Wexford’s win over Kilkenny last Sunday was a surprise alright, but it was hardly a shock...

Once again the so-called expert pundits got it all wrong. Kilkenny’s odds of eight to one on were absolutely ridiculous. One wonders if anyone will be suing the’Sunday Times’ after Babs told those readers who had a handy €80,000 available that a flutter on the Cats would yield as easy a €10,000 as anyone was ever likely to get.

The facts are as follows. Despite their inconsistency and recent poor form, Wexford remain one of the leading hurling counties. They have played in two All-Ireland semi-finals in the last three years. Last year in the replay against Cork they were going well until being derailed by two blatantly illegal goals (how come Aodán Mac Suibhne is still refereeing top-class intercounty games?). It is part of the conventional wisdom that the best time to beat either Kilkenny or Cork is in their first outing in the championship. This year, Kilkenny were particularly vulnerable as they would inevitably have had problems reaching the required level of intensity after two (and more) hard years on the road – especially against a team which they had only recently whipped in a League match on their own ground.

It is also a fact that, despite the loss of Liam Dunne, Paul Codd, Darren Stamp and Larry O’Gorman (only a bit player in any case), Wexford still had a lot of good experienced players in their side – Fitzhenry, Ryan, O’Connor, McCarthy, Ruth, Fenlon and Jordan. In addition, the Jacobs had already given plenty of evidence of exceptional ability. A further fact which was once again made all too obvious last Sunday was that Kilkenny only have three and a half good forwards (Sheflin, Walsh, Comerford and Carey as an impact sub). How many times in the last few years have we seen Hoyne, Brennan and Coogan being substituted? And why do you think Brian Cody moved heaven and earth to get Carey to come out of retirement in 2002? Hoyne et al. will destroy a team which has already given up the ghost. But if you get stuck into them, as Wexford did last Sunday, they don’t really want to know.

Another part of conventional wisdom is that the best way to upset the hurling artists of Kilkenny and Cork is to play first-time ground hurling. The point here is that if Kilkenny/Cork don’t have the ball, they can’t do anything with it. Of course, to implement this tactic effectively, you have to get to the ball first. But if you are properly fired up, and the opposition is a bit relaxed going into the game, then that shouldn’t be a problem.

John Conran’s game plan, therefore, was built on three simple principles. Play the ball first time, both on the ground and in the air; don’t hit high balls into the Kilkenny half of the field, especially from puckouts; and switch the play from side to side in order to create space for Wexford’s small but nippy and skilful forwards. Conran’s act of genius was to actually get his players to implement the game plan and to stick to it more or less to the end. An Moltóir was of the belief that they were congenitally unable to strike the ball on the ground down by the Slaney, where “jennet express” hurling has always been the order of the day. A few years back one of Conran’s predecessors attempted to get his charges to play ground hurling and it was cruel trying to watch them execute the most basic of ground strokes. You would swear they had sprongs in their hands, so awkward and ungainly were their efforts.

It was therefore with gobsmacked wonderment that An Moltóir watched the superb ground striking exhibition put on by Wexford last Sunday. Even more impressive was the overhead striking of their defenders (especially the halfbacks) which repeatedly denied the Kilkenny forwards the clean possession which is their bread and butter. It is interesting to note that two departures from the basic principle of first-time hurling almost cost the Model County dear. In the first half, a great goalscoring opportunity presented itself to Michael Jacob when the ball came across to him in front of goal. However, instead of pulling first time (as Paul O’Brien had done for Waterford the previous week) Jacob elected to lift the ball and was immediately swallowed up by the converging defenders. And, late in the second half, Eoin Quigley set off on a pointless solo run and was robbed by Tommy Walsh who then placed Martin Comerford for what could have been a vital point.

Apart from their excellent game plan, Wexford’s cause was greatly assisted by the fact that not only did all their senior players perform superbly, but none of the young ‘uns were overawed by the occasion and all weighed in with mighty contributions. An Moltóir was particularly impressed by Malachy Travers, who played with extraordinary altertness from start to finish. And yet, despite everything going right for them, they were still one point in arrears as the game entered the closing seconds. In other words, despite all the discomfiture caused by the Wexford game plan, the Cats continued to hurl steadily away, as one would expect from such an experienced team. What really did for them in the end was a series of bad misses in the early part of the second half. On another day, these chances would have seen them pulling comfortably away from the opposition. But last Sunday there was that bit of fragility in their play which allowed Wexford to stay in touch and eventually deliver the killer blow.

A couple of other points from last weekend’s events. An Moltóir was greatly struck by the poverty of Peter Finnerty’s performance as “expert” assistant for the television broadcast of the game in Croke Park. He rarely ventured any observation unless asked directly for one by Marty Morrissey. And the observations he did make were generally either vacuous or obvious. He had no overall view of the structural pattern of the game, such as that expertly presented by Ger Loughnane in the half-time studio. In An Moltóir’s view, the best expert commentator RTÉ ever had was Jimmy Barry Murphy, who was always astute and incisive in his observations. He gave up doing this when be became manager of the Cork team years ago. Perhaps it is time for him to be brought back – he would be worth ten times whatever RTÉ are paying Finnerty.

Secondly, RTÉ should be excoriated for the token coverage they gave the Ulster final in the Sunday Game. Most hurling fans would have welcomed a decent dollop of what appeared to be an interesting game. And while it is not part of RTÉ’s remit to promote hurling, as such (sorry Cyril!), it would still do a lot for the status of the game in the North if they got some decent coverage, as an angry Dinny Cahill eloquently pointed out in ‘Sports Call’ on Monday evening.

Finally, while Conal Keany’s swipe at a Westmeath player cannot be condoned, it certainly looked innocuous compared to the infractions of TJ Ryan and Waterford’s Eoin Kelly over the previous two weekends. The pity about this is that, with Kilkenny knocked out and Offaly as weak as they have been for over twenty years, Dublin might have had some chance, however slim, of taking the Leinster title this year got the first time since 1961. The impact this would have on hurling in the capital would be immense. However, without Keany at full tilt, the prospects of this happening are slimmer than slim. Maybe Dublin should appeal the red card and then ask Frank Murphy to conjure up some magical formula from the rule book which would allow Keany to get off with a caution. But this might have the long-term effect of creating another significant obstacle to Cork’s quest for total hurling dominance, and Frank wouldn’t like that now, would he?<