Leinster Senior Hurling Championship Final

**KILKENNY 1-25 DUBLIN 0-19             **

Kevin Egan at Croke Park

Simple, powerful, devastating. Tonight’s Leinster senior championship final at Croke Park didn’t enthral and captivate supporters to the same degree as the remarkable semi-final double bill a fortnight ago, but it was impossible to ignore the relentless ability of Kilkenny to play a skilful, physical brand of hurling in extremely warm conditions.

That relentlessness and high tempo eventually wore down a Dublin side that was struck by the absence of four panel members, including named starters Cian O’Callaghan and Ronan Hayes, due to contact with Covid. Add in Eoghan O’Donnell’s withdrawal from the crucial full back berth after just three minutes, and Mattie Kenny was already forced to go deep into the well of players that he might have expected to play specific roles later in the game.

While Kilkenny were able to introduce five substitutes with four of them registering on the scoreboard, Dublin didn’t have the same ability to introduce impact. They were already struggling to stay with the Cats when the game was effectively settled around the hour mark due to Jake Malone’s foul on Alan Murphy.  

Referee Johnny Murphy deemed it a deliberate foul to deny a goalscoring chance and once TJ Reid rifled in the penalty, Dublin were down to 14 men and trailing by double scores.

Up to that point, Dublin’s challenge had been full-blooded, and but for inaccuracy, they could have been a lot closer. At half time it was 0-12 to 0-9 in favour of the eventual winners, but Dublin had missed the target on eight separate occasions, including two goal chances. Neither was particularly clear cut – Chris Crummey tried to find the bottom corner of the net from 15 metres out but pulled his effort wide of the target by a couple of metres, while Cian Boland was under heavy pressure from Huw Lawlor when he tried to bat the ball in from a tight angle, only to see the sliothar nestle into the side net on the wrong side of the near post.

Kilkenny didn’t threaten Alan Nolan’s goal to the same degree in the first half, but their performance was as efficient and direct as we’ve come to expect. Adrian Mullen and Martin Keoghan picked off good points from distance, TJ Reid was unerring from dead balls, while James Maher took full advantage of his late call up to the side with an excellent performance that featured three points in total, including one just before half time.

Dublin’s best play came in a ten minute spell up to the half hour when they fired four points without reply, Chris Crummey picking off two of them. They also looked sharp in the early stages of the second half when Donal Burke and Riain McBride pointed in the space of 60 seconds to cut the gap to two, but gradually Kilkenny started to impose themselves on the game, with TJ Reid increasingly influential.

He pointed a 65, fed Martin Keoghan close to goal and so forced a good save out of Alan Nolan, then won a free in the right corner which he converted to push the lead out to five points.

If there was a moment that confirmed how all the momentum was now with Kilkenny, it was the score that followed from Keoghan. Danny Sutcliffe attempted to make a powerful run out of the Dublin back line but a brilliantly timed slap of the hurl from Maher knocked the sliothar free, and Keoghan’s celebration left no-one in any doubt as to the significance of the score.

Maher picked off two more, James Bergin came off the bench to fire a point with his first puck and soon followed up with a second, while Cillian Buckley and Michael Carey all got in on the act – but in the middle of all that, the penalty from TJ Reid was the moment when Kilkenny knew that their 73rd title, and their sixth successive championship win over the Dubs, was assured.

Scorers for Kilkenny: TJ Reid 1-10 (0-8f, 1-0 pen, 0-1 65), James Maher 0-3, Adrian Mullen, Martin Keoghan, Alan Murphy, James Bergin 0-2 each, John Donnelly, Eoin Cody, Cillian Buckley, Michael Carey 0-1 each.

Scorers for Dublin: Donal Burke 0-10 (0-8f), Danny Sutcliffe & Chris Crummey 0-2 each, Riain McBride, Cian Boland, Alan Nolan (f), Jake Malone, Davy Keogh 0-1 each.

Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy; Tommy Walsh, Huw Lawlor, Paddy Deegan; James Maher, Pádraig Walsh, Conor Browne; Richie Reid, Richie Leahy; Billy Ryan, Martin Keoghan, Adrian Mullen; John Donnelly, TJ Reid, Eoin Cody.

Subs: Michael Carey for Browne (25), Alan Murphy for Leahy (half-time), Cillian Buckley for R Reid (46), Walter Walsh for Ryan (47), James Bergin for Cody (64)

Dublin: Alan Nolan; Paddy Smyth, Eoghan O’Donnell, Andrew Dunphy; James Madden, Liam Rushe, Daire Gray; Riain McBride, Conor Burke; Danny Sutcliffe, Chris Crummey, Donal Burke; Cian Boland, Mark Schutte, Cian O’Sullivan.

Subs: Seán Moran for O’Donnell (3), Jake Malone for Gray (15, temp), Paul Crummey for Schutte (half-time), Jake Malone for Moran (51), Davy Keogh for O’Sullivan (53), Seán Currie for Boland (59, temp), David Treacy for O’Sullivan (70).

Referee: Johnny Murphy (Limerick).