When Richie Hogan took to the green fields of Semple Stadium on Sunday, everything in Kilkenny changed.
There was a moment in the second half in Thurles when Kilkenny’s James Maher stood in the middle of the field in no-man’s-land. Galway keeper James Skehill had the ball in his hands and his captain David Burke had tip-toed towards him looking for the short one.
Skehill saw it was on and he was just about to zip it into Burke’s paw. Only for Richie Hogan.
Coen had ghosted away from his man Maher, the Freshford native, out on his feet after running himself into hands-on-hips state, for the last ball.
Richie Hogan saw the danger and he reminded Maher of the job at hand. Maher pushed up on his man and Skehill thought better of it.
‘That’s why we need Richie out there, he’s been there, he’s a leader and our young lads need that experience beside them’ said the Dicksboro woman beside me in the stands.
It was something small but with Kilkenny chasing the game, it would boil down to fine margins like these. Galway couldn’t be let have anything handy again and with Hogan around they wouldn’t be.
The diminutive Danesfort star is a leader. The second half of Kilkenny and Galway’s Leinster final replay was an awful lot different to the first and Richie Hogan had a massive part to play in that.
Introduced as a half-time substitute, he announced his introduction quicker than the PA man in the home of hurling could when he came out of the ruck from the throw-in, and tossed an inviting handpass out to James Maher to score from.
‘Two substitutes on the Kilkenny team, number 21 Richie Hogan replaces Richie Leahy and 22 Colin Fennelly replaces Billy Ryan.’
And the Kilkenny crowd were giddy. Richie has done it so many times before for them and players like him just lift them.
He went into the centre and TJ out to the wing. Galway’s half back line who dominated so much in that first half were in for it now.
Another ball came his way four minutes later and he got there in front of Joe Canning, flicked a hurl at it and manipulated it into his stride gracefully. He drew the free from Canning, let out a fist-pump and jostled into Padraig Mannion.
Richie was up for it, Kilkenny were up for it.
TJ Reid pointed that one, of course, and the gap was down to five. This is Kilkenny we’re dealing with.
Kilkenny are a young team this year and those youngsters have done extremely well. They’ve kept Richie out of the team since he’s returned from that back injury he suffered at the end of last year.
Great win by Galway to respond to the KK onslaught. Class forwards came up trumps. KK are some competitors tho, Richie Hogan made some difference after finally being put back in his best position IMO.
— Rory Jacob (@RoryJacob) July 8, 2018
In fairness, they’ve earned their spots too. Richie Leahy pointed the way when they needed him against Wexford and Billy Ryan, Keoghan, Sheehan and Scanlon have all impressed at different stages.
On that same day against Wexford, Richie was poor. He hit four wides early on and was called ashore at half-time. Brian Cody doesn’t give a damn about reputations and the form players will always be picked.
Now, it looks like Hogan is the form player and Cody will find it hard to leave him out against Limerick.
Back to the game because five minutes later, Hogan pointed a trademark long-ranger and he was setting his men up for the puckout before it had even passed the black spot.
Fast forward another two minutes and Richie rattled the net with a rasper of a goal.
A goal for @KilkennyCLG from Richie Hogan sets up a grandstand finish here! pic.twitter.com/ANyooKJh6W
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 8, 2018
He was dragging Kilkenny back into this one and the Galway crowd quietened.
Hogan hit a couple of wides after that but he never dropped the head. He knows how good he is and he’ll always have the confidence to take them on.
Galway kicked on to win it, but don’t underestimate how much it means to Kilkenny to have Richie Hogan back.
