A rampant second-half display from Kilkenny saw them retain their Leinster title in style with an emphatic 2-23 to 2-12 victory over Wexford in front of 48,000 at Croke Park today. Henry Shefflin was in inspired form for The Cats scoring 1-08 of his side's impressive haul, with Conor Phelan, Derek Ling and DJ Carey also starring. The sides were locked at 0-08 each at the break following a tight opening half, but Eddie Brennan opened the second half with a stunning individual goal from which Wexford never recovered.
A tightly-fought entertaining opening half saw the sides finish level, with Wexford's Damien Fitzhenry the busier of the two goalkeepers. A lively opening saw points from Henry Sheflin, Tommy Walsh and Sean Dowling open a two point lead for Kilkenny with Darren Stamp claiming Wexford's only score. Rory Jacob pulled another back for John Conran's men, but DJ Carey responded with a pointed free from distance to restore a two-point cushion.
In between, Eddie Brennan was denied a certain goal by Fitzhenry when he outpaced the Wexford rearguard only to lose control of the ball at the vital second to allow the alert Fitzhenry to clear. Shefflin then added another close range free before Paul Codd added two of his own and Adrian Fenlon drew the sides level with another fine point in the 29th minute. A flurry of points in the closing stages saw The Cats pull three points clear with scores from Carey, Shefflin and Ling, but Codd, Jacob and Barry Lambert responded for Wexford to restore parity at the break, 0-08 to 0-08.
On the restart, Brennan, who had been denied a brace of goals in the first half, burst through the Wexford defence before unleashing a powerful drive beyond Fitzhenry for the game's first goal. That goal seemed to increase Kilkenny's belief and as their confidence grew so did their lead as Wexford failed to rise to the challenge. Ling and Dowling added a point each soon after to open a five point lead, but half-time substitute Barry Gough attempted to stem the tide with a superb point for Wexford.
Martin Comerford and DJ Carey dented any hopes of a Wexford revival with further scores as Kilkenny stretched their lead to 1-13 to 0-09 as a rout looked inevitable. To their credit, Wexford refused to throw in the towel despite squandering several chances and their efforts bore fruition when Barry Lambert found the net with a deflected shot in the 52nd minute.
Shefflin and substitute Michael Jacob traded points before Ling, Shefflin and the promising Tommy Walsh restored Kilkenny's seven point advantage before the hour mark. However, Chris McGrath gave John Conran's men a glimmer of hope when he turned brilliantly close to goal and rifled the ball to the net to close the gap to four points, 1-17 to 2-10.
Codd and Conor Phelan exchanged points before Shefflin put the game beyond Wexford's reach with an opportunist goal in the 64th minute, beating Fitzhenry and a Wexford defender to a high ball inside the square to tap the ball home. Brennan and Carey made further impressions on the scoreboard before a brace of points from Man of the Match Shefflin took his tally to 1-08. Gough and Walsh added one each to complete the scoring as The Cats played out the closing minutes with the confidence of true champions to reach a final tally of 2-23 to Wexford's 2-12 to claim the Bob O'Keefe Cup for the sixth time in a row.
Filed by Shane Murray
