Kilkenny showed once again that matching them for intensity only goes half way to beating them – you also have to be able to use the ball well while playing at that level of intensity. While Kilkenny’s ruthless finishing in the second half was sublime, the key difference between the teams was Galway’s high error count which repeatedly allowed Kilkenny to get into positions where they could exert maximum punishment.

In the second half alone, An Moltóir counted eleven Galway fumbles to Kilkenny’s two, and ten poor plays by Galway to just one for Kilkenny. Between the 48th and 67th minutes there were no less than eight episodes where Galway conceded possession due to such errors and a Kilkenny score followed. It was Clare in the 1990s who patented the concept of high-performance intensity but the current Kilkenny outfit have brought it to a new level which other counties are going to have to match if they are to have any chance of bringing the Cats down.

Another major problem for Galway was the lack of scoring edge among their half forwards who could only manage two points from play compared with eight for their Kilkenny counterparts. The Tribesmen did give a good account of themselves but the only way they could have won this game would have been through a couple of more goals from frees by Joe Canning (and even then who knows how Kilkenny would have responded). When one considers that the Cats were without Noel Hickey, Brian Hogan and Cha Fitzpatrick and were still able to bring on Derek Lyng, Richie Hogan and TJ Reid (not to mention newcomer Seán Cummins who gave a good account of himself), one can clearly see the mammoth task facing potential pretenders to their All-Ireland crown.

For all their hard work, Galway were still shaded it by Kilkenny in both halves in terms of number of individual plays (76:71, 78:69). This 11 per cent gap in number of plays expanded to 18% in terms of quality of plays – exactly the same gap as the scoring difference between the teams. Michael Rice was far and away the most effective player on the field, his 22 plays garnering him 53 quality points (note the similarity with Brick Walsh in Thurles). The other key Kilkenny players were Eoin Larkin (42 points from 15 plays, John Dalton (36/15) and Aidan Fogarty (31/12); four other players exceeded the 20-point mark.

Galway had no one in the same league as Rice or Larkin. Their top player was Damien Hayes (35/14) followed by Cyril Donnellan (32/12) and Eoin Lynch (32/15); three other players managed in excess of 20 points.

Key post-match talking points here were the sending off of Richie Murray and the non-sending-off of Tommy Walsh. Side-by-side with the game in Thurles, this game again highlighted both the inconsistency of the rules of hurling and the inconsistency of their application. Murray got a red card for a wild swing under a high ball; Séamus Prendergast did something similar in Thurles and got a yellow. Murray’s pull was not targetted and did not hit anyone. Tommy Walsh’s slap across Damien Hayes’s hand was nasty and could hardly be regarded as careless – he pulled exactly the same stroke on Eoin Kelly in the league match against Waterford. Then he follows this with a rugby tackle on a Galway player through on goal and still survives. Furthermore, in an incident in the third minute which the referee did not seem to notice, Walsh hit Damien Hayes in the back of the neck with his hurley after the Galway man had gone to ground following a foul.

A key problem here is the fact that hurling referees only appear to be prepared to give out cards for violent offences or repeated non-violent offences. Bringing down a player without applying violence, even where the player would otherwise be through on goal, rarely attracts a booking. Walsh’s tackle on Adrian Smyth would have merited a red card in soccer. And when Eddie Brennan – already on a yellow card – took out Ollie Canning with a high tackle which verged on the dangerous in the 57th minute, Barry Kelly just awarded a routine free.

The GAA needs to make all deliberate personal fouls yellow-card offences and all violent fouls red-card offences. They also need to impose suspensions for players receiving yellow cards in successive games. But then they also need to introduce an advantage rule and to allow linesmen to flag for fouls, not to mention…oh, forget it.

Number of plays – open play only (quality points in brackets):

Kilkenny: Ryan PJ 4 (9); Kavanagh M 2 (4); Delaney JJ 7 (16); Tyrrell J 5 (10); Walsh T 10 (22); Tennyson J 10 (25); Dalton J 17 (36); Fennelly M 7 (15); Rice M 22 (53); Sheflin H 9 (26); Comerford M 13 (27); Larkin E 12 (30); Brennan E 4 (9); Power R 6 (15); Fogarty A 12 (31); Lyng D 7 (18); Cummins S 4 (10); Hogan R 1 (2) ; Reid TJ 1 (3). Note: Kilkenny players can be difficult to identify at times on screen. Ger Canning’s tendency to misidentify players is no help.

Galway: Callanan C 2 (5); Joyce D 11 (26); Kavanagh S 6 (14); Canning O 12 (29); Moore F 7 (16); Lee J 9 (17); Cullinane A 9 (18); Lynch E 15 (32); Hynes K 4 (8); Callanan A 12 (27); Donnellan C 12 (32); Smyth A 5 (9); Hayes D 14 (35); Canning J 7 (17); Healy N 5 (13); Tierney D 8 (15); Kerins A 2 (4); Murray R no plays.