Cody’s stormtroopers marching on

That thunderclap in Dublin yesterday around quarter to four was warranted.

Limerick and Kilkenny fought out a game of Wuthering heights and searing lows yesterday in Croke Park, where the 45,478 got a bit of everything. One-handed smashes. Falcons. A monsoon. Controversy.

Heartbreak.

Kilkenny went home with a place in the All-Ireland final and Limerick went south on their shields. Beaten but not defeated. All they needed was a goal to get them over the line, but they couldn’t manage one.

In the first half, Shane Dowling’s delicate flick forced a save from David Herity, and though Kilkenny butchered the ensuing clearance, they escaped. Thereafter the Cats’ goal was often besieged but never really bothered.

At the other end, Kilkenny struck twice for goals, and at crucial times. It was a day that fluctuated from overcast to downpour, but for once there was none of the usual dross about the rain levelling things up.

A slippery ball and treacherous ground challenged players’ skill levels rather than mask inadequacies: take Richie Hogan’s first-half goal, the crashing finish preceded by the Danesfort’s man instant control, killing the ball with a feathery touch. In the second half, Eoin Larkin timed his arrival under Hogan’s long free perfectly to flick home the goal that drove the oxygen from Limerick’s challenge like a fist in the solar plexus.

Saying the goals owed nothing to the conditions is not the backhanded compliment it might appear.

With the game ebbing away, Limerick had to chase that vital goal, but this Kilkenny team must be the last side on earth anybody would want to overhaul with a last-gasp green flag. They defended in depth, in numbers, and with honesty, and saw out the last minutes with teeth gritted.

Afterwards, as the supporters availed of a hiatus between monsoons to get home, Cats manager Brian Cody offered a quick analysis of the mindset that sees a side he manages play a 13th All-Ireland final in 16 seasons.

Asked if the hunger displayed by the men in stripes as the game wound down was a surprise, he was frank: “No, because that’s what you do.

“If you start thinking about something you won before, what good is that to you today, or this year? Our previous victories mean nothing right now if we had to leave here today (defeated)... the fact we might have won at other times wouldn’t be any good to me or to the lads either. It would be just sheer, absolute devastation when you lose a game like that, and that’s what Limerick are experiencing. We didn’t want to experience that.”

There were plenty of examples of that hunger. Colin Fennelly was named at corner-forward but scooped a dangerous loose ball out of the Kilkenny square in the first half: the number on your back is not an exemption from covering the space, obviously.

His opposite number was characteristically generous after the game.

TJ Ryan was as devastated as Brian Cody suggested, but he paid tribute to the victors.

“You have to give credit to Kilkenny for that,” said Ryan.

“They got the hooks and the blocks in, they put the pressure on, but it was a difficult day for hurling. The rain was unbelievable.

“You’d have to credit huge effort on both sides. From our point of view, we gave it everything. We needed a couple of things to go our way. We needed one or two balls to go over the bar at the end to get something out of it.

“We wanted to win, we came to win but we didn’t.”

For those supporters heading into Dublin city centre yesterday there were other points to ponder. Referee James McGrath won’t enjoy the re-run of the foul on Shane Dowling 26 minutes in, when the Limerick forward’s facemask was pulled; those in black and amber might argue that Donal O’Grady could have been dismissed for a couple of second-half offences, but the sanction for interfering with a facemask is not negotiable.

Somewhere in Clare yesterday an inter-county manager was probably smiling wryly, thinking of Podge Collins on the sideline in Cusack Park.

Cork and Tipperary tussle on Sunday to decide who meets Kilkenny in the big show next month. If they’re being honest aficionados in both counties will probably be looking forward to a dry sod and a chance to test the hamstrings of those experienced defenders in black and amber.

They’d do well to keep in mind a point that Brian Cody made yesterday: there are many ways to play well, and not all of them revolve around flowing hurling. Knowing how to win an All-Ireland is a trump many managers would like to have in their deck.

Before the game yesterday a falcon — Lightning by name — was released from the Croke Park skyline to present the match whistle at the halfway line, but the bird banked over the Cusack Stand and away; clearly he’d been traumatised by the previous evening’s football games and had decided to cut his losses.

He really should have stuck around to cleanse his palate. It was epic.