Lacklustre Galway played like a team of impostors
Bad games are no sin, and this seemed bad after Thurles thriller
FROM these 70 sludgy minutes, Galway and Kilkenny distilled an antidote to hurling’s summer frenzy.
Two hours after the Munster final was played in the spirit that inspired the provincial matches of May and June, the Leinster climax collapsed under the weight of its own mediocrity.
In the blaze of Ireland’s heatwave, the competing teams were like men hankering for shade and some place quiet.
The old game can turn contrary, after all.
The final whistle was met by the sound familiar to draws in knockout matches, a low, murmuring indecision.
But there was further cause for greeting the end of this in an underwhelming way; it was only in keeping with everything that went before.
Reaction to the draw was met with lame gags about the replay being fixed for Newbridge, but there can’t have been many who wanted to think about the possibility of this experience being repeated.
The All-Ireland champions played like impostors, against determined but desperately limited opponents.
Kilkenny were nourished by Galway’s mistakes and breaches of discipline. Nine of their 18 points came from frees.
If it is hard to imagine a team of Brian Cody’s (inset) managing only nine points from play in Croke Park, remember they could have won this.
They were the attacking side in the last moments of the match, and this after Galway led by three in the 68th minute.
They splurged that advantage but got away with it.
This was a muddled, discordant performance from Micheál Donoghue’s team, though, the worst they have played in over a year.
Their puck-out strategy was gulped down by Kilkenny’s defenders, especially in the first half, and their touch and passing accuracy were both dreadfully askew.
Three weeks had passed since the final edition of the Leinster round-robin series, but Galway hurled here as if they had lived through an ice age since last handling a sliotar. Good teams are often identified as those that play badly and win. Galway misfired and survived, but their quality was established for all time last September. Living up to it wasn’t a problem through five rounds against Leinster opposition, but the assuredness that marked out those efforts was not present here. And as manfully as Kilkenny played, they were not overwhelmingly responsible for that. Galway made mistakes under little or no pressure. Passes were under or over-hit. Joe Canning missed three frees. Players tried to swing first-time at opportunities that offered the time and space for a touch. Kilkenny’s game was addled by errors, too, but they can be excused by inexperience and, frankly, insufficient talent. There was a stretch of play a minute before half-time when David Burke connected poorly with an attempted pass. The sliotar was gathered by Kilkenny wing-back Enda Morrissey, and he handpassed it out over the sideline under the Cusack Stand.
The management and support teams were energetic in trying to inspire the teams, windmilling arms and slapping hands.
Donoghue and Cody dispatched runners into the action with water and words of inspiration. Only the water was having an impact.
Bad games are no sin, and this game could have seemed particularly bad coming after the barnburner played in Thurles, and at the end of a sequence of terrific contests in early summer.
Galway left Croke Park last night with more concerns as a result of this struggle, though.
They should be fancied to win the replay, but Donoghue has a week’s work ahead of him decoding this effort and righting the wrongs.
When he brought Johnny Glynn on with 12 minutes to go, it looked like a switch that could seal a game they had started to control.
He won two high balls, but when more were sent in he wasn’t on the edge of the square.
Carelessness defined this Galway effort.
We can say this morning that no team has yet beaten Kilkenny in consecutive Championship matches against Kilkenny under Cody.
It is a statistical curio, a minor diversion that wouldn’t distract the great man.
But it does speak to the awesome legacy he has cast for Kilkenny over almost two decades now.
Discerning champions in this current group would be a struggle for even the most ardent supporter of the black and amber.
Tommy Walsh, one of Cody’s finest ever lieutenants, talked afterwards in a radio interview of hoping his county could have ‘sneaked’ a win at the end.
And a Kilkenny win would have been, if not an act of larceny, then certainly a shock, the type that an underdog smuggles out under the cover of their own bravery and the complacency of their opponents.
At the final whistle, Donoghue started to walk towards Cody. The Kilkenny manager had his attention elsewhere, and Donoghue tracked back and spoke to his selectors.
Then both men followed their teams down the tunnel into the cool of the Hogan Stand.
Redemption will have been at the core of their messages. Galway get another go at illustrating the dominance most suspect they still wield over every other county.
Kilkenny can direct themselves once more at making a better team look forlorn.
They have the fitness and the determination to do so, but their dependence on the free-taking of Reid is enormous, and will cost them eventually.
That could be as soon as Sunday in Thurles.
Croke Park is out of commission owing to a Michael Bublé concert in Dublin 3 on Saturday night.
There will be inevitable grumbling over that, and some will wonder if the Newbridge rage will rekindle at this latest manifestation of commercialism.
Hardly. Concerts in Croke Park are an established fact by now.
Not every week can blaze in revolution.
There will be no great fervour attached to the preparations of Galway and Kilkenny for this replay, either.
Cody is limited in what he can change.
Donoghue has a much richer spread of talent, but will trust, properly, in the men that proved themselves last season. Even Homer nods, don’t forget. Galway got a rare fright here, and should be wide awake because of that.