It’s Brian Cody’s turn now to throw spanner in works

Kilkenny 1-21 Waterford 0-24: Prepare to kill, not to die – the sagely advice of Brian Cody, 2015. How true those words rang in this sorely-needed All-Ireland semi-final epic watched by a disappointing if hardly disappointed 34,432 crowd.

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.