Paul Murphy: Galway game is the challenge Kilkenny have looked forward to

A good win secured early on and Leinster points in the bag. Saturday’s championship opener against Westmeath would have ticked all the boxes for Derek Lyng and his side.

We didn’t learn a lot about Kilkenny, who seemed to be in third gear - some of that was tempered by the absence of a number of Westmeath’s starting team - but you could see what Kilkenny were about and how they wanted to move the ball. You’d like to believe that, when they’re put under more pressure, they’ll continue to stick to the plan they want to implement.

The Galway game this weekend is the challenge that Kilkenny want; this is going to test their personnel, their plan and the bench - to be fair to Derek and his selectors, they’ve really given players game time over the League.
Game time

Saturday’s win was a good game to bring TJ Reid back into the fold. Having last played with Ballyhale in the All-Ireland final he needs to get game time. From that point of view it was good to get him back on the pitch.

The win was a good starting point for Derek in his first championship campaign as Kilkenny manager. He wouldn’t have been distracted by things in the build-up to the game - as a player he came from the era where you want to win the game and you want to compete. These are great traits to have.

I don’t think he was fazed by being the first person to step in after Brian retired; people were saying it was strange not to see Brian there on the sideline, but we’ve spoken so much about Derek during the Walsh Cup and the league that you’re very familiar with seeing him there now.

I don’t think there were nerves ahead of the game - he would have looked upon it as being the first step for Kilkenny in the championship. He and his selectors have tested players and now it’s down to the nitty-gritty of putting out what they believe to be their strongest starting 15. Derek would have been very focused on that and not about the fact it was the first new manager for the county in 25 years.

It helped that his appointment was made ahead of the Kilkenny club championship last year. When I was playing with the club last year it was great to have senior inter-county management in position. Players were hurling with their clubs and if they had played a good game they felt they were highlighting themselves to the management in the stand. It was evident that Derek and his selectors were at these games as they’ve taken in players who were at the games who performed. There were lots of benefits in bringing Derek in early and giving him time to prepare.

Ruthless
The preparation showed in Saturday’s win, as Kilkenny were ruthless against Westmeath - you could see that from the start of the game.

In the first 20 minutes I made some notes about the number of shots the teams had - Westmeath had four, Kilkenny 14.

For me, that showed signs of team who weren’t hanging around but were determined to go about their business. They knew they had the quality of racking up a good score, to get the league points and focus on Galway.

That’s what they did and they did it emphatically, which was impressive given the conditions. Westmeath drew with Wexford last year and can lure teams into serious battles. Kilkenny didn’t want that and went about their business, which helps with the preparation for Galway this weekend.

The lads will be really focused on this game. Once the league was finished, Kilkenny knew the Galway game was going to be their next big task. Having it in Nowlan Park won’t be lost on the lads either - if you have real ambitions of winning Leinster and competing for All-Irelands you want to win your home games. It’s a healthy pressure the lads will put on themselves.
Kilkenny have had Galway’s number over the last few years so it will be interesting to see how the sides do battle at the weekend. This Galway team is a really good side and could have a good tilt at Limerick on any given day but I think Kilkenny have the personnel there to prevail.

Derek will want to field his strongest championship side so any player who takes a starting 15 jersey this weekend will be looking to hold on to it while any player just outside that side will have the bit between their teeth for the next day. Henry will have felt Galway didn’t perform as well as they could have in last year’s Leinster final so he’ll know it would be a good marker for his team if they could get a win in Nowlan Park.

Kilkenny and Galway play a good brand of hurling, so it’s teed up nicely to be a great game of hurling. Both sides have high quality players; they’re big physical teams who are well able to move the ball and both will feel they have a bench of youth and experience they can use to mix things up on the pitch should they need to.

The potential match-ups are appetising too - you could have the likes of Conor Whelan going up against Huw Lawlor - two excellent, physical players going toe-to-toe against each other. You could have Mikey Butler up against Evan Niland, who had a great weekend in the first round, then you look at the other end to see how Galway will keep tabs on Adrian Mullen - does Padraic Mannion follow him?

Both teams will be trying to tease out a lot of dynamics; it’s a game that could be won and lost in those battles.