Waterford bombarded Kilkenny with 44 attempts on goal last Sunday at Walsh Park but only finished four point winners. The hosts were aggressive and confrontational with the All Ireland champions on the sticky sod but certainly not ruthless.
Entering injury time, the door was still left ajar for a Kilkenny smash and grab raid. Walter Walsh and Richie Hogan combined but Hogan couldn’t find Padraig Walsh with his stick pass and the sliotar dribbled wide. It took Jake Dillon’s point on 72 minutes to finally bury the black and amber.
Even when they drew level on the restart, Brian Cody still felt that his team were under the cosh. “It wasn’t a question of pressing on, we were hanging in more so for the duration of the game really. If their shooting was a bit more clinical, we would have had a much more difficult battle.”
On 27 minutes, Colin Fennelly slipped Kilkenny in front for the first and only time all afternoon. The Cats lived on scraps yet somehow led 0-6 to 0-5. At that stage of the game, they manufactured half the chances of their hosts. Kilkenny converted six out of their nine attempts while Waterford shot five points from 18 attacks.
The Déise half back line and midfield had a chokehold on the contest and prevented any ball reaching the Kilkenny inside trio. Darragh Fives slotted in seamlessly with Tadhg De Burca on the sidelines. The forwards also got stuck in and hounded their markers into rushed clearances. 33 minutes passed before Barry Coughlan got his first clean possession, a catch over the head of Mark Kelly. Stephen O’Keeffe only handled one back pass throughout the entire first half.
TG4 man of the match Austin Gleeson was involved fifteen times as he stood in front of the sweeper to mark Richie Hogan and immediately got in the thick of the action. The 20 year old drove forward at every opportunity but he hit four wides and conceded four frees. He committed two fouls following his initial yellow card. Wing back Philip Mahony got on the ball eleven times. Midfielders Colin Dunford and Jamie Barron had fifteen touches between them with the Colligan bright spark striking two delicious points into the Keane’s road end.
With this monopoly of possession, Waterford generated 24 scoring opportunities yet only had eight points on the board. Along with Gleeson, Maurice Shanahan was also guilty of four wides. He would have put that opening free over the bar with his eyes shut last season. Five balls landed short into the Kilkenny goalmouth. With Joey Holden getting the upper hand on Shanahan, Waterford tried their luck from further out the field.
Derek McGrath didn’t try to change their shoot-on-sight approach during the half time break but focussed instead on sustaining that manic intensity. “The minute you go to work the ball a bit better against Kilkenny you will be swamped and overrun with how they tackle and how physical they are. We just wanted to work harder, that was our motto. We felt that at half time in the All Ireland semi final that we came in and we were almost applauding ourselves. Whereas at half time today, we were a little bit harder on ourselves.”
A further twenty chances came their way. Gleeson added two more misses early in the second half to make a total of six for just 45 minutes of action. The number five made a massive 26 plays overall. His aerial strength and ability to get the team on the front foot overwhelmed Kilkenny. De Burca's return may offer him a more advanced role to improve his shooting percentages. Dunford was another dazzling performer around the middle. His contribution included those two points, an assist for Maurice Shanahan and he also won three frees.
After Kilkenny levelled at eight points all, Waterford struck the next three, two from Shanahan, to get some breathing space. The visitors failed to score for 19 minutes with Darragh Fives, Kevin Moran and Jamie Barron cleaning up in the air and winning most of the rucks on the ground.
It was difficult for management to make any switches. Facial injuries to Maurice Shanahan and Noel Connors forced their hand on two of the three substitutions. Patrick Curran could be pleased with his league debut despite a couple of uncharacteristic misses. He lined out at centre forward and played a little deeper than what he is normally accustomed to. Jake Dillon also tracked back into his own half of the field and popped up with two points and an assist for Curran. Shane Bennett’s goal effort gave a teaser of his threat close to the posts.
Waterford management may be grateful in time that they didn’t run out comprehensive winners. A conversion rate of thirty per cent will keep their feet planted ahead of Saturday’s trip to Páirc Uí Rinn with two more valuable league points up for grabs.
