Disappointment for Kilkenny but better days lie ahead- Paul Murphy

The All-Ireland semi-finals delivered two brilliant days of hurling and the matches were a great advertisement for the sport.

The two games were both exciting in their own ways even if the standard in the Cork and Limerick game was that bit higher.

The one thing that the GAA needed as a whole was an exciting day of games over a full weekend but especially on the Sunday with 82,000 people in Croke Park to witness a big upset and from start to finish, it had you on the edge of your seat.

The games were great for hurling people and they were very exciting.

Kilkenny will definitely be disappointed with the final 20 or 25 minutes in particular as they had looked in control up to that point.

They had put in a really dominant opening half as they created a number of opportunities while carving up the Clare defence at the same time.

Clare made one or two changes to come back into the game in the second half and Kilkenny will be disappointed that they didn’t register more scores in the final few minutes.

The last Kilkenny point arrived in the 57th minute. Trying to tie down a game with that as your last score was always going to be tough against a team that were rolling at that stage.

Kilkenny only scored 1-6 in the second half and although they led by six when Billy Ryan got their second goal, they won’t be happy with the way they let the lead slip as it was in their hands if they kept the scoreboard moving.

That may have been enough to get over the line but nevertheless Clare didn’t give up and they kept fighting back and when they got a bit of momentum, it was tough to stop them.

Clare have a lot to thank Eibhear Quilligan for in that first half. If it hadn’t been for a couple of great saves from the Clare ’keeper then Kilkenny could have been almost out of sight and it would have been much closer to the 2022 clash between the teams as a result.

The hardest thing to do in hurling is create the opportunities but Kilkenny had the chances, never more so than when Mikey Carey had a one-on-one effort.

In hindsight a forward may say that he should have struck it into the ground or whatever, but credit to Eibhear Quilligan - he stood tall and he gave himself the best opportunity to save it as he could.

Overall Kilkenny had about four goal chances in the first half and if any more of them went in, Clare would have been under serious pressure but Brian Lohan’s side rode the wave and got their reward in the end.

You could be critical of the way Clare played in the last two years and this year again they started Shane O’Donnell further away from goal. Once they got him closer to goal in the second half they created a couple more opportunities while the introduction of Ryan Taylor was also a big positive for them as he brought other players into the game.

Mark Rodgers and Tony Kelly weren’t really in the match until Taylor came on. His influence coincided with Clare really going for the game - that’s something that they can bring into the final with Cork.

Mikey Carey’s missed goal chance proved to be a big turning point in the game.  Picture: Sportsfile

There were a lot of key battles all over the field, none more so than the one between Eoin Cody and Adam Hogan.
You could see, off the ball, that there was a few verbals between the two of them and obviously when Eoin got the goal he gave it back to him.

Hogan won a few balls after that but they’ve been a really good match-up in all three of the games that the counties have met in this year.

It was a big battle and there was a bit of needle there with plenty of fire but when it comes to the heat of the battle it does get tense and it was definitely an interesting side story as there was always something going on between the lads.

It was another big day for TJ Reid as well and he was as important as ever to Kilkenny.

He got a couple of great scores; how he creates his own space is incredible.

When he first got onto the Kilkenny team he wasn’t a free-taker and he was scoring mostly from open play and then took over the mantle probably halfway through his career so it’s a remarkable achievement to get over the 700 point mark.

I know Patrick Horgan got over it as well, but for our own TJ to do that is brilliant and it’s another statistic of an incredible career so far.

When I was playing with him, it was very hard to see him reaching this level even if there’s lots of possibilities when they are young.

How players progress and stay injury free comes into it. When we were starting out Henry Shefflin was obviously on the frees, as were Richie Hogan and Richie Power, before TJ then took over.

His scoring in championship hurling is astronomical really but he’s one of those players that has got better with age where others may have started really well when they were young.

It was really from 2015 on when he won Hurler of the Year that you could see this fella hanging around for a long time and the sky was the limit for him.

When you look at Kilkenny now there is still a lot of the under-20 team from two years ago to come through and they are still getting blooded.

You’d be hopeful that in a few years that our minors will be able to step up. It’s just the natural evolution of a team that players probably will step away - as for who they are, only time will tell on that.

There’s still a strong cohort of players there who have yet to win an All-Ireland and they still have many years to come in the Kilkenny jersey.

We’re in a strong position as we’ve established young players and while they are disappointed at the moment there will be better days still ahead.