Cody still has raw materials
Keoghan shines yet again while Reid’s display underlines his significance to Kilkenny cause
IT has been on raw and soggy afternoons such as this, with spectators huddled under umbrellas, that Brian Cody has often discovered what he needs to know about players.
He seems energised by these wintry days and for 77 minutes yesterday, he was an animated presence on the sideline, playing every ball with his young team.
He was clearly delighted with how they responded to the challenge posed by the boggy underfoot conditions which meant that rucks were the order of the day. It is just that Kilkenny’s young guns were the hungrier and stronger in each of them.
Martin Keoghan is turning into Kilkenny’s find of this campaign. He impressed off the bench against Clare to such an extent that he started here. And he responded by nailing five fine points from play.
‘He did well,’ Cody said of the Tullaroan native. ‘I thought his work-rate around the field was excellent. But he has played well in the last couple of games. He is a good young fella that has come into the panel for the first time and he is making good progress.’
If Keoghan, and the hard-grafting Pat Lyng is evidence that the conveyor belt is still churning in the Marble County, TJ Reid once again underlined his significance. Having sat out the Clare defeat through injury, Reid slotted back into the spine of the team here and immediately provided a focal point for every attack.
He ended the day with 1-11, all but 1-1 from placed-balls, but it was his 49th-minute goal that illustrated his importantance.
Briefly moving into full-forward, taking Tadhg de Burca with him, Reid was quickest to Lester Ryan’s mishit pass, powerfully shrugged off de Burca and buried the ball past Ian O’Regan.
‘It was a very good goal,’ Cody nodded. ‘It was a split-second thing and he has the ability to do that. It is obviously great to have TJ back on the field and he’s in good shape as well. He and Walter [Walsh] were the only two experienced forwards we had and the two of the played very well.’
Reid’s clinical nature — that was Kilkenny’s only genuine goal chance — contrasted sharply with Waterford. Although Tommy Ryan fired in an excellent consolation goal in the dying moments, the home side spurned a handful of opportunities.
In the 22nd minute, Tom Devine, making his first start since returning from his travels, set Mikey Kearney up with a brilliant flick but referee Fergal Horgan decided to call it back for a foul by Padraig Walsh rather than play the advantage.
Ten minutes later, Devine was found in space but Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy did brilliantly to deflect the ball to safety. Murphy also made a save from Kevin Moran in the second half, as well as from Stephen Bennett’s 51st-minute penalty.
It was another afternoon when Murphy cemented his reputation as one of the best around, even if there was little he could do to stop Ryan’s bullet.
Devine did show enough to suggest he will be a welcome addition to Waterford this year as a bustling target-man, but Derek McGrath was in no mood to dress up how his team were second best in almost every way.
‘We’re in deep trouble regarding relegation, there’s no doubt about that,’ the Waterford boss admitted. ‘I’ve been saying that we are following a process but we targeted a big performance in this game and there’s no way around it, we didn’t get it in terms of intensity.
‘But it serves to highlight the actual depth of the Kilkenny team. If Richie Leahy, Pat Lyng and Martin Keoghan were in Waterford, they would have been on the panel for the last couple of years.
‘The problem in Kilkenny is that they’re constantly compared to the likes of Henry Shefflin and Eddie Brennan. But their panel is as serious as there is anywhere in the country,’ McGrath explained.
This game continued the poor home record for Waterford in Walsh Park, where they haven’t won a League game in over two years.
Kilkenny, who hit 14 wides, played smarter hurling in the conditions, too. After de Burca had customarily grabbed a couple of early long puck-outs, Murphy changed tack and went for the short option for the rest of the game.
It had the effect of marginalising de Burca’s influence.
Every tactical switch that Cody made, worked. He hauled off both starting midfielders — Conor O’Shea and Lester Ryan — with Lyng and James Maher impressing around the middle third.
Luke Scanlon came off the bench and nailed a point from play. John Donnelly augmented
his hard work at corner-forward with two points from play.
Cody confirmed afterwards that Richie Hogan is still a fair bit off coming back and is unlikely to return for the National League due to an on-going back problem.
But with Hogan, Colin Fennelly and Paul Murphy all to return for the summer, perhaps Kilkenny aren’t in that bad shape, after all.
‘I have been saying this all the time but I have good confidence in the panel,’ Cody insisted. ‘We are just taking it match from match and giving a few different lads a start on different days. We are happy enough with what is going on.’
Tipperary come to Nowlan Park next weekend and they have now been warned that Kilkenny are holding their ground. Unlike Waterford, who are staring into a relegation play-off.
They visit Cork next, a game they simply have to win to keep alive any hope of avoiding a relegation play-off.
WATERFORD: I O’Regan; S Fives, B Coughlan, N Connors; Philip Mahony, T de Burca, C Gleeson; J Barron, K Moran; A Gleeson (P Curran h-t), Pauric Mahony (T Ryan 64), J Dillon(S Bennett 46); M Shanahan (DJ Foran 58), T Devine, M Kearney (C Dunford h-t)
Scorers: Pauric Mahony 0-7 (7f), T Ryan 1-0, P Curran, T Devine, C Dunford, A Gleeson (f), T de Burca 0-1.
KILKENNY: E Murphy; J Holden, P Walsh, P Deegan; C Delaney. C Buckley, E Morrissey; L Ryan (L Scanlon 55), C O’Shea (J Maher 42); M Keoghan, TJ Reid, P Lyng; B Ryan(L Blanchfield 33), W Walsh, J Donnelly. Scorers: TJ Reid 1-11 (0-9f, 0-1 65); M Keoghan 0-5, J Donnelly 0-2, J Maher, L Scanlon 0-1. Referee: F Horgan (Tipperary).