9 hours ago
Derek Lyng praises Kilkenny's hard work as they shrug aside Galway for six-in-a-row
Far from perfect, or the finished article for that matter, but a win is a win. Particularly in a Croke Park final.
That was the gist of Derek Lyng's assessment of
Kilkenny's
sixth consecutive
Leinster
final success.
The Cats never really cut loose, nor were they required to, whilst shrugging
Galway
aside for the second time in this season's campaign. Not even when Galway got it back to a four-point game on a couple of occasions late on did Kilkenny supporters really fear relinquishing their hold on the Bob O'Keeffe Cup.
Onwards then to an All-Ireland semi-final in four weeks, but is it fair to suggest that Kilkenny haven't truly been road-tested yet?
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'I think we have been,' contested manager Lyng. 'From the start of the Leinster campaign, all we've been spoken about as is being favourites.
'We've had to 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.
'I think 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. They do it all, and we've been working very hard at that. I feel we've been tested in different games, at different stages. We lost to Wexford, and against Dublin we would have been disappointed with a spell in that game as well, as we were today.
'Look, regardless of who we're playing, we know we're going to have to find another gear or two for the next day and that's the reality of it. That's something we'll go after, and we're looking forward to that, but we took this campaign very seriously and we got our reward today.
'We're Leinster champions and that was the objective. At the same time, yeah, we know we've a lot of work to do.'
Galway manager Micheál Donoghue dejected after the game. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Lyng borrowed from his predecessor Brian Cody's sporting vocabulary when describing the performance as 'decent'.
'It was about getting the result, the performance overall was decent, I thought,' he said. 'We know there's a lot of room for improvement. We go into a knock-out phase now. Everything ramps up. We have a few great weeks that we're going to have to really utilise and work very hard in, and just get our heads down to be ready for the next step.'
Kilkenny's highlights reel contained plenty of moments of defensive excellence, with Huw Lawlor's soaring fetches at the back most impressive. If they are to go on and end their decade-long wait for an All-Ireland win, Lawlor's miserliness at the back is going to be required.
'It's a brilliant skill to have,' said Lyng of his full back's aerial ability. 'Somebody that can attack the ball and just pluck it from the sky like that. He was excellent and it gives a lift to everybody around him as well, that confidence that you have in a full back.
'I thought, overall, the effort, not just from Huw, but from everybody that was involved, was excellent. I thought our work-rate was very good and maybe it dipped a little bit at times but I thought a bit of resilience to take back the game under our control near the end was very positive as well.'
Former All Star forward Eoin Cody missed out again and hasn't featured since the Cats beat Antrim. Lyng had positive news on that front.
'We just didn't take a chance on him,' he said. 'If he had had a setback, that would have been his year over. Eoin is actually looking very strong so hopefully the next couple of weeks will bring him on an awful lot. Hopefully we will have him the next day.'
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Leinster SHC final: Unflappable Kilkenny can contain the Galway bounce-back
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Galway are still alive in the Liam MacCarthy Cup race and will face a preliminary quarter-final winner in a little under a fortnight. Manager Micheál Donoghue took crumbs of comfort from the fact that when they landed some belated blows on Kilkenny in the final 10 minutes or so, they drew blood.
'In the build-up, people were saying, 'We're back, we're back' and that we have big opportunities,' said Donoghue of the pre-final talk locally. 'Look, we have huge belief and trust in the group. The disappointing thing is when you see what they did for a 10-, 12-minute period in the game ... look, that's the positives we're taking out of it and that's what we'll try and build on as we move forward.'
Is Project Galway, mark II, ultimately a bigger job than Donoghue had anticipated?
'No, I wouldn't say a bigger job,' responded the 2017 All-Ireland winning manager. 'Obviously there's the disappointment of today and I suppose the narrative will be that it's probably similar to previous years and previous teams. But we know what we have in the squad and we'll try and take the positives out of it and move forward.'
