Leinster SHC Round 4: Kilkenny 5-19 Dublin 3-21
Kilkenny coughing up a 16-point lead against Dublin before eventually coming good to secure their Leinster SHC final place. Now where have we heard that one before?
Rewind to Halloween night, 2020, and the circumstances were pretty much the same as the Cats ran up a huge lead before promptly handing it all back.
They eventually prevailed on a narrow margin that evening to reach the provincial final, and it was the same outcome here as Billy Ryan capped a terrific game with a 69th-minute goal to win it for Kilkenny.
With four wins from four, Derek Lyng’s side are assured of a place in the Leinster final on June 8th despite still having a group game to go against Wexford next Sunday.
Whilst this game was a glimpse into the past on one hand, it could also be a peak into the future as Dublin will play Kilkenny again in the final if they beat Galway next weekend.
Dublin will be at home to the Tribesmen at Parnell Park in what is now an effective Leinster semi-final.
Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin wasn’t so sure if they will approach that game with momentum, given their excellent second-half performance against Kilkenny, or disappointment.
“It’s a fair question,” he reasoned. “I think there’s definitely disappointment there. If you walk in there to our dressing-room, there’s absolutely disappointment there. We felt it was there for us and that we should have seen it out.”
If someone told you at half-time that Ó Ceallacháin would be expressing disappointment afterwards about not winning, you’d have sent them on their way.
Kilkenny led 4-12 to 0-10 at that stage. Ó Ceallacháin argued Dublin weren’t actually playing that bad and any “independent observer” would agree.
But the goals were killer concessions with Adrian Mullen’s, Kilkenny’s first in the 16th minute, and Martin Keoghan’s in the 32nd both the products of long deliveries to the danger area that broke kindly.
Ryan and TJ Reid also struck first-half goals, though those two were more about two in-form players displaying their individual ability as they soloed in from either wing before netting.
Ryan finished with 2-3, all from play, and displayed a razor-sharp edge whenever a scoring opportunity arose, like when Reid tossed him a pass in the 65th minute and he found space with a neat pirouette before pointing.
Reid finished with 1-9, the points all from frees, though before any of Kilkenny’s eight different scorers could celebrate their day’s work, they had to endure a horror final 20 minutes or so.
John Hetherton displayed the value of a big man on the edge of the square when he helped set up Dublin’s first goal in the 39th minute, finished off by Sean Currie.
Conor Donohoe came strongly into the game in midfield too, drilling back-to-back points and generally helping the Dubs gain a vital foothold in the middle third.
But it wasn’t until their second and third goals, scored in the 53rd and 54th minutes, by Currie again and Cian O’Sullivan as part of a 2-4 scoring siege, that a comeback seemed genuinely possible.
Kilkenny went 13 minutes without scoring and winced as AJ Murphy, a star man in Na Fianna’s All-Ireland club success under Ó Ceallacháin last winter, came off the bench and scored two points.
Dublin trailed by just two in the 69th minute and eyed a most remarkable win before having the rug pulled from beneath them in the form of Ryan’s late goal.
Jordan Molloy took off through the centre and could have tapped over a point but showed both his ruthless streak and his confidence in Ryan by offloading to his right.
“We were playing a top-class team, we’re not going to have it all our own way for 75 minutes,” said Lyng. “But I think for a chunk of the second-half we’d be disappointed surely that their purple patch lasted as long as it did.”
KILKENNY: E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, P Deegan; D Blanchfield, R Reid, M Carey; C Kenny, J Molloy (0-1); A Mullen (1-0), J Donnelly, B Ryan (2-3); M Keoghan (1-3), TJ Reid (1-9, 9f), S Donnelly (0-1).
Subs: K Doyle (0-1) for Blanchfield (24-25 mins, blood), L Hogan (0-1) for Mullen (45), Doyle for Kenny (48), F Mackessy for Hogan (59), L Connellan for S Donnelly (71), T Walsh for Blanchfield (72).
DUBLIN: E Gibbons; C McHugh, P Smyth, J Bellew; P Doyle, C Crummey (0-1), P Dunleavy; C Burke, C Donohoe (0-4); C O’Sullivan (1-5), B Hayes, D Power (0-1); S Currie (2-6, 1-4f, 0-1 65), J Hetherton, C Currie.
Subs: F Whitely (0-1) for Dunleavy, R Hayes for C Currie (both h-t), R McBride (0-1) for Burke (49 mins), A Jamieson-Murphy (0-2) for Power (65).
Ref: M Kennedy (Tipperary).
