HURLING ANALYST:Enough in dismissal of poor Dublin challenge to suggest Nowlan Park preparations going well

KILKENNY NEVER had to get out of second gear, particularly in the forwards. They did enough against a very poor Dublin challenge to suggest that preparations in Nowlan Park have been going well.

The defence is still outstanding, although there was one moment of anxiety when Liam Rushe got through late in the first half. Michael Rice is promising to be a key player for them and was commanding yesterday in midfield but the forwards missed more than they scored.

Brian Cody was able to put pressure of them by emptying the bench. For example, Richie Hogan hit two bad shots, dropping one short and the other hopelessly wide. Almost immediately, Eoin Larkin and Aidan Fogarty were on.

Cody’s really able to keep manners on his attack and has eight or nine forwards at least at his disposal.

Eddie Brennan started off going for goal with every chance and when he throttled back to take his points he missed chances. Fogarty replaced him and scored two goals.

From early on Kilkenny realised a challenge wasn’t going to materialise and there was a lethargy about them so it’s hard to get a level on them but they were certainly as good as anything we’ve seen so far in the championship.

Dublin’s journey since last year’s Leinster final has been downhill and I was disappointed with them yesterday. They missed chances in the first half when Rushe and Dotsy O’Callaghan had chances of goals. Alan McCrabbe’s close-in free as early as the eighth minute summed up Dublin’s lack of conviction.

You weren’t sure whether he was going for it or not and it ended up over the bar, just as you couldn’t be sure how determinedly Dublin were going for the game. They had a bad start and needed to contain Kilkenny for longer than 40 seconds.

The trouble with emphasising containment is you have to make chances count and by dropping back like Dublin did it’s hard to create chances against Kilkenny and they struggled even to create space.

Kilkenny defended really well. Jackie Tyrrell got in several good hooks. Anyone that hopes to beat them is going to have to field a serious set of forwards with a fair degree of skill. I lost count of how many balls Tommy Walsh cleared and Dublin never got close to exerting the sort of pressure they managed last year.

They were well set up tactically but couldn’t play with enough abandon to get a run on Kilkenny. It’s hard to know where Dublin go now. Last year they were poor in the quarter-finals and haven’t shown much form this year.

There were some chinks in Kilkenny’s display. They missed a lot of chances. Eddie Brennan didn’t show a lot and Eoin Larkin came on but didn’t manage to score. As the team that patented the quick hand pass they also have work to do to slow it down in line with the new rule, which they ran foul of three times yesterday.

Still, they have options in attack and certainly there was hunger and vibrancy in their play that must be worrying for everyone else.

The other semi-final proved better value. It was a typical Offaly ambush on Galway and at half-time you’d have said they’d do well to get out in one piece. But then once Ger Farragher and Joe Canning got those goals they looked to have pulled it out of the fire but still didn’t manage to put the game away.

It was a poor display by the league winners and Iarla Tannian was the only bright spark in the whole malfunctioning attack.

Offaly deserved the draw. I though Daniel Currams was really unlucky to be sent off but strangely, it seemed to drive them on as much as, if not more than, it undermined them.

They had some excellent performances on the day. David Kenny is a serious Offaly full back in the Kevin Kinahan mould – he even moves uncannily like him. They were also dangerous up front. Shane Dooley was outstanding and Joe Brady and Derek Molloy were also menacing.

But for Galway this wasn’t good news. They have more question marks over them now than when they went into the match – which they ended up lucky to escape from despite playing 14 men in the end.

Their full-back line was in trouble and their forwards struggled at all stages, limiting their threat to that short scoring burst in the second half.

I didn’t get a chance yet to see the Munster match but Limerick probably did better than expected, especially since they were down a man for so long. Cork were on a hiding to nothing and will be glad to get back to the Munster final.

At the end of the day even after just one routine display Kilkenny’s status as front runners has been strengthened in relation to their highest-rated challengers. Galway look no better than last year and Tipperary certainly couldn’t be said to have improved.