We cannot be positive if they were the bookies’ favourites for the 1999 Leinster final against Offaly — although they probably were — and the odds would have been pretty tight for the 2002 All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary, but the reality is that last Sunday was the first time in Cody’s 49-match reign as manager when his team went into a championship match as undisputed underdogs. For these circumstances Cody didn’t need to borrow the blueprint from anybody.
The tone of that performance, with its contained rage and channelled intensity, recalled that July evening in Thurles two years ago when Galway were tied to the stake and torched. Before that game Cody had a notion that Kilkenny were being written off — a view which informed everything about Kilkenny’s preparation for that match and their pulverising performance on the night.
It was clear from Cody’s post-match comments last Sunday that he had filled Kilkenny’s tanks with the same fuel. “I said we were in transition and most of the commentators said we were finished — there’s a difference,” said Cody to RTE moments after the final whistle. “I knew we could come again — most people said we wouldn’t have a hope.”
Within the hour, he had expressed the same sentiment to press reporters with slight variations in language and emphasis. We feel duty bound to follow what is written about the hurling championship on a daily basis but evidently there are serious gaps in our reading. The expressed assertion that Kilkenny “didn’t have a hope” had escaped our notice.
Kilkenny are unbeaten all year. Before last Sunday they had been odds-on to win every game they played this year. In the betting for the All-Ireland they had either been favourites or second favourites — all year. When championship previews were written in May they ranked at first or second on most lists of potential winners. As if any of that mattered, one way or another.
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As the summer progressed elements of the Kilkenny team were criticised. Did that make them different to anybody else? After the Munster final and the All-Ireland quarter-final it was commonly remarked that Cork were in decline. Two parts of Cork’s full-back line and all parts of the half-forward line were doubted and disparaged.
Commentary and criticism come with the territory. Wexford, Galway, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford all took serious hits from commentators at different times. There is a legitimate feeling that some GAA punditry has become excessively abusive but do not be fooled into believing that Kilkenny were the primary victims. They were not even close to the top of the list.
Clearly, though, Cody was bugged by something he read or heard and it informed a siege mentality in media relations which continued all summer. There were huge restrictions on access to Kilkenny players right up until an exceptionally well-run press night before the final. On the day that J J Delaney’s season-ending injury was confirmed one county board official said that “the anti-Kilkenny media” would be “delighted” with the news. Allowing that the man was upset about Delaney’s condition, it was still a scandalously unbalanced, paranoid and ill-informed remark. How could anybody be pleased to hear about an injury to any player, least of all a star player whose presence would have enriched the All-Ireland final? The companion assertion that the media was “anti-Kilkenny” is, to borrow Cody’s phrase, “off the wall”.
However, it was a window into the way Kilkenny were thinking. Making players believe that they were “written off” is the oldest trick in the book and, remarkably, it still works. “It does help,” said Cody on RTE. “It helps.”
It would have been of very limited use to Kilkenny, though, without a smart plan and a team performance of exceptional depth and quality.
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Kilkenny played down the role of strategy afterwards but they were being unduly modest. Ronan Curran remarked on Monday that Kilkenny had decoded Cork’s puckout signals, which is presumably why Cork abandoned them in the second half. It is simplistic and wrong to argue, however, that the game swung on puckouts. According to the RTE statistics Kilkenny lost 10 of their own puckouts, exactly the same as Cork. There was also a remarkable sequence in the middle of the match when 14 Cork puckouts from 17 reached their intended receiver.
It is still the governing mentality in hurling, though, that if a goalkeeper hits the puckout as far as he can he cannot be held accountable for the ball being lost. Donal Óg Cusack does not have that protection and if there is a breakdown in a Cork puckout it is instantly more memorable and remarked upon. The 10 puckouts Kilkenny lost on their ball never featured in the general post-match analysis.
The key to the game was in the second-phase stuff. Kilkenny pressed the ball all over the field but the central plank of their plan was to crowd the channels that the Cork attack and midfield runners would hope to exploit. Cork were not allowed to engineer situations where runners might create an overlap. Cork’s ball carriers were shadowed, hounded and regularly dispossessed.
It was widely remarked after the Galway quarter-final that Kilkenny had been wounded by outfield runners in the final quarter of that match. It was also plain to see how much space Clare created in Kilkenny’s full-back line during the first half of the semi-final. Last Sunday, Kilkenny refused to countenance a repeat on either count. Cork and space were twin enemies.
It is also a misrepresentation to say Cork did not try to vary their approach. They hit Brian Corcoran with 11 long balls but Kilkenny had planned for that, too. Noel Hickey played a blinder but after 2004 Kilkenny were not going to take the risk of isolating Hickey one-on-one with Corcoran. Attacking the ball, Hickey’s only aim was to break it away from Corcoran and time and again John Tennyson was the nearest third party to mop it up.
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Tennyson was Niall McCarthy’s marker for most of the afternoon and the Cork centre-forward had a huge influence on the match, scoring a point, playing the final pass for a further 1-3 and drawing fouls for two pointed frees. Kilkenny, though, were prepared to take that risk. Tennyson’s primary function was to protect the full-back line and Kilkenny’s centre-field pair did their stints as auxiliary centre-backs.
Their work rate all over the field, though, was extraordinary. One Sliding Doors moment sums it up. In the first half John Gardiner was penned into Cork’s right corner back position, with no unmarked teammate available to receive a hand-pass. Eventually, he was forced to clear the ball blindly down the line — hitting it low to give the next Cork player some chance. It went straight to Henry Shefflin, who snapped a beautiful point from out wide under no immediate pressure.
In the second half Tommy Walsh found himself in the same position as Gardiner, harassed in the same corner with nowhere to go. He too struck a blind clearance which went straight to Ben O’Connor. The difference was that O’Connor was seized upon by two tacklers moments after he took possession. Cork had conceded a point from what they would regard as turnover ball in their own half; in similar circumstances Kilkenny conceded nothing.
Space dictates so much. When Cork made their famous charge against Clare in the last quarter of last year’s semi-final they had space to exploit; when they collared Waterford last month they forced gaps in the Waterford defence. Last Sunday all they met were barriers.
In that sense it was a reversal of the 2004 final. Two months after Kilkenny lost that game D J Carey reflected on the ins and outs of their defeat: “Once Cork got ahead they were always going to block it up,” he said. “What could we do?” Grabbing a lead and keeping it was critical to the way Kilkenny played last Sundaye. The way they were set up was not conducive to chasing a game but perfect when they had something to protect. Just like the winners two years ago, they were almost able to play on the break as the game wore on.
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The clock tells the tale: Cork were in front for less than three and a half minutes, all of it in one stretch during the first quarter. In the second half, Cork came within two points, twice, for a combined period of two minutes and 11 seconds. Kilkenny never allowed Cork to build up a head of steam and four times Kilkenny replied to a Cork score within a minute. Cork did that six times to Galway in last year’s final; it must be what champions do.
We can only guess what role the 2004 defeat played in Kilkenny’s performance last Sunday but we sometimes underestimate the influence of ego and the pursuit of personal retribution. Hickey, James Ryall, Michael Kavanagh and James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick were all cleaned out by Cork two years ago when two of them were taken off; last Sunday they were outstanding. Hickey, in particular, seemed determined to settle a score. And Aidan Fogarty? Who could tell? His sensational performance brought to mind a story from the Kilkenny dressing room before the 1992 All-Ireland final against Cork. Eddie O’Connor was always quick with a witty remark and as the game drew near he took it upon himself to pierce the tension: “250/1 Liam McCarthy scores a goal,” he announced to great laughter. McCarthy was a hugely valued member of that Kilkenny attack, but he rarely even took aim at the posts; that day he bagged 1-1 from two shots, making him the top scorer from play in the final. Who can tell? Since the mid-90s hurling has been blessed with a succession of driven teams who have aggressively forced the pace.
For a couple of years Cork made everyone stretch. The baton has been passed but the pace will not drop. Now with this crowd. Worthy champions.