WHEN IT CAME to doling out the praise for his players, Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng was practically Cody-esque in his brevity after they rolled over Galway in the Leinster championship opener by twelve points.
Good start, Derek?
“We got through an awful lot of work (in the league). We’re into championship now. That was a positive start.”
A strong defensive performance, that permitted just a single score each from Conor Whelan, Declan McLoughlin, with Brian Concannon scoreless in the full-forward line?
“Yeah look, they worked very hard. They defended very well. Solid today. Happy.”
There are starts to a championship campaign that feel as though the jump from league shore to the championship shore was just a few inches longer than anticipated.
Eoin Cody will, presumably given his track record, light up big stages this summer. Yet he had two meek wides recorded before he struck his first point on 27 minutes.
Adrian Mullen started off like a train with a goal in the fourth minute before being withdrawn after 17 minutes, having tried to walk it off. More will be known in the days to come, but first assessments are of a superficial bang on the ankle.
And the Kilkenny crowd seemed to get agitated by several displays of over-elaboration, not least one series of plays that took in a short puckout from Eoin Murphy, all of the full-back line getting their touches in before a relieving stroke from David Blanchfield.
Why oh why, they felt, did they have to, to quote Jack Charlton, have to fanny around with it for all that it brought?
They were helped along by Galway in the first half. Opening day jitters, nerves, whatever you want to call it, but they were slightly more guilty than Kilkenny of missing their picks and making their first touch secure and smart.
It was this failing that led to the Mullen goal. A Billy Ryan effort was topped and spun in the air invitingly for Galway goalkeeper Darach Fahy. He tried his first pick and missed. And again, and it never came up.
A posse of Kilkenny Cats thundered towards him and you could hear his heart thump from Ardan de Gras. Mullen dispatched the shot to the net.
Galway’s attack were just not functioning. They withdrew their full forward line to allow Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy to tip out short puckouts and when the ball was coming from the other end, were stationed too far from the Kilkenny goal. Huw Lawlor was enjoying such tactical bafflement as he ate up several second-phase deliveries.
With Cathal Mannion keeping Galway just about in touch, Conor Whelan was being swamped with Mikey Butler stretching the Tribesmen attack on his sallies forward.
Leinster can say what they want about hurt feelings around the status of Munster hurling as the GAA’s Golden Child, but there were just 8,243 here in Nowlan Park. Those that stayed away to watch in front of the box as winter made a brief reappearance, had cause to feel smug as Kilkenny traipsed in at the break 1-14 to 0-11 ahead.
A Mikey Carey point was followed by an Eoin Cody brace to get the second half in swing.
Advertisement
Galway would add only ten points in the second half. Four of them came between minutes 66 and 69. Conor Whelan was marshalled by Mikey Butler who was simply immense throughout.
“Disappointing,” began Galway manager Micheál Donoghue.
“We know first and foremost, it’s not an acceptable performance. It’s not what we expected. I thought first quarter of the game we weren’t too bad. We made some individual and collective mistakes and Kilkenny pounced on that and went in at half-time six points up and deservedly so.
“Second half then, you’re chasing the game and when we turned it over like we did, you leave yourself open at the back and we got punished for it.”
On Kilkenny went, pushing through their own targets. At no point did Galway appear set to nibble into the ever-growing lead.
On 58 minutes, the game was entirely settled. A few examples of untidy picking the ball off the turf and Eoin Cody latched on. He skipped by the challenges of TJ Brennan, Padraic Mannion and Darren Morrissey before rattling a shot beyond Darach Fahy.
Martin Keoghan might have gotten a goal on the hour mark after he got a flick to a Tommy Walsh delivery, only for Fahy to produce an athletic double-save.
He waited ten minutes. A Fahy puckout was caught by Stephen Donnelly who delivery to Keoghan who dispatched to the net.
With three home games and Antrim away next week, Kilkenny are in good shape, albeit after one game.
All this, with TJ Reid out with his calf injury.
“A slight calf strain,” explained Lyng.
“Nothing too serious but not worth putting him under pressure today. He’s training away well there and hopefully won’t be too long.”
Scorers for Kilkenny: Eoin Cody 1-5 (2 frees), Martin Keoghan 1-2, Fionán Mackessy 0-4 (1x ‘65’, 1 free), Adrian Mullen 1-0, Jordan Molloy 0-3, Cian Kenny, Billy Ryan, Stephen Donnelly 0-2 each, Mikey Butler, Mikey Carey, Luke Hogan 0-1 each.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
27 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Kilkenny take advantage of Galway no show to triumph by 12 points in Leinster opener
Kilkenny 3-24
Galway 0-21
WHEN IT CAME to doling out the praise for his players, Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng was practically Cody-esque in his brevity after they rolled over Galway in the Leinster championship opener by twelve points.
Good start, Derek?
“We got through an awful lot of work (in the league). We’re into championship now. That was a positive start.”
A strong defensive performance, that permitted just a single score each from Conor Whelan, Declan McLoughlin, with Brian Concannon scoreless in the full-forward line?
“Yeah look, they worked very hard. They defended very well. Solid today. Happy.”
There are starts to a championship campaign that feel as though the jump from league shore to the championship shore was just a few inches longer than anticipated.
Eoin Cody will, presumably given his track record, light up big stages this summer. Yet he had two meek wides recorded before he struck his first point on 27 minutes.
Adrian Mullen started off like a train with a goal in the fourth minute before being withdrawn after 17 minutes, having tried to walk it off. More will be known in the days to come, but first assessments are of a superficial bang on the ankle.
And the Kilkenny crowd seemed to get agitated by several displays of over-elaboration, not least one series of plays that took in a short puckout from Eoin Murphy, all of the full-back line getting their touches in before a relieving stroke from David Blanchfield.
Why oh why, they felt, did they have to, to quote Jack Charlton, have to fanny around with it for all that it brought?
They were helped along by Galway in the first half. Opening day jitters, nerves, whatever you want to call it, but they were slightly more guilty than Kilkenny of missing their picks and making their first touch secure and smart.
It was this failing that led to the Mullen goal. A Billy Ryan effort was topped and spun in the air invitingly for Galway goalkeeper Darach Fahy. He tried his first pick and missed. And again, and it never came up.
A posse of Kilkenny Cats thundered towards him and you could hear his heart thump from Ardan de Gras. Mullen dispatched the shot to the net.
Galway’s attack were just not functioning. They withdrew their full forward line to allow Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy to tip out short puckouts and when the ball was coming from the other end, were stationed too far from the Kilkenny goal. Huw Lawlor was enjoying such tactical bafflement as he ate up several second-phase deliveries.
With Cathal Mannion keeping Galway just about in touch, Conor Whelan was being swamped with Mikey Butler stretching the Tribesmen attack on his sallies forward.
Leinster can say what they want about hurt feelings around the status of Munster hurling as the GAA’s Golden Child, but there were just 8,243 here in Nowlan Park. Those that stayed away to watch in front of the box as winter made a brief reappearance, had cause to feel smug as Kilkenny traipsed in at the break 1-14 to 0-11 ahead.
A Mikey Carey point was followed by an Eoin Cody brace to get the second half in swing.
Galway would add only ten points in the second half. Four of them came between minutes 66 and 69. Conor Whelan was marshalled by Mikey Butler who was simply immense throughout.
“Disappointing,” began Galway manager Micheál Donoghue.
“We know first and foremost, it’s not an acceptable performance. It’s not what we expected. I thought first quarter of the game we weren’t too bad. We made some individual and collective mistakes and Kilkenny pounced on that and went in at half-time six points up and deservedly so.
“Second half then, you’re chasing the game and when we turned it over like we did, you leave yourself open at the back and we got punished for it.”
On Kilkenny went, pushing through their own targets. At no point did Galway appear set to nibble into the ever-growing lead.
On 58 minutes, the game was entirely settled. A few examples of untidy picking the ball off the turf and Eoin Cody latched on. He skipped by the challenges of TJ Brennan, Padraic Mannion and Darren Morrissey before rattling a shot beyond Darach Fahy.
Martin Keoghan might have gotten a goal on the hour mark after he got a flick to a Tommy Walsh delivery, only for Fahy to produce an athletic double-save.
He waited ten minutes. A Fahy puckout was caught by Stephen Donnelly who delivery to Keoghan who dispatched to the net.
With three home games and Antrim away next week, Kilkenny are in good shape, albeit after one game.
All this, with TJ Reid out with his calf injury.
“A slight calf strain,” explained Lyng.
“Nothing too serious but not worth putting him under pressure today. He’s training away well there and hopefully won’t be too long.”
Scorers for Kilkenny: Eoin Cody 1-5 (2 frees), Martin Keoghan 1-2, Fionán Mackessy 0-4 (1x ‘65’, 1 free), Adrian Mullen 1-0, Jordan Molloy 0-3, Cian Kenny, Billy Ryan, Stephen Donnelly 0-2 each, Mikey Butler, Mikey Carey, Luke Hogan 0-1 each.
Scorers for Galway: Cathal Mannion 0-10 (6 frees), John Fleming, Cianan Fahy, Conor Cooney 0-2 each, Gavin Lee, TJ Brennan, Tiernan Killeen, Conor Whelan, Declan McLoughlin 0-1 each.
Kilkenny
1. Eoin Murphy (Glenmore)
2. Mickey Butler (O’Loughlin Gaels) 3. Huw Lawlor (O’Loughlin Gaels) 4. Shane Murphy (Glenmore)
5. Mikey Carey (Young Irelands) 6. Richie Reid ( Shamrocks Ballyhale) 7. Paddy Deegan (O’Loughlin Gaels)
8. Cian Kenny (James Stephens) 9. Jordan Molloy (O’Loughlin Gaels)
10. Adrian Mullen (Shamrocks Ballyhale) 11. John Donnelly (Thomastown) 12. Fionan Mackessy (O’Loughlin Gaels)
13. Billy Ryan (Graigue Ballycallan) 14. Martin Keoghan (Tullaroan) 15. Eoin Cody (Shamrocks Ballyhale)
Subs: 22. Stephen Donnelly (Thomastown) for Mullen (17m)
19. David Blanchfield (Bennettsbridge) for Shane Murphy (22m)
17. Tommy Walsh (Tullaroan) for Blanchfield (61m)
23. Harry Shine (Dicksboro) for John Donnelly (63m)
24. Luke Hogan (O’Loughlin Gaels) for Ryan (66m)
Galway
1. Darach Fahy (Ardrahan)
2. Jack Grealish (Gort) 3. Fintan Burke (St Thomas’) 4. Darren Morrissey (Sarsfields)
5. Padraic Mannion (Ahascragh Fohenagh) 6. Gavin Lee (Clarinbridge) 7. TJ Brennan (Clarinbridge)
8. Cianan Fahy (Ardrahan) 9. Tom Monaghan (Craughwell)
10. John Fleming (Meelick Eyrecourt) 11. Cathan Mannion (Ahascragh Fohenagh) 12. Tiernan Killeen (Loughrea)
13. Conor Whelan (Kinvara) 14. Brian Concannon (Killimordaly) 15. Declan McLaughlin (Portumna)
Subs: 24. Conor Cooney (St Thomas’) for McLoughlin (48m)
19. Ronan Glennon (Mullagh) for Monaghan (48m)
22. Rory Burke (Oranmore) for Killeen (53m)
26. Dáithí Burke (Turloughmore) for Fleming (60m)
20. Anthony Burns (Loughrea) for Brennan (64m)
Referee: Sean Stack (Dublin)
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Cats Galway Kilkenny Leinster Hurling