WHY TIPP SWEPT KILKENNY OUT OF THEIR WAY TO CLAIM TITLE
In going for broke, Tipperary exposed a lack of cover in Cats’ defensive set-up
AS A scene-setter last Sunday, Marty Morrissey’s live link on RTÉ radio from Croke Park as the Kilkenny and Tipperary teams followed in parade around the Artane Band, set the tone in wonderfully evocative fashion.
Offering up a series of picture postcards from around the world, he gave a shout out to the Irish diaspora who might be listening in, to those ‘walking up Fifth Avenue, New York… jogging around the Corniche in Abu Dhabi… late night dining in Shibuya in Tokyo… or just chilling out on Long Street, Cape Town, South Africa.’
From the Nenagh natives listening in Hanoi, Vietnam to a Derek Ryan in the Furancungo village in Mozambique, he name-checked a selection of those in far-flung outposts with hurling on their mind.
Weaving in the figures on the international stage who had passed in 2016, Morrissey skipped from David Bowie and Prince in the music world to the sporting phenomenon of Muhammad Ali, ending with a local nod to famed Irish handballer Michael ‘Ducksie’ Walsh and past presidents Jack Boothman and Joe McDonagh ‘who sang the West’s awake when his county won the AllIreland title on this very day 36 years ago’.
By the time the final whistle had sounded last Sunday, there was a rush to add another name to the list of fallen greats: The Team That Brian Cody Built.
Word is that the most successful manager in the history of the game waited until all the Tipperary team were gathered together in their dressing room before he went in and offered his congratulations – showing his class even as the three-in-arow dream died.
It’s tempting to view Kilkenny’s emphatic defeat as the end of an empire, almost Roman in perspective. But that westernised view of history conveniently glosses over the fact that the decline and fall was only in the west, the eastern half of what would become known as the Byzantine empire, continuing on for several centuries. Does anyone really believe that Kilkenny won’t be the principle movers in the 2017 Leinster Championship?
At Portlaoise back in June, the gap at the final whistle against Dublin was 12 points, wide enough to see Dublin manager Ger Cunningham lashed online publicly by Conal Keaney for a tactical ‘shambles’. Wexford’s last Championship meeting with Kilkenny ended in a 5-25 to 0-16 thrashing (the 2015 Leinster semi-final); Offaly are barely mapped any more. Leaving Galway, who have the talent but still lack the street smarts and seem caught in a psychological grip.
There’s another myth that persists. Asked to explain this year’s provincial final defeat, a Groundhog Day beating in the manner of the previous September, Joe Canning referenced how hard it is against the greatest team of all time. But that is not strictly the case at all. This is Kilkenny 5.0 under Cody, effectively the fifth bunch of players he has remodelled in his own image.
In terms of stellar talent, it is not on the same page as previous incarnations. The full-forward line of Cody’s first All-Ireland winning team in 2002 read: Charlie Carter, DJ Carey, Henry Shefflin – who accounted for 4-10 of Kilkenny’s total against Offaly (not far off the incredible total posted by Tipperary’s inside line).
Last Sunday, Kilkenny’s full-forward line consisted of a player making his first Championship start, never mind his first start in an AllIreland final (Kevin Kelly), a 19year-old making his second Championship start and also his first final appearance (Liam Blanchfield) with Colin Fennelly sandwiched in between. Team captain Shane Prendergast made his own Championship starting debut in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final at the age of 29.
This is not, as Canning might have suggested, the greatest ever Kilkenny team. But it’s a Cody team that has kept winning by infusing fresh faces and maintaining the aura that has defined the manager’s time in charge.
Tipperary did a lot to shatter that long-standing aura of invincibility last Sunday but the champions weren’t helped by the loss of a former Hurler of the Year. Michael Fennelly was identified as the Jenga block which could bring the Kilkenny tower crashing down. And so it proved. The knock-on effect was severe.
TJ Reid’s placement at midfield robbed the attack of its reigning Hurler of the Year and broke up the ReidHogan attacking axis that has unhinged so many teams.
The fledgling partnership of Conor Fogarty and Reid never sparked together and Tipperary were well in control by the time Lester Ryan entered the fray just after the hour mark.
Kilkenny needed Reid closer to Darren Gleeson’s goal much, much earlier
Kilkenny’s issues can be traced back to a lack of intensity
while Jackie Tyrrell must be wondering how nine All-Ireland medals didn’t make him a viable option to stem the bleeding in the full-back line, Tipperary’s full-forward division ending with a point more than the entire Kilkenny team (2-21 compared to 2-20). And so Shefflin remains a man apart on 10 All-Ireland medals. Like other multiple medal winners before him, it’s as if the decision about retirement is being made for the James Stephens player who turns 35 next summer.
And yet so many of Kilkenny’s problems can be traced back to a lack of energy and intensity – so uncharacteristic of Cody’s 18-season tenure. And very fixable. Like four-time All-Star Paul Murphy fluffing the sliotar out over the sideline in the first half when trying a routine lift. Or Colin Fennelly’s miscue into the turf to take the sting out of his goalbound shot in the 18th minute when the same player hit a screamer into the top corner against Waterford, one of two clinical finishes in the semi-final replay.
Cody’s defence of his full-back line was founded on reason: the lack of pressure out the field meant that Tipperary could ping perfectly angled deliveries into the likes of Séamus Callanan and John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer.
Pádraig Walsh and Cillian Buckley were too tied up to drop and sweep in front of the full-back line as they have done to such effect so often before.
Watching Michael Fennelly hobble around on crutches during the warm-up, his left leg in cast up to nearly his knee after Achilles tendon surgery, painted its own portrait. Given his injury history, it will be a long road back. At least in 2017, Kilkenny should have All-Star Ger Aylward back in action. Expect Rob Lennon to be auditioned to a greater extent as a long-term number six – he has the heft and presence to make a good stab at filling a central defensive spot. Twice in the one season, Kilkenny were hit for a scoreline that exceeded the 30point mark, the 4-22 (34 points) of the National League semi-final against Clare only beaten last Sunday by Tipperary’s 229 (35 points), a record amount in the Cody era. When TJ Reid suggested in the wake of the League hammering by Clare that Kilkenny might need to add a sweeper to their tactical armoury, he was put back in his box by his manager who said ‘never’ to the option only in February. Yet last Sunday the champions were crying out for extra defensive cover, even for a brief respite. If there’s a lesson for other teams, it’s that playing without fear comes with its own reward. Dublin, Galway and Waterford shared a reluctance to go man-forman in the full-forward line, to push up. Tipperary went for broke – and the effect could be heard all around the world.