BRIAN CODY’S KILKENNY have become the masters of the third quarter. The equivalent of golf’s moving day; when champions force themselves into a winning position heading towards the home straight.
And as much as we expect the Cats to turn the screw after the break, the instantaneous impact of a ravenous Richie Hogan, after being introduced as a half-time substitute, was mightily impressive.
Only 22 seconds of the second spell had elapsed when Hogan got his name on the scoreboard, his first of five points from play. The stadium announcer was still shuffling through his papers, looking to inform the crowd of Hogan’s introduction.
His fellow Cats forward TJ Reid knew the Danesfort man was desperate the make an impact from the bench, the 2014 Hurler of the Year failing to secure a starting spot despite proving he had recovered from a broken bone in his hand suffered in May.
But as well as Reid knows Hogan, even he seemed taken aback by the 27-year-old’s intensity.
“He was probably mad to start the game but he had no game time at all,” Reid explained yesterday at Croke Park.
“He was hungry. He drove the whole thing on.
“He was very agitated. I remember I scored a point and he was abusing me because I wouldn’t pass him the ball. [He was] mad to get on ball. [It was] great to have Richie back.”
Hogan was part of an interval double act that Galway fans won’t be forgetting in a hurry. Along with the energetic John Power, the pair, who replaced Eoin Larkin and Colin Fennelly, set the tone in the early stages of the second half.
Reid was relieved to see such a reaction from the All-Ireland champions, who trailed by three points at the break, 0-13 to 0-10. But he wasn’t surprised to see it transpire that way in the second half. It is the Kilkenny way, after all.
“The two subs made a big impact,” the reigning Hurler of the Year admitted.
“Galway dominated the game in the first half, we took over and dominated the second half.
“A few words were said at half time. It was a bit like the All-Ireland final last year, we let Galway play the game on their terms.
“In the first half we didn’t get going, didn’t get out of the traps.
“The big thing is we didn’t panic. That was said at half time, ‘Don’t panic. Even if Galway get a goal after half-time, it’s a long 37 minutes. Anything can happen.’”
Reid and his team-mates were disappointed with their first-half efforts. They have been around long enough to know when their high standards drop, they don’t need to be told.
“We were lucky we had the opportunity to reflect on things at half time,” Reid added.
If it was a training session, Brian would have pulled us in after five or 10 minutes and said, ‘that standard isn’t good enough’. And the standard wasn’t good enough.
“The second half we were able to take a look at ourselves. Even myself, I knew my performance wasn’t good enough.
“Every individual had the same gut feeling. Everybody rose their game an extra 20, 30%. Each person in the dressing room knew they didn’t give 100%.
“We reflected on that ourselves, Brian was there to motivate us, a few of the players spoke as well.
“We’ll have to work on that, make sure we get a good start, dominate teams from start to finish.”
The resemblance of Sunday’s game to last year’s All-Ireland final was remarkable, all too familiar for Galway fans.
But Reid insisted the clash last September had little impact on their approach in the second stanza, it was the muscle memory from winning so many provincial finals in recent times that helped them find their feet.
“It wasn’t in the memory at all, no, but we’ve been in those positions heaps of times over a number of years,” Reid explained.
“Again, we started slow. Going back to Clare, they got on top from 15 minutes, they got three goals in the league semi-final and against Galway, we started slow again.”
With five weeks to wait in between drinks, until Kilkenny’s All-Ireland semi-final on 7 August, the Cats can afford to sit back and see what cards they are dealt. And that means a reflective Reid, for one, is in a good place.
A club fixture for Ballyhale Shamrocks against Erins Own this weekend should keep the sharpness up before he heads back into the Kilkenny setup for a four-week build-up for their next championship outing.
It’s an extra four or five weeks to get yourself prepared. Extra gym sessions can be done. Intensity in training can be brought up an extra level as well.
Although Reid admits he would like to play more inter-county championship games, he knows the club game would suffer. And that’s not something he’s prepared to have on his conscience.
“The club structure is very important. I wouldn’t be playing inter-county hurling if it wasn’t for my club.
“We’ve a game this week so the club facility has to be looked after as well because the boys in the club, I don’t think they’ve played a game for eight weeks.
“You would start to see more players head off to San Francisco then and those sort of things.
“You’d be losing more players then and you can’t be having that either. I’m happy enough in the structure. I don’t know where you could be fitting in more games.”
Reid admitted he will watch this weekend’s Munster final between Waterford and Tipperary. But when pushed to pick a winner, he made a beeline for the fence.
In truth, Reid probably doesn’t care who emerges from the southern province.
These hungry Cats are only just licking their lips. And they, once again, seem to be the ones who everyone else has to chase.
