CROOKED ASH

Kilkennys of the Mind

Congratulations to Dublin’s hurlers and hurling people.

One of the latter category happens to be a close friend. I was sitting beside Enda in an Oxford public house the day of a huge surprise in the Leinster Championship, the day Westmeath beat Dublin by two points, 0-13 to 0-11, on May 21, 2006. The news came though by text. That day, going by the highlights, O’Moore Park, Portlaoise looked like a water sport arena.

Enda started heading for inconsolable. “I’ll never see Dublin win an effin’ thing,” he said, after a long silence. “Not an effin’ thing.” Although his father won a Celtic Cross with Dublin’s footballers in 1958, the family puts far more meas on the most beautiful game.

But we did the sensible thing by not being sensible. We took to drinking Black Bush and did our usual mid evening refuelling trick at the Lebanese takeaway around the corner. By midnight, we were back to putting Rod Stewart’s ‘Da ya think I’m Sexy?’ and The Dubliners’ version of ‘Pegeen Lettermore’ on The Black Swan’s jukebox. Women of a certain age asked us to dance. We danced.

That public house, those years? A pagan place. We left under the glitter, right late. And we felt oddly sober ― always a good sign after ten hours and more on the tiles. There are contexts in which falafel and hummus count as health food.

* * * * * * *

I did not travel last Sunday to Parnell Park. I wanted to watch this match out at home with my dear mother. My gut feeling was that May 24 would be Kilkenny’s last outing in 2026. The third last time I saw my father came when I watched the 2025 Kilkenny-Tipperary All Ireland semi final in Derrynahinch. Last time was the Donegal-Kerry Senior Final in the same seats. PJ was well able to talk about the action and pleased that Kerry won. He passed away four days later.

As for Kilkenny… Last Sunday had been coming for a while. Realism is a friend and never more so than in difficult times. Now is Kilkenny hurling’s most difficult time since ― well, since the mid 1950s, I would say. That moment of crisis forced the appointment of Fr Tommy Maher as the Seniors’ Coach. There was plenty of resistance to this initiative until the 1957 Senior Final got won ― by a point. Similar boldness is required at this juncture, seven decades later ― whatever the resistance met.

Dublin deserved last Sunday’s win in every measure. They played smart and generally hurled right well, bar some poor wides during the first half. Niall Ó Ceallacháin and management colleagues are a savvy clued in bunch. They had Kilkenny’s number. More often than not, they allowed the Kilkenny full back line to take short puckouts. They knew this avenue would likely transition into a fair few cul de sacs. And so fared the afternoon, on same front.

There can be no quibbles whatsoever. Dublin led almost the whole way ― led from 20^th minute, when John Bellew pointed, led from there to long whistle. Glitches in Kilkenny’s hurling, increasing all through this decade, are now part of a general weave.

For a supporter, the recognitions are wearisome. Touch in the tight? Not reliable. Accurate passes? Not reliable. Forward-advantaging deliveries? Not reliable. There was something inevitable rather than incidental about Dublin’s 51^st minute penalty ― superbly netted by Dónal Burke ― accruing from a Kilkenny fluffed possession in their half of middle third.

That type of mistake? Now nigh endemic.

I have written about such slips in local programme notes for several years. There is the so called short game, which must be mastered in some degree, because hurling is now a game of bluff and counter bluff at puckouts. While there are various inflections of the short game, this approach cannot be operated by robots. Same as for any other facet on a hurling field, the prize goes to the team that musters the most skill in execution.

Tommy Walsh made a typically sharp distinction when speaking, last Monday, on an Off The Ball show. Asked about Kilkenny’s convoluted play at the back, he remarked: “We’re practicing our weaknesses maybe more than we’re practicing our strengths.” He is correct in an important sense. But a caveat needs to be made. This issue is not entirely or finally one of choice ― not a matter of choosing a short ‘non traditional’ emphasis over a long ‘traditional’ emphasis. Or vice versa. Deficiency or proficiency in skill levels are never an issue that becomes irrelevant or superseded.

Adrian Ronan in The Irish Times. MORE.

Kilkenny should be the best outfit, going by tradition’s measure, at a short ball-orientated game. An extraordinary point in 1993 immediately got framed as the acme of precise skilful hurling in tightest possible circumstance. Which point?

This point: the one that equalized at stroke of time a Leinster Final with Wexford: Liam Simpson to Bill Hennessy to Adrian Ronan to Éamon Morrissey. That day, I was standing on the Canal End and the ball whizzed over my head.

The 2004-05 Cork side were continually lauded by pet journalists for scoring points though sweeping, field long moves. That Cork team never scored a point remotely as good as that one from 1993. Morrissey’s score? The epitome of hard grace under maximum pressure.

Kilkenny need to recover this foundational aspect of their inheritance. The 1993 season is as close to 2026 as the 1922 season, when Kilkenny beat Tipperary in a marvellous Senior Final, was to 1957. The proper past is the present’s lathe. Kilkenny need to cease making needless unforced errors. If they do, the county might get back to winning stellar contests by a single point.

* * * * * * *

I never feel being abstract is a help. So let me offer two concrete examples. The first one comes from last Wednesday week’s Leinster U20 Final. For Galway’s first goal, Vince Morgan won a ball in fine style, low to the ground, quite close to the Kilkenny goal. He emerged, set off and ultimately fed Jack Shaughnessy. His Loughrea clubmate goaled.

Good score, rattling score. Fair play to Galway and those two young hurlers. But a cool Kilkenny perspective should note an unforced error ― meaning, Morgan initially received an all in tackle from the wrong side. The Kilkenny back in question hurls left hand on top and tackled from Morgan’s left side. This facet meant that Morgan could spin away, possession secured, into absolute space ― and set about making a goal chance.

That Kilkenny back should have played best percentage and held his ground. He should have kept two hands on the hurl and his strong shoulder nearest goal. He should stood up, first instance, the forward. Even if Morgan gathered ball to hand on initial attempt, he would still be facing away from goal, with no possibility of a minatory spin turn. He could be whooshed further away from goal, out to his left. The biggest danger in this scenario would be concession of a point ― no given, in light of Morgan’s percentage-forced position.

The second example comes from May 2024’s Leinster U20 semi final. Offaly beat Kilkenny by minimum margin, 2-17 to 2-16. For the winners’ first goal, Shane Rigney caught a puckout at right half forward and drove through the cover and netted a terrific shot.

Another good score, another rattling score. Fair play to Offaly and Shane Rigney. But a cool Kilkenny perspective should note an unforced error ― meaning, Rigney’s marker stepped outside his man and went to contest that puckout on Rigney’s left side.

Never a good idea, this tactic ended up pure disastrous. Why? Because Rigney hurls left hand on top ― his marker hurls right hand on top ― and therefore fetched the puckout in his right hand. Why? Because Rigney could then spin into absolute space ― because his marker had not held goal side of his man, as should always be a defender’s default choice.

Rigney’s fetch and spin also took out Kilkenny’s centre back as cover. Bill Hughes at centre back got caught in no man’s land on foot of his wing back’s peculiar and ill advised decision to step outside his man for a puckout. This stuff? Basic housekeeping in hurling, not the higher reaches of subtle counterplay.

Rigney capitalized in full. Offaly were on their way.

I am not mentioning the names of the two defenders in question out of some misplaced sense of decorum. Not at all. Serious Kilkenny supporters will know the two defenders in question. I am not mentioning any name because I want to make sure that my point is not taken as orientated towards a blame game. My point is orientated towards pattern rather than towards personnel as moot concern. This pattern of unforced errors at key moments should be a massive concern for all serious hurling people in the county.

I mentioned those two details this week to one of my sharpest friends, someone who has worked in Kilkenny’s juvenile development squads. His voice immediately turned raggy over the phone. “I’m not sure if there’s anyone in the squads who would even notice that stuff,” he said. “There might be one or two ― but I’m not sure. I do know no one would say it to anyone, even if they noticed, because they’d be afraid of upsetting someone. No one wants to rock the boat.”

* * * * * * *

Enough of Kilkenny’s recent deficiencies. Much bigger and much better story?Dublin’s tremendous success. They could only play what faced them on the occasion. Particularly impressive? How the group absorbed Liam Rushe getting injured during their warm up. Previous years, other occasions, this slice of misfortune might have become an excuse for underperformance.

Not last Sunday afternoon. Not by a long shot.

Dublin also lacked Eoghan O’Donnell’s considerable services, due to a failed fitness test on Friday evening. I was sorry to hear afterwards that Cian O’Sullivan is almost undoubtedly out for the Leinster Final. But Dublin’s mettle in 2026 cannot be doubted. They will have a right cut at Galway, whatever 15 men they start.

* * * * * * *

Congratulations likewise to Offaly’s hurlers and hurling people. Seeing them return to hurling’s top table counts as one of the most heartening sights in a long time. The Faithful men are playing a rapid attractive style and still in development throes. Their journey is only beginning as yet.

There fell nothing lucky about their draw with Kilkenny (and quite a lot unlucky about their draw with Dublin on the round robin’s opening weekend). The bigger picture tells me that Kilkenny were better off not going through in third place, as would have happened if referee Johnny Murphy had not overruled his umpires and given Offaly a 65 at the death on May 10 in Tullamore. Eoghan Cahill converted, halving the spoils.

Had Kilkenny taken home both points, they would now be facing Cork or Limerick in an All Ireland quarter final. Offaly will learn far more from this encounter than would have been the case in that alternative referee-dictated scenario. Realism remains a forever friend.

* * * * * * *

Nature of things, I know a lot of sound Kilkenny hurling people. I live in the town and worthwhile conversational opportunities never stray too far. I was walking down High Street last weekend, the Saturday morning, when a pleasant acquaintance hailed me and we stopped, ten or more minutes, for a chat. The son of a former Kilkenny great, he is always well informed and realistic. Having played in the previous week’s Kilkenny GAA golf classic fundraiser, he was, as immediately noted by himself, “nearly all hurled out”. But deep nature soon outweighed passing circumstance.

“How about tomorrow?” he asked. I offered a fairly pursed account. Turned out that he felt, like myself, quite pessimistic. “We are sleepwalking into oblivion,” he said, shaking his head. “People are living in the past. They don’t appear to realize how shaky the whole Kilkenny thing has become. You’d swear by some of the people at the golf classic that we’d won the All Ireland last year. They are in a complete bubble.”

He kept shaking his head: “There are people going around saying we’d have won the All Ireland last year only for the scoreboard issue. The scoreboard issue… My absolute backside. There are Kilkenny people going around ― and they might not be too far from County Board circles, some of them ― and these people are going around saying the scoreboard operator must have been a Tipperary man.

“What do you say to them… They are gone in love with excuses. Any kind of excuse.”

He stayed persuasive: “They are fixated on that mistake ― and it was a big mistake, fair enough, and we’d have got a refixture if we’d objected, but that’s not the Kilkenny way. And I’m glad of being that way, although Tipp would’ve objected if they’d hit that situation, because that’s the way they are, bad winners and worse losers.

“And anyway that will never be the real point, for Kilkenny. What about all the mistakes that we made ourselves on the field and on the line, right through the day, ever before the scoreboard craic and added time? We should look at ourselves and our mistakes. But some people don’t want to do that.”

He raised a still more interesting take: “Then you have the people who say all this stuff: ‘Oh, we just don’t have the players… They’re just not there at the moment. What’s the point of the County Board spending a whole load of money when Kilkenny are not going to win an All Ireland anyway?’ You wouldn’t believe how many people are in that camp at the minute… There’s a strange kind of defeatism going round.”

He stayed persuasive: “But how good do you have to be at the minute, if Limerick are out? How good were Tipp last year, scoreboard or no scoreboard? Well, we saw this year exactly how good Tipp are. And that’s as good we are too, at this jaysus minute. We’re as good as them and we’re as bad as them. Exactly that.

“The worse thing that could ever have happened Kilkenny hurling would have been if we’d won the All Ireland last year. And we could have won that one, no doubt about it. Cork were like a greyhound with the scutters. But where would we be then? Victory would keep the eejits smiling for another ten years. I don’t want just to win one All Ireland every ten or 12 years. But you’ll make no friends pointing out that bit of truth…”

Then I got reminded of why I always enjoy running into him. He went to nub: “When did we stop believing in coaching? When did we stop believing that a player could be improved? That difficult lads could be got round by proper man management and the best got out of them? The difficult lads are often the best lads.

“We are meant to have produced the best coach of them all in Fr Tommy Maher. He was the first one to bring in the idea of coaching at intercounty level. My father always told us that Fr Tommy improved lads no end, including himself, as a hurler. But you’d swear, listening to some Kilkenny people now, Fr Tommy was born in Limerick or Cork.”

We parted and I felt educated another increment. I was reminded again of how much I enjoy living in the town. High Street or The Parade can seem like an open air university for a BA in Hurling Studies. I remained pessimistic about the following day but buoyed by his cut.

All the rest of the day, his conversation gleamed in my mind like a freshly limed old outhouse wall, set on the edge of fine pasture, horses by chestnut trees in dappled mid distance, those horses flicking their tail in mild annoyance at flies, horses skittish and content in summer’s slow lunge at solstice. I was enjoying a Kilkenny of the mind.

* * * * * * *

Perspectives often alter under the pressure of subsequent events. Now seems a charged instance of this phenomenon. Kilkenny certainly could have won the Senior All Ireland in 2024 or 2025. The players left nothing behind them ― as any remotely sensible person would note ― but the capability was there. There is scarce little in ability and potential between mid 2020s Kilkenny and mid 2020s Clare, between mid 2020s Kilkenny and mid 2020s Tipperary. Clare were probably the best outfit of the three groups and deserved to get across the ultimate line at least once.

And who knows? Clare might get across the same line for a second time on July 19.

More drops of realism should fall. Would a 37^th Senior title for Kilkenny in this scenario have ended out a velvet disaster? Would a triumph in either of those seasons merely have papered over insidious cracks in Kilkenny’s hurling culture? Put off for many more years the necessary hard reflections?

Quite possibly so. I agree with my acquaintance on High Street.

This recognition had been budding in the county ever before the Seniors’ dismaying first half showing against Kildare in the round robin’s fourth tie. Following the Offaly result, quite a few friends said to me that Kilkenny might be better served in the medium term and in the longer term by a fourth place finish. The people in question are calm and level supporters, not kneejerk people in the slightest, not pub talk merchants.

Their perspective? Ruthlessly clear: only this level of subsidence would force the type of overhaul needed right across the board.

I could perfectly see their logic. Kilkenny have gone away from playing Kilkenny hurling, as per my earlier observations. You can talk all you want about ‘the short game’ and ‘the possession game’ and the ‘whatever you are having yourself’ game.

Hurling is still about speed and touch. Hurling is still about being able to execute the core skills faster than the opposition. The old game will never change in this regard, whatever new ways arrive.

* * * * * * *

The present always presses, because only the present can produce the future. Seeing Derek Lyng interviewed afterwards in Parnell Park by RTÉ’s Damian Lawlor proved a really hard watch. Like many people, inside and outside the county, I genuinely felt for the Kilkenny manager. A lesser individual would have avoided the camera and sent out someone to speak on his behalf. Not Derek Lyng.

He is a courteous, decent, intelligent and fair minded individual. He saluted Dublin’s achievement with the utmost generosity, no tincture of excuse dropped into the mix. He carried himself with dignity in a drastically trying situation. He represented Kilkenny hurling in highest fashion at lowest moment.

But do not forget the pain involved. You could see the choke, see that Derek Lyng was struggling not to break down with emotion. Whatever he might or might not ultimately have lacked as regards the GAA’s toughest job, Lyng certainly did not lack even a whit for total commitment to the cause, for a basic decency in outlook. He is pure Kilkenny, this long time.

* * * * * * *

Here we are, May still before us, walking up and down High Street in a low mood. A fourth place finish transpired. My friends were not foolish in anticipation. Kilkenny are gone from hurling’s top table. This absence’s duration will be determined by an array of factors, ranging from administration and available talent to coaching and management.

Derek Lyng will depart now and there will be a void, whatever gets said about the 2026 season. Kilkenny’s best choice as next Senior manager? A crunch dilemma. And this choice will achieve nothing in isolation. Far more than one question needs to be faced. Far more than one stinging difficulty needs to be grasped.

There is an equally important and equally serious question about who should best become the next Kilkenny County Board Chairman. I have heard alarming names mentioned.