IN ANTHONY DALY’S autobiography, the former Clare star and Dublin manager tells a story from the aftermath of the 2013 Leinster semi-final replay when the Dubs had finally beaten their great nemesis.
Kilkenny boss Brian Cody entered the Dublin dressing room and delivered kind and gracious words about how he’d been saying for a long time that Dublin were a good team and how their performance that evening in Portlaoise had confirmed what Cody had always believed. Then, Cody sounded a warning.
He told the Dublin players the performance would count for nothing unless they beat Galway in the Leinster final eight days later. Cody genuinely hoped Dublin would end their Leinster famine but there was an added meaning contained in his words: “Ye are also carrying Leinster hopes now,” said Cody.
“We let the Bob O’Keeffe Cup out of Leinster last year and it’s not something we’re proud of.”
Cody was sore about more than just Bob O’Keeffe crossing the Shannon for the first time. The previous year, Galway had ambushed Kilkenny in the Leinster final. Kilkenny came back to defeat Galway in the 2012 All-Ireland final after a replay. Galway should have won the drawn game but Kilkenny dug in and forced a draw. In the replay, though, Kilkenny got their own back when burying their opponents.
Despite all their domination, one of the greatest achievements of Cody’s career has been convincing his Kilkenny teams to consistently play with the outlook and attitude of a group which always has something to prove. Their conveyor belt and depth of talent fosters that culture of intense competition within the squad, which generates their pulverising drive. Cody is always searching for another raw nerve, another cause, but nobody places him and his players on alert more than Galway.
Kilkenny have beaten Galway on eight Championship occasions under Cody, but no other county has a better Championship record against Kilkenny under Cody than Galway. As with Cork, they have beaten Kilkenny three times, while they also took Kilkenny to that replay in the 2012 final.
Kilkenny’s 2001 All-Ireland semi-final defeat was also the real trigger point for Kilkenny’s modern crusade. Galway bullied Kilkenny that day but Cody swore it would never happen to his team again. It never has. After 2001, Kilkenny had to wait another three years to run into Galway again. When they did, they were like men possessed, especially Cody. The players knew a big performance was coming. They could feel it all week as they were driven on by the lash of Cody’s tongue.
“I never saw Kilkenny as tuned for a match,” said James McGarry in his book Last Man Standing.
“But it was the most psyched up I’d ever seen Cody. He was psyched up big-time. He’d been like that all week. Everyone was tuned in and geared to go. Nobody was going to beat us.”
Kilkenny came out of the traps like wild animals, intent on devouring all before them. The context of Kilkenny’s mentality was largely framed from their one-point defeat to Wexford in the Leinster semi-final, but the tone of their aggression was taken from 2001.
When Galway scalped them again in the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final, Kilkenny responded with a vengeance a year later in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Before the 2012 All-Ireland final, Galway’s Fergal Healy, who played against Kilkenny in 2004 and '06, had this to say: “You get the impression from them very early on that this is a form of payback. Their aggression is different. Their attitude is different. When Kilkenny come back to do a team, they really aim to do them.”
For Kilkenny, the pursuit of excellence and the desire to win is greater than titles and glory. Winning is business but having a cause adds extra venom to Kilkenny’s bite. And Kilkenny always feel they have a cause against Galway because of their history with them. They often struggled to get a handle on Galway because of their unpredictability. A week before the 2012 Leinster final, a Kilkenny player privately admitted as much.
“Galway could do anything,” he said.
“They could be useless or brilliant.”
The following Sunday, Galway blew Kilkenny out of the water. Their unpredictability since has been one of the great hurling conundrums. Since Anthony Cunningham took over in 2012, Galway have failed to win consecutive league games. And yet, in that time, Galway reached consecutive league semi-finals and made this season’s league quarter-final. At the start of this summer, they were eighth favourites, priced at 14/1, to win the All-Ireland. The bookies rarely get it wrong, but Galway were priced at longer odds at the outset of 2012 after barely surviving a League relegation final.
Nobody ever knows what to expect from Galway but that has always added to their danger factor. In last year’s drawn Leinster semi-final, Kilkenny were ahead by 10 points with just seven minutes remaining before Galway scrambled a draw. Apart from Tipperary, no other team has the capacity to chase down a 10-point Kilkenny lead. It’s also easy to forget Galway had Tipp by the throat in last year’s All-Ireland Qualifier before running out of gas during their third tough match in just 13 days.
Kilkenny always evolve but Galway have heavily evolved too since last year. With injuries, only eight of the starting team from that drawn Kilkenny match are expected to start on Sunday. The changes they’ve made have also turned Galway into a hugely imposing and physical outfit, a side that will be well able to stand up to Kilkenny’s brute force and power.
Wexford have a big powerful team but physique only goes so far against Kilkenny because their big men can marry power with skill and good footwork. Kilkenny trampled all over Wexford but Galway's big men up front have the skill and pace to rack up a score.
The big question for Galway is whether or not their defence will be able to hold out against Kilkenny but the team has momentum and confidence now. And Kilkenny know better than anyone else how dangerous that animal can be.
