For those of you suffering from ailurophobia (that’s fear of cats, my friends), some bad news; it’s only mid-March, we’ve had just two rounds of the Allianz Hurling League, but already the question can be asked – who can prevent Cody’s Cats from winning their ninth championship in 13 years?
The signs are ominous. Already Kilkenny have won the Walsh Cup, the ‘warm-up’ Leinster title, walloping Galway in Galway in the final. In Leinster’s Martin Donnelly interprovincial hurling semi-final win over Munster, Kilkenny supplied 11 starters, all of whom were prominent; likewise in their final win over Connacht, Kilkenny again were the main county and again their men starred.
Then came the league, and in the opener in Nowlan Park against their nearest rivals for the past three years, they simply ran over Tipperary, steamrolled the team that had the temerity to take their All-Ireland title in 2010.
On Sunday in Walsh Park, always a bit of a bear-pit for visiting teams, after Waterford had put it up them for half-an-hour Kilkenny turned around and swamped them, point after point, before a timely goal sealed the deal.
They are a juggernaut, have everything you ever want to see in a team. They have the size, strength, speed and stamina to take on any side in the physical stakes. They have the skills, the subtle touches, the subtle little tugs also, to take on any team in the hurling ability stakes; and mentally – they are geared to winning, they know nothing else.
Against poorer opposition they go for the knockout and they go early and often. In a dog-fight they will grind you down, happy to win on points. ‘Insatiable appetite’ is often a term very loosely bandied about, referring to an individual or a team; individually and collectively Kilkenny have it, and we know that now. You think Jackie or Noel or Tommy or JJ or Henry or any of the rest of this hurling machine is about to rest on their laurels? No, didn’t think so.
Supervising all this you have Brian Cody. Has there ever been a more able manager in Irish sport? In fact at this stage you could even ask, has there even been a more able manager in world sport? He has made a few mistakes in his 14 years at the helm and he’ll make a few more before his done – ‘The man who never made a mistake never made anything’, ye do know that, don’t ye? But in the truest sense of the word he has ‘managed’ his resources brilliantly, he has managed this team brilliantly. And he’s doing it again this year.
You look at Kilkenny, they are the most seasoned side in the All-Ireland championship. Then you look at them again and you note – this isn’t a side that’s ageing together, a side that’s growing old together while sweeping everything before them. Every year the starting 15 gets freshened up, every year the panel changes.
In every line of the field last Sunday, starting with keeper Eoin Murphy, finishing with two-goal hero Matthew Ruth, and apart from the half-forward line of TJ Reid, Richie Power and Eoin Larkin, there were guys who haven’t yet been proven in the hottest fire, but guys who are now being given their chance.
You look closer at that half-forward and you see in microcosm exactly why Kilkenny are the force they are. Eoin Larkin is captain but he’s more than that – he is a money guy, a go-to guy, a big-game player who is most prominent when most needed. Richie Power is assuming the mantle of Henry Shefflin, the heir-apparent to an unbroken line of individual greatness that goes back to Lory Meagher. With Henry out at the moment, coming to the end of a glistening career, with perfect timing Richie is stepping up to the plate, nervelessly converting the free opportunities, running the show from the centre-forward position.
And TJ. If you want to know about man-management, look at how Brian Cody is handling the man from Ballyhale. In the two league games to date TJ has had 11 shots at goal, hit eight wides – hardly the kind of return you expect to see from a Kilkenny forward, definitely not the kind of return you expect that Brian Cody would tolerate for very long. And yet TJ started AND FINISHED both games. Why? Because in everything else he’s doing around the field he’s been outstanding. The poor shooting is merely a confidence issue; take TJ off, what do you do for that confidence? Finally, my cat-fearing friends, if you’re looking for consolation in the possible contenders, if you’re looking for Cat-killers, well, it’s not looking very promising at the moment. In Leinster, Dublin are injury-hit, big injuries too, and with two losses already in the league are struggling to get back to the heights of last year. If they get everyone back then yes, they’ll ask questions, but will that happen this year? Galway, Offaly, Wexford, all team-building, all with new management teams in place, all getting to know each other this year.
In Munster, Cork, Limerick, Clare, and Waterford are likewise team-building, likewise with new managers, so that this year is very much part of a learning curve for all four. Which brings us to Tipperary, the team that faced up to Kilkenny three times in the last years in the All-Ireland final and came away in successive years with one moral victory, one real victory, and one hard lesson. The question is, did they come away from that schooling in Croke Park last September thinking, my God, they’ve stepped it up again, we have now to do the same and better if we’re to beat them again, or did they come away thinking – my God, they’ve stepped it up again, there’s no way we’ve ever going to catch these cats again?
Only the Tipperary players know the answer to that, my friends, because the answer isn’t in their hands, it’s in their heads.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/xC0SeJWo6yA/post.aspx
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