By the end of a haywire afternoon in Kilkenny, Dublin hurlers were in the happy position of topping the Allianz Hurling League, as the only county with a 10- per-cent record after two matches.
This was a day for unusual sights. For many of us the half-time mini sevens was a first glimpse of football being played in Nowlan Park. And for everyone in the crowd of 7,152 the result, which saw Dublin forced to – sort of – hang on, having led by 14 going into the final quarter, before winning by five, was historic.
As intensive a research project as was possible in the hours after the match indicated that this was the first win for the county’s hurlers at the venue since the Walsh Cup final of 1964.
Neatly distributed
Scoring honours for Dublin went to former All Star nominee
David Treacy
, who fired over 11 points, neatly distributed between play (four), 65s (three) and frees (four).
Kilkenny already had a sizeable batch of misfortune going into the fixture. Between injuries, retirements and Ballyhale’s All-Ireland club commitments Brian Cody’s team were down half the All-Ireland winning side and, as can happen, things got worse.
Two Kilkenny players were red carded by Cork referee Colm Lyons. The first, full forward Jonjo Farrell was called for striking with the hurl in the 24th minute but video footage is more likely to support the player than the official when it comes to a hearing.
A second red card followed in the 56th minute, this time for replacement Joe Lyng.
After the furore of his comments about All-Ireland referee Barry Kelly, Kilkenny manager Brian Cody wasn't being drawn on the subject of the official. "I'll let ye decide on that lads. I won't talk about referees. Obviously it had a huge bearing on the game – there was nobody hurt. That's all I know. I don't know why he was sent off. The referee made a decision and that was it."
His Dublin counterpart Ger Cunningham wasn't getting carried away with the rare success. "Kilkenny were short 12 or 13 of their panel and some really fantastic players and I know it gives the chance to the other players to stand up but Kilkenny weren't going at full strength today and we have to take cognisance of that today."
A strong wind helped Dublin in the first half but its impact was fading up until the time of Farrell’s dismissal. But a strong finish to the first half was complemented by an equally impressive start to the second even though they were facing into the elements.
“We made no impact after half-time even with the wind,” said Cody. “Fourteen play 15 fairly often so it shouldn’t have made that much of a difference. If we started the second half like we finished the second half – it would have been important but we didn’t.”
It was Dublin’s third win in the last four league meetings with Kilkenny, an unusually robust record against the game’s leading county.
