NHL, Division 1A: Cork 1-22 Kilkenny 2-16
In the league, everything has a ceiling. It’s the law.
On Saturday evening the kind weather and the immaculately groomed pitch and the massive crowd of more than 22,000 stirred the hope that Cork and Kilkenny might just get sucked in and forget the calendar. They did and they didn’t. On the first day of spring, the championship was seven weeks away yet. Just wait. It’s the law.
In the end, they thrashed it out. The teams were level five times in the second half, but Kilkenny failed to score in a 15-minute spell late in the game and Cork filled that vacuum with a surge of points. The outstanding Diarmuid Healy, making his first start for Cork, scored 1-5 from play, including two beauties in the last 10 minutes when Cork made a burst for the line.
For the previous few days, the GAA community in Cork had been stunned by the sudden death of the former Cork player Ray Ryan, brother of Cork manager Pat. Both squads and management teams lined up on the pitch before the game to take part in a minute of remembrance and applause.
Pat spoke eloquently at his brother’s funeral on Friday and handled himself with characteristic dignity on Saturday. In an interview with TG4 before the match he mentioned the support the Ryan family had received from all quarters. “In tough times,” he said, “the GAA community really comes out.”
There was a rush of excitement in the final quarter, but the game never climbed above a certain level, as if somebody had forgotten to add yeast to the dough. The video analysts in both camps will have a highlights reel of blocks, hooks and turnovers to show their players this week and there was no shortage of earnestness all round.
But too many passes went astray, and Kilkenny’s shooting was destructive. According to their own numbers they had 22 “misses” between shots that went wide or dropped short. David Blanchfield, one of the best long-range shooters in the game, accounted for five of those.
“I thought we had to work hard for our scores and so that was the most disappointing thing,” said Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng. “I think sometimes when you miss a couple of chances, it can suck the energy out of you as well.”
Kilkenny will be encouraged by the performance of Jordan Molloy at centrefield, a young player on the rise, and the continued good form of Cian Kenny. But Adrian Mullen and John Donnelly are still absent from the Kilkenny attack and Eoin Cody and Mossy Keoghan could only muster a point each from play. TJ Reid made his first appearance of the season 10 minutes from the end, but not even the game’s greatest wizard could produce instant magic.
As they had done against Tipperary a week ago, Cork hunted for goals and the breakthrough came after 20 minutes when Healy seized on a breaking ball and struck a low cross-shot to the corner of the Kilkenny net. It ignited an extraordinary evening for the young wing forward.
On Saturday night he was on the ball 16 times, and only one of his possessions went astray. Apart from the 1-5 he scored, he was involved in three other Cork scores and was instrumental in Cork’s match-winning surge. Cork will need a successor to Seamus Harnedy, soon; now they have one.
“Everyone will ask you what you want to get out of the league and obviously what you are looking for is new players,” said Ryan. “Diarmuid has been doing really well in training and dealing with the physicality of it. Obviously, we know he can score but his work rate, his movement, his understanding of what we were asking him to do was excellent.”
Cork led by 1-6 to 0-5 after Healy’s goal, but they surrendered the advantage within two minutes after Niall O’Leary’s pass was intercepted and Billy Ryan punished the mistake. Kilkenny’s second goal arrived six minutes before the break when Cody seized on a breaking ball and fed Stephen Donnelly with a cute pass.
Kilkenny led by 2-9 to 1-10 at half-time, but Cork were level 12 minutes into the second half and slowly got on top. Shane Barrett was terrific at centre forward, and Rob Downey was majestic at centre back with a staggering 24 possessions. In a nine-minute spell, Cork stitched together four unanswered points and Kilkenny were pushed out to arm’s length.
CORK: P Collins; N O’Leary, E Downey, G Millerick; C Joyce (0-1), R Downey, M Mullins; D Fitzgibbon (0-1), T O’Mahony (0-2); D Dalton, S Barrett (0-2), D Healy (1-5); B Hayes, R O’Flynn, P Horgan (0-10; 0-7f).
Subs: D Cahalane for Millerick (26 mins); L Meade for O’Flynn (46); J O’Connor for Dalton (48); C O’Brien for Joyce (58); T O’Connell (0-1) for Mullins (62); J Cahalane for Hayes (68).
KILKENNY: E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, T Walsh; D Blanchfield, M Carey (0-1), P Deegan (0-1); K Doyle, J Molloy (0-3); M Keoghan (0-1), C Kenny (0-3), B Ryan (1-1); S Donnelly (1-0), E Cody (0-6; 0-4f, 0-1 65), H Shine.
Subs: L Hogan for Donnelly (h-t); P Moylan for Lawlor (49 mins); F Mackessy for Doyle (54); L Connellan for Shine (55); TJ Reid for Kenny (61).
Referee: J Murphy (Limerick).
