Parnell Park held Dublin back on this occasion I feel
FOR me, Dublin would have beaten Kilkenny on Sunday if the game was played at Croke Park.
I understand Parnell Park brings a fortress factor which Dublin feed off and may well have contributed in other ways to their performance but, looking at it from a strictly hurling viewpoint, Croke Park would have suited their game better.
Parnell Park is tight and Dublin are a very athletic team who I reckon would have thrived further in more open spaces.
Some of their play was reminiscent of Cuala but with their own slant on it and up until the last couple of minutes, there was every indication that they were going to win. Kilkenny were outhurled, outsmarted and outfought for almost the entire game. They struggled with the role Sean Moran played and TJ Reid didn’t get on the ball as much, which very much curtailed Kilkenny. Kilkenny have struggled against sweeper systems in recent years and developed a different style of play to combat it in this year’s League and it worked a treat against Wexford in the semi-final. But it took them a long time to break Dublin down and ultimately they worked the short game well and got back into it.
Conal Keaney was very influential, which surprised me to a degree given that he’s 35 and retired a couple of years ago.
There was much talk about Kilkenny after the League win and this game will help bring things back down to earth a bit. They ended up with their strongest team on the field anyway once Paul Murphy and Colin Fennelly came on, while another sub, Liam Blanchfield, hit the winning goal.
Their touch was poor as was their distribution for much of the game. They struggled with Liam Rushe at full-forward and it goes back to that conversation about where Padraig Walsh should be deployed.
When the game opened up late on, he made some important surges upfield, something he could do more often from the half-back line, but I don’t see it changing any time soon as nobody else has been tried there.
If there’s a better option at full-back then Brian Cody would have him in situ. All in all, there are still questions surrounding Kilkenny. Are they still in a transitional phase? It appears so. Are they highly competitive? Absolutely.
Are they in a period where they look like they might win an All-ireland? I don’t believe so.
But, we might be saying that about other contenders as this new-look Championship develops.
I see Offaly being competitive against Kilkenny next Sunday and getting closer to them than they did to Galway without threatening an upset.
I’d worry for Dublin going to Wexford on the back of this.
The ideal time to get Kilkenny or Galway was at home in the first game, coming in under the radar after a poor League campaign.
Their cover has been blown now and they might struggle to lift it next Sunday.