Lovely Hurling

After the helter-skelter roller-coaster ride of the preceding fortnight, it wasn’t an especially seismic couple of weeks on the Championship front. Kilkenny limp onward, just about, but look unrecognisably weakened from the almighty force we’ve grown accustomed to for the last decade. So, is it the end of an era of Cat power, is there one last sting in the tail, or is all this merely a blip on their way to what would be a preposterous tenth All-Ireland triumph in 14 seasons?

One wouldn’t dare to write their obituary yet; they are still alive and kicking, and it isn’t exactly far-fetched to speculate that they may still have the last laugh. But the last couple of wins (against Tipp and Waterford), while just about delivering a quarter-final berth, have also served to confirm that significant stagnation has set in. In previous years, each and every Kilkenny defeat was instantly followed by a ‘statement’ performance of blood-curdling ferocity; none of that has been in evidence at any stage this summer. Outscored four goals to nil against Offaly; buried by the Dubs during two games in which they posted a meagre total of 1-30; just about doing enough to limp past two wholly unimpressive teams who had had their arses spanked in the Munster championship — none of it bodes especially well for the battles to come, nor is there any sense whatsoever that they have another gear to find. The Cats we’ve watched these last couple of weeks have had to sweat every last drop to survive.
One significant factor in their decade of omnipotence has been the sense that opposition teams were, in every minute of every match, petrified at some level that the roof was about to fall in at any moment, that enormous care had to be taken to guard against a swift and merciless five-minute burst of intense scoring. Thus cowed into deference, opponents frequently seemed afraid to play their natural game. You could try damage-limitation and relinquish any realistic chance of winning; or you could go hell-for-leather and run the risk of getting ripped to pieces in the process. Now, the aura of infallibility has disappeared. Anyone facing the Cats this summer will regard them with immense respect, but the fear factor isn’t there any more.
If Brian Cody’s empire is to be finally overthrown, who will take over? Cork? Clare? Galway? You’ve got to be joking. All three, on the evidence we’ve seen so far, look hopelessly ill-equipped to mount much of a challenge. Of the three, Galway must be accorded the greatest scope for improvement, having only played one match of major significance, a Leinster final in which they were out-hurled from start to finish by a Dublin crew determined to seize their big day.
But we have seen enough of Galway down the years to know they are capable of anything, that bad days at the office are often followed by richly impressive displays of free-scoring fluency. Although Kilkenny eventually subdued them in last year’s All-Ireland final replay, they were undeniably unlucky not to win the initial drawn Final, and their ten-point demolition of the Cats a couple of months previously remains by far the most impressive 70-minute display produced by anyone in the land in the last year or two. Any replication of their last day out against Dublin will see them turfed out ignominiously, but you have to suspect they’ve a bit more about them than that, and it may well be that they were a little undercooked that day and a run of matches will sharpen them to peak at the right time. Cork and Clare, barring an immediate thousand-fold improvement, can surely be discounted.
This leaves Limerick and Dublin, unlikely provincial champions after a fantastic few weeks which have revitalised the Championship completely, held out hope that nothing is ever set in stone, and generally wound the clock back to the 1990s when anything seemed possible. At this stage, and as distant as the prospect might have seemed back in May, both have to be regarded as major contenders for the big one. Euphoria in Dublin is approaching dangerous levels, and it must be recalled that they required a replay to dispatch Wexford earlier in the All-Ireland series. The old sporting truism that ‘you have to lose one before you know how to win one’ has been mentioned, as has the team’s comparative lack of big-match experience and the possibility that five gruelling battles already may have depleted their energy reserves.
But the evidence is mounting all the time that this side has all the ingredients needed to go all the way. Confidence levels are through the roof yet their heads appear to be firmly on the ground; a perfect combination at any stage of the season, but especially in August and September. Having overcome Kilkenny and Galway already, neither should hold any fears in the highly likely event that one or both of them cross the Dubs’ path again. It may sound less than scientific, but I have a feeling in my water that this is the year. As alluded to last issue, I’m still cursing myself for passing up that 40/1 opportunity on the dubious basis that it had been 66/1 a day earlier, but the phenomenal excitement of actually being involved at the business end of the competition has more than compensated.
And Limerick? They haven’t done it yet in my lifetime, but there doesn’t seem any compelling reason why they can’t pull off the unthinkable under the astute stewardship of John Allen, a proven All-Ireland-winning manager. For countless years, the team were respected for their passion and physicality but had an uncanny knack of finding a way to lose close games, and often seemed to let the adrenaline overrule the brain in the heat of battle, with daft aimless 100-yard clearances undermining their chances time and time again. But this Limerick team is positively methodical, almost cerebral in its approach, and crucially, has a wealth of options far beyond the starting XV. In the closing stages of their battles with Tipp and Cork, at precisely the point at which previous Limerick vintages would have choked, they finished with a rich flourish on both occasions, largely by springing talented operators from the bench. Could they really do it? Of course they can.
Jumping ahead in time a little here, Foul Play is officially predicting a Limerick-Dublin final. Events, of course, will surely overtake me in the weeks ahead. Whoever you’re cheering for, enjoy it to the full. In every sense, this has been an unforgettable summer, and the best is yet to come.