Talking Points: The Ballyhale Boys bite back
BALLYHALE BOY: Adrian Mullen of Kilkenny during the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Kilkenny and Clare at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
In the 65th minute, Eoin Murphy made a top-class save from David Fitzgerald. The ball was cleared and TJ Reid immediately pointed at the other end. A goal at that stage would have only added another layer of make-up and a more flush complexion to the scoreboard for Clare, but Reid’s point still reflected a dominant trend of the match.
Anytime Clare tried to lay a glove on Kilkenny at one end, Kilkenny counter-punched with devastating effect to repeatedly drive Clare onto the canvas. Clare only had four goal chances but three of those were immediately countered with 1-2.
Mossy Keoghan’s goal just before half-time came 30 seconds after Peter Duggan had a goal chance at the other end. When the first half numbers were clocked, Kilkenny had scored 1-10 off Clare turnovers.
Clare’s use of possession in that first half was extremely poor, especially their deliveries into their full-forward line. In that opening half, Clare turned over the ball a colossal 25 times. Those numbers are even more revealing when compared with those from their All-Ireland quarter-final when Clare delivered their poorest display of the championship prior to Saturday; Clare only turned over the ball 27 times throughout that Wexford match.
Kilkenny were outstanding, slick and dynamic. Their movement was the best it’s been all season by a considerable distance. They consistently created space and scoring opportunities, which Clare couldn’t. The most revealing stat of that opening half was the comparative conversion rates; Kilkenny’s was a staggering 82%; Clare’s a paltry 26%.
At the end of the All-Ireland club final in April, TJ Reid threw himself down on the Croke Park and it took him an age to get back up. Reid was devastated, inconsolable. Ballyhale Shamrocks were on the cusp of a famous three-in-a-row when an incredible strike from Harry Ruddle with the last play drove Ballygunner into dreamland and Ballyhale into purgatory.
Although Reid had won an All-Ireland with Ballyhale in 2020, and a Leinster club with the Shamrocks at Headquarters in December 2021, that feeling back in February was becoming completely unfamiliar and too regular for Reid’s liking for big games in Croke Park. Defeats in the 2019 All-Ireland final (when he was captain), the 2020 and 2021 All-Ireland semi-finals, along with the 2022 club final was also completely at odds with so much of Reid’s career when he had known nothing only big wins in Croke Park.
That had been particularly evident in All-Ireland semi-finals; of the first eight All-Ireland semi-finals Reid played with Kilkenny, they had won all eight. Two successive defeats was a shock. Three in-a-row was unconscionable. And unacceptable. “No way was that happening today,” he said afterwards.
Reid did more than anyone to ensure it didn’t. From seven first half plays, Reid scored one point and had four assists. He only had one possession for most of the second half but he kept working and tackling, having a hand in winning a free, before finishing with a huge burst of two points from three late shots.
Reid scored ten points from 12 shots but, once again, his freetaking was impeccable, nailing seven points from seven shots. In his last two games, Reid has now bagged 19 points from 20 placed balls. That actually could have been 20 from 20 because the one placed ball he missed in the Leinster final went to Hawk Eye, when no data was available to tell if the shot was a score or not.
Some player.
In the aftermath of the Galway-Kilkenny game in Salthill, the word on the ground was that the Ballyhale contingent were not happy with Brian Cody. The whole Cody-Henry Shefflin dynamic had created an uncomfortable situation for Shefflin’s clubmates and they reportedly were disappointed with how it all played out, especially in the dressing room afterwards.
There appeared to be a rift. Any potential splinters in a dressing room has the potential to cause chaos but one of Cody’s greatest achievements is how he has always been able to generate an incredible team spirit and to get the players to give everything they have for the jersey.
On Saturday, the four Ballyhale players were amongst Kilkenny’s top six performers. Richie Reid was outstanding, having more possessions (24) than any other player, including 14 in the first half. His sweeping and covering play, along with his distribution, was brilliant all afternoon.
Adrian Mullen was superb too, especially in the first half when scoring four points and having an assist. Mullen ended with 18 possessions and five points from six shots.
Eoin Cody set the tone early on with a devastating point, while he scored three points in that half and would have had a goal only for a brilliant save from Eibhear Quilligan.
And TJ was TJ.
The Wexford game showed how much the Munster final had physically and mentally taken out of Clare but Saturday’s display underlined how they had effectively nothing left after such a brilliant Munster championship. Clare just couldn’t get their hands on the ball up front and were too often reduced to shooting from distance, which wasn’t working either – Clare had 12 missed shots from beyond the 65-metre line.
Clare’s poor use of possession, especially their long deliveries into their inside line, was a huge factor in their starting six forwards, and Aron Shanagher, being limited to just a combined 23 possessions in the first half. From the eight shots from play five of those players got off, Clare only scored one point.
Tony Kelly just couldn’t get his hands on the ball. Over the 70 plus minutes, Kelly only had three possessions. He was fouled for two frees in the second half but Kelly didn’t have the ball in his hand during those plays.
Shane O’Donnell was held in the first half but he never stopped trying and he was Clare’s best forward; O’Donnell nailed four points from five shots, with the miss being a save from Eoin Murphy.
The Kilkenny defence was outstanding, especially Huw Lawlor and Mikey Butler. Lawlor was imperious in the air while Butler stuck to Kelly like a leech all day, even pushing forward and having a shot late on. Lawlor and Butler ended with a combined 28 possessions. Kelly and Duggan had a combined seven possessions.
It summed up Kilkenny’s dominance.
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