Henry Shefflin lauds Conor Cooney's leadership
Kilkenny's Paddy Deegan and Conor Cooney of Galway. ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
We’ll deal with the handshake further down. For as tense as their post-match exchange was, the palpable coldness between the Kilkenny master and his heir apparent was still no match for the gripping fare that preceded it.
Wildly animated throughout, Brian Cody cut a massively vexed figure when the curtain finally fell on this rollercoaster of a Leinster championship classic.
Indeed, so irate was the Kilkenny manager with the final act that it was not towards Henry Shefflin he made a beeline for upon the final whistle, rather out onto the field to remonstrate with referee Colm Lyons.
Lyons’ role in displeasing Cody was to award Galway a 74th minute free for a Paddy Deegan challenge on Tom Monaghan.
“From where I was, I'd say it was a very hard free,” Cody would comment on the game-deciding call.
Responsibility to send the free between the Kilkenny posts and secure Galway a one-point win fell onto the wrists of Conor Cooney, but there was an almost cruel sense of déjà vu when Lyons instructed the free-taker to move the sliotar back from where he had initially placed it.
“When Colm went back to him, I wondered was he going to take the free off him like two weeks ago,” said Shefflin, referencing the decision of referee Thomas Walsh to take an injury-time free off Cooney for alleged time-wasting in the draw with Wexford.
“In general play, Conor probably didn’t have his best day, but isn’t it brilliant having that leadership to be able to stand over that free and strike it over. There was an awful lot riding on it.”
Cooney’s success in nailing the target meant a sea-change of emotions on the Salthill sideline.
From having just moments earlier rescued a draw from the jaws of defeat, Kilkenny were equal parts stunned and seething.
Down the way, their former ally and once on-field general was celebrating a win he must have thought was lost when Kilkenny sub John Donnelly found the net for a game-levelling goal six seconds after the three minutes of allotted injury-time had elapsed.
Shefflin remarked that Éanna Murphy “probably should have stopped” Donnelly’s strike, but in the same breath he commended the ‘keeper for getting away the ensuing restart as quick as he did.
Instead of harboring regret over another victory let slip, the Tribesmen rise this morning in arguably pole position for a Leinster final berth given they have Dublin at home in the final round.
Having for so long been exposed to and an advocate of the time-honoured Codyesque virtues of honesty of effort and spirit, was it any surprise that Shefflin’s Galway troops brought these very traits to the table during an absorbing contest watched by a smaller than expected crowd of 14,034.
The hosts led 1-17 to 2-8 at half-time. And full value they were for their six-point advantage, a lead that didn’t require any contact tracers to locate its source.
With an out of sorts TJ Reid having sniped a pair to move the visitors 2-7 to 0-12 in front on 23 minutes, Galway’s response was to reel off an unanswered 1-5 to surge seven clear. Their ravenous work ethic peaked during this period, 1-4 of the 1-5 coming directly from Kilkenny turnovers.
Firing the gun on said scoring sequence was Johnny Coen’s 24th minute goal, Cianan Fahy intercepting an Eoin Murphy pass before possession was worked through the hands of Brian Concannon and onto Coen.
The goalscorer’s next action symbolised his team's marriage of style and substance as he stripped Conor Browne of possession for a turnover that ended with Tom Monaghan pointing.
Though nowhere near as dominant, the westerners were the better side in a relentless first quarter - the opening 12 minutes provided 12 scores - but were twice caught for two Kilkenny goals.
Eoin Cody, who gave Jack Grealish a torrid time, provided early indication of the trouble he would cause when netting in the fifth minute. And while the men in maroon struck six of the game’s next eight points - including two Fintan Burke sidelines - to return two in front, Kilkenny swept ahead again when Billy Ryan collected a Cody pass and duly finished.
Kilkenny, as they needed to, took a mortgage out on momentum in the third quarter and fired over seven-in-a-row through sub Alan Murphy (0-3, two frees), Walter Walsh (0-2), Mikey Carey, and Cody to draw level by the 55th minute.
Their opponents, scoreless for 20 second-half minutes, were reignited by the industry of Brian Concannon, Joseph Cooney, and Cathal Mannion. The three-point advantage they carried into injury-time would have been more but for a Murphy save to deny Monaghan.
Kilkenny were certain they had a point earned when Donnelly goaled. But this was an afternoon of high drama and few certainties.
Thereafter, the photographers readied their trigger finger. For a brief moment, it appeared there might be no back page shot at all as Cody walked from the sideline out onto the field, rather than in Shefflin’s direction. They did eventually shake, the brief gripping of hands every bit as frosty as the cold stare swapped.
Round 1 to Shefflin. A Leinster final Round 2? Who would say no to that.
C Cooney (0-6, 0-6 frees); B Concannon, J Cooney (0-4 each); T Monaghan (0-3); J Coen (1-0); F Burke (0-2 sidelines), C Mannion (0-2 each); David Burke, P Mannion, C Fahy (0-1 each).
E Cody (1-2); A Murphy (0-5, 0-4 frees); T Reid (0-2 frees), W Walsh (0-3 each); B Ryan, J Donnelly (1-0 each); P Walsh (0-2); M Carey, A Mullen (0-1 each).
É Murphy; D Morrissey, Daithí Burke, J Grealish; P Mannion, G McInerney, F Burke; J Coen, David Burke; T Monaghan, C Cooney, J Cooney; C Mannion, C Fahy, B Concannon.
T Killeen for Grealish (temporary, 40-41); C Whelan for Fahy (45); G Lee for Grealish (53); TJ Brennan for Coen (72).
E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, T Walsh; M Carey, P Deegan, C Browne; J Maher, A Mullen; W Walsh, P Walsh, C Buckley; E Cody, B Ryan, TJ Reid.
A Murphy for Maher (31); T Phelan for Reid (HT); D Blanchfield for Browne (43); J Donnelly for Buckley (55); M Keoghan for B Ryan (66).
C Lyons (Cork).
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