It’s Brian Cody’s turn now to throw spanner in works
Waterford had cleaned and seasoned Kilkenny only to take their eye off the pot and allow the scalded Cats to leap out and swipe back at them. They weren’t yet ready to perish and neither were Waterford equipped to finish them off.
Had any of their six straight wides from the 63rd minute onwards gone over, one of them a Kevin Moran effort which sailed over a post and therefore deemed by HawkEye to be no good, we might now be documenting history. Instead, it’s a chronicle of a let-off and/or missed opportunity depending on your viewpoint.
For all their brilliance, Waterford will be told yet again that they need goals although they had flashes of chances in the first-half. One would likely have done them but it was Kilkenny who scored it, Walter Walsh combining clinically with Colin Fennelly to level the game for a ninth time.
And still there was enough on the clock for Waterford to go ahead once more when the sublime Pauric Mahony converted his ninth free after Jamie Barron cleverly drew a free. Only, it was so quickly cancelled out by a long range Conor Fogarty strike, which he knew was straight and true almost as soon as he hit it.
Not since their 1959 All-Ireland win over them have Waterford been so close to earning championship bragging rights against their neighbours. Who’s to know, they may never have a better chance of seeing off a Cody Kilkenny side but they don’t have the time nor should they have the inclination to kick themselves when next Saturday they must do it all over again and better.
Kilkenny, notwithstanding the character they showed to survive, can’t be so bad at the second time of asking as to be so dependent on Richie Hogan to save their blushes.
Walsh may have scored the goal but it was Hogan’s four first-half points and the four frees he won in the second-half converted by TJ Reid that compensated for an otherwise faltering attack. Reid was solid from placed balls but found Barry Coughlan a mean customer and was never able to impose himself on the game as he would have liked.
Unlike their last day out against Wexford, Waterford’s radar was good up until those half-a-dozen wides in the closing stages. Their workrate was as sharp if not sharper than it has been all summer, besting what they displayed in the Munster semi-final win over Clare. They beat Kilkenny on that count at the same time matching and sometimes dominating them in the air.
In that regard, nobody soared more than Austin Gleeson who looked a leader without giving the suggestion he was trying to do it all himself. Alongside him, Pauric Mahony, absent from last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, was flawless in free- taking but quite outstanding in open play in which he posted four points.
They were winning their individual battles as were many of their team-mates and when Gleeson sent over his sixth point in the 55th minute to push Waterford six up their supporters had more than enough reason to dare to dream. Even when Reid fired back with a 65 and a free, substitute Patrick Curran was on hand to restore some calm. And when Reid sent over another placed ball Gleeson’s awesome catch over Michael Fennelly was the type of moment that suggested it would be the Déise’s day. But those wides were to follow and Walsh’s goal before Mahony and Fogarty exchanged points.
As they edged closer and to the disapproval of the sideline, it was evident Waterford were erring on the side of protection and dropping bodies back, which may have contributed to their erratic shooting from distance as much as the concession of the goal. “We stepped up but we came back, I suppose,” said McGrath.
“That’s what we were trying to do all day and I think there was a little bit of fatigue crept in there with 63 or 64 minutes gone, I thought. The fatigue was creeping in with key players. So you’re balancing key players being fatigued against that key part of the game where you need those fellas.
“And I think that was the kind of conundrum for us on the line. We had a few really key players that were firing and were doing well. But they were tiring and I think that was the reason we didn’t make the sub between the 66th and 75th minute. I’m just thinking out loud as I normally do!”
Waterford had led 0-13 to 0-12 after a blistering first half. Kilkenny led just once and for less than 60 seconds as they weren’t able to settle in the middle third where Moran was putting in a major shift. It also appeared Kilkenny were taken aback by just how traditional their opponents set themselves up albeit Gleeson taking the centre-forward’s role.
The Kilkenny management, though, weren’t shocked. “We spoke beforehand, we had no idea really what they were going to do,” said Cody. “It’s their team, they’ve their players, they’ve very, very good players, they’re skilful players, very, very flexible in their formation. What they did, we couldn’t even being to be sure about. I wasn’t even remotely surprised by that at all, no.” On the basis of tradition, it’s Cody’s turn now to throw a spanner in the works.
Recent championship replays have provided him with the opportunity to shock and awe. Thurles offers him a stage but then Waterford won’t mind the chance to get it totally right in the second act.
T.J. Reid (0-11, 10 frees, 1 65); R. Hogan (0-4); W. Walsh (1-1); C. Fogarty (0-2); C. Fennelly, M. Fennelly, E. Larkin (0-1 each).
Pauric Mahony (0-14, 9 frees, 1 65); A. Gleeson (0-5); J. Dillon (0-2); K. Moran, M. Shanahan, P. Curran (0-1 each).
E. Murphy; P. Murphy, J. Holden, S. Prendergast (c); P. Walsh, K. Joyce, C. Buckley; C. Fogarty, M. Fennelly; T.J. Reid, R. Hogan, W. Walsh; J.J. Farrell, J. Power, C. Fennelly.
E. Larkin for J.J. Farrell (46); L. Ryan for K. Joyce (52).
S. O’Keeffe; S. Fives, B. Coughlan, N. Connors; C. Gleeson, T. de Búrca, Philip Mahony; J Barron, K. Moran (c); M. Walsh, A. Gleeson, Pauric Mahony; C. Dunford, Shane Bennett, J. Dillon.
M. Shanahan for C. Dunford (h-t); P. Curran for Shane Bennett (53); B. O’Halloran for J. Dillon (66).
J. Owens (Wexford).
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