Five weekend talking points: A goal of the season but Kilkenny not yet purring
For five games and well over 360 minutes, Kilkenny had gone without a goal before TJ Reid’s net-buster in the fifth minute of Saturday’s game. His finish will be hard beaten when it comes to goals of the season as the quality of it, not to mention the force with which it was struck, left Daragh Mooney flailing. Reid added another two goals from penalties but other than that Kilkenny didn’t threaten Mooney’s goal. In conceding the penalties, Michael Cahill and Pádraic Maher committed unnecessary fouls. Once upon a time, it was Tipperary who felt they couldn’t outpoint Kilkenny so goals were of paramount importance. Now it’s the other way round.
There’s no doubt any more but that hand passing is not what it was. At any game over the weekend you would have seen deliveries that — no doubt at all — would have been whistled up a few years ago, but nowadays there seems to be a general derogation given to teams. I hesitate to involve Congress, and its focus on Gaelic football, but a motion involving a distinct... motion of the hand when hand passing in hurling is surely on the cards.
Can Tyrone afford to gamble with Mattie Donnelly by transforming him into that marquee forward they are so badly lacking? The double All-Star was deployed in the front line of attack yesterday, and while he did spark panic in the Cavan defence, he managed just one point. Mickey Harte appears intent on persisting with this new attacking role for the Trillick man, probably with the view of moulding a strikeforce partnership with Sean Cavanagh. But Donnelly’s massive impact around the middle is lost to the team as long as he remains stationed up front, and therein lies the prospect of this immense talent falling between two stools.
With Pat Donnellan, Colm Galvin, and Tony Kelly not on the scene at present, Clare are pretty limited when it comes to midfield options. Conor Cleary was tried there last year but he’s required in a defence that has also been hit by injuries. David Reidy is the one constant around the middle this spring and what a breath of fresh air his performances must be to joint-managers Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor. The added workload of having taken on the free-taking duties hasn’t perturbed him and his display at Cusack Park highlighted how he has grown into a central figure on this team. He is now looked to, in the same vein as Podge, to provide that spark going forward. Whenever the others return, they’re going to have some job taking the number nine jersey of Reidy.
Dublin hit five points in the second half of yesterday’s game at Cusack Park. Three of those arrived in the opening nine minutes of the half. The remaining two were frees. Niall McMorrow hit three from play in the opening half but his threat disappeared with the decision to send him to midfield at the change of ends. Eamon Dillon was the only other Dublin forward causing problems but his influence waned as the Clare half-back line grew into proceedings. Two forwards out of six making an impression doesn’t cut it at this level and while management are determined to give youth its fling, there can be no doubt that they are counting down the days until the Cuala contingent return and add some beef to a unit that was far too easily suppressed yesterday.
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