After Brian Cody we wondered what would be different. To the end he had been sceptical about modern trends. He was more likely to call them fads. In his mind nothing essential about the game ever changed. Hurling was a fight. Bully or be bullied.
Derek Lyng was bound to have ideas. Nothing radical; subtle shifts. He wasn’t squeamish about short puckouts or playing through the lines or percentage passes, all of the things that made Cody swallow hard in his final years. But the stuff that worked when he played, and Peter Barry and Michael Rice played, had never failed Kilkenny. So why did we think they would be different?
The performance that did for Clare could have been rolled out by Kilkenny at any time in the last 25 years. There is a glossary of terms and measurements now for what Cody called work rate, lovingly; Limerick have an intensity index. Kilkenny couldn’t patent the practice, but they did it first, and they perfected it until it was both art and labour.
The hunting and hitting was ceaseless. In the first half they choked Clare. They blocked the running channels down the centre and forced Clare to turn away and think again. Their energy dropped at times in the second half but not their desire. That is the bountiful source of everything: livid desire.
They have players who carry the flame, carefully. Decorated veterans. Officer class. Two of TJ Reid’s late frees were for fouls on Richie Hogan and Walter Walsh: 101 years between the three of them. Eoin Murphy and Conor Fogarty both started their intercounty careers in 2011, before 25 of the players on the Clare panel. Padraig Walsh is in his 12th season; he came off the bench and scored. Reid and Hogan started in 2007.
Everything done. So what? Do it again.
Reid is a wonder still. He sacrificed himself for spells in the first half just so that he could be alone with Conor Cleary between the two 65s, miles from where the Clare full-back wanted to be. Just like in the Leinster final, Reid knew that the space he left behind was a boon for someone else.
Other stuff we take for granted. He had 15 shots at the target and scored from 12 of them. He drew a miraculous save from Eibhear Quilligan in the Clare goal in the first half, and was part of the guerrilla turnover when Kilkenny broke through for their goal midway through the second half.
Three minutes before half time he won a ruck inside the Kilkenny 20 and forced a relieving free. He doesn’t excuse himself from the nitty-gritty stuff on grounds of age or genius. Going down the stretch, when the game was in the balance, he laid on a score for Cian Kenny, landed an outrageous sideline cut and pointed a pressure free from a ridiculous angle. One day he won’t be there and somebody else will miss.
How much comfort do the others take from his presence? There is no metric for that.
Afterwards Reid was asked about the mesmerising save that Murphy made from Peter Duggan in the closing minutes, and the answer could have come from Cody’s mouth.
“Unbelievable stuff. But then it’s a matter of making sure that our half forwards and midfielders win the next ball. Yes, it’s great that Scruff makes that fantastic save, but to relieve the pressure on the team we have to get the possession next. It’s about saying to yourself, ‘I need to win this ball for the team. I need to win this ball for Eoin Murphy.’ The spirit was there. The energy and the work ethic was there.”
There was a tactical element too. When these things are teased out the usual conclusion is that one crowd were playing chess and the others were playing draughts.
Clare were conservative in the first half, and maybe they took their wariness to extremes, and maybe they were fearful: of what happened last year, of being barbecued by half time again, of a defence that had three players returning from setbacks, and a rookie playing his first game in Croke Park. In a two-horse race they tried to place an each-way bet.
Nothing really worked until they trusted themselves to be bold. Without the safety harness of extra cover in the second half their defenders attacked the ball from the front, with aggression and fine judgement and cussedness; Mark Rodgers blossomed under pressure; Peter Duggan produced his best performance since 2018; Shane O’Donnell led the comeback with unending courage and cuteness.
They plugged into all this stuff while chasing a crowd who didn’t have to adjust much on the hoof. They had a plan for Clare, and they have principles that tower above everything. No change.
