, referee Alan Kelly had four of the home team in his book, one of them Cathal Parlon who should have been sent to the line for a late, rash tackle on TJ Reid in the 12th minute.

Keeping in Kilkenny’s faces and supplying enough ball over the heads of the opposition’s half-back line was providing Ollie Baker’s men with dividends.

Colin Egan’s 41st second goal was a exquisite finish after Joe Bergin’s attempt at a point had hit the post.

Kilkenny reeled in that lead within five minutes but they were never ahead in the first half as they were second best for long periods in the physical exchanges.

Losing Jackie Tyrrell early on to a quad injury deprived them of a big presence in their back line and Offaly found the net again in the 13th minute when Joe Bergin flew a 25-yard rasper past Eoin Murphy.

After Egan and Dooley from a 65 followed up a Larkin free, Offaly went five ahead and despite leaking frees were four to the good going into the final five minutes of the half.

Three unanswered Kilkenny scores, though, undid a lot of their good work and their discipline in the back-line was called into question with Larkin pointing six frees by the break.

A reawakened Kilkenny fired over five points without reply in the first six minutes of the second half, four of them from play — one better than their entire first half total.

It wasn’t until the 43rd minute that Dooley, from a free, brought their eight-point run to an end but it was only a minor cessation in the bombardment as Larkin then pointed frees either side of a Tommy Walsh point to push Kilkenny six ahead.

The margin was widened to seven with 15 minutes to go and Offaly had to wait until the 60th minute for their first point from play since the 29th minute.

After dispossessing Kieran Joyce, Bergin’s miss-hit attempt at a point was seized on by his substitute team-mate Currams and he bulged the net to cut the gap to four.

But Offaly, with Dooley missing a couple of frees to set up a grand finale, never availed of the initiative swinging their way. By the time Bergin goaled for a second occasion in injury time, Kilkenny had sent over four points to convince the more pessimistic of Offaly supporters that it was time to head for the exits.

No goals for Kilkenny, then, only their third time ever in a Leinster SHC in the Cody era that they have failed to raise a green flag.

But then yesterday was a weird one if capped by an all too familiar result.

Scorers for Offaly: J Bergin (2-0), S Dooley (0-5, 0-4 frees, 1 65), C Egan (1-2), D Currams (1-0), C McDonald, B Carroll (0-1 each).

Scorers for Kilkenny: E Larkin (0-11, 10fs, 1 65), R Power (0-4, 1f), R Hogan (0-3), A Fogarty, C Fennelly, TJ Reid, L Ryan, T Walsh, B Hogan, M Ruth, W Walsh (0-1 each).

OFFALY: J Dempsey; C McDoland, D Kenny, D Mooney; R Hanniffy, G Healion, C Parlon; B Carroll, K Brady; C Slevin, C Mahon, S Cleary; S Dooley, C Egan, J Bergin.

Subs for Offaly: D Currams for S Cleary (ht), D Molloy for Mahon (44), T Carroll for Slevin, S Ryan for Brady (both 53).

KILKENNY: E Murphy; P Murphy, JJ Delaney, J Tyrrell; T Walsh, B Hogan, K Joyce; L Ryan, M Rice; TJ Reid, R Power, E Larkin; C Fennelly, R Hogan, A Fogarty.

Subs for Kilkenny: C Fogarty for Tyrrell (inj 7), W Walsh for Fogarty (34), C Buckley for Reid, M Ruth for Larkin (both 57), P Hogan for Rice (59).

Referee: A Kelly (Galway).