For once so much went against them on the day. You wouldn’t have expected Peter Barry and Noel Hickey to make such poor efforts to prevent goals. And while Wexford had a few wides themselves you don’t expect such waywardness from a player of Henry Shefflin’s class, not to mention the times he went for goals when there were points to be had. They all added up.
When I expressed the view a few weeks ago that Kilkenny were the bet for the All-Ireland I based it on what I thought they might produce. I’d be wary about backing them now. I’d be particularly afraid that their back-line is getting a bit tired. I could easily see a young, hungry full-forward line taking them on and causing them trouble.
What concerns me most is their attitude. I played golf with DJ in the week before the game and also in the Eddie Keher classic last month and you could see how over-confident they were. I couldn’t believe it after their display in last year’s All-Ireland final and I expressed this view to Eddie and DJ.
I thought that Kilkenny people with their background and their history of hurling wouldn’t allow themselves to be carried away, particularly when there were so many ifs hanging over the team after last year’s performances. Again I was wrong about that.
I believe now with the benefit of hindsight that a great section of Kilkenny people didn’t believe that Cork were as close to them in the final as they actually were. They got their wake-up call against Wexford but it was nine months coming.
Advertisement
I know it’s history now but last week asks questions about the All Stars. I don’t care what justifications or excuses the selection committee made. Tommy Walsh and Eddie Brennan got awards last year and they were both taken off in the All-Ireland final. At least Walsh got through an awful lot of work but Brennan’s contribution was zero.
I remember saying after that game that Brennan was a man looking desperately short of confidence and he did nothing against Wexford to change that view. I’d also go a step further and look at the All-Ireland club championship. I would have expected Martin Comerford to contribute more for O’Loughlin Gaels this year but he was a big disappointment.
There are a lot of question marks hanging over this team now. I know from my involvement with the UCD hurlers that Brian Hogan isn’t a wing-back and last week proved that. It would worry me too that Shefflin had similar wides against Tipperary in the semi-final last year and again in the first half of the final. For some reason the hurling ball was blamed for those lapses. The ball can’t be blamed this year.
All the doubts about them will still be there when Kilkenny come to their next competitive game. The selectors have a lot to think about. I listened to Noel Skehan speaking on television after last week’s game and I thought it was an interview from a very cocky selector. His words bordered on arrogance. For me that was further confirmation that those inside the Kilkenny camp have an exaggerated opinion of some of their players.
The backbone of their success has been the strength of their back-line. Now there’s every possibility that Peter Barry’s best days are gone. Certainly what he did — or failed to do — for Wexford’s second goal was the action of a very tired man. When he was faced with that ball he had three options. He could have run the ball out of the danger area and then tried to clear or he could have belted it out for a line-ball near the corner flag.
Advertisement
But the third option, the wrong one, was the one he went for. The only way Wexford could have got a goal was for Barry to do what he did. That’s not to take away from Michael Jacob. He did well to be where he was and he buried it like a top-class forward. But it wouldn’t have happened to the Peter Barry of 2003 or 2002.
It’s critical for Kilkenny that Comerford returns to his best. If you’ve got Brennan and DJ up front, Comerford has to remain at No 14 and play a full-forward’s role. Without a big strong presence beside them, there’s no way Brennan or DJ will play to their full potential.
Yet for all the doubts I still think Kilkenny are the best team in the country and they’re entitled to remain favourites for the three-in-a-row. But they’d want to sit down and have a long chat among themselves and take a look in a big mirror.
As for Wexford, what would worry me about them is the fact that they always seem to produce one big performance every year. The question is how will they follow it up. I get tired of hearing about Wexford and this great heart they’re supposed to have. Is this the so-called great heart that has won them three All-Irelands since 1956? The great heart stuff is overdone. They should throw it away and start making sure they can play as they did last Sunday on a more consistent basis. I wonder if Michael Jacob hadn’t got his late goal would Wexford have been happy just to have got so close? One thing I would say for them is that their full-back line is as good as any we have seen for a while. Darragh Ryan and Doc O’Connor were outstanding last week and Declan Ruth was exceptional at centre-back. You can be sure that no full-forward will get anything easy off them.
A big disappointment for me was the size of the crowd last Sunday. On a major hurling day in Leinster I thought a crowd of little more than 27,000 was pathetic. To be fair to Wexford they seemed to outnumber Kilkenny by two to one but I hope if either team are back in Croke Park in September people aren’t crying about not being able to get tickets.
Advertisement
They’ll have no problem today because this afternoon’s hurling isn’t much to get excited about. All the indications are that Dublin were unimpressive in beating Westmeath, who aren’t within five goals of this standard of hurling. Conal Keaney’s suspension is a terrible blow to Dublin. They simply can’t afford to be without their best player.
Offaly will win by at least seven points but I doubt it will say much about them. I can’t see a team that still has Ger Oakley at full-back as posing a threat at this level and the reality for Offaly is that they’re short of four to six top-class players to be even up to beating Wexford in the Leinster final.