In Kilkenny, nothing changes. Even when everything changes. The first season after Brian Cody will end in an All-Ireland final, same as the last season with him, same as 16 other seasons since the turn of the century. Limerick did for them last year, just as they’ve done for everyone they’ve met in finals since 2018. Kilkenny will bring what they bring, regardless.
For most of this semi-final, Derek Lyng’s side had Clare where they could see them. It was 1-25 to 1-22 in the end and Clare were only ahead for three minutes of the 75. Brian Lohan could go back down the road regretting all manner of stuff – a hapless goal given away, a miraculous Eoin Murphy save at the death, an afternoon when they probably got the pointier end of the referee’s stick. But the biggest pothole Clare ran into was one they dug for themselves.
In playing Séadna Morey as a seventh defender in the first half, Clare went away from the shape they’d been using all season. While it succeeded in keeping Kilkenny to a lower score than in the brutalising first half this weekend last year – 0-15 now as opposed to the crippling 1-17 then –, it felt like an admission that Clare came here freighted with fear. Which Lohan more or less conceded afterwards.
“Last year we felt we played the game on their terms. They had the extra defender back. We didn’t make use of the ball as well as we could. We just did not want to be out of the game at half-time. I know we were just about in the game but we didn’t want to be out of the game, conceding goals early on. And also we didn’t want to be pushing up as much on them.
“It is hard enough to defend those forwards Kilkenny have but to defend against that quality, and all that space, we just didn’t want to do that. So we made a decision to go with the plus one, or sweeper, or whatever you want to call it, and we went in 15-10 at half-time. So we were still in the game.
“I was very disappointed with how we played in the first half. Very disappointed with how we attacked the ball, disappointed in our shape, our structure.”
Memory can be a tonne weight. The fact that Clare got rinsed in this fixture last year obviously informed their approach to an outsize degree coming in. But Lohan’s side have gone toe-to-toe with Limerick four times in the past two championships without ever feeling the need to sacrifice a forward along the way. Was it really necessary to doff their caps to such an extent against a team that was blessed to win a Leinster final?
Even Kilkenny didn’t imagine they’d be afforded this level of respect. They were too polite to say so but they evidently couldn’t believe their luck. Shane O’Donnell was heroic throughout for Clare but he spent most of the first half fighting for 40-60 balls against two striped defenders. Staying within five points at the break seemed like scant reward for his labours.
“We were five points up at half-time and in control, I thought,” said TJ Reid. “But no, in the past couple of weeks, we weren’t even thinking about a sweeper really. Usually, maybe John Conlon might drop back and so on. So it was strange all right. But I think we adapted well in the first half.
“At half-time, we spoke about being ready because Clare were probably going to go back to playing 15-on-15 for the second half. When they did, they hurled very well, I thought. But we weathered the storm very well. They got two points up but in the last 15 minutes, we got our momentum back. We got some great scores and our backs and Eoin Murphy were exceptional again.”
Two moments to sum up the sheer, gnarled Kilkennyness of the day. On 22 minutes, O’Donnell ran a knitting pattern through the Kilkenny defence, exchanging passes with Peter Duggan before putting Mark Rodgers clear. Rodgers whipped his shot, only to find Conor Fogarty appearing from the clouds to get his stick in the way.
In the space of four seconds, Fogarty put a hit in on Duggan, cut off O’Donnell’s route to goal and pulled off a diving block on Rodgers. Parents of young kids will recognise this as the Miss Rabbit from Peppa Pig mode of defence, one person doing all the jobs at once.
But the last word was Murphy’s. With 40 seconds left on the clock and Clare two behind, Duggan pulled on a ball at shoulder height, only for Murphy to flick a ludicrous reaction save on to the crossbar and keep Kilkenny alive. It was breathtaking. Goalkeeping art. And it confirmed Kilkenny’s passage.
They’ll need all of it and more in a fortnight.
