This is what these Kilkenny lads do and they’ll back themselves every single time.
Last weekend, Kilkenny’s backs completed the impossible and cleaned the Galway forwards out. Niall Burke was the only Galway forward to play to his potential as the Cats’ defenders showed that there is in fact a way to tame six of the most gifted attacking giants in the country.
Kilkenny did that by getting on top early on and never letting up. They did it by breaking the Galway forwards’ spirit and draining their confidence. They did it by catching high balls over the Galway mens’ heads and thundering forward before the men in maroon knew where they were.
Padraig Walsh ruled the skies last weekend, the Tullaroan man fetching five of the finest over Niall Burke, Conor Cooney and anyone else who dared to come near him.
The man was born to catch sliotars.
Cillian Buckley did the same leaving Joe Canning rooted. So did Paddy Deegan, Joey Holden while Paul Murphy plucked a high-hanger as well.
Just think of the questions, the doubts and the uncertainties swirling around the Galway forwards’ heads about let’s face it, what was their Plan A, their greatest asset.
Kilkenny had just schooled them at their own game.
The Galway forwards didn’t get into their groove last weekend because they weren’t allowed to. There is no spirit-breaker quite as galling for a forward as the view of your marker’s heals scurrying up the field to roars from the crowd after they’d left you sitting. That’s your man. The Galway men were sitting on too many occasions last week.
And these roars, these darting runs, this is the momentum that changes a game. The best thing about it for Kilkenny is that when a man like Padraig Walsh catches a ball, you just know he’s going to make it worthwhile.
He’s going to either zip a ball into his forward’s path or score a point himself and when he does that you just want the ground to open up and swallow you because he’s your man and you should be doing that to him. Then he puffs his chest out when he comes back to you and his shoulders widen.
The point is, the Galway forwards didn’t get going not only under the dropping ball, but in general play too because Kilkenny’s soaring catches sucked the life out of them.
In fairness to the Galway defenders down the other end, they coped well with the booming balls sent their way and it all turned into a bit of a game of tennis, but the Kilkenny backs showed that they could not only handle the Galway forwards, but topple them.
In Thurles, Kilkenny’s backs went out with the game-plan they always have. They backed themselves against the mighty men of Galway.
Galway were better prepared for it this time around and the drafting in of big, burly Johnny Glynn showed just that. The black and amber boys didn’t enjoy the same aerial dominance but still, it was rare that a Galway man won a high ball cleanly either.
The margins were fine on Sunday and balls slipped out of Deegan, Walsh and Buckley’s hands that they would have clinged onto the weekend previous.
It wasn’t a systems’ fault, it was just one of those days. Anyway, these ferocious back men following their natural instincts to contest the dropping ball certainly wasn’t the reason they were defeated.
In the Sunday Game studio, former All-Ireland winning Cork manager claimed it was.
“I think the praise for Padraig Walsh for fielding two or three balls (last weekend) was a little bit OTT,” he said.
He caught four in the first half alone. The bravery, the skill it takes to do so shouldn’t be underestimated. Walsh doesn’t know what to be afraid of.
O’Grady would prefer if his men batted the ball away instead of backing themselves to win it cleanly. That’s just going against what these men are born to do, and anyway, it’s just a quick-fix because even though he says a Kilkenny back will pick up the breaks then, it’s just as likely that a Galway forward could race onto it.
“He fielded two or three high balls as such. Well, it’s all about winning matches. Paul Murphy went up for the spectacular catch there, now I’ll be old school, I’d say, why go for a spectacular catch when you can just bat the ball away?”
“Trying to field a ball, with Johnny Glynn on you 6 ft 5 in…the chances are it’s going to break somewhere. I think it was a bad move,” he said.
Jackie Tyrrell, JJ Delaney, Tommy Walsh, Michael Kavanagh, we could stay going forever. All of these men made their names and won All-Irelands with a lot of it due to their ability to soar into the sky and pluck size 5s from a sea of swinging hurleys. Don’t take Kilkenny’s most potent weapon away from them due to one unlucky break.
It’s no wonder Derek McGrath disagreed with him.
