Kilkenny dominate Leinster but questions remain about readiness for All-Ireland semi-final

Irish Examiner

4 hours ago

Kilkenny would have you believe this championship is more three-legged stool than two-pony field.
We know the sturdiness of the Cork and Limerick legs. Their robustness was reexamined and reaffirmed on Saturday night. The third leg, though, remains without weight pressed down upon it.
Kilkenny bookended another Cup-on-the-bus Leinster campaign with another comfortable victory over Galway. An aggregate 20-point winning margin against their supposed closest challenger.
Cork and Limerick players watched Saturday's penalty shootout sitting on their backsides such was the collective exhaustion from 90 minutes of on-the-edge and over-the-edge combat. Kilkenny, a day later, skipped out of Leinster with an average winning margin of eight points.
Aside from 20 second-half minutes against Dublin in Round 4 and 11 minutes from Galway yesterday, Kilkenny had no honours level Leaving Cert paper put in front of them. They've not been extended or exhausted by anyone.
Limerick, barring an upset, will be their All-Ireland semi-final opponents in four weeks' time. Right now, Kilkenny, through no fault of their own, are thoroughly unprepared for that exam.
Derek Lyng, as you'd expect, took a different view.
'I think we have,' he replied when asked if Kilkenny have been sufficiently road tested in reaching the second last weekend of the championship.
'From the start of the Leinster campaign, we're always spoken about as being favourites. But we put a huge amount of work into each game, and we prepare for each game like any other. It doesn't matter who you're playing.
'It's probably taken for granted that we're going to go out and win these games, but a huge amount of work goes into it, particularly from the players. We've been tested in different games, at different stages.
'We lost to Wexford, and Dublin we would have been disappointed with a spell in that game as well, and likewise today, so, regardless of who we are playing, we know we're going to have to find another gear or two for the next day. We go into a knockout phase. Everything ramps up.
'We're Leinster champions, and that was the objective, but at the same time, we know we've a lot of work to do.'
Lyng is excited to roll up the sleeves and commence that work. Kilkenny's League concluded on March 9. They had six weeks to themselves before the championship threw in. They threw in with a 12-point hammering of Galway.
Lyng will hope this second block of training will have at the end a performance to surpass that of Nowlan Park on the championship's opening weekend. It will need to if they are to be involved in the championship's closing weekend.
'This year we've had a very competitive squad and training has been really good, so we just need to probably pick it up again. During the campaign, you don't really get a chance for lots of games [in-house]. You're going week to week, it's nearly about recovery more than anything else.
'But in the run-up to the Leinster campaign, we had a good run at it, and coming into the first game against Galway, we had a lot of work done. We hit the ground running, and we need to get back to that now, use the next couple of weeks to build that momentum again and raise the standard.
'It's a great place to be. The alternative was you'd be out in two weeks and it would be do-or-die.'
They were never in danger of being back out in two weeks. Fintan Burke batted away the first three balls that rained down on top of him and TJ Reid. But Reid's 33rd minute catch drew a game-ending save from Éanna Murphy and rebound finish from Martin Keoghan.
After Galway's 1-6 burst to bring the margin to four, it was TJ who caught Eoin Murphy's puckout and offloaded to Adrian Mullen for the score to break Galway's streak. It was Martin Keoghan who again followed in for his second and the game's decisive goal.
At the far end, there was a fielding exhibition from Huw Lawlor. Brian Concannon, in the process, was reduced to anonymity.
'They were massive catches. It's a brilliant skill to have, somebody that can attack the ball and just pluck it from the sky like that.
'I do remember one in particular, he came up the field and Billy Ryan finished off a super score. For any full-back coming out, it's important that he gets it to a teammate because if you're turned over, you have to be careful of that, but it was a great score.
'It's about the team all the time, defending together and attacking together, so Huw was well able to travel up when he needs to.
'I thought the bit of resilience there to take back the game under our control near the end was very positive as well.'