This year's hurling championship began on 22 April. On that day, Galway beat Wexford and Kilkenny demolished Westmeath. The following day Limerick just about got over the line against Waterford and Clare left the floodgates opened and leaked five goals against Tipperary.
Now just 11 weeks later those four teams are the envy of the hurling world. Is it too much too soon? For me it is, shove it back a few weeks, all will be fine.
The festival of hurling is upon us, the acts are ready and the main stage is set. I'm hoping now the performances live up to the billing. How this weekend will play out for those four teams depends hugely on who gets the nod from injuries and knocks. So rather than focus on the maybes I’m going to focus on the definites and for me the men on whose shoulders rests a large responsibility of their team making it to the major showpiece on Sunday, 23 July.
These are the players, if they can produce a performance, the rest will follow and will ultimately lead to victory. On the flipside then that man from the opposition who will be tasked with shutting this player down, so helping to find the win for their team.
So here we go.
First up it’s Galway and no shocks here that their key player is Conor Whelan. The Kinvara man is in a rich vein of form. Last two performances and two man of the match displays. He does not mind how it comes, but it must come in and fast.
His stats back up what he can do when he gets the ball. He is tenth in the overall scoring charts but the rest are all free takers and he is out in front in the race for the golden hurl with seven goals bagged already. He is now the leader of the forward line and is being ably assisted by Kevin Cooney who is helping to create space for Whelan to flourish.
Does Whelan need to be man of the match for Galway to win? No, but he must be having an eight out of ten performance for them to get there. How can this happen against a defence laden down with All-Star defenders and still without two of the best in the form of Finn & Hannon? Well what has worked
so well for Galway isn’t broken, no need to fix it. Get the ball into Whelan and get it in quick.
Physically he can handle anyone in a one v one scenario and his footwork can leave most defenders dizzy and as I said, he knows where the net is too.
Who’ll be tasked with trying to stop him is a conundrum but I feel we could see the Doon man, Richie English getting the nod and getting tasked with this job should Whelan be in the full-forward line. Although Limerick do not man mark, I could not foresee Diarmuid Byrnes having to sacrifice his hurling game to go and mark Whelan so it would be very interesting to see what would happen should Whelan take up position in the half-forward line.
It’s hard to pin point exactly who this battle will be between but if Whelan fires the rest will follow but they will need to be far more clinical as a shooting group, five scores from 16 shots like in the final quarter against Tipp won’t cut it against Limerick.
For Limerick with so much talent and so many big-day players it’s hard to pick out one from whom a performance is necessary for victory but, not for the first time it’s a man from Patrickswell, in the form of their talisman Aaron Gillane.
Like Whelan he does not mind how it’s coming in, Gillane is physically strong enough to win it in a 50/50 battle. He is the best in the business at coming from behind and timing that jump in the air - and the ultimate head wreck for a defender when you show him the line, make him strike on the back foot, more often than not over his shoulder and still the guy is nailing them.
What more can you do?
Where Gillane has the advantage over Whelan is the quality of ball in is far better from the Limerick players out the field due to that system that they play so well in finding space and hitting it. Gillane is in hurler of the year territory, not for the first time in his career, and with a Limerick win and a performance I feel it will be his to lose in the final. So who stops him?
Last year in the same fixture Gillane was tightly marked wherever he went but by half time he still had seven points scored, five from play. Galway won’t focus entirely on one player but they would be very foolish not to put real emphasis on shutting down Gillane and the class this guy has, as it will go a
long way to victory. For me the player to try and do this will be Darren Morrissey.
They tried Pauric Mannion in a similar role on Eoin Cody in the Leinster final but he proved the last day just how good he is when hurling in the half-back line where he is most comfortable and most effective. If Morrissey doesn’t feel the weight of the ball once the whole day and can curb Gillane he’ll be man of the match, for sure.
Next up it’s the Sunday serving and Clare v Kilkenny.
I’ll start off with the Banner men. Who have been their stand out performers thus far: John Conlon, David Fitzgerald, Ryan Taylor, Shane O’Donnell? But it’s their greatest ever player that I feel the need is most for a performance if they are to win. Tony Kelly or simply TK, case and point he was shut down by the brilliance of Mikey Butler last year and Clare had no other answer.
Yes, the Banner are in a much better and stronger place this year with Mark Rodgers steping up now too, but I feel when it comes down to it, the performance of TK will dictate whether or not Clare will be marching behind the Artane Band on 23 July.
Quiet by his ridiculous standards in the Munster final but still knocking over six points, same the last day against Dublin and still scoring 3-04, imagine if he’s not 'quiet' on Sunday, then I feel the Banner will win.
Redemption is a word meaning an act for atoning for a fault or mistake, while I do not in any way feel it was Tony Kelly’s fault or mistake Clare did not win the semi-final last year, he will be so driven to right that wrong and I feel the performance of the year from TK is coming this Sunday.
No bonus points here for guessing who will be tasked to shut TK down, the O’Loughlins Gaels man Mikey Butler or will Derek Lyng try to do something different from his predecessor last year and maybe detail the brilliant Huw Lawlor with this task?
But why would you change something that worked so well before? I am on radio duty Sunday for this game and my gaze will be firmly fixed to this zone of the field and to see what Kilkenny will do and how TK will react.
Finally, the key performance for Kilkenny to get back to the final once again, in my opinion, will be that of their captain Eoin Cody. Normally when typing key performer the sentence would just auto finish with TJ [Reid]. But for me his Ballyhale team-mate has taken over the mantle of their leader in the forward line.
Cody has that physical capability like Whelan and Gillane to win that ball no matter how it comes in and also that hurling brilliance to finish off a chance when it presents. But his workrate for the team is something that largely goes unnoticed by the audience.
The runs he makes to create space for others, the turnovers he gets in and his use of the ball make him one of Kilkenny’s main players and a key to success. He averages three points per game but it’s what he creates that often helps his team to get over the line.
If Cleary is not fit to line out at full back I am sure Derek Lyng and co will look at how Limerick exploited this line of the field in the Munster final and how they could get the same return from Cody. For the Banner the loss of Cleary here can not be underestimated and I think Seadna Morey could get the task of trying to shut down the Kilkenny captain.
The winners of these battles will go a long way in winning the day for their teams. So who’s going to do it? I’m not going sit on the fence and wait, so I’m saying we are going to see part three of the triology that is Clare v Limerick in the All-Ireland hurling final.
Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship semi-finals, Limerick v Galway (Saturday at 6pm) and Clare v Kilkenny (Sunday at 4pm) this weekend on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport or listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
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